8th June 2012 – Stay at Wild Forest Inn

8th June 2012 – Stay at Wild Forest Inn

I thought it would be hard to get up after a late night but both Wayne and I woke up early in anticipation of what we would see on our last day. We both acknowledged that we had seen so much already and so didn’t think we’d see much in our last few hours before leaving. How wrong were we?! We left camp early at 5.50am as the gates were open, and a couple minutes into driving we saw a hyena by the road.

Further along we suddenly remembered that we hadn’t handed our keys in before leaving camp so we had to turn around and go back. Just before entering camp we saw a bus hit an impala. It was very sad and we were glad this wasn’t the last thing we saw before leaving the park. After dropping our room key off at camp we headed back onto the road. We could not see the bus or the impala; we think they may have taken it with them for supper!

Further along the road there were lots of cars pulled up as there were lions. Wayne saw one of them running away from the road and as we had seen lots of lions and the sighting wasn’t brilliant we moved on. Not long later – about 15 minutes we saw at least 7 lions cross the road in front of us. They didn’t hang around long and were soon in the bushes not visible from the road. We couldn’t believe it – how many lions were there along this road?!

We then saw some more road kill – a dead wild cat. This was very sad and it had obviously only just happened in the last few hours; poor cat.

We continued driving until we reached the dam near Satara where there were a few cars pulled up. We looked at what they were looking at and could not believe our eyes! Here, right next to us was a pride of lions with a kill; this would be our third lion kill sighting in 24 hours! They had caught a wildebeest and the male lion was feeding and refused to let the females have any. We watched them for a couple of hours as he fed, protecting it from the lionesses as well as watch the vultures wait patiently in the surrounding trees and the jackals sniff around waiting for a moment to sneak a bite.

We couldn’t get over how many lion kills we had seen; what a way to end our time in KNP. After a couple of hours we left the Dam and headed back to Orpen and the gate to leave KNP. On the way to Orpen Gate we saw a herd of zebras with an extremely small zebra that looked like it had been born fairly recently which seemed unusual as all the other zebra foals were much larger.

7th June 2012 – Stay at Orpen Camp

7th June 2012 – Stay at Orpen Camp

This was our last full day in KNP. At 6am we headed out and towards Timbavati. Along the way we saw some male lions, at least 4 and we think this must be a group of 7 male lions that were reported earlier this week near Timbavati! We took some photos before heading on.

The road was very quiet and we just saw some giraffe, impala, zebra, kudu and one lone vervet monkey. We then drove back down towards Satara. We saw a large herd of zebra and wildebeest as well as around 8 vultures sitting in the tree but we could not see a kill anywhere so we carried on. Further down the road someone stopped as they had spotted a cheetah but we couldn’t see it and they didn’t stay so we assumed it moved away pretty quickly.

We then went to drive down the S100 and about 100m in there was a major traffic jam of 20+ cars. We were told that there was a buffalo kill with 4 lions. We managed to stop and look through another cars window to be able to see it. It was actually pretty funny because one of the cars had a flat battery and so was waiting for the officials to arrive to jump start it as nobody dared to get out of the car with the lions only 15m away. When they arrived the lions ran away immediately, clearly fearing humans whilst they jump started the car.

About 1 hour after this had happened there were still a lot of cars but it was not nearly such mayhem and we managed to get a good spot to sit and watch the carcass. Unfortunately the lions didn’t return immediately, clearly concerned that humans were still nearby. In the meantime, 2 jackals had a great time feasting on the buffalo. They ate very quickly and cautiously as they were clearly aware that the lions were still about. I don’t think that they could believe their luck! After watching the carcass for around 3 hours one juvenile male lion came to the kill. He started eating but was clearly very hot as it was around midday and the kill was not in the shade. He tried to drag it into the shade but it was too heavy for him to do on his own.

He sat and ate for a while getting his entire head inside the buffalo until he was probably too hot to keep feeding and went to sit in the shade. The jackal then returned to eat some more and one of the vultures who had been sitting in a nearby tree took this opportunity to come and feed too. The lion has not happy with this and ran towards the vulture and jackal and chased them off. This was about as exciting as it got until we left at around 3.30pm.

Although we had seen a lion feeding on a kill we felt a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more interaction between the vultures, jackals and lions.

We couldn’t believe what happened next; Wayne said it was a reward for sitting at the buffalo all day with little happening! About 6km from camp we witnessed 4 lions on the kill – a warthog. They had obviously just made the catch seconds before we arrived as they were snarling and growling all trying to get a share of the meat before each ripping off a bit and running off to eat it in peace on their own.

It wasn’t long before the jackals and hyenas arrived on the scene looking to have some too but the lions had devoured it pretty quickly. We had to leave to make sure we got back to camp before the gate closed but we were so pleased to get to see this and the interaction between the lions was just what we had been after all day!

6th June 2012 Orpen Camp

6th June 2012 Orpen Camp

At 6am we left Letaba camp and headed down to Satara and the S100. We saw a surprising amount of game on the way down including 2 hyenas, a side-stripped jackal, zebra, impala, a large herd of buffalo of at least 200 all crossing the road as well as a herd of giraffes consisting of 8 adults and 5 babies.

Along the S100 it was pretty quiet, we saw some saddle billed stalk, sleeping waterbuck, impala, giraffes and a rhino.

Right at the end of the S100 we then saw 2 full grown male lions. They were about 10m from the road just resting and sleeping but every now and then they would get up and move to a shadier spot. They seemed very happy to be photographed as when they sat up they stayed still for quite some time before going back to sleep and as we were the first ones to spot them it meant we had the best view! We did find it amusing that the car behind us were clearly getting impatient with them sleeping and so they would open and close their car doors and wave their hands out of the car to get their attention. Suddenly one of the lions went into hunting mode and got into a crouching position. Wayne thought they had spotted some pray behind us but it was actually one of the guys in the car behind that got out of his car – unbelievable! We stay and watched them for about 1½ hours before continuing on.

drove on to Orpen Camp stopping of at various viewpoints etc. along the way. We sat at one for 30 minutes watching the view and enjoying the sunshine before heading on and arriving at Orpen at 2pm. We checked in and booked ourselves onto a night drive before making lunch and heading out for an afternoon game drive.

We drove along the H7 seeing very little except impala and wildebeest. We did see 2 jackals sniffing intently in the road not concerned about the cars or anything. Other than that we saw giraffe, zebra, kudu, impala and a family of 9 warthogs which was a first!


We returned to camp at 5.30pm and made supper and relaxed until our night drive at 8pm. This was the first time we had done a night drive in Kruger and in the first hour we saw 2 genets, a wild cat, a white tailed mongoose as well as giraffe, impala, wildebeest, steenbok and a buffalo. The second hour was much quieter but it was still a great drive.

That night we slept very well and got woken up by our alarm in the morning – this was a first for this trip!

5th June 2012 – Stay at Letaba Camp

5th June 2012 – Stay at Letaba Camp

As usual we left camp at 6am and decided to spend the day further south towards Satara. By 6.10am we saw 2 hyenas on the road intently sniffing something. This got us excited that we would see some good game today! This was also our first predator sighting this far up north!

As we drove down a man stopped us to say that he’d just seen 2 cubs cross the road and thought that the females must be around somewhere. We had a look but we couldn’t see any so we continued on our drive down KNP. Despite seeing the most amount of game yet this far north we still had not seen any impalas for Wayne! On the way down we did eventually see some, well quite a lot actually, as well as some buffalo, kudu, giraffe, elephant, waterbuck etc. We also managed to get a photo of the saddle billed stalk which was good.

Once arriving at Satara we drove along the S100 and saw a pride of lions; 5 females, 3 cubs and the male pride lion. This was our first sighting of all pride members together and it was a great sighting as they were less than 10m from our car and were lying on some rocks out in the sun with no grass blocking our view of them. We sat and watched them sleep and interact. They all looked very skinny and in need of a good meal.

One of the cubs was clearly the runt as was trying all the females to see if they would let him suckle but they weren’t having any of it. Once the other 2 cubs had finished eating he was eventually allowed to suckle but I don’t think there was much left.

After about 20 minutes they all became alert as a herd of elephants came down to the water to drink. They started stalking towards them (I don’t think at this point the lions realised what was making the noise) but we lost them in the bushes. It was interesting to watch as the pride moved towards the elephants, the females first, then the male before the cubs followed far behind.

We did manage to watch the elephants drink and it was clear that they could smell the lions. After we lost sight of them we headed back towards Satara for lunch and on the way we saw some ostriches but nothing much else until we were 50m from Satara camp and there was a large bull elephant just standing in the middle of the road. He seemed quite happy but didn’t have any intention of moving. After a few minutes and about 10+ cars waiting to pass him from either side he eventually moved over to the side of the road for us to cross.

After grabbing some lunch we headed to the dam. Here were also some lionesses but it wasn’t a very good sighting, especially compared to the one we had in the morning so after 10 minutes we decided to head back to camp as it would take us over 2 hours to get there. On the road up to Letaba from Satara we saw a few bull elephants, a rhino and 3 juvenile male lions! Lots of lion sightings today!


We arrived at camp with 15 minutes to spare before the gate closed. We had a quick wander around the camp as there were some very tame bushbuck – Wayne walked all the way up to them and probably could have touched them, as well as some vervet monkeys and lots of bats!

4th June 2012 – Stay at Mopani Camp

4th June 2012 – Stay at Mopani Camp

At 6am we returned to Mooiplaas Waterhole but there was nothing there except a jackal on the road but it was too dark to photograph him. There was no sign of any of the zebras. We also saw a few elephants nearby too. So we decided to head down to Letaba. Along the way we saw some giraffes, zebras, impala, a fish eagle and a mongoose but in general it was quiet. We headed along the H9 and stopped off at the dam.

There were just a couple of hippos and a very large crocodile. Further along the road we got stopped by several cars reversing back; getting excited that they had seen something exciting, we looked to our sides to see what it was. As we then looked back to the road in front of us we saw a large elephant bull walking down the road towards us. We too put our car in reverse and had to reverse for about 10 minutes at he enjoyed ambling along the road towards us. Eventually we came to a junction so we turned off and let the elephant pass before continuing on the road the elephant had been walking along. It had caused quite a lot of traffic to build up but I don’t think that bothered him!


So we continued to drive back to Mopani seeing very little. Wayne and I played a game as to what animal we would see first; Wayne chose impala and I said giraffe. We got all the way back to Mopani without seeing either. However, we did see some kudu, buffalo and then back at Mooiplaas Waterhole there were some zebras, wildebeest and a few warthogs! Again there was no sign of an injured zebra – we will never know if he survived.

We returned to camp to have lunch – whilst we were making it we got surrounded by about 20+ birds which were obviously used to people feeding them. Wayne put our plates on the table and turned his back just for a few seconds but that was all the birds needed to come in and get some – naughty buggers!

After lunch we just chilled out in our room before heading back out for an afternoon game drive. We went to Mooiplaas waterhole but there was nothing there except a few elephants, we drove around the surrounding area but saw nothing so we headed to Pioneer Hide where we sat watching the river. We saw some hippos, a crocodile, 2 bush buck oh and some giraffes! Yay, I won the game; we saw giraffes before impala! Neither of us could believe it but nonetheless it was true!

3rd June 2012 – Stay at Mopani Camp

3rd June 2012 – Stay at Mopani Camp

Wayne woke up at 4am and decided to do some star trail photography from out patio. Unfortunately the moon was in our view which is not normally great news for star trails but it actually made for an interesting photo in this case.

Standard procedure meant we left camp at 6am and headed up to Mopani Camp. We weren’t very optimistic after not seeing anything yesterday morning and but on nearing Letaba we saw a couple of hyenas so we were very pleased! We think this was near their den but we couldn’t see any others so we’re not sure.

Further along the drive we also saw an elephant bull in the road coming towards us. He looked a little grumpy and we were concerned that it might charge us but thankfully he went off into the bushes.

Just ahead of here we saw a large herd of elephants with quite a few babies. It was amazing to watch as one baby went to drink from his mother three other elephants circled around it so it was completely protected from all sides whilst it drank – amazing to see them all working together and the closeness of the family. We were also surprised at how large the female elephants were, there were so many but unfortunately none of them were big tuskers.

Nearing Mopani we saw a tsessebe, this was our first sighting in KNP of these before going to sit in a hide for a bit but we didn’t see much, a few birds, some hippos and a crocodile.

It was still too early to check into Mopani so we decided to keep driving up to Shingwedzi camp. It was a very quiet drive seeing very little, if any animals at all. We stopped at the camp for a loo break and ice cream before heading back to Mopani Camp.

On the way back we did see a large herd of buffalo and an elephant with reasonably large tusks (well 1 tusk was) but not much else.

We arrived at Mopani at 1pm so went and had lunch before checking in.

We then headed out for an afternoon game drive not feeling at all confident at seeing anything after such a quiet morning. We visited Mooiplaas Waterhole where there were lots of zebras and wildebeest as well as a small herd of elephants. We watched them for a while before continuing on and going on a small 20km loop before returning to the waterhole. 4 elephant bulls came to drink and we saw 4 wildebeest fighting with each other. We then witnessed 2 male zebras fighting for what we can only assume to be the main stallion of the herd. The sounds that they were making were unbelievable. The one that we believe was the current main stallion was whining and was clearly getting very exhausted as the other zebra chased him around all over the place for well over an hour. It appeared that he was trying to bite off his genitals as there was a lot of blood around that area of the zebra as well as in the other zebra’s mouth. It was brutal. Eventually they both ran into the nearby bushes but only one came out. It was a fight to the death and now they had a new dominant stallion in the group. It was incredible to see but it tugged on my heart to see one zebra injure the other so badly. We don’t know if the other zebra survived but we will return to the waterhole in the morning to find out as we only had 10 minutes to get back to camp before they closed the gate.

Back at camp Wayne started up our braai and I screamed as I walked into our room as there was something big and black crawling along the floor (about 20cm circumference) and so my natural reaction was that it was a big spider. I ran out and Wayne came to see what had startled me. He went to have a look and advised me that it was a bat. Why where they in our room? Upon closer inspection there were a lot of bats in our room (at least 15). Wayne tried to remove most of them but they started flying around trying to get out and so we couldn’t get them all. We went to reception and they put us in another room. As we had already started our braai here, we ate supper (as this meant we were outside) before going to our new room.