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Thank you Barcud, anne-marie, Katja, Rino, CB, Rookie, cheetah, Pumbaa, Chickadee, noel, buffalo_soldier, michel and melph for all your replies, it seems we all think the same about this sad but very exciting sighting Unfortunately that was not the only incident between a Puffie and a car I had to witness during that trip


But now lets head on towards Letaba! During that day animals of all kind seemed to be very active and now I can't resist any longer to show you the first pic of a Big 5 in this TR, a cut and entertaining little Ellie:



A short time later there was a traffic jam and at oncer my guess was lions. It was one of these typical sightings were the cats are a good distance away and very lazy so my stop lasted only one minute to get this pic:



There were big herds of Zebras and Impalas and even the warthogs were not as shy as usual. Or did they just want to take their chance to get into the TR



There also was lots of activity at Mazithi and if I had the time I could have easily stayed there for 1-2 hours. Lots of waterbirds, vultures, Waterbuck and Buffalos were there and now there was only one of the Big 5 missing..and as usual it was the leopard...

Thank you Micetta and Katja, I try to be a good boy and don't let you wait any longer

It was around 12 o'clock when I saw a car at the edge of the road facing to the left. I saw a buff and already wanted to head on when the woman in the car told me there was a leopard in the tree. She was very excited and obviously proud for spotting the leopard and she had every right to do so. It was extremely well spotted Maybe you see the tail...



I show you the best pics I got from different angles but most of the time you only could see pieces of the cat











It didn't take too long until there were several cars at the sighting and finally the leopard had enough, came down the tree and vanished in the bush.

Only midday and I already saw the Big 5, a Goshawk kill and Hornbills feeding on a Puffie. What more could you want Right.....cheetahs But first I stopped at Kumana and again I saw some nice animals like these two giraffes:



I have already spent a lot of time at the sightings but a visit to the nearby baobab always is a must for me and it was the first time I saw this tree with nearly no leaves:



Back on the tar road I drove for only 20 minutes and ended in the next traffic jam. I expected lions again and scanned the area. It was not easy to see her/him but finally I did. UNBELIEVABLE





After a while I realized there were two of them. Far away and not very active but soooo special Until that day this tar road never was very productive for me but this day everything came toether



Believe it or not but the show of this glorious day is still not over

Thank you Micetta, Vlakvarkvrou, Pumbaa, Sharifa and Duke, melph, Katja, Shi and Tobieo for all your wonderful replies, very much appreciated

In the meantime I was close to Satara when suddenly the head of this curious Rock Monitor appeared in the road Although I was very close to him he was very relaxed and I could take pics from different angles while he nearly didn't move. I wonder what was going on in his mind







Then I stopped at Satara to have a quick lunch. But I think it's far easier to spot a Caracal in Kruger than to get somethink qick in this restaurant. Although they havn't been very busy it took me more than an hour to take the order, get my sandwich and - biggest problem - to get the chance to pay it

Back on the road I saw this Starling who had caught something but I have no clue what it was! Maybe somebody has an idea





Next installment with more spots

I was stopped by another herd of Ellies that crossed the road slowly. The last thing I wanted because of my lack of time.



But finally they gave way and I had a much more relaxed sighting of some Ostriches



Just when I thought I should try to get on a bit faster now there were several cars on the road. CATS again But when I saw what kind of cat was strolling around I was more than happy









The cat was walking around, sniffing here and sniffing there and only after 10 minutes I realized that there was a second one, which was lying down the whole time.



And when I thought that it's time for me to go a third cheetah appeared Can you leave such a scene?? Just in case I asked a driver of another car about the number of cheetahs and he told me that there are four So I waited another 5 minutes but couldn't find the forth one...



WOW!!! That was my second cheetah sighting on that spectacular day but these also were the only two cheetah sightings of my whole trip. I would have loved to have more time for them but you can't have everything and I guess on that day I had no right to complain

Thank you MG, anne-marie, Micetta, Bushcraft, Katja, Anja, CB, Pumbaa, melph and Sharifa and Duke for following this TR and for your great comments

Now I really couldn't stop too often again and I even cancelled to drive the river road from Olifants to Letaba as there was no more time. But there were still some nice sightings like this White-backed Vulture:




a cheeky Vervet:




a big Elephant herd having a late drink at the Olifants river:




and then the sun already was setting in the Mopane veld:



During one day I saw the Big 5, had two cheetah sightings, saw a Goshawk kill and the Ground Hornbills feeding on the Puffie. And melph is right..this evening it was not easy to fall asleep because all the sightings were still in my mind and it was hard to believe that everything was real...

In my next installment I will show you the most cleverest family of Waterbucks you can find in Kruger

Thank you Micetta, anne-marie, Katja and Anja for your continuous support

During my search for the dogs I also visited Renosterpan. During one of my visits I saw this beautiful family of antelopes. After a while another car stopped beside me and the driver explained to me that these were Waterbucks. I told him I was very sure that these were Reedbucks. So he took his binos and after watching the animals for a while he declared: Waterbucks!! 100%!!! Wow, I was deeply impressed
And now I have the great honour to show you the only Waterbucks in Kruger who were clever enough not to sit on a fresh painted toilet seat

Thank you Elsa, anne-marie, Pumbaa, melph, Katja, Micetta, Anja, MG, Shi, Sharifa and Duke and Val for all your positive replies, I'm really happy that you loved my special Waterbucks
@Pumbaa: isn't it amazing, you always see the dogs and I always see Reedbucks. How can we change this
@Shi: these bushies are also a very special species, unfortunately I missed them this time

It's Monday again and I want to show you some more birds from different corners of the park. A Kori Bustard and Ostriches near Tihongonyeni (what a magical place ), a Bateleur near Skuks, a White-crowned Lapwing at Sunset dam, and an African Darter at......guess where

Thank you Micetta, anne-marie, Katja, Pumbaa, melph, cheetah and Shi for all your replies

Of course the pic of the Darter was taken at Lake Panic and it was very entertaining to watch him. He made great efforts to preen and dry his feathers and as soon as the job was done....he dissappeared into the water again
@Pumbaa: what about doing a morning drive near Skukuza together in November

I thought today I could try something new and make a 'reptile day' So all the pics I have for you today show some very impressive reptiles. Let's start with the first Puffie that I ever saw in Kruger (near Pretoriuskop):





This huge Crocodile was lying a few meters beside the little bridge near the Shipandani Hide, I can't remember that I ever saw such a big croc so close



and then definetely the biggest Water Monitor I have ever seen. This chap also passed my car very closed at the Biyamiti Weir and I had problems to hold my camera steady. The claws are absolutely lethal and I wouldn't like to have an argument with this fellow







Hope you all like these cuties, have a nice evening

A few kilometers south of Balule was a Hyena den and in trhe early mornings and late atfernoons the Hyenas were on the road every I passed there. THere were three youngsters with (my guess) around 5-7 months and they gave me a most entertaining show. Especially one of them was very curious and couldn't sit still for more than a minute. He/she always tried to et the others into some action and continuously disturbed their rest I could watch them for ages and was very surprised that other people mostly left after taking a few pics. You miss so much when you are only after lions or the Big 5 but for me it was a pleasure to have no other cars around For me they are very interesting and amazing animals!
Here I show you some of the pics I took, if you like them...I have maaany more

Thank you anne-marie, melph, Katja, Sharifa and Duke, jaybabe, Crested Val, Pumbaa and MG for your enthusiastic feedback, it's really pushing me forward

A warm welcome JB! A very special bird kill and my best reptile sighting coming soon

As promised I have some more pics of the Hyenas today and will also show you more Hynie pics (not the Balule ones) later on..

Thank you anne-marie, Pumbaa, Katja, melph, MG and CB for your lovely support

It's Monday again and of course I report about another bird sighting.
I'm not one of the S100 enthusiastics but I try the road whenever I'm in the area and this time I was very lucky. Two Brown-headed Parrots took the seeds (that's what I guess) from a tree I unfortunetely don't know by name. Maybe someone could help , I think it's a quite common tree. I was the first car there but only 2-3 minutes later there was a traffic jam. The people looked around with big excitement however most of them didn't seem to be too happy when they spotted the birds. I wonder what they expected My only concern was that the Parrots could get stressed because of the hectic on the road but they were very relaxed. Obviously the seeds tasted too good to leave! After a while I was the only one at the sighting again and I stayed until the Parrots were flying into another tree. It was my best sighting of these very entertaining birds so far

Now I have been to Kruger several times and I thought I have travelled every possible road but somehow I never made it to Nkaya. For those who don't know it: it's a waterwhole south of Satara and you get there if you go down on the tar road, drive for around 15 km and then go right. This trip I made two stops there in the early afternoon and both times there was lots of activity. Every animal I show you on the following pics was very entertaining to watch, especially the warthog family was so funny that I nearly forgot to take pics
I hope you like the selection of and if you are travelling on the tar road from Tshokwane to Satara I can only advice you to have a look at Nkaya

Thank you Elsa, anne-marie, KDJ, melph, OWN, Katja, MM, Pumbaa, MG and Sharifa and Duke for all your wonderful replies on this TR If you are going to Nkaya I wish you the same luck that I had, I will definetely give it a try again during my next visit. And driving the tar road from Satara to Tshokwane also is not a bad option

But now I think it's time to show you some lion pics! I saw many lions during my visit but most of them were lasy and far away. But there were two remarkable sightings, one on my second and a veryy special one on my last day. The pics of this young lion were taken near Kruger gate on the S3 in the middle of the day. The cat was less than 10 meters away and I enjoyed the sighting a lot until I saw the lion from behind. He looked terrible thin and I don't know if he was ill or only badly fed. From his behaviour I couldn't notice anything unusual and maybe his main problem was that he was on his own and couldn't get a decent meal What do you think?

Thank you MG, anne-marie, cheetah, Katja, KDJ, melph and OWN for posting on the lion pics

It's Monday again and it is time for another bird sighting. One early morning while I was searching for the dogs again on the Rabelais road (S106) I saw this beautiful Gymnogene. I saw this raptor several times in Kruger but this was only the second one who gave me the chance to take some pics. And it was the first Gymnogene I ever saw who wasn't mobbed by other birds. Obviously that was the reason that he/she was very relaxed and enjoyed the morning sun








After a while he left his tree and came even closer towards me







I wish you all a perfect start into the new week