Another lovely trip - gotta love this place! Warm days and cool nights. Attended a Dinner Club evening at Newman's place on night before we left - went on until 2am - hit the road for Punda Maria at 7ish on Sunday. Pretty much "died" on Sunday night - didn't hear a thing! (Apparently lion were roaring, elephant were trumpeting and leopard was barking - missed it all!) Next night - different story - surrounded by lion roaring and a brief appearance by a genet - waited with camera 'til much later but did not reappear - nor did he come back on the next night! Ah well - still nice to have seen him (a first for us).
Mahoney's loop remains one of our favourite loops.
First time sightings for us (besides the Genet): Crowned Hornbill (Mahoney's), Yellow Bellied Bulbul (Parfuri); Grey Headed Parrot (apparently the grey headed is prevalent up north whereas brown headed is more southerly), Civet (Shingwedzi) - Big Tusker (Letaba) - appears to be Masthulele ("The Quiet One").
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| Crowned Hornbill |
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| Yellow Bellied Bulbul |
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| Civet |
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| Masthulele ("The Quiet One") |
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| Masthalele (different angle) - what magnificent tusks |
Lion sighting on trip down to Shingwedzi.
Watched lovely interplay between 2 x SaddleBill Storks and a Fish Eagle on the causeway just outside Shingwedzi - Fish Eagle would wait until the Saddlebill caught a fish then swoop and steal their prize. Could've spent hours there but the causeway is a single lane and we had to keep moving to allow other vehicles to pass - got quite tiresome so we moved on.
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| Thief! |
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| Sunset at Shingwedzi |
Much excitement with Civet at camp - managed to get one relatively nice shot - waited for him to appear the following night but it was not to be. Had to post this one as well just to show his magnificent tail.
Met James (Nell) at Shingwedzi - nice youngster - shared a meal and anecdotes.
Letaba hot, dry and dusty (32 deg). There were 2 cheetah (quite a way off) just outside Mopane.
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| Just outside Mopane (Bowler's waterhole_ |
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| Sunset at Letaba |
On our last night at Letaba the temperature plummented! We chose a good time to leave, what with the school holidays starting and cold front moving in.
We had intended going for a morning drive prior to packing up and leaving but decided to skip the drive and just leave (it is a 49km trip to Phalaborwa gate from Letaba so there was more game spotting opportunity). 500m outside Letaba camp we noticed some impala "snorting" - decided to wait and within seconds, 5 young male lion made their brief appearance - swallowed up by mopani bush within 5 minutes.
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| Young male (1 of 5 just outside Letaba) |
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Home safe and sound and can't wait for next trip!
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