KNP 2023 — 12 August – 4 September

I had not been to Kruger for a number of years and was surely suffering from withdrawal symptoms, somewhat alleviated by visits to Yellowstone, Alaska and Tanzania. All different in nature but the lure for Kruger and the South African bush was always there.  The plan was to cover the whole of Kruger over a period of 23 days and spend good time in the northern areas, allowing adequate time per camp so as to potentially have good experiences in following animals and incidents over a few consecutive days.

Likely the best sighting was of a young leopard in a tree with a impala carcass — about halfway up the Mpongolo loop — Shingwedzi camp to Babalala picnic site. Midmorning on the first time sighted photography was rather difficult due to a number of vehicles present when we arrived and most of my photography was from near directly under the tree. The following days I tried to be there as early as possible to get the shots I was after. Fortunately the leopard obliged and I managed to get a few of it in the tree as well as on the ground. I also managed to get some shots with it leaping / climbing into the tree and a few strolling in the area.

It did consider obliging with a chase after some nearby impala but I think it had just too much to feed on. I spent a total of 23 nights in Kruger (camp sequence: Skukuza 1; Olifants 2; Shingwedzi 4; Punda Maria 2; Satara 4; Letaba 5; Lower Sabie 2; Skukuza  1; Biyamiti 2) and requested a RAV4 from Hertz, which was well appointed for the trip. Arriving on a Saturday afternoon instead of the usual weekday, I was unable to obtain the usual meat and boerewors provisions from butchers at Hazyview. We arrived about 15 minutes before gate closure at Skukuza.

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