Ken Borland

A wonderful Leopard sighting near Kubu Dam

Being in the bush and birding is always such a special time for me, real soul-food, and a time of replenishment before heading back into the hectic ‘real’ world. So I have a small obsession about what my last sighting is, always wanting to end on a high note, preferably with something exotic, something I don’t see every day in my garden.

It is also a source of motivation to stay sharp and keen-eyed at the end of what are normally long, hot days in the bushveld.

Pilanesberg National Park may be one of the most popular reserves in the country and is attached to a tourist hot-spot in Sun City, but it is Big Five country and genuine bushveld. It has a ruggedness about it with its hills lying at angles (after the massive volcanic eruptions that shaped the landscape), its rocky outcrops and the densely-wooded gorges where few people would have ventured.

It is normally also blisteringly hot in summer but this October day had been pleasant: a beautiful sunny day with barely a cloud in the sky and a lovely cooling breeze. The temperature did not get above 31 degrees.

I had concentrated my efforts on the southern half of the park, doing a half-circle from KwaMaritane to Bakubung, and I was 10 minutes from the exit gate when sighting number 53 appeared – a pair of Common Mynahs flying along!

These aliens are all over our towns, cities and neighbourhoods and are considered a scourge in our wild places, like game reserves. So you can imagine my dismay at the very real possibility now that this invasive would be my last sighting of the day … Oh, the horror!

But this was a happy day (it had included a Leopard sighting next to the road) and Mother Nature was kind to me.

Just when I thought the Mynahs would be my last bird, a magnificent pair of Violeteared Waxbills popped up in the bush next to me on the side of the road!

Now these waxbills are really exotic-looking with their incredible combination of violet, red, bright blue and chestnut colours. It is one of my favourites, not only because it is exquisite but also because it eluded me for many years before my first sighting. I even had to put up with my birding colleague Stidy seeing it as a passenger in my car while I dipped on it!

It would have been a dream last bird, but Mother Nature had another trick up her sleeve for me. At Bakubung Gate, amongst the buildings – which I guess make fairly authentic copies of the boulders found on the koppies that are normally their home -were a pair of Mocking Chat.

I had no problem with these cute, somewhat mischievous birds being my last sighting. They are real characters and I watched them a bit before finally departing the peaceful, but wild, hills and valleys of the Pilanesberg.

I was still buzzing though from my Leopard sighting, which had been in the vicinity of Kubu Dam, just before I turned west off the tar and on to the Kgama Drive that goes past Lengau Dam and then rejoins the tar just before the Bakubung Gate.

The Leopard was lying with typical insouciance under a shady bush, about 20 metres from the road, but quite hard to see due to the combination of dappled light and the rosettes on its body. What a gorgeous young specimen it was though.

The insouciant Leopard

While the Leopard was, typically, a loner, there were lovely family sightings of 10 African Elephant marching along the flanks of the Magare Hills, away in the distance as the Tsepe Drive turned to the north-west, having skirted along the south-eastern border of the park for nearly 10km from the KwaMaritane entrance.

It was also most pleasing to see three different family groups of Squarelipped Rhinoceros, numbering 10 in all of these critically endangered animals.

The group theme had started at the beginning as I entered KwaMaritane gate and was immediately bombarded by three Blackchested Prinia dashing around and calling loudly in some sort of furore.

Two Greater Kudu youngsters down by the Maritane River were much more peaceful, and some Little Swift were also swirling around merrily, without a care in the world.

Blackcollared Barbets are normally seen amongst the trees at the picnic sites, so it was nice to see one at the hills and plains of the Tshepe Drive. Further down the road, a Kalahari Robin was conspicuous as it posed on top of a bush, behaving more like a Chat. Which is not surprising because the Scrub Robins (Genus Cercotrichas) are in the same Subfamily – Saxicolinae – as things like the Familiar and Mocking Chats, both characteristic birds of the Pilanesberg.

Close by, a juvenile Blackshouldered Kite was also posing nicely on top of a tree,

Juvenile Blackshouldered Kite

while both Redfaced and Speckled Mousebirds were in close proximity to each other as the Tshepe Drive crossed the Mankwe River, where, as is often the case, a purposeful Cape Wagtail was doing a thorough inspection.

The Lengau Dam was hosting a big flock of Sacred Ibis, and there were also Redbilled Teal, which I have only seen infrequently in the Pilanesberg.

Where is Pilanesberg National Park?

Sightings list

Blackchested Prinia

Greater Kudu

Little Swift

Blue Waxbill

Blackcollared Barbet

Neddicky

Kalahari Robin

African Elephant

Sabota Lark

Blackshouldered Kite

Rattling Cisticola

Grey Lourie

Redfaced Mousebird

Speckled Mousebird

Cape Wagtail

Cinnamonbreasted Rock Bunting

Glossy Starling

Southern Yellowbilled Hornbill

Southern Yellowbilled Hornbill

Blackeyed Bulbul

Impala

Marico Flycatcher

Blue Wildebeest

Helmeted Guineafowl

Giraffe

Redbilled Oxpecker

Natal Francolin

Capped Wheatear

Springbok

Pied Crow

Squarelipped Rhinoceros

Lesser Striped Swallow

Common Waxbill

Longtailed Shrike

Longtailed Shrike

Arrowmarked Babbler

Whitebreasted Cormorant

Reed Cormorant

Southern Masked Weaver

Blackbacked Puffback

Laughing Dove

Great White Egret

Browncrowned Tchagra

Warthog

A Warthog strolling along

Leopard

Familiar Chat

Plains Zebra

Waterbuck

Blacksmith Plover

Redbilled Teal

Dabchick

Sacred Ibis

Egyptian Goose

African Darter

Common Mynah

Violeteared Waxbill

Mocking Chat

Quinton de Kock has not batted with such assurance of his role or such clinical efficiency in Test cricket before and his career-best innings took South Africa to 421 for eight at lunch on the second day of the fourth Test against England at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Saturday.

South Africa had resumed their first innings on 329 for five and De Kock’s fine 85 not out off just 94 balls, with 12 fours and a six spread all around the ground, made sure that the memorable centuries scored by Stephen Cook and Hashim Amla on the first day were translated into a sizeable total.

De Kock lost overnight partner Temba Bavuma (35) before long on the second morning, the diminutive batsman not driving with the same authority as he did on the first evening and edging Stuart Broad behind after he had added just three runs to his overnight score.

Kagiso Rabada then fell to his first ball, Jimmy Anderson finding his pads with a brilliant inswinging yorker for his first wicket in 24 overs of toil. The batsman’s review was in vain as Rabada recorded his second duck in his fledgling Test career.

With South Africa having slipped to 336 for seven, De Kock began playing his shots in impressive fashion, wowing a capacity Saturday crowd.

Kyle Abbott was his partner in a rollicking eighth-wicket stand of 50 off 55 balls, having his career-best score of 16 to boast about.

Once Abbott was removed midway through the session, trapped lbw by Ben Stokes, De Kock linked up again, this time with Dane Piedt (10*) as they carried South Africa through to lunch with an unbeaten stand of 35 for the ninth wicket.

England were let down by their catching behind the wicket on the second morning, with Stokes dropping a sharp chance in the gully from De Kock off Anderson in the third over when the left-hander had just 28, and wicketkeeper Jonathan Bairstow and slip Alastair Cook allowing another edge from De Kock to sail between them in Chris Woakes’ penultimate over before lunch.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/sa-cricket-sport/957580/957580/

The country’s wing stocks look very exciting at the moment what with Aphiwe Dyantyi’s heroics in Green and Gold and the likes of Makazole Mapimpi and Sbu Nkosi just waiting to recover from their injuries before exploding on to the international stage once again. But there is another hugely talented winger coming through in Aphelele Fassi, who just happens to be a team-mate of Nkosi and Mapimpi at the Sharks.

The 20-year-old Fassi has burst on to the scene in this year’s Currie Cup and he says the key to his breakthrough has been learning from more experienced players like Nkosi, Lwazi Mvovo and Mapimpi, all of whom are Springboks.

“It’s been a great year for me and the one thing I keep telling myself is that I need to learn more. The likes of Sbu have been there at the highest level and playing with guys like him, Lwazi and Makazole, they have guided me as seniors. It’s all about learning and I’m here now because of that.

“So I plan to learn even more and the coaching staff have given me all the support I need, they back me and I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given. As a player you intend to improve every time you run on the field and the Currie Cup is no different to the SuperSport Rugby Challenge in terms of speed and physicality, so I’ve set my game there, I’ve reached those levels,” Fassi said.

Perhaps the key to the great industry Fassi has shown out on the wing is that he actually prefers playing at fullback and he also excelled at flyhalf for his school, Dale College in King William’s Town.

“I prefer fullback more, but it’s about where the coach needs you. And obviously coming out of high school rugby, it’s not the same speed and physicality. So I’m working on my tackles, taking the high balls and my long clearance kicks,” Fassi, who also captained Dale at cricket and was a good enough all-rounder to earn junior provincial colours for Border, said.

Saturday’s game against the Golden Lions at Kings Park will provide another good measure of just how exciting a future Fassi has in rugby though, as he comes up against a stellar backline featuring the experienced Courtnall Skosan, Howard Mnisi, Lionel Mapoe and Andries Coetzee.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/sa-rugby-sport/2011792/exciting-future-ahead-for-sharks-fassi/

The only words South African cricket all-rounder Albie Morkel was able to get through the cellphone to his wife Marthmari, before he was bundled into a car and driven to prison were “I’m going to be stuck in Mozambique for a little longer, there’s a problem but I can’t talk now because the guards are coming with their AK47s”.

The harrowing ordeal, which Morkel, one of South Africa’s most internationally famous cricketers thanks to his nine years in the Indian Premier League, describes as “the most horrific two days of my life”, began a couple of hours earlier when the 37-year-old arrived at Chingozi Airport in Tete, north-western Mozambique, after a tiger-fishing trip to the lower Zambezi River in July.

The incident had its genesis in a hunting trip Morkel, who is known for his love of the bush, went on a couple of weeks earlier. Upon his return, he asked his gardener to clean his car. When the gardener found a small packet of ammunition in the vehicle, he wasn’t sure what to do with it, so he put it in the side pocket of one of Morkel’s old cricket bags.

That was the bag Morkel thought would be perfect to put his fishing tackle in when he went to Mozambique. Getting through O.R. Tambo International Airport and arriving in Tete without any problems, the drama only started when the Pretoria-based cricketer was about to board his flight back to Johannesburg.

“It had been a fantastic trip and I was at the airport on my way back when the airport security found some ammunition in my bag that I didn’t know about. With the language barrier, things escalated very quickly into a very big mess. I told the other guys in our party to go ahead and board and I’ll just sort this problem out and catch the later flight.

“But two hours later I was in Tete provincial prison for the two most horrific days of my life. I was held for the serious criminal charge of weapons smuggling and nobody at the court was willing to help me before it closed at 3pm so I was taken to jail. The situation got a bit ugly when the guy helping me jostled one of the policemen a bit and out came the AK47s, I was pushed into a car and next thing I knew I was at the gates of the prison,” Morkel revealed on The Dan Nicholl Show on Wednesday night.

Morkel was fortunate to find the help of two inmates when his spirits were at their lowest.

“I’ve never been close to jail before and this place was just inhuman, 800 prisoners, some of them clearly mentally unstable, all together in an open prison in 45 degree heat. They were so crammed together that at night they would just relieve themselves on each other.

“Luckily I met a couple of guys in jail, Andrew was a computer tech guy from Malawi, who had been inside for six months because he couldn’t show his papers after they had had a few drinks in the pub, and the other guy had been there for 11 months after being arrested for selling cellphone batteries that the police thought he had stolen.

“They told me who I should stay away from and that the shade belonged to the main okes. Fortunately I was allowed to sleep alone in the office at night and five minutes before the jail closed on Friday afternoon for the weekend, my friends on the outside managed to get me out,” Morkel recalls.

Quite how they were able to dig a famous sportsman, whose name meant nothing in northern Mozambique, out of his predicament, remains unclear, but Morkel has a reasonable idea.

“They never got into how they managed to get me released, but they knew how the system works over there.”

https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/2009079/albie-morkel-tells-of-his-hell-in-mozambique-cell/