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Awesome secretary bird sighting
Kruger without cat sighting is still better than sitting in an office

I also remember the high grass on that road very well and also the ostriches - Sigh, Mel

but up to now I only had seen once a Secretary bird in Kruger so I am totally about that sighting. Love also your ostriches

Here kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty......

We called like that once and eventually found them

Love your secretary bird striding across the road.

I must stay at Lower Sabie again, haven't stayed there in donkeys' years.

Nice pictures of the Ostrich and secretary bird....

Love the vulture photos............... especially the elephant and tree one!!

Hello my forumite friends

haileyidaho, cheetahlady, hilda, RonnieL, Magic Guarri, barryels, Heksie, kids@camping, Pumbaa, chirinda, vinkie and lion queen

You are all so wonderful to keep following my TR

Your time and comments are greatly appreciated



Oh believe me, we were calling the kitties chirinda

And thankfully, we did have some lion luck over the next couple of days

But first, back to our late afternoon drive at Lower Sabie

Lower Sabie Day 1 continued again.....

We saw some more lovely birds that afternoon

A cattle egret posed beautifully


And a grey heron


Then this big boy
He'd just had a nice mud bath and was very relaxed browsing alongside the road




Then we came upon a breeding herd. All we could see of the little one was the ears flapping behind mum


Cute bum shot


Finally I got a pic of a European roller


And look at this beautiful expanse of African sky


Oops, I've been forgetting the Impala pic of the day lately


By this stage it was nearly 4pm and we thought why not go back and see if that lion on the S128 was still sleeping in the bushes

I remembered the muddy footprints in the road where we first saw him and Dad remembered the exact bush he flopped down under.
And what do you know? He was still there!!!
We felt very clever

Unfortunately the grass was so long that all we could see was a bit of an ear and his mane when he shook his head every now and again.

But then he stood up, walked behind the bush, pounced and carried some poor unfortunate creature back around under the bush and proceeded to munch and chew and crack through bones

The long grass spoiled all the action
But even just hearing him eat was exhilarating

I tried to get a video of the sound of him gnawing and crunching through bones, but only succeeded in making the world's most boring lion video clip
As I mentioned in the clip description, please only watch the video if you really have nothing better to do with 2 min 26 seconds of your life

A few cars pulled up over the hour that we were there. We pointed out where the lion was and explained that if they listened carefully they could hear him crunching through bones. I think they all thought we were completely mad and there was no lion there at all Most of them stayed for a few minutes and left again.

Alas, soon the time was 5.30pm and we had to get back to camp for gate closing

At this stage we still hadn't discovered Sunset Dam

So we stopped on the bridge for some sunset pics


A lone hippo breaks the glassy river surface under a setting sun……


And our last sighting of the day, just outside the gate


We went to bed that night hoping for a better cat sighting tomorrow……

...

H

Thanks Melph

Great sightings again and I love the "African Sky" pic, beautiful

I've also listened to a lion crunching through bones, and a very chilling experience it was. We've sat at a lion hidden in the grass, great to just stop driving sometimes. We usually get out the drinks and snacks and just take some chill time.

You got some great birds on your drive, I've never seen secretary bird that far south in Kruger before.

Missed out on a few episode, just caught up

I absolutely love your photos And such a wonderful heron and elly sighting

What a lovely drive Melph68! Your Cattle Egret pictures are superb! And that HUGE Ellie pictures!

The "African Sky" is awesome! In fact, all your pics are beautiful!

Very cute bum shot

Also African Sky and the hippo at sunset.

Thanks Mel,

really love the African sky - Sigh and for sure the huge ellie bull

Good to tick off some more birds

Secretary bird gave you a good show