11th October – stay at Lower Sabie Rest Camp

11^th October – stay at Lower Sabie Rest Camp

During the night it was raining but we hoped it would soon blow over – no such luck! We both woke at 3.30am to hear the lions roaring and thought that perhaps we’ll see them later this morning during our drive. We drove down the H4-2 towards Crocodile Bridge with our windscreen wipers going mad and our headlights on full. This is not what we expected from our Safari! However, keeping our positive mental attitude we decided that it would be interesting to see the animals’ behaviour in the rain as we had not been in the park while it was raining before. Along the road we saw many millipedes and tortoises – obviously hoping it would be dryer on the road – not likely! We also spotted impala, giraffe and wildebeest as well as a very wet herd of approximately 30 elephants. Another car stopped us and the lady advised us of lions just after the lower turning to the S28 so we headed down hoping to see them. Wayne wanted to photograph them in the rain and was hoping for a male to shake his mane. Unfortunately we saw all the cars leaving just as we arrived so we knew we had missed them. Oh well; hopefully next time. We turned back and went along the S28 to perhaps spot the leopard with the 2 kills in the trees. We kills were still there, but no leopard. We stayed briefly before deciding to move on. Further up the S28 we spotted impala, wildebeest, zebra and kudu all trying to shelter from the rain. Thankfully it started to ease up so we could at least drive with our windows open without getting soaked. We stopped at Nhlanganzwani Dam; there was nothing here but we had some breakfast before going onto Dukes Dam. Again, there was nothing here.

By the time we reached back onto the H4-2 it was 8am and had stopped raining. Approximately 3km south of Lower Sabie we saw a few cars pulled over to be informed that there was a leopard with a porcupine kill. We waited for a couple of minutes before the 2 cars in the ‘prime spots’ left and so we could see him. We couldn’t believe it; he was clearly there eating and crunching on the porcupine less than 10 metres from the road. He looked like a very healthy male leopard, but he was limping on his front paw. Another car had seen him yesterday and suggested he may have had a fight with another male and was resting up here. I assume this is also why he didn’t take his kill up a tree as he couldn’t get up with his limp paw. 

After a while he dragged his kill to near a bush and then went and sat under it.

More cars were arriving and some silly person got out of their car so they could see him. This spooked him and so he went and hid on the other side of the road using a pipe that went under the road to help with water flow from the river. As he went under, lots of bats came flying out as he had obviously disturbed them.

We all moved our cars to the other side and although he was close, he was well hidden. He was only there for 5-10 minutes before heading back across to his kill on the other side of the road. Although we had lost our ‘prime position’ it wasn’t long before cars left and we got it back. After feeding some more on the kill he went to hide behind a bush so we couldn’t take very good photos but it was still great to watch him. We enjoyed watching him cleaning himself after eating and then rest. 

Whilst we were watching him we also spotted a herd of buffalo on the opposite side of the river as well as an elephant on the other side of the road – 3 of the big 5 at one just sighting! Not bad! All we need to do now is find some rhino and lion and we’ve done all of them in one day. Bring it on! We have managed to spot all 5 within 24 hours as we saw rhino and lion last night – does that count?! After about 3 hours he still hadn’t moved from under the bush so we decided to leave – our bladders couldn’t hold out much longer!

We arrived back at our room both desperate to use the toilet only to find our room key didn’t work. Wayne ran to the communal loos whilst I went to reception to enquire and ask for another key. We had had some maintenance men stop by yesterday to say they had been asked to look at our lock as it had been reported that it wasn’t working. We didn’t have a problem with it so they left. However, it must have been the housemaid that had reported it and so when she struggled with our lock again they had just changed the lock. Unfortunately, reception didn’t know anything about it but gave me another key. When I got back to the room this turned out to be the same as the previous key and so it still didn’t work – aaaarh, I still needed the loo! Wayne noticed that the window next to our door was open and realised that he could slide his arm in through the window and open the door. Yes! This worked and we were in. Once we were in we found the new key inside the room! We thought this was hilarious; how did they expect us to get in when the room was locked and the key in the room?!

After lunch we headed back out into the now heavy rain. This rain didn’t stop all afternoon. We drove past the leopard sighting but there were so many cars we couldn’t see anything. We decided to head on as we had some great photos from this morning.

We drove north up the H10. Shortly we saw 6 rhinos all together – 4 our of the big 5 today, just lion to see now.

Further along we spotted a small herd of buffalo and 3 very wet cape vultures sitting in trees with their necks tucked into their shoulders.

We turned off onto the S29 we spotted wildebeest and warthogs before stopping at Mlondozi Picnic Spot and Viewpoint where we saw lots of hippos all squashed in tightly together as well as some stork.

We drove back to the H10 to continue our drive north. We spotted 2 elephants, another 2 rhino before getting stopped by an elephant bull causing car mayhem on the road.

Once through the traffic, we also spotted a tawny eagle, steenbok, a herd of 18 elephants including 4 small calves, more elephants just 300 metres down the road, possibly from the same herd as well as a warthog trotting off for cover and some very wet looking impala and wildebeest.

It was hard to spot anything by this point as it was too wet to have the windows open even an inch and the rain was coming down hard and fast making any animal spot impressive.

We turned onto the H1-2 and at Leeupan we saw on lone impala, some ducks and a troop of very wet baboons. 

We carried on down the H1-2 and saw some more elephants, including one bull standing guard next to the Kruger Memorial Tablet!

We then drove along the H12 over the river before heading south on the H4-1 to Lower Sabie.

Along the road back to camp we spotted some more baboons, although these ones were hiding under the tree trying to shelter from the rain, as well as another tortoise and a rhino on the riverbed.

We stopped off at Sunset Dam but it was so foggy that visibility was hard so we decided to drive back to where we had spotted the leopard with the porcupine kill that morning. Unbelievably he was still there. He was eating on the kill when we arrived but shortly went back into the bush to clean himself. I didn’t think that he’d come back out but Wayne said he would. We waited for about 2 hours before he did decide to come down from the bush and eat again. We couldn’t believe our luck, just 10 minutes before we had to leave to head back to camp and he sat in the open only metres from us eating on his kill. Thankfully the rain wasn’t so heavy but it was very dark and without the flash on the photos didn’t come out great. Thankfully for us, and the other 4 cars still there we had brought our spot light which allowed everyone to take some photos. 

With 6 minutes to go before camp closed, we left him to eat in peace and drove back to camp, we made it with seconds to spare, but it was worth it. I was so pleased at being able to spot him throughout the day at the same place; normally leopard sighting are quick flashes as it crosses the road or hides in the bushes but to be able to see him for at least 10 hours in the same place was incredible; truly special.