Saturday 19th September.
Awake before dawn today to prepare for our morning guided walk at Lower Sabie.
We arrived at the assembly area for the drives and walks at 5.10am.
Eight guests are allowed on the walks but overnight six cancelled because of the windy weather.
It is a pity there is not a standby list because we knew of people who tried to book on Friday afternoon and were told the walk was fully booked.
Our guides were Irving who was no 1 gun and Martie no 2 gun.
We departed camp at 5.30 to drive to the walking area.
We passed a large herd of zebra and wildebeest and giraffe as well.
David spotted a serval in front of us . It darted off the road and then crossed the road again to hide on the grassy side.
We reached the spot where we would start our walk.
Rifles readied, backpacks and water bottles and last minute safety instructions sorted and we were off.
First find was a discarded snake skin.
Animals were scarce, probably because of the windy conditions overnight. We did hear a lion roar but again difficult to track with the wind.
We took a break for breakfast and then continued.
We were lucky to spot 2 klipspringers in a rocky area and a rhino in the distance.
Not sure how far we walked but the thrill was to be in the bush not knowing what was watching us.
Sighted more general game on the drive back to camp.
The following shots were taken from our tent area.
We had a forum mini meet on the deck at 3.30.
The Pring clan(Australia), RayK & family(USA),TonyT &SO( RSA) and Bushbaby &SO(RSA).
A pleasure to meet fellow forumites and hopefully we can have an ongoing relationship with these special folks via the SanParks forum
Our sunset drive departed at 5pm with guide Robert.
We had great sightings and I hope Katie will let me post some of her photos in another post.
Some of the more memorable animals included lions on the giraffe kill from the previous day, leopard, serval, civet, rhino, jackal, hyaena, martial eagle and a close encounter with ellies.
We also sat and stargazed for a few minutes. The stars and milky way are so bright when observed from an isolated vantage point.
We arrived back in camp with 4 of the Big 5 ticked as well as the harder to find animals.
Lorraine, you have some extraordinary bird pics there!
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