This afternoon we start the long journey home. Typically, we would be leaving right at the end of the morning game drive, and so would have to be packed before the drive. Today we’re not leaving until after lunch, so while we did some packing last night, we won’t have to finish until after breakfast. Because we packed so lightly, we really can’t do much of the packing. For instance, I brought two pair of pants – one I’ll wear on the game drive, and the other for traveling home. So neither was packed. Similarly for the rest of my clothing. None of the camera gear can be packed; toiletries will be needed to shower and get ready after we come back; etc.

I enjoyed the last drive, even though we still didn’t find any lions. All of our friends were around in abundant numbers: the elephants and giraffes in particular made sure we had an opportunity to enjoy their presence. Of course, all of the antelope species were around: impala, kudu, nyala in particular. For the first day of our stay here we didn’t see the leopard, but given their scarcity and ability to hide in the bush, I feel like we got our fair share of looks.

I suppose that seeing the animals is why you come here. After all, if the animals weren’t here, you probably wouldn’t come. But I enjoy the process as much as the victory. I like riding around in the open air, feeling much closer to nature than if you were viewing in through the windows of an air conditioned car. I enjoy the suspense of waiting to see what will appear in the next clearing, or right in front of you on the road.

Before Sally & I came here the first time, we were both a little apprehensive about being bored. Driving around for three hours? Sounds like a drag. But I can honestly say I was never bored on the drives. It was always a bit disappointing when I realized our time was up and we were approaching the camp, although I did look forward to breakfast. And we had so little down time at the camps, there was no time for boredom there, either (1).

We did have a few other sightings today. While the monkeys were a constant presence around the camp, today we saw them in the bush. They were much cuter there, as they weren’t trying to steal our food.

For the first time, we came across a mongoose den. They had taken up residence in an abandoned termite mount. I’ve heard of mongoose before, but I couldn’t have picked them out of a lineup of one animal. They’re much smaller than I imagined, and seemed curious about us as their heads popped out of the mound, one after another.

Finally, we continued the streak of seeing wildlife from the dining deck at Lion Sands; a crocodile was sunning alongside the river.

Finally it was over. We had breakfast, then went and cleaned up and finished packing. Then it was time for lunch before the five minute drive to the Kruger airport, and our first flight. The trip home will be long: we fly from Kruger to Johannesburg, then to London, and finally to JFK. The drive home from there will probably be 1-1/2 hours. I’m guessing the door-to-door time will be about 31 hours, but at least we won’t have to wait for our luggage at the carousel 😁.

Thanks for reading.

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(1) We were busy enough, that I’m finishing this last post five days after we arrived home.

At this point, we had seen just about everything we wanted to see. Lots of giraffe, zebra, rhino, billions of impala, kudu, nyala, wildebeest, buffalo, African dogs, spotted hyena, lots of elephants. We also saw lions and cheetah at Phinda, and had a good look at the leopard here at Lion Sands. We even saw one crocodile. But we only had a glimpse of the hippos, and only their eyes. And we hadn’t seen any lions at Lion Sands, which we were anxious for.

We registered the lion shortfall and hippo gap with Hugh as we set out for our Friday morning drive. But as usual, we planned and the animals laughed at our plans.

Hugh said that a pack of lions had been sighted, and so we went off in search of them.

Along the way, we came across the usual set of animals that we’ve been seeing all week. We also came across a leopard – again, no one could say if it was the same one we’ve been seeing.

Our favorite leopard, maybe?, August 2025

We finally got a glimpse of the lion pack, but they were pretty far away – the single lion in the next image is much closer than the group of lions. We weren’t able to drive into this field to get closer as it was a conservation area, about the only time we weren’t allowed to go off-road. Compared to the 1X lens on your phone, the pictures below are about 46X.

Hugh and Rix decided that we would try and approach the pack from the other side, by going through the brush, but ultimately it proved impassable.

So we never got close to the lions.

Lion Sands has a number of amenities which we quite enjoyed, for the times we were actually at the camp, and not eating or sleeping. For instance, someone greets you as you return from a game drive with a damp towel to wash the dust off your hands and face. While climbing into and out of the vehicles isn’t really that difficult, they have built a loading dock that makes it much easier. There are always snacks and drinks available both before and after each drive (2). And the girls all visited the spa for various treatments.

At this point we were still looking to get closer to the lions, and the hippos were still missing. And again, as we drove, we passed the usual animals. I’m sure you’re getting a bit tired of the same old pictures.

It’s hard to tell from the pictures I’ve been posting, but many of the animals are extremely close to us (not that lion pack from this morning, of course). This young elephant was no more than 10 feet away, which was not unusual for the vegetarians.

When we were in Botswana during our last trip, Sally and I saw lots of birds. Many of them were quite beautiful, and different than any we see at home. Here, we have seen relatively few birds.

As the day wore down, Hugh again teased us with a surprise, or two. The first one appeared as we drove to a clearing near the Sabi River. For our last night, Lion Sands had arranged for a fully catered sundowner bash, complete with three servers, tablecloth-covered table, and a more extensive than usual selection of treats and drinks. And setting overlooking the river was a bonus.

But the final surprise was still to come. About 15 minutes after we got there, Rix came over and asked us all to walk down to the river to see something. Being suspicious, I brought my camera along. We had to go through some tall grasses to get to a spot close up stream a little way, prompting warnings to check for ticks later (3).

What we finally got was a great, up close viewing of several hippo frolicking in the water, to the extent hippos can be said to frolic. I counted six eyes, which translates to three hippo.

They were pretty active in the water, moving to and fro and sometimes lifting their heads out of the water. So we waited for a while; I kept the camera at the ready. And we were rewarded with this:

We all agreed that this was the ugliest mouth we’d ever seen. But the display was impressive, with water being splashed around. I’d like to say the hippo was showing off or trying to scare us, but I have no idea if they even noticed us.

So that was a satisfying end to the day, and we headed back to camp for another meal.

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(1) A big advantage of the private game reserves is that you can drive anywhere the vehicles are capable of going, with a few conservation-oriented exceptions. We saw that yesterday and Wednesday while going to the site of the leopard kill. In the public parks like Kruger, you are strictly restricted to the paved roads.

(2) Remember that you also have a snack near the end of each drive, so the snack when you return to the camp seems a bit overkill to me. But it’s all part of the ambience and camp policy: there shall never be more than two hours between food service opportunities.

(3) Abs had found ticks on her twice already. Fortunately, the local ticks don’t seem to carry lime disease, and they hadn’t attached to her yet when she removed them.

Shortly after leaving for the drive this morning we came across a relatively unusual sight, African wild dogs. According to Wikipedia, there are only about 6,600 adults on the entire continent. So seeing this pack of three out hunting was a win for us.

They always hunt in packs, and are very effective hunters. The hunting group of 3-7 has both males and females. All of the breeding in the pack takes place with the dominant female, and she takes care of the pups. We saw this group for a minute, then they disappeared into the brush.

Next was a baboon, high up in a dead tree, enjoying the warm morning sun. Kruger mornings this time of year (winter!) are chilly, in the 40s Fahrenheit (1). Combine that with moving in an open car at 20 mph (2) and you need to dress warmly. Also sunning themselves in another tree was some kind of eagle.

We saw a couple of spotted hyena walking in the brush. They’re not especially rare, but we hadn’t seen any this trip.

We finally got a glimpse of hippos in their normal pose, mostly submerged in water. While it was nice to see them, we were hoping to get a more interesting view, and perhaps see more of their bodies. Which are quite large!

The next group we came across were our old friends, the elephants. There must be a few herds roaming around this area, as we see elephants quite often. In fact, we drove past two separate herds about 20 minutes apart. The elephants can move fast, and we’re driving slowly, but I don’t think we saw the same herd twice.

The top two photos are the first group, who were bathing and drinking in the river. The bottom two show Mom disciplining the baby for chasing a bird. Everyone knows elephants can’t catch birds!

We went back to the camp for breakfast, and then I did some writing and editing in our cabin before going back to the main lodge for lunch. Our luck in sightings without leaving home base continued, as a herd of giraffe were grazing right across the river from us. With sightings like this, we don’t need to go on game drives (just kidding; we will go on as many game drives as we can).

When we started the afternoon game drive, Hugh informed us that he might have a surprise for us later. I’m not sure I like this tease, but if it makes him happy, whatever. So we went on our merry way, driving along the dusty roads on our way to … somewhere. The reserve is about 12,000 acres, equivalent to 20 square miles – perhaps 4 miles by 5 miles in size. But none of the roads are straight, and we don’t have a map (I’m not sure they are available), so we could be – and to some extent were – driving in circles all day. But off we went.

Along the way we passed the usual suspects: a large herd of buffalo, more elephants, a few zebra.

After driving for a while, I started to recognize where we were. We went over the rickety bridge from yesterday, and started the slow creep through the woodlands with the vehicle tilting first one way, then another, at an alarming angle. Of course, as Sally likes to point out, neither Hugh nor Rix want to die, so we assumed that it was safe.

We pulled up to the hiding place where the leopard was dining on his kill last night, but it was empty. Hugh then took us on another vertiginous drive and we came to a tree. Not just any tree, but the tree where the leopard had dragged his prey after resting for a while. Leopards are the only large predators that are good tree climbers, so they will often hide their food in a tree. Vultures could get to the food, but that’s about it.

I have some more photos, but as they make it quite clear what the leopard is doing, some people may not want to view it. I think it’s not much different than barbecue ribs, just very rare. If you want to see a few closer shots, click the link:

https://thebassmanblog.com/wednesday-august-14-a-leopard-feeding-not-for-the-squeamish/

As we waited, the leopard finished eating and sat up in the tree. After looking around to make sure there were no threats in the area, he proceeded to walk down the tree, head first, and disappear off into the bush.

By this point, all that was left was to find a spot for a sundowner. The kids wanted more than just drinks and snacks, so they decided to climb an inviting tree.

It got dark soon after. But as we worked our way back home in the dark, who should appear in front of the car, but the leopard. Of course, I can’t be sure it was the same one, but it was pretty close to where we last saw it.

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(1) It was warmer in Phinda, with the sunrise temps in the 50s F, and as warm as 60F one morning.

(2) The speed limit in the reserve is 30 kph or about 18 mph. I never saw the car go above 32 kph.

We arrived at the Lion Sands Tinga Lodge a few minutes after noon and were greeted by a herd of elephants walking along the river just below the main lodge. This was very exciting, as it was the largest group of elephants we had seen yet on this trip. And it echoed Sally’s and my experience from our first trip to Africa, when we arrived at the Singita Boulders Lodge and were greeted with a herd of elephants walking along the river just below the main lodge (1). There were also buffalo wading in the river. Needless to say, this distracted us for a while and we just stood there watching from the deck where all of our meals would take place.

After lunch, we settled into our cabins for a bit and then met our ranger (2) and tracker for the next three days, Hugh and Rix.

Lion Sands follows roughly the same schedule as Phinda did, although their morning drive starts at 6:30 rather than 7:00, and the afternoon drive at 3:30 rather than 4:00. While no one liked getting up earlier, this put the beginning of the morning drive closer to sunrise, and then end of the afternoon drive closer to sunset.

The rangers always ask us what animals we’re interested in seeing; my guess is that 90%++ of the guests answer the large animals: lions, leopards, elephants, giraffe. I suppose a few say they’re interested in exotic birds, but not us. And the rangers usually respond with something to the effect of “then let’s go find some”. And while the rangers and trackers at each camp work as teams connected by two-way radio, the animals gonna do what they want, which is not always to be available for viewing. And then sometimes, you just get lucky and stumble across something unexpected.

Hugh told us that he had a surprise for us, and started driving across the reserve. Before long, we came across a group of giraffes. I have to say, giraffes are extraordinary animals. Despite being so tall (the males average 15-20’), they generally move at a deliberate pace and they are very graceful. Like the other largest animals in the bush, giraffes are strictly vegetarian (3). And also like the other largest animals, they can be dangerous – dangerous enough that lions would generally not try and attack a group of healthy adults. In addition to their height, they can weigh over 4,000 lbs and can run over 35 mph for short distances.

About 30 minutes later we came across another large group of elephants (4). Like the giraffes, adult elephants don’t face much risk from the predators. They are big and strong, and could easily trample even a lion, to say nothing of the smaller leopards or cheetah. Male African elephants can hit up to 14,000 lbs. and stand 13’ tall. The babies are 200-300 lbs at birth, but are still cute.

We crossed the river on a bridge which was sturdier than it appeared at first glance. And found ourselves winding our way through the bush while the Land Cruiser at times was at a very steep angle, steep enough that we had to hold on and I had to also grab my cameras to keep them from falling out (5). All the while Hugh and Rix navigated and at the same time were looking for something. They didn’t tell us what they were looking for.

By this time it was about 45 minutes before sunset, so whenever we passed an animal with a spot of sunlight on it, the color was great. This antelope is called a bongo (I think).

Around 5:00 we saw another safari vehicle stopped alongside a very large bush, so we knew that we had arrived at the target. After a few minutes, that vehicle moved on, apparently having had their fill of whatever it was they were watching, and now it was our turn.

It’s hard to see; I’ve enhanced the picture and added a big, red circle to help you see the leopard that had dragged an impala it caught into the bush and was eating. We could see the leg of the impala to the left of the leopard.

After watching for a few minutes, the leopard decided to come out of the bush and lie down in the grass. As we’ve observed any number of times, these predators seem completely oblivious to our presence. It was tired from the chase, had a full stomach, and needed to rest. But there’s no way it was going to leave the impala alone; there was another meal to be had.

The sun had set by this point, so we headed home, back across the rickety bridge, for our meal.

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(1) Singita Boulders is about 30 miles up the Sand River from Lion Sands Tinga. It’s about an hour drive.

(2) “Ranger” is apparently the official term, as they go for formal training and are licensed by the government. The ranger drives and talks to the guests, while the tracker sits on a small seat mounted on the front bumper of the vehicle and, well, tracks the animals. The ranger also tracks, and the better trackers also talk to us.

(3) Elephants, buffalo, rhino and hippos are all vegetarian as well. And yet they are dangerous.

(4) This could have been the same group we saw at the lodge when we arrived, but I couldn’t tell you one way or the other.

(5) At home, we won’t drive down the driveway without putting on our safety belts. Here, we ride around for hours in vehicles with no doors, no tops, and no seat belts on rough roads and steep inclines. Go figure.

Today we had our last game drive in Phinda, and our first drive at Lion Sands Mountain Lodge. Where Phinda was located on a private reserve a long way from anything else, Lion Sands is technically inside the Kruger National Park, the largest park in South Africa. It operates a private concession on a part of the park, and is next to the privately owned Sabi Sands area. The latter is where we stayed on our last trip to South Africa.

The morning started as always with some coffee and snacks before we took off with Darren and Mandla for the drive. As usual, the monkeys were around, looking for an opportunity to join us for muffins, cookies, apples, etc.

Back when I used to do a lot of landscape photography we would often wake before dawn (1) to capture the beautiful, warm morning light. Since we’re out just after sunrise every morning, I look for opportunities to capture images that show off the glow.

An hour after sunrise, the glow is gone. It doesn’t mean you can’t get great images, but it does mean they won’t look the same.

We drove for a while, looking for interesting animals, but we needed to end the drive early; our flight was at 11:00, so we needed to be back for breakfast by 9:00. We opted to take advantage of a 45 minute “bush walk”, where we left the vehicle with our guide and walked amongst the animals. The walk wasn’t really through the bush; we stopped about a mile from the lodge and walked the rest of the way on the same dirt roads we had been driving on.

Darren accompanied us with his rifle and his radio, while Mandla took the vehicle back to camp. Before we started out, Darren gave us our safety briefing. The two most important items: when he says stop, freeze immediately; and never run from an animal – it convinces them you must be tasty. And you can’t outrun any of them, anyway.

We didn’t see any of the big or exotic animals on our 45 minute walk. But it was cool to be on the road when some nyala (2) and warthogs ambled by.

Unlike our trip from Cape Town to Phinda – which involved a scheduled flight from CPT to Durban, followed by a four hour drive to the camp – this was a much easier trip. We drove 15 minutes from the lodge to the Phinda airstrip, which is a piece of tarmac in the middle of the bush. No terminal building, no security, no control tower. There we boarded a seven passenger plane we chartered (plus two pilots/cabin attendants/luggage handlers) for a 45 minute flight to Skukuza Ariport in Kruger, which is a piece of tarmac in the middle of the bush. But it had a terminal building, a control tower, security, etc. All of the trappings of modern air travel. From there, it is a five minute drive to Lion Sands Tinga Lodge.

That’s all for the morning, and that completes our stay at the Phinda Mountain Lodge. The next post will continue in the afternoon at Lion Sands.

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(1) Dawn in August in the Sierra Nevada is around 6:00; if you’re an hour drive plus a 30 minute hike to your targeted location, that’s a 3:30 am wake-up.

(2) Not a misprint.