Day 6 - Heading south

Another early start, though not quite pre first light, as we met  at 5 am for coffee and rusks before setting off on for our next camp at Skukuza. Although only 92km away, the plan was to take most of the day getting there, birding along the way. 

Good sighting came early on the journey, with a Red-crested Korhaan found close to the road. This was quickly followed by three Bronze-winged Coursers, again close to the road, that allowed for great views. These came as a relief as these are mainly nocturnal and the previous evenings night drive failed to turn any up.

A little further on and a pair of Coqui Francolins were located dust bathing right next to the road, giving great views of a shy species that normally remains hidden in the longer grasses.

Bush-shrikes had been giving us a bit of a run around, with both Orange-bellied and grey-headed heard on a number of times over the previous days, but neither providing much more than fleeting glimpses. This changed this morning with good views, first of a Grey-headed and later a pair of orange-breasted Bush-shrike.

A stop for a Zitting Cisticola provided good views of a Long-billed Crombec, but the Cisticola remained a heard only – I wasn’t too worried by that. Even better was a Steirling’s Wren-babbler that called and eventually showed on the opposite side of the road. A much smarter little bird than depicted in the field guild.

A slight detour to view, what is regarded as the southern most “wild sown” Baobab tree produced a Chestnut-breasted Bunting for those of us in the lead vehicle. The Baobab is scare this far south – the only examples we’d seen up till then were those planted in camps and were relatively young saplings. The tree we were now viewing was anything but a sapling as it is estimated to be at least 1500 years old and the trunk is some 20 meters in diameter.  As ever, such ancient trees are impressive.

A late breakfast was taken at the Tshokwane Picnic Site, where an African Hawk Eagle drifted over and a few of the group managed to glimpse a Red-faced Cisticola. There is another mature Baobab inside the village for the picnic site staff, and it is this individual which is actually the most southern “wild sown” Baobab, but as visitors can’t access the village, it’s conveniently overlooked by the marketing teams. They can’t claim “out of sight, out of mind” as it’s clearly visible to all from the picnic site.

This lower section of the Kruger is the most popular with visitors – it’s closer to jo’berg/Pretoria – so the roads were busier. Whilst most visitors chose their own vehicles to explore the park, there were numerous Safari trucks, such as those we travelled in. More surprising were the coaches, many with tinted and sealed windows, to help keep the punters cool and to protect their eyes from the harsh sun. I would doubt that anyone travelling round the park in one of these would be able to see much.  But they will have “done” Kruger, and their Rands help keep the place open for those of us to delight in these wild places.

Back on the road and we soon pulled up on a bridge over looking the River Sabie. First looks produced very little in the form of wildlife, but gradually birds and mammals began to show. A herd of Elephant crossed the river further up, flushing a Striated heron, a pair of Water Thick-knees crept around a large boulder, A common Sandpiper flitted across another boulder. A Green Bee-eater sallied forth, only to draw our attention to a small group of White-fronted Bee-eaters. Our first Hippo was noted feeding on the bank, whilst a Broad-billed Roller perched on a high overhang.

This close to Skukuza, the “problem” of the Ferrari Safari’s quickly became evident, as we were soon surrounded by other safari vehicles and cars, all expecting us to be on a Lion or Leopard.  We soon extradited ourselves from the jam, informing anybody who asked that we were birding, and carried on in hope of some quieter roads, passing safari guides informed us of nearby Lion and Leopard sightings.

The road followed the Sabie river, which held a significant amount of flowing water, making it and the surrounding bush a magnet for wildlife. Dozen’s of Elephant were seen, along with scores of antelope. Birding stops produced African Pied Wagtail, Little, Intermediate and Great White Egret’s, and Pied Kingfisher, whilst the scrub produced Blue Waxbills, African Firefinch and Green-winged Pitilla. 

As we continued along the road, we were receiving reports of a Leopard showing up ahead. We had already just missed a Leopard earlier in the day as we received news that within a minute or two of us departing the bridge over the River Sabie a Leopard had nonchalantly wander across the road as the vehicles were trying to extricate themselves from the jam they had caused in our wake – perhaps karma. Soon we turned a bend in the road and a line of cars came into view.  The cars were in a pull off and parked along the length of a bridge overlooking a dried up river bed that fed into the Sabie. The other truck was leading at this point and almost made it across the bridge before it had to stop. Out truck wasn’t far behind but we only just made it onto the bridge when a delivery truck, followed by a tour bus cut off our route over. From our elevated position we quickly spotted the Leopard. Although as magnificent as always, after the close encounter with the one at KK and with the crush of vehicles here, this sighting was something of an anti-climax.

Toby and a Park ranger eventually managed to bring some for of order to the chaos on the bridge and we eventually managed to get across to complete our journey to Skukuza camp.

The last stop before reaching camp was a large waterhole next to the road. This held numerous Hippo and Crocodiles as well as plenty of birds where Yellow-billed Stork’s were new for the trip.

Skukuza Camp is the largest of the camps in the Kruger, it’s situated on the bank of the River Sabie, giving great views of the nominal coming and going along the river. Scanning the banks produced several waders including Little Stint, Three-banded Plover, Black-winged Stilts, Common Sand pipers and Greater Painted Snipes. New, however, were White-headed Lapwings.  The only other new bird for the trip was a Klaas’s Cuckoo – a change from the more numerous Didrieck’s Cuckoo’s we had been coming across. At the camp centre, the gift shop roof housed 4 Peter’s Epualetted Fruit Bats.

The evening meal was taken on a veranda overlooking the river, as the sun dropped below the horizon, to the background sound of snorting hippo. The restaurant roof was home to a pair of Barn Owls, who didn’t seem bothered by the human melee beneath them.