August 2008 : Kruger National Park

Its hot and dry out here now. We haven’t seen rain for months - dust devils spin through the scorched bush, fires ravish the tinder dry scrub, the death of everything seems inevitable. Yet, amazingly, life abounds. Water is the key to the survival of everything out here and its around the water points, that most of the game is found. Fortunately both Lebombo and Sweni lodges are built on rivers and guests are continually treated to wonderful sightings from the comfort of their rooms.

If you watched the rocks in the Sweni carefully for a minute or two, ears would start twitching, tails would flicker, birds would flutter. Then, as if by magic, the giant bulk a hippo emerges out of the rock.

The shrinking pools of the Nwanetsi River are home to thousands of water birds. The yellow billed stork pictures to the top right was wading carefully through the shallows in search of some fish or frogs stranded in the muddy shallows.

Southern Africa is the last remaining place where one can find the White Rhino in abundance. This “crash” (third from top) of nine animals was seen in the fertile depression areas near to Lebombo and Sweni lodges.

Lions are a typical savannah species. Watching them stride through their domain is a breathtaking experience. The guests in the vehicle behind were treated to the spectacle of these 2 lions hunting in broad daylight.

Close encounters are always common on our private concessions. Three young male lions seek refuge from the baking midday sun by taking up a shady spot underneath the back seat of the game viewing vehicle.

Boys will be Boys! These young male lions thought that a couple of huge white rhino would make fine play mates. Making a “point”, the rhinos chased them off clearly not interested in their antics.

Fires flared up in Mozambique on the first day of spring, but was not of too much concern right away. It seemed that they would not jump the fence, little did we know that two days later we would be fighting the very same flames on our doorstep.

With the grass being very dry from the grip of winter, the flames had no problems reaching hights of up to 5 meters. Alongside some members of the Kruger National Park team, the Singita rangers and trackers fought long and hard to tame the fire. Eventually, after 3 days we saw the tides turning, and all that was left was some smouldering logs.
On the grand scale of biodiversity, this fire should meet with all of the objectives of the Kruger National Park - it was a large area burnt in a patchy mosaic fashion, from morning till night over probably two days, with varying winds and temperatures, factors that we could not have utilized ourselves without obvious risk.

Despite the generally dull winter colors, if you look hard enough, there’s plenty of color to be found. An elephant herd in front of Lebombo lodge. A juvenile Martial eagle,  Impala lilies, a Marabou stork at sunset and a curious giraffe!

A waterbuck at sunset, water lilies at midday, a leopard in the upper reaches of a leadwood, a Russet Bushwillow and a Bataleur eagle - all photgraphed on location at Singita Kruger National Park.

This entry was sumbitted by Matthew Harding and Marlon du Toit
All the photographs were taken by Matthew Harding and Marlon du Toit
Singita Kruger National Park
Thirty first of August 2008