Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you celebrated the special day in peace and harmony with those dearest to you.

Here at Satara in the Kruger National Park the thunderous roaring of lion heralded Christmas Day from just after midnight. By the time the gates opened at 04:30 there was no sign of the big cats, but when darkness fell this evening the roaring started up again, so they were well hidden somewhere close by all day. Here’s some of the presents Kruger gave us today:

Brown Snake Eagle

Steppe Eagle

Immature Bateleur

Waterbuck

Dwarf Mongoose

Kudu cows

Buffalo bull

Giraffes

CMR Blister Beetle

Hoopoe in flight

Cape Glossy Starling at its nest

Carpenter Bee

Cape Sparrow (a rare sight in Kruger)

Burchell’s Starling

White-backed Vulture

Green-backed Heron

Mauritian Tomb Bat

Nile Crocodile

Grey Heron baking dry

Black Stork

Black-winged Kite

Elephants

Satara’s not-so-wild African Wild Cat

Spider with babies on her back

Banded Rubber Frog

Tree Creeper Scorpion

Today it was the roads following the Timbavati and Nwanetsi rivers that delivered the Kruger Magic!

Spotted Hyena

Namaqua Dove

African Wild Dog

Spotted Hyena

Elephant Bull

Baboon sentry

White-headed Vulture

Cut-throat Finch pair – the male on the right

African Mourning Dove

Blacksmith Lapwing

Waterbuck Bull

Red-billed Buffalo Weaver

With cooler weather predicted today we decided on a longer outing, venturing as far as Olifants and Letaba Rest Camps to the north of Satara in the Kruger National Park. After dinner we joined another guided night drive.

The way Hyenas get attention!

Ground Hornbills at sunrise

Impala ram

Impala lamb

Fields of dubbeltjies in bloom

Yellow-billed Stork

Steenbok

Cape Glossy Starling with a caterpillar

Dwarf Mongoose

Rainbow Skink

Marico Sunbird

Serrated Hinged Terrapin

Sharpe’s Grysbok

Fork-tailed Drongo

Waterbuck

Tree Squirrel

Verreaux;s Eagle Owl fast asleep in Letaba

Bushbuck lamb in Letaba

Arrow-marked Babbler

Old Tusker

African Hawk Eagle

Foam Nest Frog on a bathroom wall

Elephant shy of the spotlight

Fiery-necked Nightjar

Another beautiful day in the Satara area of the Kruger National Park today, and we didn’t even need to venture very far at all from camp for our wildlife encounters today.

Kudu before sunrise

Slinking leopard

Impala Ram

Yellow-billed Oxpecker

Bush Cricket (Clonia wahlbergii)

Elephants have right of way

Lurking lions

Plains Zebra

Kori Bustard male displaying

Spotted Hyena

Still having the best of times here at Satara in the Kruger National Park!

Lions in the dark, just outside camp

Huge pride of lions

Proud male lion

Yellow-throated Plated Lizard

Pied Kingfisher

Reed Cormorant

White-faced Ducks

Knob-billed Duck female

Spur-winged Goose

Spotted Hyena

Tawny Eagle

Little Bee-eater

More lions!

Definitely one of the hottest and most humid days we’ve experienced here at Satara in the Kruger National Park since arriving two weeks ago, so we spent a lot more time resting in the shade (at Timbavati picnic spot, in camp, in the hide at the Sweni waterhole and the elevated view-point at Nwanetsi) and a lot less driving.

Senegal Lapwing

Peregrine Falcon

Bushbuck ewe at Timbavati

Blue Waxbill

Verreaux’s Eagle Owl chick at its nest in a windpump

White-backed Vultures in a Leadwood stump

Elephants

Immature African Fish Eagle

Nile Crocodile

Hippos yawn as a threat

Mauritian Tomb Bat

Lioness

Millipede

This picture I include just to show how tricky game-viewing can be, especially with the lush vegetation of summer. The speck right in the centre of the image is a lioness, seen from the viewpoint at Nwanetsi.

Today was laundry day, so we got up a little later, did the washing and drying, spent a few hours walking around camp and then only set out for our drive in the afternoon. The highlight of the day was definitely Marilize’s keen eyes picking up a venomous Boomslang in a tree next to the road.

Little Swift that dove too low and then struggled to get airborne again

Common Dwarf Gecko

Green-winged Pytilia (male)

Patrician Blue

Purple Tip male

Lionesses seeking shade

Dozens of ducks on the shores of Mazithi Dam

African Fish Eagle

Elephant herd at Mazithi Dam

Boomslang

Ostrich

Black-backed Jackal

Spotted Hyena

After a windy and stormy night we set off at 04:30 this morning in the direction of Olifants Camp, with our first sighting of note being a green-backed heron catching dragonflies on the wing at first light. Our afternoon drive was along the Sweni River to the south of Satara, and we made it back to our campsite just at gate closing time (18:30)!

Got it! Green-backed Heron catching dragonflies

Sunrise 16 December

Crinum Lily

Black-backed Jackal couple.

Reedbuck ewe

African Fish Eagle

Blue Wildebeests

Resting Giraffe calf

Common Sandpiper

Giant Kingfisher

Nile Crocodile

Hyena youngster

Southern Black Tit

Red-winged Starling chicks

Curious Sabota Lark

Speckled Mousebird sharing on the spoils of a monkey raid

Woodland Kingfisher

Common Diadem (female)

African Hoopoe

Male Ostrich

Ground Hornbill in flight

Spotted Hyena

Knob-billed Duck

This evening, with a thunderstorm threatening overhead, we can once more look back on a beautiful day exploring the Satara area of the Kruger National Park.

Sunrise over a waterhole on the Sweni road

Yellowbilled Hornbill

Yellowbilled Oxpecker

Buffalo bull

Ximangwaneni waterhole

Giant Plated Lizard

Beautiful blooms dot the veld

Baby Rock Monitor

African Wild Cat

Tree full of Epauletted Fruit Bats

Red-billed Buffalo Weaver

Little Swift reinforcing a nest

Lazy lionesses

Young hyena