Satara week 1

Been at Satara for 5 nights already, we have a great site, probably the best, and I have managed to book it for next year May. Collected Tori from Hoedspruit airport on Tuesday 8 Aug. for a 6 night stay, great to have her with us.

Been a bit lazy with blog updates, we have had incredible sightings around Satara, especially Lion.

We have the nightly patrol of Hyaena along the fence right next to our caravan, we also saw the African wild cat. We are chorused by Jackal and Hyaena as well as the occasional Lion roar at night.

Tori and I went on a sunset drive we saw Lion and a magnificent Leopard on the road next to the truck, one of the best night drives I have been on.

we saw 9 of  the Sweni pride on the Sweni road, there are up to 30 lions in the pride. they have not been seen in this area for at least 6 months. so this was a first.

After we left another 11 arrived.

we had breakfast at Manzanzene.

Went on a sunset drive and witnessed this beautiful sunset.

on the drive

on our way back to camp quite close to Satara we came across this Leopard on the road, we followed him/her for at least 2 Km.

 This morning 12th we had our first close up with Cheetah

These 2 have been seen around Satara often lately.
the one has an injured leg and was limping badly.

 On the same drive on the S100 we came across these 3 Lionesses crossing the road

They were so close that this photo was taken without a zoom, next to the car.

Baboons sleeping and catching the first rays of the sun on the S100

Close up inquisitive Impala 

Zebra drinking in the Nwanedzi river.

on the same drive towards the end of the S100 we saw this Bateleur Eagle catch a snake

It flew up into the tree and started to devour the snake.

Blog post by Tori:

I flew up to the Kruger through Hoedspruit; had a lovely scenic flight. Our fist morning was lovely as we saw 4 of the big 5 (Leopard- we caught him/her hiding in the tree, Lions- we saw a pride of lions with a white lion, Buffalos & Elephants) the only animal we didn’t see was the Rhino.

Our second morning was just as exciting; we saw a pride of lions first thing this morning on the way to Olifants as well as buffalo & Elephants. I then drove us back to camp from Olifants which was so much fun. It’s been the best trip so far & I can’t wait for the next few days, I’m hoping we see a cheetah, rhino and some more leopards. 

Male juvenile white lion seen on the S41.












Yawning male white Lion on the S41.











Elephant herd with baby elephant seen on the S100.

Mother giraffe & baby giraffe at a drinking hole, the baby giraffe was getting the hang of drinking from the watering hole.

Our white lion.

Herd of zebra embracing. 

Juvenile male white lion on the S41.

Golf at Skukuza

Left Lower Sabie at 07h00 and traveled up the S30 towards Skukuza for a 10h30 T time.
We saw our first Cheetah of the trip to far for a photo as they were on the move and viz 2/5.

looking over Lake Panic with Hippo in the dam.

On the first T see the hippo watching

short 2nd over the river.

chipping on the Par 5 5th with Warthog next to the green.

Intimidating 9th hole you have to carry the ball all the way over Lake Panic to the green. where there is a bell called "Klok o Dil" which is rung if you land in the water

This is what awaits you if you dare to retrieve your ball from Lake Panic.










On the way back we also saw our first Leopard, 2 different distant sightings. it is a start and the sighting can only get better.

What do you think they are discussing.










This Morning we went for a picnic breakfast at Mlondozi

Full of water, lots of elephant and a pride of Lion in the distance.









Back to camp to watch the Cricket and the Rugby Go Lions,

Wishing King David Mowbray good luck in the Harry Solomon Semi Final against Strand. I will be following hole by hole on Whatsapp.

Lion Day

We went out this morning just after 06:30, it was Andrews turn to choose the road to travel. We decided to go west along the H4-1 tar.

After a quick glance to see what was happening at Sunset dam we proceeded up the tar to find the first of 3 lion sightings within 5Km of each other and in the first hour.

What a morning Lions, Lions and more Lions we were back in camp by 8:30 for breakfast, completely satisfied.

  Just on sunrise we picked up this Lion in the riverbed, you can just see her outline in the photo above.

she was grooming herself, we were curious why she was alone, when she went behind the bush and pulled out a cub. Another Lioness joined and 5 cubs came out and started walking up the bank to the tar road.

The cubs appeared, all full of mange and in appalling condition, this one on the left was in particularly bad condition and lagged behind.

the 2 adults also had a bit of mange, they had recently eaten as their stomachs were bloated.

The 2 adults led them off into the bush, again timing was everything.

2nd sighting

We continued west when after a Km we found this large pride walking up the river, we counted at least 22 lions

after following them for a while we watched them cross the river and head into the bush on the opposite bank

3rd sighting

A bit further on we found this sub adult devouring a Porcupine, not sure if he caught it.

 After all this excitement we turned back and went and had our morning coffee and rusks at Sunset

dam.