We pushed on to try and make the gate closing time of 17:30 but were held up by a mating pair of lions who proceeded to do their business in the middle of the road in front of us. They then lay down on the road and after squeezing off a few shots we sneaked past them and arrived at Lower Sabie Camp after the gate had closed. The gate guard was very understanding and at last we entered the camp.
Dinner, a South African barbeque was enjoyed under the stars whilst listening to the resident hippos in the Sabie River in front of us.

After an early morning coffee with South African rusks, we departed camp at 06:00 and headed towards the area where we had seen the mating lions the evening before. An eerie mist hung over the Sabie River as we headed North. Sure enough we came across the honeymoon couple, a good 6 km’s from their position the previous evening. Right next to the road again, the pair proceeded to mate again with the female initiating and the male following diligently.

After spending some time with the lions we decided to head back to Sunset Dam to enjoy the early morning with the hippos, crocs and water birds. A pair of Egyptian Geese kept us occupied for quite some time as they flew across the water towards us and then proceeded to feed along the edge of the dam. Buffalo Weaver, Giant Kingfisher, Cattle Egret and Three Banded Plover were all present too.

A group of baboons entertained us whilst we enjoyed breakfast at the dam and afterwards we decided to hunt down a Lilac Breasted Roller, perhaps the most colourful of all bushveld birds and on the top of the list for wildlife photographers visiting Africa. The basalt plains north east of Lower Sabie usually provide good opportunities to get good close shots of these birds and we were not disappointed.

We also got to see the not so common Purple Roller.

A short siesta was had during the midday heat as we had noticed that most animals had sought out shade for shelter and generally a time of peace descends over the bush at this time of day.

We headed out again at 15:00 and went to Clyde’s Pond, a favourite drinking place for white rhino. On arrival, the pond was quiet and so we waited patiently to see if anything would come down to slake its thirst and sure enough after 15 mins or so a white rhino bull arrived and waded into the pond to reach the clearer water and proceeded to drink his fill.

Whilst at the pond shooting good shots in perfect light of the white rhino, we heard over the radio that a leopard had been sighted about 10 km from our position and so we decided to send the spotting vehicle ahead to confirm the sighting. We headed slowly in the same direction and stopped to photograph a beautiful bull elephant on the way. Unfortunately the leopard had moved off after some impala by the time the spotting vehicle arrived on the scene and so we decided to head slowly back to camp as our first full day drew to a close.

Dinner was enjoyed outside our bungalows on another perfect evening.

Weather – sunny and warm

The morning began with a short visit to Sunset Dam. A Fish Eagle was perched in the tree and we waited patiently for it to take off. There was a thick mist hanging over the Sabie River and it was quite hard to see. We waited for it to lift but after waiting for over an hour, we decided to carry on up the main road towards Nkuhlu Picnic Site. Just past the Nwatimhiri Causeway we found another pair of mating Lions and a second female. These were the two from the first afternoon but now there was a second female involved with whom the male also mated.

We then decided to move away from the river as the mist had still not lifted and we drove down the Nwatimhiri Road. We found quite a few Lilac Breasted Rollers on the way and photographed them against the wonderful clear blue sky.
Further down the road we spent time shooting vervet monkeys as they groomed each other.

At Klipspringer Koppies we did indeed find a klipspringer standing proudly on the rocks. Just 100m away from him were two lionesses preparing to lie up for the heat of the day in the tall grass and all we could see were their twitching ears.

After our picnic lunch, we found a tree full of Marabou Storks and a Martial Eagle circled above them.

Then we headed down the main road from Skukuza to Lower Sabie and came across an 80 strong breeding herd of elephant who all proceeded to cross the road right in front of us.
A very relaxed Giant Kingfisher posed beautifully for us a mere 2 meters from our vehicle and whilst we were photographing him, a male nyala antelope came down to drink from the Sabie River.

On the way back, we came across the mating pair of lions with the second female still in tow and we spent the last minutes of the day with them as they prepared for another long night.
Just before entering the camp a herd of buffalo passed in front of us.

Dinner was had in the camp, curry, rice and poppodoms.

Weather – misty morning clearing to sunny and warm

African Fish Eagle Taking off in the morning mist

The morning began again shrouded in the mist created by the Sabie River and so we drove south to see if we could get away from the river a bit to see if the mist lifted. We encountered a group of kudu and then 3 rhino and we used the weather conditions and back lighting to create some moody photos.

After a short stop at a bird hide we headed back towards the river and the mist began to clear. We then stopped at sunset dam again, now bathed in beautiful morning light and spent a good 2.5 hrs photographing the hippos and crocs. The young hippo were particularly energetic and were chasing each other in and out of the water.They also proceeded to eat fresh elephant droppings !! . A crocodile appeared with a dead Guinea Fowl in its mouth and quietly slithered into the water with it.

On our way up the river road we got a report of a leopard resting up in a Jackal Berry tree on the Nwatimihiri Road. We headed off in that direction and hoped we would find our first Leopard. Sure enough as we arrived on the scene, the young male leopard was resting on a branch and posed for a while for some good photos, before it climbed down the tree and headed into a small river drainage line where a group of vervet monkeys spotted it. The vervet's alarm call gave the leopards position away to all other animals in the area.

We hoped the leopard would reappear but it did not - so instead, we decided to enjoy lunch under the shade of a Weeping Boer Bean tree at a nearby waterhole.
Further down the road we found 4 lions, 2 males and 2 females. The males were busy feeding on the carcass of an impala which the females had apparently killed early that morning. We then headed towards our next overnight stay at camp no 2, Skukuza. Dinner was enjoyed in the restaurant.

Weather misty morning along the sabie river - then became partly cloudy and then sunny and warm in the PM

Today was a great test for wildlife photographers, where patience is the key to success.
We headed west with the sun behind us and after being on the road for 30 mins we came across a lioness with three cubs that were no more than 2 months old. The mother lay on her side and allowed the cubs to suckle but they soon became very interested in the clicks from our shutters and stared long and hard at us to try and figure out where the funny noises were coming from.

After shooting the lions for 15 mins we had a call on the radio from our spotting vehicle which informed us of a leopard sighting no more than 7 km’s from the lion sighting. So having had our fill of lion cub shots we decided to head to the leopard sighting as they are the most elusive of the big 5 to photograph.

We came upon the scene and noticed that there were 3 leopards, two large cubs and their mother. The female had killed an impala ram and after a good feed they were headed towards a small waterhole. We went on ahead to the waterhole and hoped that they would appear and drink. Sure enough, after a patient 20 min wait we spotted the trio on their way towards us. The mother was very bold and came straight in to the waterhole for a drink. The two cubs were far more cautious and actually drank from a small pool just out of our sight. The female drank for a long time and then she lay out in the open where the two cubs joined her again.

Eventually they headed back towards their kill and so we went ahead and waited for them to return. They arrived and ate some more before lying down for a hard earned rest. We then decided to stake out the sighting and ended up enjoying breakfast and lunch parked 15m away from the kill and photographed the leopards as they returned one at a time to feed from the carcass. Our patience was well rewarded during our 5 hr wait at the leopard sighting and the experience made us all more aware of what a special predator a leopard is and how privileged we were to spend over half a day with 3 of them.

We headed back to camp for a short break and then went out to look for a group of lion that the spotting vehicle had reported whilst we were at the leopard sighting.

2.5 km's down the S114 we came across a lioness lying in the lovely afternoon light surrounded by wild purple flowers. She got up and ran off in the direction of what seemed to be the rest of the pride. We then drove further to a group of zebra, giraffe and male impala rutting. Whilst we were photographing the Impala, we suddenly saw two lionesses appear from the direction in which the one had run. One female lay in thick bush and the other female lay in the open watching the Zebra and Impala. The impala spotted her and began snorting their alarm calls. She just simply ignored them and lay down. We left the lioness fast asleep and headed back to camp.

Weather partly cloudy in early AM but sunny and warm for rest of day

 

We decided to go to a bird hide for the morning sunrise and got some nice shots of the morning mist, hippo, crocodiles and a cormorant preening itself.

We made a quick stop back at Skukuza Camp to take photos of the first flowers appearing on the beautiful Impala Lilly.

We then began our journey north to the central section of the Kruger Park, our destination, Satara Camp.

We had breakfast at a very full looking Jones' Dam, but nothing came to drink so we moved on to the next waterhole and found a breeding herd of elephants heading our way. We positioned ourselves for the best light and waited for them to cross the road on route to the water source.

We carried on further to Vutomi Dam and found a group of Old male buffaloes resting in the midday heat. Some lay in the water and another proceeded to roll onto his back in the thick mud to try and cool himself off and protect himself from the biting flies. With the buffalo were ox peckers and we got some nice photos of these birds posing on their hosts.

Kumana Dam was our next stop as we were hungry for lunch. On arrival, we spotted what I first though was a pride of lions drinking from the dam. Amazingly, they turned out to be a group of 5 cheetah !! This is a rare sight and we soon established that it was a female with 4 nearly full grown cubs. The mum had certainly done extremely well to have raised all 4 to this size.

We were then treated to some really interesting behaviour as we watched the 5 cheetah. Firstly the female decided to chase a jackal. Jackal who are known to follow cheetah hoping to get some scraps from the kills they make, are quick, but not as quick as the speed kings of the bush. The female cheetah soon caught up with the jackal and was then joined by two of the large cubs and they seemed to enjoy the game of cat and mouse - or should it be dog ? !!. They eventually gave up the game and the jackal scurried off. Then, one of the younger cubs decided to chase a female warthog and her 3 piglets. after a few hundred meters, the warthog decided it had had enough and turned and charged at the cheetah who immediately fled back in the direction it had come from with an angry warthog and 3 piglets hot on its heels.

This was a real treat to witness and the Kumana Dam also attracted a lot of elephant and giraffe who paid no attention to the cheetah's antics and carried on with their daily tasks of meeting & greeting, drinking, mud bathing and social bonding.

We then headed off to Satara and caught the sun setting over the african bush on our way.

Dinner was enjoyed in the camp restaurant.

weather - sunny and warm

Early morning headed north towards olifants river – found a Ground Hornbill perched in a tree then a cheeky warthog near Ngotso Pan A Backlit zebra offered a rare sillhouette opportunity . Then we found a baby hyaena near Ngotso North Waterhole on the side of the road.

We enjoyed breakfast at the Olifants River Bridge and were joined by a very noisy Glossy Starling who perched really close to us.

On our way back to camp we found a group of 9 giraffe drinking and then a group of kudu. It was really hot today and decided to have a midday siesta as it was hotter than it has been all week. We went out later in the afternoon down the s100 where we found a lovely breeding herd of elephants and a mother elephant with possible twins as they were the same size and stuck close to the same female.
We then played with some camera techniques with a herd of wildebeest in the soft PM light then headed for the sunset shot on a small ridge. Unfortunately the sun dropped behind a bank of clouds and we only got the last curve before it disappeared behind the horizon. The weather seems to be changing as there was a fair bit of cloud around in the late pm and it was hotter than it should be with a slight breeze blowing indicating that the weather was to change in the next few days.
D inner was enjoyed in the camp outside our chalets.

Weather good in am pm was partly cloudy with a breeze – very hot midday.

Headed out on the first overcast morning of the trip and headed north and found a lovely group of kudu feeding next to the road. Then our spotting vehicle called in 2 cheetah down the S90 road and so off we went and proceeded to spend the next 20mins with the two cheetah as the walked next to the road searching for their next meal. We saw some fantastic behaviour – scent marking from the 2 males and a classic pose on a fallen tree to get a better vantage point. A group of wildebeest ran off at first sight of the cheetah and we got a couple of good panning shots.

We continued on to the S 41 where we had breakfast with a Lion in long grass that was watching a group of distant zebra. As the light was not in our favour, we decided to leave the lioness and head south again on the S 41 and came across a large gathering of wildebeest and zebra and also kudu who had obviously just been down to the river line for a drink.

A group of baboons also arrived on the scene and they proceeded to chase each other in amongst the other animals which started a small stampede and we ended getting great practice at panning with slow shutter speeds on moving animals.

After the excitement had died down we were just about to pull off in search of more wildlife when we spotted a leopard approaching us from the left hand side of the road obviously heading in the direction of the same drainage line where all the other animals had been drinking. He was a beautiful male and he crossed in front of the vehicle in beautiful morning light.

Further on we found a beautiful Fish Eagle perched in a tree and then our first of 3 groups of lions for the day. 11 in total, 8 young males and 3 females lay under the shade of some acacia trees and we spent some time photographing them as they yawned and got up to move to more comfortable resting positions.

We then heard from our spotting vehicle that there were another group of 4 lionesses resting in a riverbed about 2km so we went to check them out too. Then we were told that another group of 13 lions were lying out in the open down the S100 road and so off we went to to see which lions would be best to sit and wait with. In between the lion sightings we had Lunch and then decided to stake out the 4 female lions as they had been seen hunting a giraffe and some kudu. In typical lion fashion they just slept and so we decided to head back to the s100 lion group and just before we got to them we came across a group of impala, zebra and wildebeest in the lovely afternoon light and we spent time photographing them as our spotting vehicle was keeping an eye on the lions up ahead in case they moved.

A few of the lions started getting up, and our spotting vehicle called us and we went straight there. Two big males crossed the road - one in front of us and one behind us and lay down with the females again on the opposite side of the road - beautifully backlit by the setting sun.

We headed back to camp after a special big cat photographic day in the Kruger.

Weather – overcast morning but sunny and warm PM

Left Satara on our last morning in the Kruger National Park and took the road along the Sweni river. The main highlights were lots of impala herds which we had not had time to really photograph up until now even though they are so common in the park. We also found a family of Tree Squirrels, sunning and grooming themselves in the early morning sun.

We then enjoyed breakfast at Mudzanzeni and headed to the exit gate of Kruger. We switched vehicles at the gate and headed off on a 1hr drive to our next destination – the Big Cat Reserve. We arrived just in time for lunch and then set out for an afternoon drive. We found the reserves lion pride - 1 male and 2 females. They had caught a zebra that morning and were busy feeding on it. Being allowed to go off road at the big cat reserve enabled us to get close to the Lions and the kill.

We then headed back to the lodge and went for an afternoon walk with a lion cub and then heard that there were 2 cheetahs close to the lodge and went to check them out.

After dinner we did star trail photography at a waterhole and also went back to see the lions feeding on the zebra. One of the females was busy feeding on the carcass when we got there.

Weather – sunny and warm

The morning began with a visit to Jabula the orphaned male leopard. We photographed him in a Marula tree inside his enclosure. He posed nicely for us to get some great portrait shots and we had lots of opportunity to try out different camera settings.

After breakfast we headed to see the crocodile and got some great photos of him just at the waters edge.
On the way back to the lodge we came across a backlit giraffe drinking and some warthogs running.

After a late lunch we headed to the lion enclosure for some photography of the two females, a male and two cubs. On the way back we came across the 3 lions that had been feeding on the zebra the night before, they were drinking from a waterhole.

In the dark of the night, a Grey Heron, illuminated by the spotlight, made for some interesting shots as he posed in the water, creating a perfect reflection.

After a delicious dinner, we photographed a group of porcupines before heading off to bed after another full day of wildlife photography.

Weather – overcast early morning and then partly cloudy – cleared in late pm

The early morning was overcast – and so we departed a little later than usual as we had to wait for the light. We managed to finally track Savanna the Cheetah down, using the telemetry as she was moving through the bush, clearly rattled by the fact that there were two male cheetah in the reserve that had come through from the Kruger. Wayne, our extremely helpful ranger, tried to get her to run for us but she was pre occupied and always alert.

We did managed to get some close up shots of her and some nice portraits of her grooming herself.

We then enjoyed our final breakfast at the Big Cat Reserve and headed out to the Forest Lodge at the based of the Drakensberg Mountains, a mere 45 min drive away. We settled in and had a rest before lunch. After lunch we prepared all the equipment for the afternoon vulture shoot and headed to the feeding site early to set up. The wind direction was good but there was some patchy cloud cover and so we had to be really careful with exposures and had to try and pick a bird in blue sky or with the mountains as a background.

The food was put out and within seconds the vultures started dropping from the sky – a very hectic and frantic couple of minutes followed and we then had some time to breathe as the late comers started coming down and we were able to pick out individuals a little easier.

We waited for the sunset and got a few nice shots of a Marabou Stork with a pink cloud behind it.

Dinner was enjoyed in the hide overlooking the riverine forest and we had baboons and nyala as visitors – drinking from the waterhole right in front of us.

Weather - Cloudy morning and partly cloudy afternoon.

We had an early breakfast and then drove 20 mins to the Reptile Park for our full day exclusive photo shoot with some of Africa's well known Reptiles.

The morning was spent shooting a variety of non-venomous species such as the Bearded Dragon, Sungazer, Chameleon, Baboon Spider and Rock Scorpion. After a very busy morning we headed back to Forest Lodge for Lunch and a very short rest.

Back to the reptile park for our afternoon shoot with some of the Venomous species. First up was the beautiful Green Mamba, followed by the Puff Adder and then the Rinkhals, a snake that can flick its venom in an effort to warn off potential danger. We shot this snake backlit by the sun to capture the venom as it sprayed from its mouth.

Last but not least, we photographed the feared Black Mamba, a highly venomous snake with a bad reputation ?. Our expert handler, Chris, helped to dispel this myth and instead pointed out its interesting behaviour as he did with all the reptiles we photographed and allowed us to appreciate and better understand these creatures. Sure, highly venomous reptiles must be respected, but they are not as scary as we all think they are. The visit to the reptile park is more than a unique opportunity to get excellent photographs of reptiles rarely seen in the wild, it is also a place to learn more about and appreciate these beautiful animals.

Dinner was enjoyed back at the Forest Camp in the Boma around a crackling campfire.

Weather - Sunny & Warm

After an early morning drive to capture the sunrise, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and we departed the Forest Lodge for the Eastgate Airport where the 1hr 15 min internal flight took our guests back to JHB airport.

That brought an end to the May 2008 WILD 4 Photographic Safari - many thanks for taking the time to read this Photo Safari Trip Report

Weather - Sunny & Warm