Tag: Satara Camp

South Africa Safari Day 20 The day of the hyena

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We got up early 6.30am, showered, put on relatively clean clothes🤣🤣, breakfasted, made a pack up lunch and got on our way. It was our last day in Satara…tomorrow we move down to the south of Kruger to Pretoriuskop.

We headed down the tar…I selected zebra today and John selected wildebeest as first spot. It was a cold grey morning a real contrast again from yesterday’s sunshine and heat. We drove some time before seeing some Zebra …sorry John 8-4 to me🤣

Today we had decided to take the S126 which cuts across to the Orpen tar road. It’s a lovely scenic route, with chances to see lots as it runs alongside a twisting and turning river, which has patches of water in it.

We saw a huge amount of varied game around a waterhole…elephants, wildebeest, zebra and impala…a lovely wildlife picture…

We travelled on, the road was not great…unless the parks board spends some money on upkeep of their dirt roads, it won’t be so long before only 4×4 vehicles will be able to handle them.

We came across 2 big lone male buffalo, called dagger boys.

As we slowly picked our way down a hill I suddenly stopped, asked John for the binoculars….there about 400m on the far side of the river was the derrière of a large rhino. It stopped its route march and turned sideways giving us a wonderful view…this is really a majestic creature, reminding us of prehistoric times. A few moments later he continued his route march and completely disappeared from sight…how lucky were we…even John had to marvel at how I had seen it….these eagle eyes still work when they have to🤣🤣

We travelled on to the picnic spot….its unfortunate that I needed the loo…a long drop…defiantly not to be recommended…not only did I have to contend with that but the door had no lock and a lady walked in and caught me on the throne🤣🤣….never mind, I’ll never see her again and I hope I didn’t traumatise her too badly🤣🤣

Back on the road we crossed the main Orpen road. Had a Quick Look in the dam…the hippos and crocodile were all happy and we continued onto the dirt road which comes out on the tar north of Satara…..This road had been graded so it gave us a more comfortable ride.

We passed elephants, impala, zebra, wildebeests and giraffe.

……before long we saw a Kori bustard…its thin greyish neck made us think it was a female as it was very different from the two males we’d seen several days ago.

Around the next bend there were 3 more Kori bustards…a really lovely sight.

Further up the track a car stopped us and asked what we had seen…they were as excited as we were by the Kori bustard.

They told us of a leopard sighting just a few minutes away. However when we turned back onto the Olifants Satara tar road there were about a dozen cars all vying for position…we asked 3 different cars and none had actually seen the leopard…the 4th car said it was no longer viewable as it had laid in the long grass..another almost saw it, moment…..!!!!

We returned to camp and decided to go to the Cattle Baron for brunch rather than eat our sandwiches, they would be ok tomorrow…brunch was great

After a rest we headed out for our usual S100, H6 circuit. The cool, dull overcast weather meant we only really saw groups of the plains animals- zebra, wildebeest, impala and a scattering of giraffe and a few largish herds of elephant.

On the H6 there were some WBV on the giraffe carcass, which is a sure sign that the lions have left …as seen in the pictures above…..( I haven’t worked out yet how to move a picture when I put them in the wrong place !🤣)

We stopped at the hyena den and sat patiently. It was very quiet and our patience paid off as the mum and 2 pups appeared.

Hyenas are nocturnal and have interesting social structures. Their clans are led by a female matriarch, mostly because hyena females have three times more testosterone than males, meaning they are physically stronger and have more aggressive temperaments. The highest-ranked individual in a hyena clan is the alpha female, followed by her cubs. Hyenas are Intelligent, curious, and opportunistic in matters of diet, they are known as the vacuum cleaners of the bush…basically they eat all the left overs from other animals kills….that doesn’t mean they won’t kill something themselves, but they tend to be scavengers.

We watched on our own for quite some time before continuing back to camp.

Our count for the day was 99+ impala, 99+ zebra, 9 vervet monkeys, 1 red billed hornbill 3 lilac breasted rollers, 23 giraffes, 5 yellow billed hornbills, 4 Kori bustards, 7 grey Lourie, 2 bateleur eagle, 2 buffalo, 24 Chacma baboons, 1 rhino, 88 elephants, 1 crocodile, 6 hippo, 4 hooded vultures, 1 tawny eagle, 1 martial eagle, 58 waterbuck, 1 steenbok, 9 warthogs, 99+ wildebeest, 2 WBV, 3 hyena, 7 kudu, 3 guinea fowl……not a bad days viewing.

We returned to the Cattle Baron for a light supper then an early night.

South African Safari 2025 Day 8 The day of the Hippo

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We had a full day driving around the Lower Sabi area. A leisurely breakfast took place on our veranda, watching, elephant, hippos and giraffe zig zag across the river munching on the reeds and grasses and cooling off in the water…..what a splendid view…how privileged we are to be able to experience the uninhibited bushlands where gods creatures roam free and all wildlife lives its natural life in its natural habitat.

Our chalet/hut was still delightful although the shower wasn’t quite as good as the previous days….very hot, hard to get cool enough and fairly low pressure…but it sufficed.

We headed up the tar road to Skakuza, because John had ear-wagged our neighbours saying there was a lion kill. We didn’t see any lions but we did see the buffalo carcass with numerous vultures and other raptures feeding on it..near by waiting patiently was a hungry crocodile.

We drove a few more kilometres further down the tar before turning back. We crossed the Sabi on the tar road to Tshokwane and took the first right hand dirt road which loops around.

From the low pontoon bridge we saw numerous hippos, some young, some showing that they needed the dentist, some grazing, some sleeping in large pods and some just wallowing in the water…A hippo can live for an average of 35 years in the wild. A male hippo can weigh up to 4500kg and a female 1600kg. They walk under water and can remain submerged for up to 5 minutes. It is responsible for the most human fatalities and injuries and is therefore known as the most dangerous mammal in Africa. We saw 99+ hippos throughout the day.

Our loop on the dirt road showed us 99+ impala, 20 WBV, 10 crocodile, 99+ elephant, 10 giraffe, 1 African Fish Eagle, 1 yellow-billed hornbill, 2 lilac breasted roller, 9 waterbuck, 55 Wildebeest, 31 zebra, 6 nyala, 3 kori bustard, 1 steenbok, 2 guinea fowl

We stopped at Mlondozi picnic and viewing point. It really is a lovely spot meticulously kept by Sipho who insisted we wrote in his compliments book when I went to thank him for doing such a great job.

We returned to Lower Sabi and ate our cheese sandwiches overlooking the waterhole just outside the camp gates…more hippos were floating around…some people call them a “thunder” of hippos but we prefer the collective noun “a pod of hippos”.

After a rest back at camp we made our way to the car park. We had booked a Parks Board Sunset Drive. It was in the big truck, a 24 seater. I must say we’ve had better drives…there was a group of 11 Finnish men and boys…….we have never been on a Safari truck with such loud, rude people. The youngest child of about 12years of age didn’t know how to talk and shouted the whole time…I shushed him several times. The men stood up most the time. I demanded that the two in front of me sat down stating quite clearly that we had all paid the same and all had the right to view…..grrrr …when one from the back decided to stand at the front I snapped “ sit down we can’t see” he proceeded to squat in the gang way. When he finally went back to his seat I sat sideways with my legs across the gangway so he couldn’t pass by. When we saw a herd of buffalo I stood up so he couldn’t pass or step over my legs…it was not a pleasant experience. We did see a beautiful male nyala I said stop to the driver who had missed it…unfortunately the chi,d decided to repeat my request and his shouting sent the poor bull scarpering, so no opportunity for a picture. Our driver and guide was quite apologetic when we said goodbye. We still tipped him because it wasn’t his fault these rude people had ruined the drive and he would not have been trained in how to deal with loud mouthed Finnish men.

We ate in the restaurant after our drive. It’s a Mug and Bean so John had a jalapeño big burger and I had buttermilk chicken burger…..another nice day ended with us playing cards on our veranda.