Wild4 African Photographic Safaris: Best of Kruger plus Big Cats Photo Safari AUG 2013

The Best of Kruger plus Big Cats photo safari has just ended and the Kruger provided some excellent opportunities. As many of you know the rain this year fell late and there was a lot of it !! Mother natures reaction to this was to hold pools of water into the dry season, many of which would have been dry by July.

However the waterholes finally produced the abundance of animals coming down to drink that we had been waiting for, and Nkaya pan near Satara was very busy, so too was Clydes Pan near Lower Sabie.

We were treated to huge herds of Buffalo coming down to drink, heron and Hammerkop action as they sought out their favourite Platanna frogs in the waterholes. Impala, Zebra, Elephant, Kudu and Warthog also made regular appearances at the waterholes.

We were also treated to 4 Leopard sightings including two different females with their cubs. I was also very excited to see the young male Leopard we saw on our May Explorer trip, this time on his own with a kill in a Jackalberry tree on the banks of the Nwaswitsontso River.

The S100 near Satara provided us with a few good hours with a pride of Lions including 10 small cubs.

The small black Hyaena cubs we saw on the Nwanetsi road a few trips back have now started to sport their new spots and are doing very well.

The Big Cat Reserve provided the usual cat action with the Lions, Leopards and Cheetahs. The one remaining Caracal is now a bit more relaxed after his brother was unfortunately killed by a Leopard a few weeks back.

Then finally - a bit of extra fun was had on the Forest Camp extension to photograph the vultures and reptiles. The vulture feed went very well so too the night photography from the blind at camp. there were a lot of Nyala present and the multi flash set up provided some very pleasing results.

The reptile day again provided some variation and a couple of favourite shots were the Golden Brown Baboon Spider, Turner's Gecko and the Puff Adder.

Many thanks to all the participants and to the camp and lodge staff. Special thanks to Doug at the Big Cat reserve for looking after us and to Damien and Donald at the Reptile Park for another excellent and informative day..

best wishes to all

Stu & the WILD4 team