Shishangeni Lodge Kruger National Park

... lost interest and ****** off, but from then on I can safely say I was over driving around around in a park the size of England full of savage wildlife.

That afternoon we went out for another long drive in search of lions but failed to find them. We saw loads of other things but after you have seen one impala in my opinion you have seen them all so I went to sleep for a few hours before buying a load of alcohol and getting ...

... and the Bateleur eagle. It’s been quite a day and we are very satisfied with our viewing.

We are staying at a restcamp at Lower Sabie (Sabie is the name of a river in Kruger National Park). The camp is only 5 km. (3 mi.) from the Mozambique border and is very old (about 1930-ish). The bungalows we are staying in are very basic (they do not even have hand towels and there is a fine grit falling on one of our beds from the ceiling, we think ...

... we checked in to this hostel called Shoesstrings Airport Lodge. The place was a little run down and feels like 18th century Victorian mansion. Our ensuite bathroom is ridiculously big but somehow it has only a bath tub with no shower and we ended up using the shared bathroom for shower. We couldn`t complain much after a long day, just wanted to have some goodnight sleep and gear up for whatever excitement in Cape Town tomorrow !!

~ By Philip

... even stop to mention them....
Please note: they have what looks like a Mcdonalds "M" on thier bottoms, a sign for Lions to pick up fast food.......
This time we saw 50 Hippo, at least 50 Elephants, and hundreds of Buffalo crossing the river AND this is where we saw the LIons following along behind looking for dinner. They were completely absorbed with stalking prey to even notice we were there !

This was a great start to our tour as the parks ...

Today I got up and went quadbiking with a group of twelve others in the mountains near our hotel. We had a short safety meeting and then divided up into groups of four to head off with our guide into the mountains and forest. Quadbiking this time was much more technical than in Namibia! Unlike in Namibia where there was nothing to run into but sand, there was plenty of trees, big rocks, and streams to navigate through! I had to pay attention much more this ...

... to life in prison for the murder. His family being wealthy put together an appeal and after only a few years he was released as it was decided that no one could prove whether the person was dead before or after being fed to the Lions. Presumably if that s the case then they also couldn't determine an actual cause of death either. The 'Lion Man' was free to terrorise his neighbours. Which it appears he has been doing since then by ...

... about 45)  He was so close to attack us but walked on past our bus! Giraffes Warthogs Baboons Hippos Herd of Buffaloes (about 200) were drinking some water Millipede Rhino (white) x 5 Black banded Jackal Blue Wildebeest Lions - We all saw a lion kill.  The male lion attacked the impala and it was amazing and  he was teaching the 2 cubs to  eat. The 3 female lions had to wait to eat until the lion and cubs were full.  It was brilliant ...

... We learnt that lions will mate up to 40 times per day so it's no surprise that if you manage to come across a decent sized pride and hang around long enough then it's more than likely that you'll witness a fair few lion porn shows. And then of course there are the graphic lion kills that would put many a horror film to shame with all the scenes of flesh being ripped from bones and bloody mouths and heads being thrust into the stomach cavity of their kills... it was extremely gory ...

... A pull-in at the Leeupan waterhole was worthwhile because we noticed something that looked rather like a European Blackbird and after a little patience we were rewarded by good views of a Retz's Helmet Shrike, a species that JD & CC had been disappointed to miss in 2005. A squirrel nearby might well have been Smith's Bush Squirrel but it was missing most of its tail which made ID a little tricky. A couple of kilometres down the road we located a Tawny Eagle in a dead ...

... to check the cards and revive the animals. This was the most dangerous and tricky bit. Reviving large and dangerous animals from a deep sleep requires timing and coordination. Two people were stationed at each buffalo, one to inject the drug and one to steady the head and remove the blindfold. It was a nerve-wrecking moment. First of all the needles were inserted into the vein. Not a difficult task, but tricky if the blood pressure has caused them to collapse or contract ...