23/10/2007 Kruger

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  Kruger National Park, South Africa
Tuesday, October 23, 2007

To complement the night drive we had also booked ourselves on the early morning game walk from the camp. CC & JD didn't manage to get on one of these in 2005 and really wanted to give it a try, so we waiting by the truck at 05:15 for the short drive to our start point. African Scops Owls were still calling in the camp, as they may well have been throughout the night.
 
On the drive down we noticed Marabou Storks, Red-billed Oxpeckers, Burchell's Coucal and best of all a family of Black-backed Jackals with pups. It was at this point that JD realised that she'd left the camera behind. Brown Snake Eagle, Lilac-breasted Roller and Mosque Swallow followed in quick succession and then we were out of the truck and listening to the safety instructions from the rangers. There were two rangers and both of them were armed. The rule in the bush is simple - do what you're told by the rangers. It seemed like good advice.
 
The walk was very good indeed. We were able to get close to a herd of White Rhino with young and walked through the middle of a large and vocal troop of baboons. There were surprisingly few birds noticeable during the three or four mile round trip but we did flush a Kurrichane Buttonquail.
 
Back at the camp we packed up the car and went for what we felt was a well deserved breakfast. There were African Hoopoes on the lawn by the restaurant and more Mourning Doves than any other place we visited. In addition to the usual suspects hopping around and on the tables, there were also Red-billed Buffalo Weavers here.
 
Shingwedzi Camp in the north was our next destination but we took a short detour along the S90 road on the advice of one of the rangers from the morning walk. His info was good and about 2 kms down the road, shortly after a noticeable tall tree on the right hand side we found a small flock of Grey-headed Sparrow-larks, over 500 kms east of their normal range. A Common Ostrich nearby seemed somehow more realistic than the ones at Cape Point.
 
Another pair of lions (or perhaps the ones we'd seen last night) were at the side of the road about 20 kms north of Satara and further on a gathering of vultures around an unidentifiable carcass included White-headed, White-backed, Hooded and Lappet-faced as well as a Bateleur and several Yellow-billed Kites.
 
We paused for lunch at the Letaba Rest Camp. This had been JD & CC's favourite on our previous visit but had been fully booked when we tried to get in after getting our Zambia excursion sorted out, and after lunch we continued further north. At one point we came upon a large elephant that had apparently fallen asleep in the middle of the road, leaving very little space to get past. We tried reversing and revving the engine a bit because we didn't want to be right alongside it when we woke it up, but it took quite a while to get it to open its eyes. We resisted the temptation to sound the horn. It didn't seem fair and the elephant looked considerably bigger than the car.
 
Our arrival at Shingwedzi was quite late because we'd stopped numerous times on the way for all kinds of game and bird species. As we booked in we noticed lots of Cut-throat Finches around the reception area that seemed to be raiding Weaver nests, perhaps for next material. We didn't relocate these when we checked the following day. Several nightjars were around the camp during the night/early morning as were Pearl-spotted Owlet and African Scops Owl.

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