Kruger Trip for the Satara webcam community!

Us, looking at Satara waterhole!


My daughter is doing a rural trip at a hospital in a really remote spot called Glen Cowie because she is 4th year OT, and is doing a practical session. We had to take her some food and warm blankets. From there we went on and had a wonderful trip to the Kruger over this last weekend, and had some amazing sightings to talk about. It is the first time i have stayed in the Kruger, and it was special.

The pools are full of hippos, and the bird life is fantastic. to give you an idea, we saw A HUGE giant eagle owl perched in a tree right close to Satara camp. He was so clear and so close to us.

this giant eagle owl was perched in a tree right above our car. he was huge and so lovely.

There was a pied fish eagle on a river bridge over the Letaba River, where you are allowed to get out and walk around a bit, and he perched so close to us and didn't even fly away when we came right up to him, we got a photo which i will post soon, then he dived into the letaba river and caught a fish in front of our eyes - it was a spectacular sight.


Us eating at Satara - i could see the waterhole from here!


The one morning we came around a corner very slowly looking for game and as we rounded the bend there was a very cross male elephant. He was walking at a great speed and very agitated,

see how big he is! next to this combi, he looks huge.
we had to reverse quickly and were quite

scared. He was HUGE. The little VW Mk1 golf we were in didn't stand a chance, so we just got out of his way!
this is the angry elephant! he may not look cross in the photo, but he was!

He was swaying his feet as if doing a dance and had such a mean look in his eyes, and he kept coming. A vw combi came up too and after we warned them about the elephant, they drove up to him and even their combi looked small in comparison to him! After a long while we were able to go past him as he moved off into the bush. I wonder what upset him?

Another highlight for us was two impala males fighting, clashing horns and really jousting. It was the first time I have seen that.

We aslo saw many lazy crocodiles, monkeys, baboons, giraffes, buffalo, wildebeest, lion - a mating pair! It was lovely. Also, there were a few lilac breasted rollers around too and lots of hornbills - oh and i saw a hammerkop for the first time! Their nests are unbelievable, i saw the nests in Waterberg, but now I have seen the bird! It is very funny how birds do exactly what the book says they will be doing - you know: " usually perched on a tree stump in savannah type grassland" - and there he is just as the book said! Or "a wading bird, walking slowly in shallow water near to bushveld..." sure thing - there he is, doing exactly that!! these birds must have read the book!!

Our camp was great too and the rondavel we stayed in was very comfortable. There were bat towers where bats perch, and so many elephants- I did not want t come home.
This is Kori Bustard big bird! It is fascinating, and we saw quite a few of them. they are bigger than turkeys!
These were ground hornbills! We were quite proud of ourselves for spotting them because we had to put our name in a book if you spotted one, and we saw 3 that day. Not sure why the fuss about them, but they look like turkeys too, pitch black with bright red parts around their beaks.

How about this terrapin we saw in the Letaba River! I have never seen a wild one. There were several in this river, putting on a nice display for us, and swimming with huge fish!