Mkuze Assessment Week

Spent the last two weeks at Mkuze Game Reserve practicing for our assessment drive and then going to do our assessment. Was a lot of fun as we got to guide to do our assessment and I passed so was extremely happy. Here's just some of the highlights of the trip.

We spent our 1st hour or so there sitting at a bird hide which proved to be great. Saw this amazing bird drinking water.

A Golden-Breasted Bunting. An amazing bird.

While driving we came across this awesome bird which was in its mating ritual. It was displaying and just taking a break from playing as for them displaying takes a lot out of them.

A Long-Tailed Paradise Whydah.

Last time we were at this hide we had a White Rhino bathing in the water but this time was unlucky because we didn't have anything there but was still a great time listening to the bush and looking out for birds.
Here's the view from the hide.

This was one of my favourite sightings as I hadn't seen this bird before but i have heard a Fork-Tailed Drongo imitate its call. I found it amazing how it sat in the this tree.

An African Goshawk. Amazing bird and more amazing how it sits in this Acacia. Awesome sighting.

Now this Rhino popped out of nowhere while we were driving and it looked quite aggressivebut calmed down very quickly.

A beautiful White Rhino Bull.

The next morning we took a road which is very thick but not a lot of people know about it and they don't use it and we were amazed by the tracks we came across.

 A White Rhino track.

 Spotted Hyena tracks.

And the best were the Leopard tracks, but the interesting part was that it was a female Leopard with a cub because there were two sets of tracks and one set was smaller than the other. It was amazing. I loved it.

Then we had an awesome sunset picture with this Green Thorn in front.

And even more amazing was the next morning sunrise.

What a beautiful sunrise.
Then we had the normal plains game like Impala and Blue Wildebeest.

While looking at some grass next to the vehicle we noticed something on the one piece of grass and found this waiting inside.

 A Sac Spider. Easily recognized by its black face with creamy colour body. This is a venomous spider.

We were lucky to come across another pair of White Rhino later on in the drive which was quite a beautiful one.

The sun was setting on the last day and we saw these two Little Bee-Eaters sitting on the branch. The sun made for a great photo.

This was an extremely special and amazing sighting.

A White-Headed Vulture. Our instructor said that this is a really special sighting and youdon't see these birds often where we are in KZN so was really really awesome.

Around camp at night we had a visitor join us running up and down the trees. A really awesome little character.

A Large-Spotted Genet.
Great week in the end.

Till next time

Ingwelala, 6-9 April

I was lucky enough to be invited, by my girlfriend to join her and her family, to an amazing place called Ingwelala over the Easter weekend. Haven't been there in a while but was flipping excited and the excited paid off as I got to see some amazing things which include the Big 5, which is the 1st time that we've been able to see them all in one trip up there. Was really an amazing weekend away.

The 1st thing which was amazing was this baby Vervet Monkey holding on to his/her mother.

Only after looking at the photo again did I see that it was suckling on its mother. Turned out to an amazing photo.
On the one drive we came across this Vervet Monkey just sitting on top of the tree. Very awesome monkey.

So on the drive we saw the usual general game which included Impala, Kudu, Giraffe, Zebra. Didn't see Nyala which I was kind of hoping for but it's alright. Got spoilt with these Impala.

 A lovely female.

Saw some amazing birds while I was there and it included these...

A Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill.

Then we came across this amazing bird of prey.

Its a juvenile Bateleur. Its really an amazing bird and an amazing sighting because I usually see them flying but was the 1st time seeing 1 perched and long enough to get a photo.

So as usual there is always plains game and they are as amazing as any sighting if you know what you are looking at or if they do something special.

Here we have something which I have never seen before and that is a Kudu lying down. Now they probably do it all the time but it was the 1st time I have ever see it so it was actually a really awesome and interesting sighting.

A nice size Kudu Bull.

We also saw giraffe which are always awesome to watch as they are very inquisitive animals.

These 2 were positioned very nicely for a photo.

We saw a herd of Zebra which had a couple of young Zebra and funny enough there was also 1 lying down but I had seen that before but was still special because I don't see it often.

A beautiful Adult Zebra.

Here are just some of the amazing views which I was fortunate to see.

An amazing sunset photo in the bush.

This was a special sighting for me as this is another 1 of my favourite birds just because of its look. This bird looks like it looks right through you. Can only be 1 bird that does this.

A Martial Eagle.

This is just an amazing bird of prey. Those eyes and look is just amazing. You can't get better than that.

So we were sitting around the fire braaing on the 2nd last night I was there and we had a visitor join us, sneaking up from around the hut and walking straight passed the fire where we were all sitting.

A Spotted Hyena.

A great visitor. Was really really amazing.

On the last night I was there, there weren't any Hyena coming to camp but we had this interesting visitor which was a 1st for me again. It was amazing.

An African Wild Cat.

This is the 1st time I have seen one so it was really really special. They look exactly like domestic cats but have been raised in the wild to catch their own prey. They really awesome.

This was my 1st sighting on a Lion at Ingwelala so was really really amazing. It wasn't the best sighting but still counts for me

A amazing female Lion.

The 1st time I saw this animal at Ingwelala it was literally a second sighting but this time we got extremely lucky and had it cross right in front of us.

A beautiful White Rhino.

These animals are really amazing. They are built like a tank. Its incredible. I really enjoy watching and seeing these animals and even more so a Black Rhino but those are extremely hard to find.

As we crossed a riverbed and went around the corner we bumped into a breeding herd of Elephant. Elephant are one of my favourite animals, amoungst the others. They are just incredible and breath taking.

These are just amazing animals. If you have seen them before you will know what i am talking about. In this herd there were some extremely small babies which must of been under a year old. They were extremely cute, especially when they flick their trunk around trying to learn how to use it. It's amazing.

So now I have saved the best for last. This has to be 1 my most amazing sightings. 

We left for a game drive at about 13:30 and not expecting to see this animal at all we were amazed and it just made the sighting so much better. We found this Leopard in a Marula Tree just lying there on a branch. This was amazing because seeing a leopard is 1 thing but seeing 1 in a tree is another so it was really really amazing.

She then spotted a Steenbok running past and was very interested.

She looked on and we thought we were going to witness the most amazing thing ever which was going to be a kill.

So she started jumping down the tree and we got some amazing photos.

Unfortunately she didn't make a kill but we couldn't really ask for more because we got so spoilt by this magnificent animal. A really amazing animal and was definately a highlight to my trip and was just amazing. I don't know how else to describe it to you because it was just so amazing.

A beautiful female Leopard.

Till next time