Searching for leopards in KNP and Sabi Sand

[pedro maia]

It´s our last morning of our first trip to the Kruger, we are on the S-1 heading to the Numbi Gate, a few km before turning left to the gravel road we see a couple of cars, I slow down, ask what´s there and a lady with binoculars tells me where should I look, while I stop the car my wife shouts "YES, LEOPPARD", but when I look to the right direction, my favorite predator, the one I wanted to see the most, just isn´t there anymore, all I can see is the remainings of the impala he was eating in the tree, I just missed it for a few seconds.

 

All I can do is take a few pictures and wait, we waited for nearly half an hour but the leopard didn´t came back and we have a plane to catch in Nelspruit, we have to go.

That happened in 2012, I didn´t know if I would return to Kruger or if I ever would have another opportunity to see a leopard in the wild.

But this year the opportunity was here, we booked a trip to SA for the whole family and the plan, after 3 night in Cape Town, was to spend 1 night in KNP and 3 nights in Sabi Sand, the last being known as one of the best places in the world to see leopards.

We flew from Cape Town to KMIA and entered the Malelane gate around 2pm, that night we would sleep at Berg en Dal, a camp that we found to be quite pleasant in 2012.

After entering the gate we made what I think everybody does when entering the park, triyng to guess which will be the first animal, impala is definitely a sure guess but not this time, the first animal we spotted was this big fellow.

 

 

We couldn´t ask for a better start.

 

Or could we?

 

Well when we were watching the rhino right after entering the park a car stopped and the occupants told us that a couple of km ahead there was a leopard, we couldn´t believe our luck, was it possible that in such a short moment we were going to see the animal that escaped us so narrowly in the end of our previous trip to Kruger?

 

We left our rhino friend and moved ahead, when we passed by the bridge over the Matjulu there were 4 buffalo lying on the river bed but kept driving and on when the road starts to climb a little there were some cars, not to many, and there he was, in a tree, absolutely gorgeous, just 10 minutes after entering the park .

 

 

We left the leopard in his tree and went on to Berg en Dal to have lunch, we would check in later, after lunch our first sighting was this warthog

 

 

The first elephant of the day

 

 

 

And our first road block

 

 

 

It was quite a peaceful ellie, didn´t show any signs of aggression, he was just minding his own business

 

 

This giraffe had a small piece of skin missing, looks like a manmade thing

 

 

A baby elephant is always a premium sighting

 

 

 

And two hyenas on the road were also a great sighting

 

 

I wasn´t able to take a good picture when they passed right by me, they were moving quite fast

 

[Marks]

I'm glad you got to see your leopard - and I'll hazard a guess that you saw at least another before your trip was done.

[Big_Dog]

Lovely photos so far, excellent you got your leopard!
That kill at the start was hanging at an interesting angle too...
Looking forward to more!

[Game Warden]

Sounds like we need to arrange a Lisbon Get-together to discuss the trip

[Kitsafari]

Rhino as a first sighting! what a wonderful reception for you in Kruger. that patch on the giraffe looks very man-made - i wonder why they would take such a large sample of the skin? did the giraffe look sickly?

[pedro maia]

@@Marks, your guess is correct.

[pedro maia]

@@Big_Dog, it was just a pity that the leopard didn´t return in time for me to see it but we had to catch our plane.

[pedro maia]

@@Game Warden, whenever you want Matt.

Edited September 5, 2014 by pedro maia

[pedro maia]

@@Kitsafari, the girafe looked fine, I must say I only noticed the patch watching the picture.

[pedro maia]

In Portugal we say "não há fome que não dê em fartura", in a lousy translation it means something like "all hunger ends in fullness".

 

That was our feeling when, as we kept driving along the S110 tar road, we saw a few cars, we approach them, we tried to find out what they stopped for and...

 

 

 

 

Our second leopard, also lazing in a tree.

 

Can´t say much more about our luck, we stayed for quite a while watching it and left to complete the Matjulu loop, it was quiet the rest of the way but we still got to see this beautiful girafe crossing the road in front of us, really a nice image in the fading light, as my daughter said in our first trip to Kruger, girafes look quite "african"...

 

 

[pedro maia]

Next morning was quieter, since we wanted to arrive to the lodge at Sabi Sand in time to the afternoon game drive we left Berg en Dal early and headed to Transport dam and then to the Phabeni Gate, where we left the park.

 

We only saw general game but it was still quite a pleasant drive.

 

It was great to see this mother (I guess) and son bateleur

 

 

Cropped image

 

 

A beautiful waterbuck posing

 

 

I really like these guys, they look pretty badass

 

 

We also saw a family of ground hornbill but this was the best picture we could get

 

 

One giraffe feeding

 

 

 

We watched this impala for a while

 

 

 

 

And the last sighting inside the park were some zebra, the young ones are amazing

 

 

[Marks]

Nice bateleurs; really shows the dramatic change in appearance they undergo.

[pedro maia]

The drive from the Phabeni Gate to Elephant Plains in Sabi Sand should take around 4 hours, our idea was to arrive in time to have lunch before the afternoon game drive, our only problem were two police controls, on the first one the policeman who stopped us said I was caught by a robot passer over a zebra, an infraction that had a fine of 750 rands and that I would have to go back 50km to Hazyview to pay it.

 

As I said taht I didn´t pass over any zebra (I don't know if I did, it was almost imposible to see the paintings on the road) and that if I went back 50km I wouldn't arrive in time to my destination he said I could pay him the fine, but that he didn´t have any receipts

 

His intentions were clear and although I tried not to pay anything, in the end paid him 300 rands (and he wanted me to pay in euro).

 

Pure extorsion...

 

The second policeman who stopped us asked if I could show him euro banknotes, when I said I didn´t have any with me he let us go.

 

Somewhere on the road to Sabi Sand

 

 

The Gowrie Gate, entrance to Sabi Sand

 

[pedro maia]

First game drive at Elephant Plains, and first meeting with a family of elephants, we saw many elephants during our stay, in game drives and from the lodge decks.

 

 

 

 

I like this picture

 

 

 

 

 

One hippo with a calf

 

 

And a family of helmeted guineafolds

 

[Sangeeta]

Enjoying it very much

[Alexander33]

We stayed at Simbambili, which I believe shares traversing rights with Elephant Plains, last September. I look forward to seeing how our experiences compare.

[SafariChick]

Enjoying it very much

 

+1 - I had a great leopard sighting in the Sabi Sands - look forward to seeing what comes next!

[pedro maia]

We stayed at Simbambili, which I believe shares traversing rights with Elephant Plains, last September. I look forward to seeing how our experiences compare.

 

It´s possible but the other lodge cars I remember seeing were from Chitwa Chitwa.

[pedro maia]

 

Enjoying it very much

 

+1 - I had a great leopard sighting in the Sabi Sands - look forward to seeing what comes next!

 

 

Next comes...

 

Leopards .

[pedro maia]

It didn´t take long before our tracker, Tom, and our ranger, Louis, heard something, it was a leopard call, we started following the direction of the call and there we was, Tingana, the dominant male of the concession area, a really impressive male with a huge head and neck, I had already seen pictures of him (there are some here in the forum) but seeing him live and few meters from you while you are in a jeep without any barriers it´s a different thing.

 

 

What a gorgeous cat

 

His belly was full and he wasn´t going anywhere soon so after a (good) while we left him alone with his tough digestion and followed our game drive, we would check on him later.

[pedro maia]

After leaving Tingana it took us very little time to see another leopard, this time a female, Kwatile, resting on top of a termite mound close to a tree where she had the remainings of an impala.

 

Best of all, nearby was her 7/8 months old cub, we were able to see the cub only for a moment because it was quite skittish and quickly vanished inside the bush, a great sighting

 

 

Sabi Sand was prooving to be prime leopard country.

[pedro maia]

Sunset in our first game drive







After sunset we heard leopard calls, once again we followed the sound direction and it was Tingana

 

We nearly saw him making a kill, a rabbit, Tingana got in position but the rabbit backed of before he jumped over him.

 

A little video of Tingana passing by our car, we was like 1m from me, that´s quite an experience...

 

 

As we went back to the lodge he did the same and stayed nearby all night, we heard him call until daybreak and it wasn´t a coincidence that after dinner we were escorted to our rooms, it was the only night that happened and the guy who escorted us told me that sometimes Tingana walks inside the lodge grounds, looking for the resident bushbucks, I believed him since there´s no way the lodge electrified fence can stop a leopard from entering, it isn´t more than 50cm high.

[Marks]

Very handsome leopards. Even a fleeting glimpse of the cub must have been special.

[pedro maia]

Very handsome leopards. Even a fleeting glimpse of the cub must have been special.

 

It was special, very special.

[pedro maia]

The first big moment of next morning game drive was seing this ellies

 

 

It was amazing and ellies are definitely amongst our favourites animals.