Atlasville, 08 Mar 2005

After a few days at home it was off with my sons again, this time for 3 nights at Ngwenya Lodge where we have timeshare. Ngwenya is on the banks of the Crocodile River near to Komatipoort in Mpumalanga and the border with Mozambique, only a 12 km drive from the Crocodile Bridge gate into the Kruger National Park. My wife and I have been here twice per year since 1999. This is our ‘home from home’ and each opportunity to get into the Kruger Park is eagerly anticipated. The bird hide at Ngwenya has an unhindered view of the Kruger Park across the Crocodile River and this photo taken there towards sunset shows a herd of Kruger elephants making their way down to the river to drink.

We made two day trips into the Kruger Park via the Crocodile Bridge entrance and apart from a lifer with Dusky Lark saw all the ‘usual suspects’, chalking up 129 bird species over the 2 days, an average sort of total for late summer when all the northern hemisphere and intra-African migrants are still around.

On the final day we took a long detour on the way home, stopping off at several of the many very scenic viewpoints along the Panorama Route in the Graskop area of the Escarpment, where Highveld meets Lowveld. These included The Pinnacle, God’s Window, The Berlin Falls, Blyde View and The Three Rondawels. At God’s Window the Krantz Aloe were in full bloom, their fiery red spikes attracting several different sunbird species.