Slender mongoose

 At first we thought these were Dwarf mongoose as they are small and always in colonies. After watching them for a while to our surprise we realized that they were Slender mongoose. We have only seen Slender Mongoose singularly and then fleetingly as they are always on the move.









Dwarf Mongoose

We have seen 4 different cheetah in different locations since we have been here.

We have only seen Lion once which is unusual for us.

We have not seen any large herds of Buffalo in the area, nor any large herds of Zebra and Wildebeest, might be the reason for the lack of Lion in the area



Cheetah marking its territory Bume Rd near Mpondo dam





Sundowners 12/5/11



Leopard Day

Spent most of the day in camp, cleaning and maintenance. Made a liquid feeder out of a small water bottle, some Pratley putty and silicone, filled with sugar water and hung in tree to see if we can attract some sun birds.

Gerald, Michelle (“Sister”) and Wade came from Kruger Lodge to visit and buy us lunch on the deck at Lower Sabie, good to see my ‘sister’ again and thanks for the lunch.

Late afternoon drive, we went on the tar (H4-1) towards Skukusa , on the bridge over the N’watimhiri river, just past the S21 turnoff we found this Leopard in the river bed. First it was lying on the right hand side and then it moved under the bridge to the left hand side where it lay and rolled in the sand below us before moving off into the reeds. It was now 17h10 allowing us 20 minutes to do the 14Km to Lower Sabie. We took a Ginger Beer and an ice-cream with and made floats which we enjoyed in between taking over a 100 photos of the Leopard.



Look at the fangs





Watching us on the bridge




paw on rock

 

To much to eat at lunch so only a salad for dinner, lovely evening, Lions roaring near camp and Hyaena laughing as well, another hell of a day in Africa.

We had a thunderstorm on Saturday night, lightning struck within metres of our camp site, fortunately we unplugged our appliances, TV, decoder and computer, others were not so lucky and now have broken TV's and decoders. Our electrical box tripped, that was all.

Mothers Day
I treated mom to breakfast on the deck at Lower Sabie, stayed in camp for the day, went out late to see if we could see that Leopard that everyone seems to have seen, beside us... no luck. Fish and Risotto for dinner.

Monday we travelled up the tar  H10 to Tshokwane and returned via the H1-2 and H4-1. Went into Leeupan, lots of game around.
Tried to spot Sable at Jones dam, only Waterbuck
Lots of Vulture on an old kill on the loop at Mantimahale dam. did not see the 6 lions that were spotted by others.
Added Nyala to our list






showing off at Leeupan



Vulture in flight

Saturday 070511

Went south along the tar H4-2 turned onto the H5, left onto the S108 and then onto the S25 to Crocodile Bridge where we had a picnic breakfast.

Returned to Lower Sabie via the S28 Halfway along this road we picked up a lone Cheetah standing on a tree stump. We mark all our Lion, Leopard and Cheetah sightings on the GPS and this Cheetah was on the exact spot we saw one in 2009 and presume it is the same one.

We share some of the smaller creatures we saw with you.

And the Larger

I intend painting this Zebra watch the paintings page

This is the 3rd Cheetah so far. Last year we saw one fleetingly in 90 days.