We were awake early despite the 2 hour difference and out to look round by 5.30. There was a fruiting fig tree just outside our rooms and we spent a little time checking out the birds conming and going. They were mainly Blue Starlings but we also saw ****. we chatted to one of the other inmates before setting off for Crocodile Bridge.
We decided to do the S28 dirt road to Crocodile Bridge as this seemed to have the most sightings on the app and was mentioned regularly. It took us a while as there was so much to look at - our first elephants, giraffe, warthogs and lots of Impala to get used to. There were also lots of birds including *****. One of the elephants was lounging against a tree in the shade and there was a group of elephants on the other side of the river, which then decided to cross over and make their way up across the road and further into the bush.
A little further along we saw a Warthog rooting around under a bush, completely oblivious, as were most of the animals, to our car about 50 yards away. A Golden-breasted Bunting was hopping round on the ground and a herd of Impala and Giraffe were browsing on the road side bushes and we had our first sight of Oxpeckers working their way up and down the animals.
We crossed a ford with some water on one side and saw a small herd of impala and giraffe with Oxpeckers, one of the giraffes seemed to be covered in small growths but it didn’t seem to be causing it any distress. One of the giraffe came to the water’s edge and did the bent legs routine to get a drink.
We made our way to Crocodile Bridge, stopping at the Ntandanyathi hide where we saw an Open-billed stork in a tree and black crake, woodland kingfisher, striped swallows and spotted flycatcher.
Finally made Crocodile Bridge for a late lunch. We had a potter around but day visitors weren’t allowed into the camp and it was very hot so we ate our sandwiches, had an ice cream, checked out the bats, photographed a very colourful Agama and started our return to Lower Sabie. 🙂
We headed back along tar, stopping for our first lions, a couple of females lounging in the shade of a tree, not easy to photograph but a lovely sighting.
We took the S130 then the S137 across to Dukes pool and back to the S28 before heading back to camp for an early supper before our night drive.
We had an early dinner and then met up with the driver and set off on our drive. The truck was quite full and had two spotlights fitted to the frame with a wide beam and there was a high powered torch given to one passenger on each side, with directions how to use them. Our first sighting was of eye shine in the grassy area near the camp which revealed a Genet, possibly the animal we had seen from the perimeter last night. Our next sighting was of two Honey Badgers, which scattered into the bushes giving reasonable but short views and no photographs. As we drove along there was herds of Impala dotted about. Further on we had more eyeshine, in some bushes a little distant from the road. They seemed to be moving along the branches and they were identified as Greater Bushbabies. Two targets in one night! One stop was for Scrub Hares which hopped around and another stop for eye shine found two Pearl-spotted Owlets in a bush
The three hour drive seemed to go really quickly and we were soon back at the car park. As the truck drove off, I realised I didn’t have my water bottle with me. A search around the car and car park was fruitless, so we drove back to the bungalows and turned in.
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