Wild Places and Open Spaces

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!

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