Wild Places and Open Spaces

Day 28 -March 22

Well the time had come. We packed up early and started the long drive out of Kruger into Johannesburg. We were lucky to see some animals on the way out, and silently we said our goodbyes to them and the park.

The drive to the airport was long – about 7 hours or so. The GPS once again konked out around the same point as last time (obviously the maps had not been updated in it because it had us driving in fields) and we got turned around once again. How frustrating. The GPS had been absolutely useless for our entire trip and we were annoyed that we had this expense. Anyways, this time we did not end up on any back roads that looked ‘iffy’ which made it less stressful.

We got gas at the same petrol stop as we had on the way in – it was right off the highway and very much like our stations on the highways that have fast food, restrooms, petrol all in one. By the time we got to the airport, we had to get petrol once more, as the vehicle has to be full upon return. We missed the airport petrol station, and ended up in a parking garage…luckily two nice attendants showed us how to get turned around, and we managed to find our way. The petrol attendant had difficulty with our credit card, and took our card to find another machine. It worked with the new machine. However, once at the airport, because of Kristin’s paranoia (sometimes comes in handy, more often is just annoying) we called Mastercard to verify that no weird charges had been laid since our credit card had been out of our sight for a few minutes. Nothing weird as of yet, and we were glad to have the peace of mind. This was the only call we made on our rental cel phone – unlike the GPS, we were glad to have the phone for any emergencies that may have arisen (but we were lucky there weren’t any!!).

When we went to check our luggage, we were told that our carry on was too heavy. We did some rearranging, and returned – all was well. We were glad to be free of our large bags, and began our wait at the airport. There were lots of stores and places to eat and the time passed quickly. Our flight was an overnight one, scheduled to leave at 8:55pm. We were quite disappointed when we got on the plane: it was older and had less leg room than the one we had flown previously with South African Airways. However, the most disappointing thing was that they did not have the screen at your seat where you could watch whatever movie you wanted, or track the flight path of the plane, etc. (Crazy what we get used to, isn’t it? So spoiled.) Anyways, that would be fine if you were expecting it, but we weren’t. We found out that there were problems with the regular plane at the last minute, so this one was being used for our flight. We left late, about 9:20pm, and had a relatively uneventful flight. We both were even able to get a bit of sleep during the 9086km journey.

Arrival at Heathrow was at at 6:25am and it was COLD. We retrieved our baggage, and found the lockers where we could stow our luggage for the day. We had initially decided to do this with one of our bags so we wouldn’t have to lug it to the hotel, but once we found out the price and saw the lineup, we decided against it. This ended up being the right decision, because the luggage was not a bother at all.

We made our way like experts to the underground to get our day pass. It felt almost like home, since we now knew the ins and outs of the metro, and we were able to get where we needed to go with no problem. Hopped on the tube, and made our way to Hatton Cross – just one stop from Heathrow. Our hotel, Jury’s Inn, was a short walk down the road, albeit a cold jaunt!

The hotel was great – a nice room where we freshened up before heading out. They let us check in early with no additional cost. We initially had figured we’d need to get a couple hours of sleep before hitting the town, but since we slept a bit on the flight, we felt okay.

We decided to finish touring the Natural History Museum, and we are glad we did. Although the first time we were there we were less than impressed, the rest of the museum we saw was pretty impressive. The building itself is pretty amazing in itself. We also went to the V & A Museum, which is right across the street from the natural history museum. From here we went to Covent Garden to walk around again, and found somewhere to eat where Jim got his last ‘fush and chups’. Being Saturday, the Covent Garden area was packed, and the underground stations and tube were overflowing as well. Not sure we’d be able to deal with all the people here on a regular basis….cannot imagine it during the ‘busy season’. By the time dark rolled in (6:15pm) we were ‘done’ – we had grabbed some nibblies from Mark’s and Spencer and were back in the hotel. Unfortunately, wifi was not free at the hotel, and their stand alone computers were not very efficient….we sent a quick note home and checked on our flight to Toronto for tomorrow.

Last sleep of our trip. Sad.

Day 27 – March 21

See pics here.

AM Drive

Left Satara this morning to go to Lower Sabie Rest Camp. This will be our last night in Kruger, as tomorrow we leave South Africa and arrive in London. We cannot believe how fast this trip has gone by!

Well, we had a very lucky morning. The drive from Satara to Lower Sabie was quite beautiful. Lots of open savannah to view many species through. We came upon a lookout that was high upon a cliff, but with our binoculars we were able to spot a couple of rhinos! This was a great find, as we had not yet seen these beasts in Kruger yet! It was amazing how well such immense animals can blend into their surroundings so well. Without our binoculars, it was very difficult to pick them out in the landscape.

Feeling on top of the world now that we had seen all the animals that we had seen with the guides while in Dulini (except the leopard, which we had actually seen on our own when leaving Sabi Sands), we continued on south. Not much further down the road, we came upon quite the sight – three enormous rhinos crossing the road in front of us! What a gift! They took their time, offering us many photo opportunities as they sauntered by.

We stopped at a rest area along the road, bought a couple of coffees and quiche, and sat down at a picnic table. We had also brought out a bag of food from our car. Jim noticed that there were some cute vervet monkeys hanging around, and he got up and went to the car to get the camera. No sooner did he get up, a monkey came over to the picnic table and jumped up on the seat. It didn’t really surprise Kristin, and she was ready to deter him from grabbing Jim’s coffee that it went for. However, little did Kristin know, that the monkey was actually ‘faking her out‘ by pretending to go for the coffee cup. In a matter of milliseconds, before Kristin realized what was happening, he was into our bag with a quick swipe of his hand, had grabbed a banana and scooted away. He sat in a tree, happily peeling then eating his banana. Little rascal.

Closer to the camp, we came upon more chacma baboons – although these were a fairly common sight, this time we came across a mother baboon nursing her baby in her arms. It was amazing to watch another primate look so human-like.

By the time we got to Lower Sabie rest camp, we only had a couple of hours before we’d go out again for our afternoon drive. Our accommodation was again different from the others we had previously – this one was a hut with a bedroom/fridge/air conditioner (really nice), but it was attached to 3 others. Unfortunately we were on the far side, so every time we went from our car to our hut, we had to walk through the camp areas of other people. Oh well. The shared bathrooms were fine – clean, and all we required. We had a couple of things to accomplish – 1) take all our luggage out of the car and repack it appropriate for the flight and London and 2) clean the car. Having driven on dirt and rock tracks for over a week, our light blue Chevy Cruise was now brown. We had seen a car wash at the first camp we stayed at, but had not seen one since – it didn’t look like we were going to be able to get the car washed before we returned it. Oh well. Kristin took a bucket of water (a cooking pot) and cloth and went to work on the inside of the car – a film of brown dirt had settled on everything. Not bad – better than what it was. We just hoped we wouldn’t be charged for returning a ‘dirty’ car.

Our afternoon drive had all the usual suspects, plus a couple new birds (there always are!). It never gets old seeing big animals – you never know where or what will be your next encounter!

The evening had a sad tone to it – neither of us could believe that our time in Africa was nearly over. We talked about how much we would miss our daily dose of animal sightings, and how we hoped we would be able to travel here again someday.

Day 26 – March 20

See pics here

AM Drive

Left Letaba rest camp at 5:30am, and are driving to Satara rest camp to spend the night. We took another route south, driving through Olifants again to get gasoline (petrol if you are south African!!). We passed the hyena den, and saw the parents and pups again. We then saw a herd of at least 100 buffalo crossing the road. This was pretty unnerving driving through these guys – we had to wait for a bit until there was a bit of a gap where we could begin to make our way through. Once we started through they waited for us (luckily) to pass before continuing on their passage. By 6:30am, we had also seen elephant, kudus and waterbuck – in total more than we had seen all day yesterday on our morning and afternoon drives!

When we stopped at Olifants for petrol, we got a bit of a surprise. The attendant said our Mastercard did not work in his machine, and that we would have to pay cash. We had not planned on using cash for this, and only had enough money on hand to get us through the rest of our days for small stuff – such as snacks, gifts and miscellaneous stuff. Jim explained to the attendant that we had used our card at every other petrol station in the park, and it worked. The attendant did not speak English well at all, so this did not help matters. By this point, Kristin had gotten out of the car to see what was going on. She grabbed receipts to show him that indeed we had used our card at other stations, and it worked just fine. It appeared that the attendant did not know how to use the card – he was swiping it incorrectly, and did not know how to insert the card such that we could use our PIN number. Kristin took the card, inserted it into the machine and continued the transaction for him. He was flustered, and probably thought we were trying to rip him off, but we showed him the receipt and showed him that it looked exactly like the ones that we had done at other stations. He wrote down our licence plate number (not that this would have helped his cause), and we told him we were staying at Satara if he needed to track us down. We learned that he was just filling in for someone who was away this morning We told him now he would know how to do it for the next person! Funny, we’ve noticed that the ‘south African way’ reminds us somewhat of when we were in Fiji or Samoa on ‘island time’. It gets done when it gets done, which is often slowly, and not the way you would normally do it. Keeps life interesting!

On our way to the next camp, we had a large elephant on the side of the road trumpet at us on the way by. Not a happy ‘hello, how are you’ trumpet, but rather a ‘get the heck away’ kind of trumpet. Luckily, no confrontation, and we moved along abruptly.

Right around the corner from Satara, we stopped alongside the road where numerous vehicles had stopped. We were told that there were lions way back in the bush. We were able to see the ears of one, but that was it. We moved on, just up the road to the river where we stopped for quite some time to watch a herd of elephants come from the bush to play in the water. There were elephants from all ages in the herd – the older ones showed the babies how to walk into the water, bathe and play. There were three males who were play fighting in the water, although at one point it looked like the ‘play’ had ceased, and they were going for blood. Very interesting to watch. We think we captured some of it on video.

We checked in at Satara for some lunch at the restaurant. There are a lot of people here – much different than the more northerly parks where at times we had it all to ourselves. Jim ordered the same meal he had in Mopani; Kristin ordered grilled veggies on a pita. Jim’s meal came and it was nothing like he had ordered – we were not surprised. He pointed to what he ordered and the waiter took it back and returned with a bit more of what it should have been, but still not correct – Jim ate it anyways. Kristin’s lunch was terrible – it was frozen veggies that had been boiled and put on bread. There was no point in questioning it, as she would have gotten blank stares. It is amazing that the food is so different in southern parks as compared to the northern ones. We noticed later that in the reception area of this park, they have monthly ratings posted for each sector of the camp. For example, ratings on reception, restaurant, gift shop, rooms, etc. The reception scored high this month (in the 80% mark) and had hovered around this mark for many months; the restaurant was sitting at 52%, and had hovered here (and lower) for many months. The results were based on surveys done by customers. Somewhat embarrassing, but no one seemed overly concerned about it as it did not appear that the problems were being worked out.

Afternoon and Evening Drives

Our afternoon drive was good – all the usual suspects, plus a couple of jackals. Nice! We decided to take another night drive with Kruger park. This one started a bit later – 8pm. Jim once again sat where he could be a spotter. We saw both small and large genet. However, the highlight of the evening was a pride of lions hanging out on the road. Wow. We were so close, and they did not mind us being there at all. There were young lions, playing while their moms kept an eye on them. Two large males were present too, one of which walked right up to the truck, paused, and then passed it. It appeared they were all headed towards another lion they heard calling in the distance. We saw the cubs again later, however alone, as their moms had gone out hunting. It was funny to see how the older cubs looked after the smaller cubs, keeping them in line by trying to pick them up by the scruff of their necks as they had seen their moms do before. Well that drive was certainly worth it!

Day 25 – March 19

See pics here.

Up bright and early again. This morning was not very eventful – for some reason all the animals seemed to be hiding, or at least staying out of our sight.

Forgot to mention that yesterday we visited the Elephant Museum here at Letaba. It is quite an incredible set up, with elephant skeletons, elephant mounts and some of the largest tusks from elephant giants here at Kruger. It was also here that we learned a little more about rhino poaching, and how prevalent it still is in the park and in Africa in general. From 2008 to 2012 – just four years – over 1600 rhinos have been killed for their horns. The most rhinos were killed in 2012, proof that the problem is worsening. The horns are wanted by eastern asian cultures as ingredients in potions for anything from headache cures to increased libido claims. Let me stress that numerous scientific studies have shown that there is no truth to any of these claims, and the rhino horn is no more medically significant than your own fingernail. These wild, majestic animals are being slaughtered for human greed.

The rhinos that we had seen in Sabi Sands were White Rhino. These are much larger than the Black Rhino that we had not seen. We were told that we likely would not see Black Rhino, as they tend to stay away from humans now due to the poaching issue, and happen to be much more aggressive than White Rhinos.

We were told that most of the poachers are coming in from Mozambique. We learned that there is extreme poverty there, and when people are offered R100,000 (about $10,000 CAD) they risk their life to return with a rhino horn. Really, who can blame them – when you have nothing, and a family to feed, what do you have to lose? Such a sad situation.

It just so happened that when we returned from our morning drive, we were approached by a lady who asked us, first, if we were South African, and secondly, if we know anything about rhino poaching. She had been wishing to speak with south Africans, but since we appeared to know a little about the topic, she asked our permission to interview us. She and her son were producing a documentary about the issue – she was originally from Austria, had lived in Vancouver and was now living in Cape Town. Her son lives in Johannesburg. (As an aside, we asked about safety living in South Africa, particularly Johannesburg, and she immediately said there were no problems, then he gave her a look, and she said, “Oh yeah, there was that time you had a pistol held to your head”. Personally, that is plenty to keep us from living in Johannesburg!) It was her view that if South Africa had some sort of Free Trade between themselves and Mozambique, that the problem may be solved. She said that at one point South Africans were deliberately removing the horns of rhinos under medical conditions to try to dissuade the poaching, but found that the poachers would still kill the animals out of spite. Personally, we don’t think free trade is the answer. We think there are two issues to be dealt with. Firstly, until the issue of poverty is dealt with in Mozambique, people there will continue to choose poaching as a potential ‘way out’. We liken it to the drug trade in Mexico and the border fence that exists between Mexico and the USA. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the ridiculous myths that exist regarding the rhino horn must be stopped. The cultures that proliferate these ideas must be educated and those responsible for the continuation of the poaching must be brought to justice. It seems that the ivory trade has been brought under control – the world has been educated about this and now, elephants abound in Kruger (some would say there is even an overpopulation of them). Is it possible to do the same for rhinos?

PM Drive

This afternoon we decided to drive to another rest camp, Olifants, and explore the area around it. We had decided not to spend the night at this camp, but still wanted to see the area. The Olifants river is one of the rivers that runs through Kruger, and this rest camp offered a beautiful view of it, albeit quite a distance from it (the camp is on a hill that looks out over the river). Again, it was a quiet drive – we saw some impala, zebra, 1 giraffe and some elephants right before the camp. Good thing we are birders, because when there is no ‘big stuff’, there are always birds! It was during this drive that Jim had quickly pulled out his scope to see a bird, and proceeded to nearly knock Kristin out with it (okay, that may be a bit of a stretch) but he did draw blood from her elbow because of it.

Just before dusk, the skies in this park are dotted with bats. Although we had seen bats before here, it appeared that there were many more flying around this area than others. They also had a few bat boxes up around camp, and the camp itself had a slight odour of bat guano, as did the bridge over the river not far from the camp gate. We had recognized this smell on another bridge earlier in the trip, but had not been able to place it until now. If you haven’t smelled it before, bat guano is a sickening smell, with a hint of sweet to it. Not pleasant at all.

Night Drive

We decided to go on a night drive with the Kruger staff, and hoped that our slow drives today would not be indicative of what we’d see in the evening.

We showed up to meet the truck in the dark at 7:30pm. The park trucks are large, and can carry about 20 people. They are equipped with a few hand held spotlights that passengers are expected to use to find wildlife. The guide is the driver, and his/her function is to drive, and provide information about wildlife when we find it. Jim had sat where there was a spotlight, so he was responsible for spotting. A new spotting was spring hares – there were a bunch of these funny-looking creatures (rodents actually, not hares) who literally seemed like they had springs in their legs the way they bounced around. And remember how impressed we were back in Dulini when our tracker spotted a chameleon in the dark? Well, Jim spotted not only one, but TWO chameleons in the dark! Impressive! Perhaps the most exciting find was when the driver took us to a hyena den just beside the road. They had taken up space in a culvert just at the road’s edge, and the hyena pups were out playing as their parents lazily kept an eye on them. There were lots of pups, and they were various ages – one being much less furred than the rest. They were so cute to watch as they romped about with each other. We learned that the parents will find a new den every 3 months or so, because they do not want the parasite load to get too heavy in one spot.  A good choice to do a night drive!

Day 24 – Monday March 18

See pics here.

AM Drive

We packed up our stuff at Mopani and were out of there by 6:30am. Heading to Letaba, though not taking a direct route such that we would have the chance to drive more roads/tracks in the park AND drive to the border of Mozambique. We saw the regulars along the way – wildebeest, zebra, impalas, and a number of birds. The road we took to the border was pretty rough in parts, but scenic – it started getting quite hilly – Lebombo Mountains (a relatively low range with the highest peak being 776m) run along the eastern side of Kruger, north to south.

We were not far from the border when we came upon a male elephant not far from the side of the road. He was big, and he was alone. This is never a very good combination, because it is these males that can be quite dangerous as they are trying to show who is boss. Unfortunately for us, that is exactly what this male wanted to do. It all happened quite fast – he started shaking his head, and moving closer. At this point Jim already had his foot on the gas, and as he was beginning to drive us away the elephant charged toward us. Now, it is likely that the elephant would have stopped before he got to us, as we have been told that this is what generally happens – they tend to ‘fake’ it. Apparently this happens with other elephants too, not just cars. However, we were not hanging around to find out. Neither one of us wanted to explain to the car rental company why there were tusk holes in the car, nor did we want a hospital trip ourselves (or worse). Adrenaline surge over, we were glad to be away from him. Unfortunately, the road we were on was not a loop – we’d have to go back the same way we came.

Minutes later we were at the Mozambique border – the Giriyondo post. It appeared very quiet, and we were the only car there. We did not drive right to the gates (actually it did not appear to actually be gated) as we had no intention of crossing, but did wave as we turned around and took a picture.

Now we wondered if we’d have that male elephant to deal with on the way back. Luckily, he had moved further into the bush, and was contentedly munching away when we passed him. Phew.

At one point, Jim saw a small, green snake on the road. We’ve actually been surprised how few snakes we’ve seen. Oh well. For some reason however, this day we saw a ton of turtles along the road. We had seen these leopard tortoises before, but today we had seen more than ever.

We made it to Letaba rest camp around noon. Checked into our hut, which was much smaller than our previous one, but still had the comforts of home – bed and bathroom.

We had lunch and went for a walk around the camp. The camp had a few large fig trees, and we quickly realized they were full of birds enjoying the fruit. We found a new colourful bird, the Crested Barbet, among others. We then had a sighting that we likely wouldn’t be able to top…..a Pygmy Kingfisher! Of course at this point we did not have our camera with us (if we had, we probably wouldn’t have seen it!!), but it enabled us to have a really good look at it. It was in a very unlikely spot – it had flown up onto some wires beside a trail in the camp. It sat on the wire for quite some time before taking off. It’s name suits it – it is a very tiny kingfisher, and a real beaut. Luckily we were both able to admire it before it left us. We unfortunately did not see it again.

Day 24- PM Self Drive

Early afternoon we were once again on our way looking for wildlife in the car. We headed for a bird hide, only to be stopped on the road by a beautiful elephant mom and her baby. We gave them lots of space, and watched as they eventually made their way across the road. It never gets old seeing these giants in the wild.

Then, Jim saw something somewhat shiny on the road, stopped and reversed back. He said, “get a load of this”, and Kristin peered out his window. It was an extremely large, metallic looking, grasshopper looking thing, with projections coming off it all over. Needless to say, it was scary looking and big – the size of Jim’s palm. After all, he did spot it on the road while driving. We took some pics of course, and examined it further on the computer later – an armoured cricket. Wow.

The bird hide was typical in that we saw crocs and hippos in the water. Usually, where there are hippos, one usually hears them first before seeing them. They can make some pretty unusual grunting, huffing noises. They spend most of their day under the water, because their sensitive skin cannot be exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet rays too long before getting sunburned. Because of this, hippos must stay submerged in the muddy waters. It seems unfair to the poor hippos that they are mammals and cannot breathe underwater – they are constantly bothered to come up for air which accounts for all the snorting, huffing, bubble blowing, and somewhat disgusting sounds they make.

While listening to the hippo music, we looked over at the rocks to our left, and out walks a klipspringer! Now what the heck is that, you may say. Well, you guessed it if you called ‘yet another antelope’. However, these ones are pretty special. We had been hoping to come across one for some time. They are small, very cute, and live only in rocky areas. They are expert climbers, and appear to be walking on their tip toes as they make their way up and down rock ledges with ease. Their name ‘klipspringer’ literally means ‘rock jumper’ in Afrikaans. There were 3 klipspringers in total, and all seemed as curious about us as we were of them. How lucky are we?!

The hide itself was not very ‘birdy’, however, we did see some fish eagles. No one else came while we were there. The secret of the klipspringers was ours for now.

We covered a lot of ground on our drive, just like always. We always try to take a new route, as to cover as much area of Kruger as we can. Still on a high from our ‘klipspringer find’ Jim suddenly stopped the car and pointed ahead – Ground Hornbills! Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills had become commonplace, and actually had the nickname of ‘flying bananas’ due to their large bright yellow beaks. However, Ground Hornbills are definitely not common; as a matter of fact, they are considered critically endangered in Kruger. Large black birds with large red patches of skin on their face and neck, they can fly, but spend most of their time on the ground. They are very long living (at least 30 and have been recorded up to 70yrs) and only breed once every three years, with a very long incubation (40-45 days) and fledgling period (85 days).  In addition to this, the birds are obligate cooperative breeders – younger birds assist the breeding pairs with the young. It has been shown that birds that do not have the experience of being ‘helpers’ are not able to successfully breed themselves. We had seen signs around Kruger stating that if tagged ground hornbills are spotted, then to report them. However, these did not appear to be tagged – at least not that we could see. Got some pics and watched them awkwardly walk/jump around, looking somewhat prehistoric. Another very lucky sighting!

Got back to Letaba camp and made some tea in the shared camp kitchen. Another amazing day!

Day 23 – Morning Self Drive

See pics here.

Got up early (5am) so that we’d be first out the camp gate when it opened at 5:30am. At this time of the year, all camps close their gates at 6pm, and reopen at 5:30am. If you are not at your camp by 6pm, you are fined.

We came across a small river crossing, where the water moved across the road. Here, a couple of crocs were resting their heads on the road, the rest of their bodies submerged, waiting for the Goliath Heron that was nearby to walk by. The name of this heron does it justice – it is huge. It was not skittish at all, and as a matter of fact, it seemed to pose for our camera. A beautiful bird.

We saw lots of wildlife up close: zebras, giraffes, buffalo, elephants – we were surprised at how close we were to the animals and it was just us in our car – no guides, no rifle, just us. We wished that our friends were with us to experience it.

It is interesting that upon entry to Kruger, that none of the staff give any warnings or verbal instruction on driving around large wild animals. Within the page brochure “Conditions of Entry” there is the following information:

“Stay in your vehicle. Unless in a designated area, visitors must remain inside their vehicle. No part of your body may protrude from a window or sunroof and doors should remain closed at all times.”

“Elephants – General Rules for Safe Viewing: 1)The potential dangers of breeding herds: Be careful when approaching elephant breeding herds with small calves. The matriarch or members of the herd can become aggressive, especially when small calves feel threatened by your nearby presence. Keep a safe distance and stay in your car. 2) How to identify, approach and behave near musth bulls: Musth bulls are identified by the constant passing of small amounts of very strong smelling urine on the ground and hind legs. When walking on the road, they leave a characteristic trail of urine. Their temporal glands will also exude a dark liquid which is visible between the ear holes and eyes. Musth bulls can be quite aggressive and it is advisable to keep a safe distance at all times. 3) Strict regulations on how to behave near wild elephants: do not drive off the road; do not follow the elephants; respect the elephants at all times; always allow the elephants the right of way; drive off slowly if they get too near; do not cut off their path, especially when more than one vehicle is present; do not rev the engine near elephants.”

I wonder how many people read the brochure? Not only that, the Rhino and Buffalo can also be highly aggressive, as can a giraffe!

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, and ‘alighted from our vehicle’ momentarily, as this is one spot you are allowed to get out. However, there are always warning signs that you do so at your own risk.

We headed back to the camp, and had a late lunch at the restaurant – excellent food. Had a nap for 4o minutes before we headed out for our afternoon drive.

Day 23 – Afternoon Self Drive

No sooner did we leave the park gate, we came across a herd of 15 elephants. We came upon a male giraffe right outside of Kristin’s car window. Then, a herd of impala, a dazzle of zebra and an elephant all in one spot. This place is truly amazing. The afternoon was terrific. A hot day though – by 3pm it had reached 42 degrees celcius!

We snacked on cheese, olives and Doritos for dinner, played a game of SkipBo (our favourite camping game – Jim won) and then watched (and listened) to an amazing thunder and lightning show.  Jim had called Kristin outside to see the sky light up – at first it was just lightning where the sky would all of a sudden light up (heat lightning) but we’d hear no thunder (too far away).  A while later, the storm turned into a more regular thunder/lightning storm with loud, booming thunder – the storm had obviously gotten much closer. It was an eerie night – the rain came a bit later. Seemed like a cool front was moving in. We stayed inside and kept our minds occupied by watching a movie on our computer. Then off to bed.

Day 22 – Morning

(see pics here)

All good things come to an end.

Today was our last safari drive at Dulini with our friends.

Highlights from the drive were a leopard (the one with the cut on the back of his leg), a Steenbok and a crash of rhinos. A steenbok is yet another type of antelope – South Africa alone hosts 29 antelope species, more than anywhere else in Africa. It is small with large ears, and the inside of it’s ears are white with black stripes. Very cute.

The crash of rhinos was an unexpected close encounter. This situation exemplifies how the vehicles do not bother many of the animals in the reserve. We had been driving along the winding dirt tracks when we turned a corner and came upon three rhinos on the track. The vehicle came to an immediate stop – one does not want to mess with rhinos! We waited and watched – once they decided it was time to move on, they wandered back into the bush, vanishing from our sight.

We came across a Spotted Thick-knee – this is a stone-curlew bird, less common than the Water Thick-knee that we had been seeing a lot of. The relevance of these birds in our minds was that it brought back fond memories of the Bush Stone-curlew that we saw (and had hiss at us) in Australia. All are chiefly nocturnal, although are common to see in daytime as well.  They are called ‘Thick-knees’ because they have thick knees! Imagine that.

After another great drive and breakfast, it was time to leave our friends and begin our adventure into Kruger National Park. We had such an incredible time with them all, and without their generosity, this trip would never have been possible for us.

After a teary (Kristin) goodbye, we were off at 10am on yet another adventure. On the dirt tracks leading away from Dulini (but still in Sabie Sand) we came across our leopard friend once again. He was walking along the road, with seemingly no cares in the world, and did not care that we were there in our car watching him. The sun was shining on his coat, and he looked stunningly handsome. The whole situation seemed very funny to us, as for 4 days every time we had come across a leopard the guides had worked hard tracking them, and here today, we had come upon him just by chance.

We entered Kruger through the Paul Kruger gate, and drove as far north as we would in the park – to Mopani Rest Camp. Initially we had booked to go further north, to Shingwedzi Rest Camp. However, we were notified that this camp had been badly damaged in the flooding that had taken place in January, and was closed until further notice. Too bad, because we had really been looking forward to travelling further north.

Afternoon

The long drive was nice – we saw the different landscapes of Kruger, from densely vegetated scrub land, to wide open savanna grasslands along the way, with of course many animal viewing opportunities. Jim was very excited to see a couple of Secretarybirds, which he had been hoping he would see. They are strange looking – kind of have an eagle type head with crane-like legs and can be 4ft tall! They are mostly terrestrial, (but can fly) and they are birds of prey.

Our lodging at the camp was a cement structure with a thatched grass roof – different from the permanent tent we had stayed in at Skukuzza rest camp. It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms and an outside kitchen on the porch – lots of room!!

We dumped our gear and went for a walk – they had a small interpretive nature trail that followed the fence line of part of the camp. The trail was somewhat unkempt, which we didn’t mind, except that we only had sandals and shorts on. We had just finished reading an interpretive sign about snakes when Kristin hiked up some rocks and saw a very large, thick black snake. Fresh in her mind was the information about the black mamba snake, she quickly reverted back down the rocks saying ‘SNAKE’. A couple moments later, armed with curiosity, we ventured up the rocks again only to find that the snake was gone. Probably a good thing, but we were disappointed that we didn’t have a better look. So, we aren’t sure what it was. Could have been the deadly black mamba, but it was more likely a water snake. Needless to say, we had been planning on walking this trail at night, but now decided this probably was not a smart practice.

We hit the camp store for some snacks, walked around a bit more, then hit the sack early. Another great day.

Day 21

(see pics here)

AM Safari Drive

Up again at 5am. When walking in the dim light of dawn to the jeep, we heard a “HUH HUH HUH” which we initially thought may have been baboons calling. However, we learned that this was a lion calling, and their calls can be heard up to 8km away. Now that is throwing your voice!! Having heard this, Patrick and Tyrone were now on a mission to find the lion with the bellowing call.

First thing in the morning it is a bit easier to see fresh animal tracks – this is because the animals often use the sandy roads that the jeeps travel on. They leave their tracks here, and the guides can then tell if they are fresh because they have not been driven over/disturbed yet. It didn’t take them long to find a male lion (one we assumed made the call) who was lazily now enjoying a sleep.

A good morning drive – we saw a leopard (the same one we saw eating the other day in the tree), wildebeest (aka gnu), bushbuck, and elephants. We learned that elephants are either right or left tusked, and one can tell by how worn the tusks are. The one with the most wear is typically their most dominant tusk.

We narrowly escaped an encounter with a large orb spider. These spiders are not dangerous, but they sure are big. We actually have orb spiders at home, and they are large, but not quite as large as the ones we found in South Africa. They are beautiful, and make large webs. After a long night of web building, the spiders are often found in our path as we are driving. As much as we try to avoid them, this morning the jeep caught part of a web and before we knew it, the spider had made it’s way to the middle of the jeep. Kyle, who was sitting in the back of the jeep, is not a big fan of spiders (to put it lightly), so we worked fast to get it out. Gently (but quickly!!), using a bird guide book and binoculars so we would not have to touch it, we coerced it onto the book and parachuted it from the jeep. Phew! Who wants a spider as large as the palm of your hand crawling on you?! Not us!

When we stopped for a drink, Jim wandered off (as he is often known to do). Patrick asked where he was, and we said that he had gone over ‘there’. ‘There’ was a large pond. Both Patrick and Tyrone’s eyes met with a worried glance and in unison they said ‘a croc lives over there’. We shouted to Jim that he needs to come back – that a CROC is over there…..and Jim responded “yup, just found him”. Needless to say, the guides weren’t thrilled about this. Jim wandered back, and nonchalantly asked if we could all go see it. Again, the guides were not thrilled about Jim’s interest in showing everyone, but they agreed, with the guide and rifle leading the way.

Probably the most interesting thing we saw this morning was what appeared to be some sort of ceremony of baboons. We found ourselves across the river from some baboons. There were about 4 of them on some rocks, hanging around. Upon closer inspection with our binoculars, we could see that one of the baboons who we initially though was just lying on the rock, actually had blood oozing from him. He was lying in a very awkward position and not moving. As we watched, baboon after baboon were coming out of the bush, all congregating on the rocks. We watched for about 15-20 minutes as mothers, babies, males all paid a sort of ‘tribute’ to their fallen comrade. Many would go over to the body, touch it, stand beside it for a while and leave. Some may say we are guilty of anthropomorphism, but we are sure that we were watching a type of baboon ‘funeral’. We wish we had gotten there sooner to see what had killed the baboon, but we suspected it may have been a fight with one of his own.

The wind was not as strong as yesterday, so Patrick thought it would be safe enough to take us on a nature walk. (If it is windy, it impedes the ability to hear creatures in the bush…no one wants any surprises.) So, Jacquie, Kyle, Kristin and Jim joined Patrick on a half hour walk back to the lodge, while Tyrone took Dylan and Per back in the cruiser.

Patrick introduced us to ‘Devil’s Thorn’, otherwise known as ‘soapy bush’. He placed leaves from this plant in all of our hands, then proceeded to put some water on our hands and told us to rub them together. Immediately, we were all getting a soapy (somewhat goopy) handwash! It was so neat. We learned that this is what people used to wash with, and still do at times. We came across a small water hole – it had actually been made earlier in the season likely by a couple of elephant tracks and water had filled it- and in it were tadpoles, frogs and water scorpions! Patrick then showed us a ‘toilet paper bush’ – a bush that has extremely soft leaves that people use to wipe themselves when in the bush. However, he warned us that there is another bush that looks very similar that actually has thorns, so one has to be very careful in identification before using on sensitive parts!!

PM Safari Drive

Another successful drive! Slender mongoose, elephants, journey of giraffes, dazzle of zebra and large herd of impala. One of the male impalas was making this horrible ‘ratting’ noise and chasing after one of the females. We learned that April and May are the mating season for impalas, and the males will make these crazy noises and chase the females until they are too tired to run anymore. This particular impala must not have realized that we are still in March – maybe he wanted a head start. It is during mating season that most of the male impala are killed by other animals because they are so concentrated on mating that they forget that they are a prey species and are vulnerable.

The herd of elephants we saw had babies – we learned that if a young elephant can still fit underneath her mother when standing, that it is under a year old. Year old elephants are too big to fit under their mom.

We came upon another sleepy male lion. We were able to see this one much better, as there was little bush in the way. We watched him for a while, and just as we were about to say goodbye, he decided to move. He shifted his head, then his weight, then slowly with a hint of purpose he got up. This was the only time we had seen Patrick intentionally put his hand on the keys. The way the vehicle was positioned, Jim was closest to the lion. The lion stood, stared Jim in the eyes, and moved slightly forward. Jim froze. Then, after what seemed minutes in Jim’s mind, the lion’s gaze released, he stretched and lied back down on his other side. Needless to say, we have no pictures of the event!

When darkness had set, we found our first genet – the large spotted genet. These creatures look like cats, although they are more related to mongoose than cats. They are exclusively nocturnal, mainly carnivorous (but will eat wild fruit) weigh up to 3.2kg, have spots and a striped tail.

Another terrific drive…off to another amazing meal!

Day 20

5:30am Safari

We were sure nothing could beat our evening drive last night where we saw the leopard kill (see Day 19 post below), but again, somehow Patrick and Tyrone ‘upped the ante’.

First off, a giraffe. Wow, it was right out of the movies, watching this giant right in front of us was unbelievable. Unfortunately, the light was still low and our pics are not terrific of him, not that pictures would do him justice anyways.

Next, wild African dogs had been spotted in the area, and when Patrick heard this, he was on a mission to find them. First let me say, Patrick is an amazing driver. He gets us up close and personal with everything. Secondly, he is very passionate about wildlife and a true nature lover. When he learned of the dogs, he got very excited, because they are so rare to see. In all of Kruger/Sabi Sand area, there are only around 250, and they are difficult to find. However, when we found them, they were on a kill, and we watched them tear apart an impala in a matter of minutes. The dogs are very strange looking – they almost look like a cross between a hyena and a dog; it is the second largest canid in the world, next to our gray wolf. We watched and listened to them tearing apart the flesh and crushing bones – we even watched one of the dogs carry around the impala skull in it’s mouth as if it were a trophy that it was showing off. And, wherever there is a kill, there are hyenas. They skulked in and and out of the scene, picking up every morsel that may be dropped by the dogs.

We left the dogs to their business, and then spotted another male leopard. A beautiful large male, with a wound on his rear left leg. Patrick explained that this wound had been much larger, and was healing nicely. At this point we should say that all the animals we have seen thus far, have had beautiful, shiny, full coats of fur. We had read that at this time of year (fall) the animals look their best (albeit are harder to find) and this sure is the case. Every animal has been stunning.

Off to have our snack on a beautiful bank of the Sand River. We spotted with our binoculars two men in what looked like army fatigues/guns walking along towards the bank. We told Patrick and Tyrone, and they explained that they are part of the Rhino Anti-poaching team. There are about 15 of these anti-poachers that patrol the large expanse of land, watching for poachers. Patrick and Tyrone spoke to them across the river and offered them some cold drinks. One of the team crossed the river (took off his shoes, rolled up his pants and walked across – yes, the water has crocodiles in it!!) and retrieved his drinks. Nice!

Looking forward to another great drive this evening!!