Here are the highlights! People first!

Paul Kruger Gate shopping

And now some wildlife!

This little crash of rhino were always seen around the Ntandanhathi Hide – sadly they were all poached … tragic… 🙁

Giraffes neck fighting

Other beauties

Love Groundhornbills – you can hear their boom before you see them!

The ever elusive leopard – even a glimpse is so rewarding! BUT … I had been lucky ….I had stepped out of the car for an emergency toilet stop (really bad tummy and there was no waiting!) and this gut was less than 100m from where I had stepped out!

While I was actually out of the car I looked up to see this approaching – I have never moved so quickly in my life!

We see a new brood of chicks every year at this Verreaux’s eagle-owl’s nest.

Lions on the Byamiti riverbed

Baboon Spider! Despite their posturing, baboon spiders are harmless to humans. They have long fangs, and they do possess large venom glands, but the bite is only painful; it causes no systemic symptoms. The Golden Brown Baboon Spider lives in a hole that takes it between five to seven years to construct. The lair is lined with silk to keep out unwanted visitors (ants and the like). Once this spider has excavated and equipped one hole with silk it somehow looses some of the instinctive know-how for digging…. so never ever remove one from its hole as that will be its demise. (The one in the photo was actually dead – we found it on the ground).

This baby was full of sass!

…and still learning to use its trunk – soooo sweet!

There is nothing better than a bush walk to immerse yourself in the sight, smells and sounds of Africa…it is simply the best way of experiencing nature. Here we encounter a herd of buffalo. We stopped so that they could see and smell our presence. Their curiosity took the better of them so they all took a step forward as one to get a better sniff… Then, staified that we were not predators they resumed their grazing and largely ignored us….amazing.

We also had a stunning elephant on our walk. We noticed that it was a collared elephant…

En route to Mlondozi we encountered some elephants who demanded right of way!

Don’t mess with a bull in musth!

Our picnic at Mlondozi Dam picnic site is always a highlight – today was especially wonderful as there was a mega herd of Buffalo crossing and we had elephants grazing and rhino – all in the same frame…divine. We finished our picnic and as we came off the S128 to rejoin the tar road we found … found …cheetah! Hoorah!

It was good to see the anti-poaching team in force.

The end of another wonderful trip marked with a bush braai! We were surrounded by hyenas whose eyes reflected in our torches – but they stayed away as we had fires surrounding us – amazing!