OMG!!!! Awesome photos Ken!!!!
I'm loving all these photos and reports!!!

Great shot of the lilac breasted roller along with all the rest!

Nice to see Mike, Betty, Sue & Rusty from CAVIAR enjoying the bush!

Love all these reports and excellent photos ! Lots of people on LION that I didn't recognize, great to see familiar faces too.

The drives sound like they're A++++

Philip, this was a land trip arranged through Ngaire's BK, not a cruise. Not sure if you are a client! She is Africa's greatest expert, if you don't know! I'm not sure of Ken's exact camera model, except that it is a Canon, maybe 5D? He is always upgrading, but has that wonderful "eye" for photography.

Spectacular, Ken! Keep 'em coming!

Andrea & Leonard

:hello1: Fantastic!! - Michele & Don

National Geographic Quality!!!

Gail is fine. You can barely see the little scorpion bites. We just had lunch with Ngaire and Ken here at Djuma's Vuyatela lodge. I'll let Ngaire expand upon a descriptions. It's quite different than either Kings Camp or Leopard Hills. The common areas, including the dining areas, are much less homey--more simple "outdoorsy"--but we think the rooms are quite nice--with a lot of room. You feel much more in the "wild" with a window at the desk I'm using that looks out to impala and whatever else wanders around, including lots of monkeys. There is a big watering hole adjacent to the main area, so while we were eating we saw a hippo in the water and a female kudo on shore.

The place was just refurbished in January, and the rooms is fairly large, with a big deck, plunge pool, and a separate little room, like a den that has the minibar in it. The Internet connection is great. Lunch was fine, and we hear there is a good chef that cooked with the chef from leopard Hills, so I have high hopes.

And of course the most important thing is the game drives, and we're supposed to have a great ranger.

More later.

----------------

Eugene

Hi Philip,

Thank you for the compliment. I used a Canon 40D body with a Canon 100-400 zoom lens for most of these photos and also the Canon 24-105 zoom lens. The 100-400 is a great safari lens, but a little on the heavy side. If you are an avid photographer you put up with the inconvenience.

Ken

Eugene - Welcome to Djuma. Glad to hear Ngaire and Ken arrived safely. Mary Ellen, Jim, Gary and I are staying over at Lion Sands for one more evening. The others should be in Johannesburg by now, awaiting their flights back to the US. We wish them all safe travels, and enjoyed sharing a safari with them.

Today's report can be summarized by "don't get your pants in a bush". We started out getting sunrise pictures, followed by an expected follow on search for leopard. The radio crackled, and our plan was quickly changed. We were looking for lions from a different pride. Evidently they are less habituated, so knowing their movements is important to the trackers and rangers. We came across the Southern Pride, who were wide awake. Their numerous cubs were quite playful, and we enjoyed watching the pride move out amidst much cat-engagement behavior.

Next up was a different leopard sighting. A male was traversing a different section of the park. We all worked hard, and came across him settling in for a short rest. He let loose with a full roar not once, but twice. I got one of them on my video. Along the way, we spotted the uncommon ground hornbill birds. Something for everyone this morning.

We headed back for our morning coffee stop. The new menu items include Susan's special - Greek yogurt, smoothies and granola in a glass - and the GlenGary - coffee, hot chocolate mix and amarula. For those who haven't indulged, it's closest cousin is Bailey's Irish Cream. We arrived after Ngaire, Ken, Paul and Susan's vehicle, where they were strangely sitting in their jeep. It turns out the bush bathroom inspection went a bit awry before our arrival. Ken and Ngaire took advantage of the comfort break, only to find two bull elephants a bit put out with our trucks stopping on their most direct route to the water hole. Midstream, ranger Trevor called for Ken & Ngaire to get back into the range rover - NOW. Ken looked over his shoulder, and saw the closest bull getting waaayy too close for comfort. Ngaire did not have the same physiology, so needed to get a move on it whilst attempting to resecure her panties and zip up her trousers. The world's worst wedgie if you ask me.

Ranger Trevor got the rifle out for any further comfort stops amongst the group of us. Ngaire wisely opted for the opposite side of the vehicle for her further territory markings. The bull elephants did, indeed, decide their water break was more important than ours. We scooted up into the vehicles, where they put on a considerable show whilst taking on water and letting us know they can and will charge.

We ran into the two elephants again after leaving the coffee stop, and they were still of a mind to assert their superiority. Brandon had a fine time getting us safely home and letting the elephants know to behave.

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch, where Jim demonstrated his considerable management skills. It's the first time the vervet monkeys have braved the outdoor lunch deck. A quick score of two rolls emboldened the little rascals. This required stern measures: the slingshot came out. Monkeys are not only wily, but smart. They know the slingshot is just not worth the possible food rewards. Jim was most satisfied seeing the monkeys keep a respectful distance as we enjoyed our food.

It's time for our next game drive.

Pleasure, Malachite RM

Thanks - now it all becomes clear - I went thru the BK site and saw the Africa section. Next year Africa for sure!

Hi Ken:

I am an avid admirer of great photography - more of a "point and click" guy myself.

Your photographs are really phenomenal.

I did just buy the Canon Powershot SD990IS - an upgrade from my old Powershot S40 to take on our Mediterranean cruise on the Navigator in a couple of weeks.

Enjoy the rest of your trip - I look forward to checking this board and seeing your "art."


Thanks![QUOTE]Originally posted by Ken H:
[QB] Hi Philip,

Thank you for the compliment. I used a Canon 40D body with a Canon 100-400 zoom lens for most of these photos and also the Canon 24-105 zoom lens. The 100-400 is a great safari lens, but a little on the heavy side. If you are an avid photographer you put up with the inconvenience.

Ken

Now that was an exciting day. I think I'd rather read about the elephant encounter than experience it, thank you! Poor Ngaire!

Another great story....wouldn't it be amazing to compile all our safari stories! We'd sure have some doozies. So many are hard to explain, the "you had to be there!" type but Anne, you're a wonderful writer and so good at bringing it all to life. GREAT JOB and the Ken's pictures are spectacular!

Fantastic photos, Ken. Love the bird catching the insect.

Anne, you're writing is terrific. How do you manage all of that and the safari too?

I'm loving every word and photo. Can't wait to visit South Africa again.

Yeah internet! Not sure how long this will last. Ken will post pictures and Eugene wrote a report on our AMAZING first night at Djuma. I am leaving now to give them this computer to try to post. I will try a write up on Djuma, quite different from Kings or Leopards Hills. Reminds me more of Botswana feel with more luxury. Be back soon with more details.

UNBELIEVABLE!! This afternoon’s game drive at Djuma was beyond belief. We met our ranger, Graham, who reminded Gail and me of Crocodile Dundee. He had that weathered, outdoor look and a somewhat twisted sense of humor that was quite appealing. It began somewhat slowly. Early on, we saw warthogs, which Graham called “oinkers.” We also saw an “active” hyena den, but there was no activity at the time.

Then we went in search of an elusive leopard and her cubs (who are several months old) and two lions, which we never saw. However we did see more Cape buffalo and zebra. Of course, we saw impala. When it became clear that we weren’t going to find the leopard or the lions, Graham took us to see a pride of 9 lions—4 adults and 5 youngsters. The cubs were romping around and the mothers and grandmother were slowly getting more active.

When they went into the bush, Graham tried to figure where they’d come out of the higher foliage, and we started driving around. As we were driving, we spotted a leopard in a tree—that’s right Ron and Linda and Richard and Lori—a leopard in a tree, and that was just the beginning. Just before another group came to see the leopard, she came down from the tree and also went into the higher bush.

So Graham went back to tracking the pride of lions. We came across one of the adults, and another group started following her. But Graham stopped to listen and heard the rest of the group in the distance and followed the sound.

We went off-road toward the sounds and came across one of the most spectacular sights imaginable. One of the lions had a kill up in a tree and was feeding on it. First of all, lions don’t normally go up in trees and clearly it was a stolen kill of a leopard’s. Moments later it turned out that the leopard was actually still in the tree and “trapped” higher up on a branch. And, the rest of the pride was at the base of the tree waiting for something to happen. (Graham assured us that lions all knew the leopard was up there and the leopard surely knew where all the lions were, including the one eating his kill.)

This scene continued and we watched it mesmerized. The lion is munching on the impala—not much of it was left—balanced on a tree branch and it looked like any moment she would either drop the leftovers and the lions down below would have a food fight, or she would lose her balance and fall out of the tree with the remains of the kill.

Meanwhile, the leopard was higher up and at one point essentially standing with his rear paws on one branch and his front paws on a higher branch, and he held this position for about 30 minutes! At the same time, the both the adult lions and the cubs would periodically try to join the first lion up the tree, but each time they would quickly give up the climb.

Finally, after much maneuvering, the lion brought down the remaining head portion of the kill, including the horns—sorry for the somewhat gruesome detail but that’s life in the bush—and went to chomp on it some more, and it was clear that none of the other lions would interfere with her. There were some remains of the impala hanging from the tree, but we didn’t see any cat try to go after them. The leopard meanwhile was able to relax somewhat and perch more comfortably on a branch.

And that’s where we left things. Two leopard in two trees in the span of 30 minutes with the second one accompanied by a lion eating the leopard’s kill while trapping the leopard. All the action had commentary by Graham with great stories and obvious affection for the animals.

What a beginning! Ken just gave me a quick lesson on how he posts pictures, and he actually posted the pictures below. The first leopard is the one we saw in the tree by itself. The others are from the crazy scene with the leopard, lion, and the impala kill. They are all Ken's photos as my night phots are not nearly as good. Enjoy.

Wow! That Djuma drive sounds spellbinding. Excellent reporting, Eugene. Keep it up! One thing for sure: that impala was the unfortunate center of attention.

We were sad Brandon, our BRA, was reassigned to new guests as of the afternoon drive. His enthusiasm and knowledge made for entertaining, action-packed game drives. He rolled past us, 8 happy new campers in tow. Today he was tackling skeet shooting for their mid-day activity. Trevor did a remarkable job of ticking off many new species of birds. There was a male leopard sighting - different animal from the morning drive - so we were able to sneak in for his stroll in the open clearing. Once again, quite the photo opportunity for the four of us. Amazing sunset last night, coupled with warm weather and a male warthog who was sure "not now" meant 'pretty soon'. He was quite literally trotting directly behind her, singing a little vibrating kind of song. Maybe this is a bush based marital aid? Could be. They interspersed the mating dance with grass munching breaks. Trevor hasn't seen warthog mating, so it was fun to watch him take it all in. The male didn't score while we were there, so hopefully Trevor sees him in the next day or so.

The lodge graciously offered to serve our dinners privately so we could enjoy our rooms one last night. We had, though, already arranged for the wine cellar cheese and wine tasting cocktail hour with Derrick, our butler, so opted to eat in the main lodge. At 7:30, we were escorted to the wine cellar, comfortable for a maximum of four guests and Derrick. A lovely fruit and cheese plate lay amidst our wine glasses. Derrick asked us which red we'd like to try first. "Pinotage" was the unanimous choice. "Ah ... the LEOPARD!" replies Derrick. Leopard? Say more, Derrick.

Derrick expounded on wine characteristics training. Lion Sands staff goes to a vintner near Cedarburg (Cape Town area) for training. The vintner has matched various wine characteristics with African birds and animals. It was a most appreciated and rare glimpse into 'bush logic' and it worked for us. So .. we sampled 'leopard', 'rhino' and 'elephant' before choosing elephant for dinner. Once seated, Malcolm bounded out, enthusiastic as ever, and matched courses with the 'elephant' in the room. The grilled beef filet and the bushbuck ragout were great choices. We met Rob, the other owner, and enjoyed a chat between courses. But .. one can laugh too long and oversleep one's wake up call. Time to retire for the night.

For the first time in 18 game drives, we could barely rouse ourselves long enough to answer our wake-up call. We slogged our way through a cup of coffee, got dressed and headed out again.

We got to add a couple of hikes off road this morning, walking down the path to see the hippo baby again. Once off the vehicle, we learned our tracker Juice would be changing a vehicle tire that suffered a 'quick puncture' in the local parlance. Mamma had hidden baby, so we were happy to reboard once the tire was changed. Mary Ellen, momentarily appointed our quality assurance manager, quickly asked Trevor if this tire was an improvement, given it was less than full of its required air pressure. Trevor assured us it would be fine, and he was of course correct.

Back to birding, where we saw a gorgeous orange breasted bush shrike, saw a pair of fork-tailed drongo give a tree snake an absolute tongue thrashing as it ate one of the eggs from their nest, as Bateleur eagles soared overhead. We were secretly rooting for the snake to get his payback in the form of the eagles choosing him for lunch. No such luck while we were there. I got a great video of a rasping cisticola, annoyed we were so close to his territory. I'll see if my Ralphie or Sandy can learn his call. Then again, do I want to listen to that for the next several years if they master it? Probably not.

We headed back to the hippos and prepared for our coffee hour. We hiked down to river's edge, seeing a pied Kingfisher pair, blacksmith plovers (lapwings for the other birder in the audience) and then it was time for more action. A male hippo came out of the water, marking 'his' terrority in full sight of the resident territorial male. That produced tons of grunts and unfriendly commentary. A few hippo yawns, carefully timed when we were looking away, were there to be enjoyed. On the way home, Jim and Gary told Juice he could relax in the truck while they tracked us home.

We are now awaiting transport to our commuter flight to Johannesburg in the library, enjoying a glass of 'fish eagle' for me and Earl Grey tea for Mary Ellen. Jim and Gary are sipping their dry lemon sodas.

This has been another wonderful trip, filled with lots of memories and great time in the African bush. Hope you all have enjoyed being along for the ride. We've enjoyed having you!

Pleasure, Malachite RM

Had another great morning. Leopard and two leopard cubs. It was not great for photography as they were in long grass but keep jumping around and chewing on the mothers impala kill. We are going back tonight to see if we can get them a little more in the clearing.

Also spend a few hours visiting some other camps in this area. Found a new camp Chitwa - Chitwa, very fancy more on that later. They had a fire and had to rebuilt the entire main lodge. They also refurbished all the rooms. Just opened two days ago after being closed for four months. Quality of lodge in the luxury class like Lion Sands, Singita and Mateya.

Also visited the wildearth camp. The web cam link we have on LCT. Fascinating. Ken took pictures. Loads of computers and equipment, great guys, full of energy - techies and bush guys all rolled into one. It was great.

It is hard to leave a price point like Lions Sands and adjust to a lower price point lodge.
However, Djuma is growing on me, great overlook on a huge water area, more like a lake than a watering hole. At lunch we saw two elephants and two bush bucks fighting over a lovely lady bush buck. I actually was watching the bush bucks in front of our camp on the wildearth camp monitors. They have multiple monitors right here at the lodge. Rooms work very well, quite large with lots of storage and great light. Game has been of the quality of Leopard Hills so far.

Will post pictures later. Having trouble getting the pictures up as the internet is slow and hopefully Ken can get a few up before our game drive that leaves in about 40 minutes.

Amazing stories and photos. Thanks, y'all. Can't wait to hear more.

more photos:

African sunrise


Southern Pride cubs morning practice session on lioness


Afternoon TITS training session by Paul:


Miss Southern Pride Cub

Monkey See?


or See No Evil?


Miss Botswana (Lilac Breasted Roller) In Flight


Miss South Africa (African Fish Eagle) Pre-Flight

Southern Pride Mother and Cub


Male Leopard on the Move


Cape Buffalo Reflecting on His Refreshments


Elephant Wallowing in Mud Hole

Thanks to all for the great photos and stories. I wish I was there! Safe travels home.

Dena

Delurking live from the BA lounge at Jo'burg. This has been a wonderful trip. Thanks to Ngaire for yet another unbelievable vacation. Anne has described the goings on better than I ever could so I'll just share some of the photos from the last few days.

Ngaire eating carbs (!) after the encounter with the elephant.


The ellie was still a bit excited after we finished breakfast and were trying to leave


Our BRA(aka Brandon) had great fun revving the Rover in the standoff between the ellie and us. Fortunately, the elephant decided to ignore the noise and go back to killing trees!


The Southern pride at play


Mmmmmmmmm. Tree!


Look kids! Here's daddy....


He's a little cranky this morning.

A rare evening sighting of the purple-crested blue-backed reporter bird.


We were fortunate enough to have several encounters with various leopards.


Sunrise this morning along the Sabie River


25 hours of travel to go and we'll finally arrive back home. Fantastic vacation but the alpha kittie awaits!



Mary Ellen

Wow. The reports and the pics made me want to be there. I will just have to plunk my money down for a place on ROAR III. Thanks for posting and glad you all had a great time.

SO enjoyed all the fabulous reports and photos!!!

Thank you,

I am at the airport in JNB waiting for our flight to London. Had a wonderful time at Djuma and will write up and report on the camps and my impressions and get those to the people interested in Roar 3. Will also add them to my Africa web.

Enjoyed spending time with Gail and Eugene. The time went by too fast seems like we were always busy.

We had a great guide that loved leopards. He raised two leopard cubs for a movie and documentary from Londolozi about leopards. We found the mother leopard and two cubs when Gail and Eugene were here but they were in high grass. The evening that Gail and Eugene left we were the only guests in his vehicle. We decided to stay with the leopards for the entire game drive. They came out into the open played, ran up and down the trees, make the impala kill fall, mom told them off and hoisted it up the tree again. We did the same thing this morning just sat with the leopards. A hyena came along and both cubs were in different trees with mom standing guard. It was so special.

The nice thing about this area is that there are not many camps here. In the three hours only two other vehicles came to the sighting. Wild earth was one of them and the other vehicle from Djuma. You are not rushed to leave a sighting and that is a great thing. Many of the camps are privately owned so they are not always there. There were about six vehicles that visited the lion and leopard in the tree and only about eight traversing the whole area. They do all share information so there are enough eyes out there to find game.

Ken has some fabulous leopard pictures that he will post when he gets home.

Here is Eugene's photo of a female leopard and her 2 cubs, he got a better shot than I did. This was taken at Djuma Vuyatela Camp in Sabi Sands where we had this great sighting. Photo Below:

GREAT pictures!! Have a nice flight home, I'm sure B&K will sure be happy to see you!

Hi to all! It was great to meet everyone. I have to say that Paul and I concur that this was the best vacation ever. Can't wait to have the opportunity to go back. I will post a few photos, but probably not for a couple of days. Have to figure out the Photobucket thing first. Glad everyone made it home safely.

Susan

I have enjoyed every post on this trip. It sounds like an experience of a lifetime. I hope everyone is home or close to home by now.
Lynn

Just got home tonight from France to celebrate my great uncle's 98th birthday!! He's really amazing. Too tired to go into details after a 5 hour train trip and an 8+ hour flight. (And I plan to go into the office tomorrow--taking lessons from our great leader!)

Our weather luck held out. Not only was the weather in S. Africa spectacular, but the weather in the Dordogne was also beautiful, which has not been our experience in the past at this time of year.

Will eventually post some more pictures, but you've already seen great ones from others.

---------------

Eugene

And great ones from you, Eugene! I've enjoyed the whole trip from everyone! Thanks for your blog along the way.

All the reports and photos have been wonderful. Makes me want to return to South Africa soon!

A FEW MORE PHOTOS OF THE LEOPARDS WE SAY IN DJUMA:


The Mother Leopard, What a Beautiful Lady.




Big Yawn.






You Are Not Getting Any of My Impala!!!

I Know I Can, I Know I Can, I Know I Can...


Mom Taking The Impala Back Up The Tree After Her Cub Dropped It.


Coming Back Down At Sunset.

WOW! What spectacular photos. When is ROAR III contemplated?

These are the best yet. Can't wait to go again.