Tag: Afirca

Monday dawned… well, no, it didn’t really dawn in the true sense of the word. I became lighter, but the clouds and the winds were still with us, so no dawn, no sunrise and no sweet light. We were still up and out of the camp early and headed for the S131.

We were only a few kms out the gate, when we saw a few cars parked next to the road up ahead. As we approached, we saw what seemed like a hyena clan, attempting to chase of another hyena – perhaps an intruder? The light was very low, but I managed to get a few nice action shots.

We continued on, our disappointment at the weather as least half-cured by the awesome sighting!

The first river crossing brought our bird specie count up to 67 with a Wood Sandpiper.

About an hour and a half later, we saw two huge Buffalo bulls at an unnamed watering hole. The two did not seem at all pleased to be sharing the waterhole!

The remaining bull did not, however, seem to mind sharing the watering hole with an Ox-pecker, or two!

We continued along the S131 at an easy pace, stopping every now and then to identify a bird. We saw another Sabota lark – this one much more co-operative as a model, and then a colony of White backed Vultures, apparently attending a kill that wasn’t visible from the road, since one of the birds were still covered in blood.

We finally arrived at Sable Dam just before noon, to find the dam once again surrounded by multiple herds of Elephant – what seemed like hundreds of animals! The clouds were coming in again, serving as a light filter and allowing for much better photographs that the ones we took on the first day…

After spending some time photographing and just generally enjoying the elephants, we headed back to Letaba on the tar road. The weather was quite nasty by now, with high winds, heavy cloud cover and even the occasional burst of rain, so we stuck to birding most of the way.

Bird sightings for the day:

67. Wood Sandpiper
68. White-backed Vulture
69. Rufous-naped Lark
70. Martial Eagle
71. Black-chested Snake Eagle
72. Dark-capped Bulbul
73. Southern Red-billed Hornbill
74. Yellow-fronted Canary
75. White-fronted Plover
76. White-crowned Lapwing
77. Ruff

Only when we got back to Letaba and checked our updated species list, did we realise that we had passed our target of 75! So we counted it as a successful day, in spite of the weather.

Feeling much better after a good night’s sleep, we were up early the next morning, and set off back towards the S46. We had not been able to travel very far up it the previous afternoon and we wanted to go and explore it properly.

It was still overcast, but the beauty of the bush around Letaba after the rain of January was astonishing. We found ourselves not even caring if we saw any wildlife – the beauty around us was enough! I think I will always associate this trip with stunningly beautiful river crossings. (And this trip report will probably be remembered for the over-use of the word “beautiful!”). This first of these river crossings this morning, where the S94 crosses the Nhlanganini river, was occupied by a lone water buck bull, exactly the element that we needed to make such a pretty picture complete!

We idled along slowly, ticking off more bird species (Grey Heron, Cape Turtle Dove, White-faced Whistling Duck and Crested Francolin – bringing the number to 56).

We stopped at the dam wall to read the plaque with a brief, but interesting history of how the dam got it’s name, and then drove further along the bank of the Letaba river.

In a clearing on the riverbank, we spotted a pretty Little Bee-eater on a dry branch (Specie number 57) and not long after, it was joined by a juvenile. Since the clouds had thinned to let in some soft, gorgeously filtered sunlight, we sat happily photographing these little beauties for a while.

A short distance further, in another clearing next to the river, there was an entire flock of European bee-eaters, diving and hunting and generally putting on a show. Unfortunately the clouds had lifted too much by now, rendering the light too harsh for genuinely good photos.

Since we had by now gone quite far down the s46, we decided that we might as well continue on to Olifants camp. The drive to Olifants was rather uneventful. A strong wind had come up, and so even birding was slow-going. We only ticked off one species – Red-backed Shrike (Number 58), and paused at Von Willich’s Baobab for a quick photo.

At the camp, we ticked off two more species in the parking lot – Red-winged Starling and Burchell’s Starling, bought ice-cream and went to eat it out on the viewing deck, and one does at Olifants. But the wind – oh my! The viewing deck was rendered quite unpleasant, and even the ice-cream melted too fast. So we left again fairly quickly, and drove towards the N’wamanzi lookout. The view from N’wamanzi is always spectacular, and the wind here was much lighter than at the camp, so we spent a few minutes eating mini-cheddars and enjoying the view. As we stood looking, we noticed two young Vervet Monkeys playing in the bushes on the edge of the clearing. Baboons and Monkeys are always lots of fun to photograph, and the light cloud-cover had increased again, rendering the light quite reasonable for photography, so we reached for our cameras, and had some fun.

By now it was well into the afternoon, so we took the tar road back to Letaba. We still had a little over and hour till gate-closing time when we got to Letaba, so we passed by the camp, said hi to the Marabous roosting in the trees, and photographed some elephants having fun in the river.

Bird species between Olifants and Letaba:

61. Common Buzzard
62. Greater Honeyguide
63. African Hawk Eagle
64. African Wattled Lapwing
65. Goliath Heron
66. African Pied Wagtail

Only 9 species to go to our target!

We ended the day with a gorgeous sunset from the bridge over the Letaba river, before heading back to the camp to light the braai fire.

Just before sunrise, we quickly packed up everything and moved everything except our cameras back to the car. We had hoped to take our seats on the benches again, ready for sunrise, but alas – there was no sunrise. Clouds cast the entire area in a gloomy twilight long after the sun was supposed to be up. We only managed to add one bird species to our list – Green-backed Heron (Number 28)

We finally left, and drove West, towards the Pioneer hide.

The drive up to the hide was peaceful, and stunningly beautiful. The hide itself was quiet (and cold!), The only sign of life was a Natal Francolin, calling for its family. We took a few shots, and turned around, back to Mopani, to return the hide keys – and get some coffee!

On the bridge over the Tsendze river, we took one last glance at the hide that was our home for the night, and the hippos that had kept us company.

While we were on the bridge, a raptor that we later identified as a Brown Snake Eagle flew over the car, and sat down lower down in the river bed. This, along with a Grey Go-away-bird keeping vigil in a tree-top on the river bank, and Black Crake pecking away in the shallows, brought the number of species to 31.

At the turnoff to Mopani, we just had to stop – there were what seemed like hundreds of little swifts, ducking, diving, soaring and generally making flying seem like a lot of fun! Unfortunately we each only had a 100-400 lens with us, which is neither long enough, nor fast enough to get these little guys in flight. We did, however, manage to take some snaps of a sunbird!

After handing back the keys to the reception staff, and buying some takeaway cappuccinos, we headed for Letaba. We had only 50 km to cover and could only check in at 14:00, so there was no reason at all to hurry.

The heavy clouds made photography very difficult, but we did tick off more bird species from the viewing deck in Mopani:

32. Black-headed Oriole
33. Brown-hooded Kingfisher
34. African Jacana
35. Western Cattle Egret
36. House Sparrow

as well as on the road:

37. Little Swift
38. Amethyst Sunbird
39. Yellow-billed Oxpecker
40. Wattled Starling
41. Red-billed Oxpecker
42. Crowned Lapwing
43. Magpie Shrike
44. Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill
45. Arrow-marked Babbler

As we neared Letaba, the clouds lifted slightly, allowing soft light to filter through to a magnificent elephant standing among some huge trees. In the final stretch along the Letaba river, we saw a family of Marabou storks, as well as a few Common Sandpipers and a Three-banded Plover in the river bed. Just outside the camp gate, a very co-operative little Woodlands kingfisher, who just sat there chirping softly when we stopped right next to it to take some photos, bringing count up to 49 already.

We arrived at Letaba around 3, checked in (as always, the staff were very professional and check-in went smoothly), and drove to our bungalow.

We had reserved the bungalow ahead of time and I knew I had picked a good one, based on the camp layout of photos on the SANParks forum, but – oh wow! It was by far the best situated bungalow we had ever had in Kruger! The interior was old – complete with the old, nostalgia-inducing green “Custos Naturae” tiles in the bathroom, but the view was nothing short of magnificent…

We unloaded the car, unpacked and set up our bigger lenses, and around 16:00 we were off again, exploring the S94 and S46, where we saw a Sabota Lark, spent a happy 30 min or so photographing a pair of Double-banded Sand Grouse and brought our closing species count to 52 with Kori Bustard – always a special sighting!

At sunset, we returned to the camp for a quick shower and dinner at the restaurant, after which we finally dumped our exhausted and sleep-deprived selves into bed and fell asleep to the sounds of hippos grunting in the river below.