The Trekkie's Forum

As promised… my trip report! 

Kev, Storm & I left Cape Town by car on Wednesday the 16th of December – heading north! The Dodo had already left 2 weeks earlier and would meet us in Tzaneen with the rest of the O’Dee clan – extended  family, and all! Our main aim for making the trip was to attend our niece’s 21st birthday party, taking place on the 19th of December! Of course one could not possibly drive ALL that way and NOT go to Kruger , so the short time available had to be split between family in Tzaneen, and Kruger!

We drove through the night and stopped off in Jo’burg to get a few hours shut-eye, and also to attend to some “family business”, arriving in Tzaneen the afternoon of the 18th of Dec. to join up with Dodo and the rest of the O’Dees.

Before leaving home I received a message to say I HAD to pack walking shoes!! For what reason, I had no idea !! Much to my surprise my brother-in-law, who lives on a farm up north, had organized a bird walk for Kev & I as my Christmas gift !!  I was sooooo chuffed, as this would be my very first bird walk ever!!! So, the very next morning at crack of dawn, my brother-in-law met us at the Magoebaskloof Hotel, where we left our car.  He drove us through to the Kurisa Moya Nature Lodge, where the walk would take place through the forest! It was awesome!! We had a 2h30min walk through the most beautiful forest, with an excellent guide by the name of Paul!  Wow – this chap was good, and I would highly recommend that if any of you are ever in that area, that you contact Kurisa Moya and go for a walk in the forest with them.

 

For those of you who love lists here is the list of what we saw:
Yellow-steaked Greenbul
White-starred Robin
Knysna Turaco
NARINA TROGEN both male and female
Olive Thrush
Yellow-throated Woodland-Warbler
Black-fronted Bush-shrike
Olive Bush-shrike
Cape Batis
Bar-throated Apalis
Grey Cuckoo-shrike
Long-crested Eagle

And a list of what we heard but couldn’t find:
Chorister Robin
Emerald Cuckoo
Scaly-throated honeyguide

Paul told me a very interesting story about the Wag-‘n-bietjie bush… If a Zulu person dies there, his family comes from Zululand to bury him where he died.  They then cut the trunk of a Wag-‘n-bietjie bush, put it into an identical coffin (if they used a coffin to bury the dead Zulu) and take it back to his homeland. They believe the spirit of the Zulu is in the trunk of the bush! They then bury the tree trunk when they arrive home again!

My bother-in-law came back to collect us after our walk and took us to a place called Mokoholo (I think) to look for the Fish Eagle that he had seen hanging around there a few weeks ago. Unfortunately no go – the Fish Eagle had left!

We had a stunning morning – which was great – as the 19th was also our 22nd wedding anniversary, and what better way to spend it than walking through the forest!! Well, so I thought – Kev may have felt slightly different, ‘cause the poor chap is NOT into his birds and birding quite as much as me!

Last edited by Charlie (31-12-2009 14:48:58)

Christmas eve we popped down to the little Catholic Church in Tzaneen to see all the Christmas lights that had been switched on – WOW – it was breathtakingly beautiful! They had gone to so much trouble! Christmas morning, after all the “kids” had opened their Christmas stockings, we headed for Church! All 22 of us!!!! Eish!! I’m sure we must take the record for number of family members at one time at a Christmas Service!  Then back home again to open Christmas Prezzies! I have NEVER in all my life been with such a large family at Christmas time and NEVER have I seen SO many prezzies under one tree!



Christmas lunch (which we only had at about 5pm ) was quite a spread too! Geez – these guys up north know how to cook, hey!

Early morning 26th we were off again for our last 2 days in the park ! This time we stayed a night at Talamati and a night at Skukuza!  Talamati is also a very nice camp. I think we had chalet no 1, which is the chalet closest to the tree that the baboons all sleep in at night! Gosh, what a noise!

The next day – 28 December , was really special as it was the first time I’ve ever woken up in a Park on my birthday!

At 5.30am we all once again piled into Boetie’s bus and  went for a morning drive.




We stopped off at a picnic site (I have NO idea of the name) for coffee and to open birthday prezzies! Wow, what a surprise when Nis, from what seemed like NOWHERE, produced a chocolate birthday cake with candles on!



A little later we headed back to camp to pack up and make our way to Jay, Muis, Dave & Ena at Sabie Park, where another birthday surprise awaited me! Kev had organized with Jay – and there on the table outside on the veranda was the most fantastic spread of cheese and biscuits you have ever seen! My FAVOURITE!! I was soooo chuffed!

After our cheese and biscuit feast we headed to the pool for a swim and then down to the river to braai, were Nis produced yet another birthday cake! (which unfortunately did not survive the heat as well as the chocolate one did! ) . I don’t think I have ever had such an awesome birthday!! My friends and family really pulled out all the stops for this one!

Last edited by Charlie (31-12-2009 15:26:52)

We followed Boetie and Nis back to Nelspruit where we then decided that Storm would probably be ok if he could sleep the rest of the way back to Jo’burg! We eventually arrived at about 2am on the 29th!  After a good rest, we once again hit the road back to Cape Town, arriving home safely on the morning of the 30th !

I can’t remember which birds we saw when or where! So I have just made a list of the whole lot,(which I will add at the end of my trip report)  up until we met up with Boetie & Nis! I know that Boetie has a list of what we saw when we were all together, so am hoping he will put those up for us!

Our first family trip to Kruger was awesome, and most definitely will not be our last!
Thank you for taking the time to read this somewhat different kind of trip report – which has lacked the details of bird sightings! I’m useless at the detail side of things, and if you guys want a report this is all you're getting!

Now that the easy part is done, I have to type up the bird list and check on the spellings of everything! I'll be back later with that for those interested!

Last edited by Charlie (31-12-2009 15:41:03)

Charlie where did you get fiery necked nightjar????

I'm still highly jealous of the Narina sightings and I have yet to see a Nightjar in the daylight never mind a Fiery-necked
Lovely photo of the Giant Kingfisher and (even though you only got a glimpse of a lion) it seems you had great sightings!
LOL@ the birthday cake from Nis and Boetie, I think B-day cakes in the bush are there specialty
It’s unfortunate about the car mishap and Storm being sick…
PS: Happy Belated Birthday if you didn't get my other message

kwl beans thanks Charlie and happy bday again