On Sunday May 29th we left Skukuza and travelled up to Satara. Once again we had a lovely site on the fence, although not as much game passed by as the watercourse to the southwest had dried up, but still lovely and tranquil to just sit and stare out at the veld. Game drives around Satara are always very productive with big herds of plains animals, and therefore lots of predators. There were many good lion sightings, unfortunately not by us though!
The rest of the party went on a night game drive on the Tuesday night, which we elected to miss as we were going out to Manyeleti the next day. The drive was notable mainly for Cathy losing her glasses, luckily in their hard case, when she stood up to operate the spotlight. After several trips out over the next couple of days, Bruce finally spotted the glasses, and on their way home they saw these 3 beautiful cheetah and sent us a text. Well, off we rushed for our first cheetah sighting.
First time I had seen them in the wild and what a treat it was. They are more gorgeous than I expected and we were able to watch for about 15 mins. Then they lay down in the long grass and became totally invisible. Also at Satara I was completely fascinated by the resident tiny (15 cm) African Scops Owl, which sits in a tree outside Reception and sleeps during the day. It is just above head height and within arms reach, but hundreds of people walk past it every day and don't see it, and the owl is quite unconcerned.
The following Sunday we moved on to Letaba, which has a very scenic riverside setting with a lovely terrace and walkway. Our best sightings here were this elephant, which although not the biggest in the group, had very long tusks and seemed to be in charge of his little herd. The other good sighting was of the tsessebe which I saw in the shade of a bush along the river and was very pleased with as there are estimated to be only about 220 in the KNP.
Equally, there are onlyan estimated 300 cheetah in the Park, so we have been truly fortunate with rare sightings.
After 4 nights at Letaba, we continued to Tzendze for two nights, the rest opting to remain at Letaba, until meeting up again at Shingwedzi. By now we were back to 4 caravans, the other 4 having left from Satara to go back to PE. More of Tzendze later, as it deserves a post all to itself.
The rest of the party went on a night game drive on the Tuesday night, which we elected to miss as we were going out to Manyeleti the next day. The drive was notable mainly for Cathy losing her glasses, luckily in their hard case, when she stood up to operate the spotlight. After several trips out over the next couple of days, Bruce finally spotted the glasses, and on their way home they saw these 3 beautiful cheetah and sent us a text. Well, off we rushed for our first cheetah sighting.
First time I had seen them in the wild and what a treat it was. They are more gorgeous than I expected and we were able to watch for about 15 mins. Then they lay down in the long grass and became totally invisible. Also at Satara I was completely fascinated by the resident tiny (15 cm) African Scops Owl, which sits in a tree outside Reception and sleeps during the day. It is just above head height and within arms reach, but hundreds of people walk past it every day and don't see it, and the owl is quite unconcerned.
The following Sunday we moved on to Letaba, which has a very scenic riverside setting with a lovely terrace and walkway. Our best sightings here were this elephant, which although not the biggest in the group, had very long tusks and seemed to be in charge of his little herd. The other good sighting was of the tsessebe which I saw in the shade of a bush along the river and was very pleased with as there are estimated to be only about 220 in the KNP. 
Equally, there are onlyan estimated 300 cheetah in the Park, so we have been truly fortunate with rare sightings. 
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