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A crash of rhinos: Kruger 2012


Jochen

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Hey Pol,

 

If I understood correctly she's at a private camp now.

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Uh_oh busted

That video of baby elephants playing is priceless. I enjoyed this report very much. It nearly has me planning another Africa trip before we even leave for our second this Fall.

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It nearly has me planning another Africa trip before we even leave for our second this Fall.

 

Well, then wait until you see the next part. Preparing pics now. Will write it tomorrow. :)

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@Zaminoz; a pet bushbaby! [Cartman mode]Schweeeet[/Cartman mode] That must be fantastic.

Yeah he was a cute little fella. Very affectionate and full of energy. My dad found him as a baby sitting on the road to the farm all alone (probably orphaned by illegal tree felling charcoal burners). He slept pretty much all day in the bougainvillea that crept up the veranda in front of the house, but came into the house at dusk and used to ride around on my (or my sister's) shoulder during the evenings (or perched higher atop our heads clinging desperately to our hair if one of the dogs or cats was nearby). His favourite past time seemed to be climbing up the curtains and leaping from there on to book shelves and mantle pieces (we soon learned to move anything valuable to a safer place!). Then as he got older he was obviously hunting and gathering for himself and stopped visiting every night. Gradually it went from every night to 3 or 4 times a week, then once or twice a week to once every couple of weeks or so.

Then he just stopped coming inside to play his flying from curtain to bookshelf game all together and we would only see him occasionally as he would come up to us in the garden in the gathering darkness before night. Finally we saw him no more, and assume, and hope, that he went on to live a normal full bushbaby life out in the miombo woods.

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Part3: nThambo, Klaserie

 

After 4 days @ Shindzela, it was time to cross the tar road again, for another six days at nThambo, AOF's sister camp on the Ross farm.

 

nThambo has changed a bit as well, since our visit last year; the main building now has a wooden floor throughout. Previously the floor was just in the kitchen area, now it's in the "dining room" and the bar as well. It's a bit better than the sand, I must admit. I've looked for pics of the main area, but it seems I did not photograph it. Here's the best shots I got:

 

C04.jpg

This is the entrance. Behind Rein and Isaac you can see the bar area.

 

And this is the dining table, in the evening;

 

C40.jpg

 

 

Our guides there were Rein and Isaac (see their pic, above). Normally Rein works at AOF, and Gawie is the main guide at nThambo.

 

(Gawie and Yolandi are new at nThambo. They are a management+guiding couple coming from one of the Lion Sands camps in Sabi Sands. Both are level 3 FGASA. So you see; another major improvement! I said it before; Klaserie is definitely on the up, and gaining fast on well-established reserves such as Timbavati and Sabi Sands. And nThambo may well be the Klaserie flagship at this point).

 

Anyway, since Gawie was still constructing their new bush house Rein came over from AOF, while Roel handled AOF customers with apprentice guide Nico and tracker Enoch.

 

We had Rein on a couple of drives/walks at AOF a few days ago, and we liked him a lot. He's quite a character. The more time we spent with him, the more we understood that he's a perfect fit for the job; very knowledgeable, extremely funny, and he knows the place (and it's inhabitants) lik no other. In fact, his nickname - also shared with other lodges nearby - is "plaasboer". Which means as much as; "the local farmer".

 

The tracker at nThambo is Isaac, whom we already knew from last year. In my previous trip report I wrote about Isaac, saying that he has an incredible track record, an immense knowlegde of the bush and the animals (like only a person who was born in the bush can have), and that he would no doubt become one of the main assets of the camp. You may remember that I wrote about his tracking skills, and about his efforts to get some leopard cubs more accustomed to people and vehicles. It's a process that takes a lot of time and expertise. Well, you already know about Rhulani and Tsotsi (see the AOF part, above) so you know they've succeeded. And for a big part that's because of Isaac, as he's the one who can track them as if he part of their family!

 

Rooms have remained the same, exept they now all have a small solar panel so you can load your batteries in the room, and have some light in the dark if needed. Important to point out is that, just like AOF, nThambo is not on the power grid. In fact, it's a camp as green as they come. For example; all grey water is recycled through reed bed systems.

 

C01.jpg

 

We had a couple of hot days, followed by a couple of colder ones (with grey and overcast mornings). During the hot days, the front of our tent was rolled up completely, like this:

 

C02.jpg

 

We liked that a lot! We even slept like that at night.

 

And so did a couple of newlyweds, but only after Rein assured them it's safe. And the next morning, they had lion paws right in front of the strairs going up to their room. :P

 

On to the gamedrives! Will hopefully be able to post this later today.

Edited by Jochen
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Yeah he was a cute little fella. Very affectionate and full of energy. My dad found him as a baby sitting on the road to the farm all alone (probably orphaned by illegal tree felling charcoal burners). He slept pretty much all day in the bougainvillea that crept up the veranda in front of the house, but came into the house at dusk and used to ride around on my (or my sister's) shoulder during the evenings (or perched higher atop our heads clinging desperately to our hair if one of the dogs or cats was nearby). His favourite past time seemed to be climbing up the curtains and leaping from there on to book shelves and mantle pieces (we soon learned to move anything valuable to a safer place!). Then as he got older he was obviously hunting and gathering for himself and stopped visiting every night. Gradually it went from every night to 3 or 4 times a week, then once or twice a week to once every couple of weeks or so.

Then he just stopped coming inside to play his flying from curtain to bookshelf game all together and we would only see him occasionally as he would come up to us in the garden in the gathering darkness before night. Finally we saw him no more, and assume, and hope, that he went on to live a normal full bushbaby life out in the miombo woods.

 

Fantastic!

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Jochen,

 

Great report so far...keep the installments coming!

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Super LEEDS

And so did a couple of newlyweds, but only after Rein assured them it's safe. And the next morning, they had lion paws right in front of the strairs going up to their room. :P

No way! :o

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Morning drives and afternoon drives

 

By now it's a bit of a blur which sightings we had when. In general, I'd say we have had very few uneventful drives. Some were more quiet, when we had one of those "grey" mornings. But most were the perfect average, or above.

 

To give you an idea of "a good day"; I wrote an article that will be used in a magazine, and Brett from Sun Safaris also made a blog entry out of it, which SUPER Leeds found right away and posted about it here on ST: http://safaritalk.net/topic/8713-jochen-playing-away/

 

And if you want an idea of a bad day; imagine only seeing about half the animals as on a good day. Or imagine the day you have to leave. :D

 

Here's a few of the good sightings we had;

 

After coming back from Shindzela, it had been quite a while since we had seen lions. Well, any big cats, for that matter. That changed very quickly as we had a good sighting of two old ladies from the Ross pride. This was early morning.

 

C76.jpg

 

But not only that; we got to see Rhulani again.

 

C117.jpg

 

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And of course; good sightings of plains game.

 

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C46.jpg

 

 

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We also had quite a few good bird sightings. Birds of prey and the regular birds.

 

C115.jpg

 

C100.jpg

 

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I guess by now you guys can see from the pics that we had nice blue skies, but sometimes grey skies as well. In the beginning it wasn't that bad. The sun burned the clouds away by 8AM But then one noon, instead of the sun diffusing the clouds, it started raining:

 

C85.jpg

 

I think this rain at noon was a bit of a turning point. After that we had a few mornings that were colder, and wetter. Bit more windy too.

 

Maybe it was because of this little bit of wet weather that we had two sightings that were a bit special to us.

 

First of all; we saw a puff adder! I know it doesn't sound that special, but to us it was. Imagine this; on all our safaris so far, we have never seen a snake that was thicker than my thumb.

 

C88.jpg

 

No, we did not get out of the car for a low angle shot. :lol:

 

And a second sighting was this guy:

 

C06.jpg

 

I know I know. Nothing special right? But the fun thing was; he crept in our toilet bag and sat on the handle of Mira's comb. And there he stayed, throughout the rest of our stay. Like a pet! Sometimes he ducked further in, perhaps to get a little nap. Other times he was gone - we assume to hunt some insects attracted to the lights in our bathroom - but then a few hours later he was there again ...on his comb! We rubbed gently on his forehead to welcome him back. He seemed to like it.

 

We named him Freddy. :)

 

--/--

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No way! :o

 

Yes way! (but will write about it just after this) ;)

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--/--

 

Morning drives and afternoon drives: continued

 

It dawned on us that it had been a couple of days since we saw elephants. Very strange, since at Shindzela, not really that far away, there were plenty.

And even more strange; we were now passed day 10 of our safari, and had almost seen no giraffe at all. Very weird, as last year we had them almost every day, and even on foot on two occasions.

 

Rein explained that both types of animals have the tendency to pop up en masse, and then disappear again for a couple of days. They seem to comein waves.

 

That same day he decided to drive to the north end of Klaserie. As you may know, the camps in the south (AOF, nThambo, Baobab Ridge and Gomo Gomo) all share traverse, but AOF and nThambo also share traverse with a bunch of camps up north (don't know if the other lodges have similar traverse). Now, these camps up north took quite a beating with the floods. Tulela is gone, forever. Another one is still being repaired. Etc...

 

As a result, there's almost nobody driving there anymore. But that doesn't mean that nThambo's traversing rights have gone (on the plots where those camps sit on, and on some non-commercialized plots as well). The only problem is; when do you decide to go? They used to go there when the guys from those camps radioed in some good sightings. Now, if you go there, it means making a long trip, and having to find your own animals with no other vehicles helping out. Rein just waited for a quited morning, and then drove there. Well guess what. All those giraffes? There they were!

 

C111.jpg

 

There were so many of them. And then we saw something absolutely cool. Ever seen a giraffe mating dance? Here you go:

 

http://vimeo.com/43919002

 

:D

 

Rein took us to some new plots they can drive on. They've got such a big area now. Some places they can barely get to. Almost all the way to the Klaserie river. We saw plenty of plains species here, and had again a very nice rhino sighting. Up to that point, these had been a constant throughout our trip.

 

C58.jpg

 

So we had again seen a new area of Klaserie. First that neighbour of AOF inviting us on his plot. Now this trip.

 

That afternoon, back on "our side" of the reserve, we had a sighting of a big herd of buffalo, so we hoped that the lions would follow.

 

C08.jpg

 

As I wrote in the Shindzela-part of this report; there's was vacuum in Timbavati, causing the territories of all prides to shift. Our pride (the Ross pride) was now found on the other side of the tar road a lot, where Royal Legend is operating.

 

We had anorther good sighting of Rhulani, and the Royal Legend guys radioed us: "could we come and get a look at Rhulani? We've got the Ross pride here...". Well sure! Why not!

 

So again, we drove on a plot where we had never been before. This was something I could easily get used to! :P

RL has got a nice big dam on their plot as well. There was an old waterbuck in it, with a broken horn, and - worse - a broken leg. His last days under this sun, for sure.

 

On our way to the lions, we ran into a traffic jam ...of elephants. Long time since we had seen any!

Thick vegetation on either side. We could only reverse. But since they were still far away, we decided to wait, and see how the elephants reacted to us.

 

C65.jpg

 

What happened next was unbelieveable, and it's the part I wrote about in that article:

 

We give them time. Some are feeding. One has a nap on the road. When it’s clear to them that we pose no threat they decide come closer. Eventually they pass us by at less than 5 meters. One young bull is rather inquisitive and wants an even closer look (or rather; a sniff). A loud “no!” from both Rein and Isaac in unison is enough to make the elephant understand that that is too close for everyone’s comfort, man and beast alike. When it moves on, Isaac says “thank you”. Strangely enough, that sounded right. It made sense. I just know the elephant understood.

 

Here's the video, in case you want to experience that moment for yourself:

 

http://vimeo.com/43919153

 

Because of this traffic jam, we miss the lions. But who cares after such a sighting? Besides; it looked as if they were following the buffalo around.

 

And indeed, that night we hear lions roar far away to the south, and some others in the north. Seems they are calling each other. Those in the south remain static, the ones in the north (those on RL's plot) are mobile, every roar is closer. It's obvious they want to join up. Then the roaring stops, and I remember saying to Mira: "they must be really close now. Perhaps even on the plains n front of our camp". our tent was completely open, but I was too lazy to get out of bed and wave my flashlight around.

 

Too bad I didn't . Or perhaps lucky I didn't. Depends on how you look at it. They passed right in front of our tent, in front of the main building of the lodge, and then under tent no.3, where the newlywed couple was in.

 

--/--

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--/--

 

Morning drives and afternoon drives: continued (2)

 

It was after this night that we found the whole Ross pride again. And they even had a special treat for us. The Ross pride is two males (not seen on this sighting), four or five adult females, two sub-adults, and...two small cubs. They had been seen, from far away, with just their mother. And she was always hiding them. Now, she had introduced her cubs to the pride. So we were the first tourists who were able to photograph them!

 

Flatcats:

C16.jpg

 

One of the sub-adults:

C19.jpg

 

The cubs:

C26.jpg

 

 

But I keptthe best nThambo pics for last; the incredible sighting we had of Rhulani and her brother on the remains of a kill.

 

This is Tsotsi, a bit more shy than his sister:

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And this is Rhulani:

C125.jpg

 

After she had gnawed a bit on the spine of the impala, she groomed herself and gave us a private photo shoot.

 

Isaac and Rhulani; friends for life:

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While she was relaxing like that, we took plenty of pics. Rein borrowed my lens and went shutter crazy as well.

 

Recorded it on video as well:

 

http://vimeo.com/43919152

 

Funny anecdote; when it was time to leave, the car wouln't start! We had this once before; it was the starter engine. We needed a small push. The car was due for servicing. The other time we go out and pushed. But now, with Rhulani next to us... what to do??

 

Rein radioed Roel, who put his vehicle right in front of ours. Now, he could have pushed us. But I'm sure Courteney (the camp owner) would not have liked the damage on the bumpers of the cars. So Isaac and Nico each tied a rope to their bumper. And Rhulani? She got quite inquisitive!

 

C92.jpg

 

:lol:

 

Then Roel pulled us away and the engine started. Bye bye Rhulani! See you next year!

 

(or will it not be next year ...you'll have to read on)

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Oops. I should also write something about the night drives at nThambo.

 

In general, they were OK, with all the regulars like scrub hares, nightjars, chameleons, bush babies, etc... and some were a bit better with the occasional big cat (what else?)

 

For example; we had Rhulani at night too, on the hunt. She jumped into a tree to catch some sleeping guineafowl, but they got away.

 

And one sighting was perhaps the best moment of our whole safari; the two Ross males popped up. We first found one. Then the other came and greeted his brother.

 

C36.jpg

 

But what happened next was unbelieveable.

 

One brother - the lights of our vehicle shining on him - started roaring, and then the other - Isaac's spotlight on him - followed suit. I was SO LOUD.

We have had lions roaring before, but never like this. I was sitting next to Rein in front and had my hand on the door. The door panel rattled!

 

Here's the video:

 

http://vimeo.com/43919151

 

 

--

 

 

OK, one last "outro" pic for nThambo: here's me & Mira & Rein at the entrance road of AOF.

 

C116.jpg

 

Now it's really bye bye nThambo and bye bye Rhulani (*)!

On to Umkumbe in Sabi Sands!

 

(* ...or not? grinnnnn)

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Lion Fanatic

Jochen

 

This report just gets better and better...I hope that you are just getting started :)

 

 

One brother - the lights of our vehicle shining on him - started roaring, and then the other - Isaac's spotlight on him - followed suit. I was SO LOUD.

We have had lions roaring before, but never like this. I was sitting next to Rein in front and had my hand on the door. The door panel rattled!

 

 

About the lions roar:

 

I watched a program earlier in the year called "Inside Nature's Giants". It was about the dissection of a lion and a tiger and how they were very simular under the skin.

 

What amazed me was how they determined how a lion roars. After it was cut open they attached a blower to the very back of the esophagus, shot some air through it and, yep...it sounded like a lion roar. But, they then pulled the esophagus back into the chest area and back again while injecting air into it, and you then had the 'Ooo - rahh', 'Ooo - rahh' roar. The 'Oooo's' were produced whilst the esophagus was in the chest.

 

I wont allow myself many expectations on my trip next year to BOTS, but I do hope that I can hear that roar for myself. I'd be well made up if I did hear it!

 

Thanks again for sharing this trip report. I LOVE IT!!!

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What a wonderful report Jochen! Felt like I was right there with you guys. The baby eles, your close encounter and those lions roaring was amazing!

 

Can't wait for more!

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Lion Fanatic

About the lions roar:

 

I watched a program earlier in the year called "Inside Nature's Giants". It was about the dissection of a lion and a tiger and how they were very simular under the skin.

 

What amazed me was how they determined how a lion roars. After it was cut open they attached a blower to the very back of the esophagus, shot some air through it and, yep...it sounded like a lion roar. But, they then pulled the esophagus back into the chest area and back again while injecting air into it, and you then had the 'Ooo - rahh', 'Ooo - rahh' roar. The 'Oooo's' were produced whilst the esophagus was in the chest.

 

 

Ooops...I got this wrong. I meant Larynx...NOT esophagus.

 

I guess that I had too many beers watching Ingerlund beat Sweden y'day :unsure:

 

Anyway, here's the video. It's about eleven and a half minutes in...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_kbGR4gYyM

Edited by Lion Fanatic
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Thanks for that video, LF. Much better stuff than "the last lion" imho. I truly enjoyed this. And learned something!

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Your night drives and night photography are outstanding, even the moon! I really liked your playful buffalos. It's hard to get a unique buffalo shot. Those lion cubs are adorable, what a shot. So even after floods and with some rain, your trip was outstanding. Thanks for a great report.

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Jochen - have been away for a couple of weeks and only got to see this report today. What a treat! Love the roaring lion. I have a little roaring lion video too where my guy, like yours, sounds like he needs a good dose of Benadryl!

The little froggie is adorable.

This itin sounds like a well-refined, tried and tested itin. Can you divulge the approx. pppn costs for this trip, both in high and low season?

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Guys,

 

Just saw this on Twitter:

 

"Breaking News at Shindzela, Timbavati Reserve: we have wild dogs denning in our area. 8 young pups seen this morning!!"

 

So if anyone is thinking about Shindzela... now is the time to go!

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@Sangeeta,

 

Well in winter there's always "4 nights specials". I had a look at the 2013 prices of these camps, and if you would opt for:

- 4 nights AOF

- 4 nights Shindzela

- 4 nights nThambo

 

Then your cost would be:

- R7400 @ AOF (but hat's because their specials aren't on the website yet)

- R6450 @ Shindzela

- R11000 @ nThambo (but same remark as with AOF)

 

That's a total of R24850 pp for 12 days, but you can get that further down by booking through a TA (prices on lodge websites are a bit above their prices), and by asking for winter specials. If you could get "stay 4 pay 3 regime" at AOF and nThambo, your price would be R20205.

 

No transfer costs between airport and camps or in between camps; they do that themselves over noon. The only thing you need to get is a flight to/from Jo'Burg and Hoedspruit. That's another R2500-R3000, depending on availability.

 

If you go in summer, prices will be very similar, except there won't be any winter specials. Only at Shindzela, it's R50 per day more.

Note that AOF and nThambo do not have single supplements.

 

Ciao,

 

J.

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Wow, so many great photos/ sightings!

 

Love love love the dancing baby elephant, that's just magic right there.

 

And that last leopard pic, the eyes are COMPELLING.

 

All fabulous, thanks again for sharing!

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Thanks, Jochen! And if you added Umkumbe?

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Had to look it up, Sangeeta. Apparently next year it's R2050 pp. I'm almost sure they will have a stay 4 pay 3 special in winter as well. One thing though; to get to Umkumbe from Hoedspruit airport / Klaserie gate (and perhaps back as well if your flight leaves from there), you will need a transfer of course.

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Kavey, here's another one for you.

 

C95.jpg

 

Will continue the report tomorrow! :)

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