Mkuze Game Reserve

We are now sitting at our rondavel at Satara in Kruger - Very hot day today - +32 and rising! We finished a game drive this morning at about 11am and have been vegetating at camp ever since - even the animals don't move much in this heat! Loving it!

Next for our blog: Mkuze Game Reserve

 These impala look shocked that we stopped and took their photos! They truly are beautiful but their downfall is that they are SO common!

Mkuze is more famous for its amazing bird life and we did enjoy them - although we saw more than enough general game and of course some more white rhino and elephant too. It was quite rainy during the night and in some parts of the park while we stayed there and our little honda car had to become more of a '4X4' car as the roads got quite challenging with the clay base!  Actually the roads in the reserve were better than the ones leading to the gate...

A Casuality! We drove this road twice- once to town (supplies needed!) and then out to Swaziland -it really was an adventure....

 See the roads in the reserve! Better!  Even the giraffes were using them!

Back to the birds - I don't have enough time to put all my favs in but here are some!

 Crested Francolin calling

 Black bellied bustard male trying to dry out!

The greeting contingent at the parking lot! This male collared sunbird couldn't figure out why the other male was so aggressive!

 With the brand new rain after the dry winter the lilies were blooming - so beautiful to see some colour in the bush!

 A 'red' blue wildebeest - he's been rolling in the mud to get rid of ticks and a few oxpeckers to take care of the rest!

 We signed up to do an escorted walk through a fig forest that has ancient fig trees -some as old as 600years - preserved through a taboo on felling fruiting trees from the local tribes.  This is where we searched for some of the special birds only found in this area of SA.  We got a broadbilled roller and bluemantled flycatcher but no Fishing owl!  It was a fantastic walk and these suspension bridges helped get us over the worse of the clay mud patches!

There are a few bird hides on this reserve and we spend a lot of time at them just enjoying being in nature - 

I'm not sure you can appreciate the rain on these hippos in the middle of a huge dam - and the little egret was using them as an island to fish from! It was pelting down!! Warm rain is an African special!

We reluctantly said goodbye to our safari tent - with an open kitchen - we were visited nightly by some thicktailed bushbabies - I posted those photos on facebook- took them with my phone! The first night we weren't expecting them and I had a pineapple out on the counter for dessert and he had his hands on it - we chased him off but not before I saw him lick his lips!  I think he thought he was home free and was just about to take a bite!!

 Its calving season for the cows too - no fences in the rural communities that we drive through to get to the reserves - you have to be careful as they are super habituated to the vehicles!  I couldn't resist these 2 nguni calves - too beautiful!
Off to Swaziland for one night!