Letaba to Hoedspruit (and home)

Our flight was leaving Hoedspruit airport at just before 2pm so we aimed to get to the airport around 12:30pm. That meant leaving between 6-6:30am from Letaba as we wanted to the majority of the drive in the Kruger Park. It was cool and drizzling the whole morning. Not great weather for birding but good weather to see predators (or so we hoped).

We stopped for our last morning coffee aside the Olifants River and then at Satara camp for breakfast. It was definitely jersey weather and it made it feel easier to exit the park with weather like that. After breakfast we headed west toward the Orpen Gate. On that road there is a dam near Satara camp and we stopped there for a short time and saw a few new birds for the trip which took our trip total to 213 birds (the new record total for a Kruger trip for us).

After half way to the gate we saw a car stopped and when we asked if they were seeing something the driver told us ‘leopard’. We decided to hang around a bit and we were rewarded for that decision as the leopard came out of the bush and walked across the road. Another really good (last) sighting of a leopard. It felt like a reminder of what you can see in the Kruger and enough to make us think ‘when next’.

We did arrive at the airport at 12:30pm and there was a massive queue to check in. I was wondering what was going on and so went to inquire and found out their computer systems were down and so everything was being done by hand. It was around 1:20pm when we eventually got checked in after having spoken at length to the people behind us about their first time ‘safari’ experience. They were amazed we had done a self-drive for 13 days and kept asking us how we did it, weren’t we scared about getting stuck or having a car breakdown etc. Even once we were waiting to board the guy came past us again and asked us some more questions.

I realised there was no chance we were going to leave on time as there was still a substantial line of people behind us. It was going to take some time before everyone was checked in. We eventually boarded about 30 minutes late and then we just sat on the plane. The pilot said they had to manually do all the calculations and paperwork and it was going to take ‘some’ time. That ‘some’ time ended up being 2 hours. They wouldn’t load the bags until the weight calculations had been done. They must have struggled to find a calculator because it really did take a long time. At one point I was tempted to offer to go and help (because some people might consider me good with numbers – though probably not my staff).

Once they finally did the load calculations, they then couldn’t match the passenger numbers on the manifest to the actual numbers of passengers on board. Turns out they had 10 more on the plane than on the manifest. Eventually the captain said that they were just going to write down your name and seat number and they would use that as the official passenger manifest so that we could take off. So that is what the crew did and then they gave the piece of paper to the ground staff, closed the doors and we took off 2 hours late. It meant that the day was a pretty long travel day but we were pleased to get home around 7pm in the end.

Some closing thoughts on the Kruger Park:

  1. Satara is the best camp we stayed at and it seems to be almost all renovated – new appliances, painted, airconditiioners etc.
  2. Letaba does needs a maintenance team and upgrading. I would suggest avoiding it until they do.
  3. Pretoriouskop was OK but the game viewing around the camp was poor because the bush is so thick. I would suggest only staying there in the winter and not in the summer.
  4. Lower Sabie is always good and while the accommodation could do with some rejuvenation, the game life and the view over the river are always worth it.
  5. The north part of the park is definitely our preferred place to be. We are reminded again that north is where there are less people, less private safari vehicles and where we are more content. Next time we will just go north.

We felt that we could have stayed another week!

Until next time ..

P & H (with M, O, I for 6 days)

Letaba Day 4

We woke this morning to rolling thunder in the distance. H had decided to go for a run before we went out so she was up and running by 6am and we headed out when she got back. The lightening and thunder stayed in the distance and while it remained overcast the whole day, it has yet to actually rain.

We did the drive north and to the bird hide (Matambeni) which overlooks a portion of the Letaba river. At the hide we saw a pretty rare bird (I have only seen them once before in 2010 in Botswana) called a Collared Pratincole. They were very kindly pointed out to us by a family of birders. The son (adult son) politely asked if we were birders and when we said yes he pointed them out to us. The father (older than us in case you’re wondering), very proudly told us their bird list for the trip was now on 156 to which I replied with our total of 209 (at that point). You could see the look of amazement on his face (and a degree of disappointment). He did immediately qualify it and said they have only stayed at Letaba Camp whereas we obviously have been in the south as well. We have found that after about 3 days in the same terrain you start seeing the same birds and it definitely helps to change terrain and camps.

After they left, I saw another lifer (taking me to 555) – Willow Warbler. We only added 3 birds to the trip list today (we saw another unique one at the camp later) so our trip list is now at 211 and I have had 6 lifers. All 3 of these were lifers for H so she is well past 90 lifers for the trip.

The game viewing was restricted to impala, waterbuck, elephant, warthog, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest with again no predators sighted. This afternoon’s drive was even less successful with hardly any bird life and once again we saw more animals than we did birds on the drive. The bushveld was very quiet. I had read earlier on the trip that the animals are skittish when it is windy and stormy. They apparently make less sound and are generally nervous in those conditions. It explains why hardly any birds were calling today.

Our food supplies have run down and so we had dinner in the restaurant tonight. Tomorrow is our last day (half day strictly speaking) in the park. We have a reasonable amount of driving to do in the park still so there is hope of adding more game and birds to the list tomorrow am again.

Until tomorrow when should be back home … (One thing I won’t be sorry about is better connectivity – the cellphone signal has driven me crazy here at Letaba)

P & H

Letaba Day 3

The rain did clear overnight as predicted. H and I planned to head north to Mopani and the idea was to try and do as much birding as we could possibly do including covering off a few dams and waterholes (for waterbirds) and some river frontage (in hope of seeing an owl or two). We did see another black backed jackal on the way but no other predators again today.

The birding was more successful with another lifer for me – Purple Indigobird – and a number for H (taking her over 90 for the trip and well into the 400s now). The trip list is now 208 which is a new record for a Kruger trip and whatever it ends up at will definitely be the new total to beat for any future KNP trips.

We did have some good sightings of elephant, a lot of zebra and wildebeest, a large herd of buffalo and the other usual things. We had breakfast at Mopani and H had a lifer land on the banister in front of her (Mocking Cliff Chat) before we headed back down to south to Letaba. By the time we got back it was almost 1pm and the temperature was 35 degrees and it was pretty humid following the rains from yesterday.

We ditched an evening drive and instead did a late afternoon birding walk around the camp but unfortunately still have not seen any of the elusive owls. We did a braai for dinner and were surprised that in our whole circle it seems it was only us doing a braai. There are vervet monkeys in the camp and they are pretty brazen in trying to steal food and will even try and take the vegetables you’re cooking in the braai out of the fire so you have to watch them carefully. I was doing that but our neighbours weren’t as successful in keeping them away in that they left their fridge unprotected and had it raided by the monkeys while they weren’t there. I chased them off and put some chairs in front of the fridge and salvaged what I could of what they have stolen. Haven’t seen the neighbours since (they must have gone to eat at restaurant) but they’re probably wondering why there are chairs piled in front of their fridge now!

Definitely no photos coming tonight as the cell signal seems to have worsened today (if that is possible!). Hopefully this blog will send! One realizes how reliant we are on proper signal these days to keep in touch. I had to speak to someone this afternoon and I had to tell them to call me with a ‘proper’ call and not a WhatsApp call because the signal is so bad. They had to figure out how to do that! What makes it more fristrating is that it looks like you have good signal (3-4 bars on the cellphone) but in fact you don’t really. Between the state of the accommodation, the brazen monkeys and the cell signal – Letaba has gone down in our view and we probably won’t stay here again in the near future.

Until tomorrow … P & H

Letaba Day 2

We had seen the weather forecast and it had said overcast and rain the whole day. We decided to sleep until we woke instead of needing to get up at a particular time. H also thought it would be a good morning for a run (and it was). I (of course) woke for the first time at 4am but managed to persuade myself back to sleep. H was up and out running by 6am. The weather was as predicted though it only started drizzling when we headed out at 6:45am but steadily grew stronger during the drive.

We headed north and then once over the Letaba River we turned west heading for the Engelhard Dam. The route has always been productive for us and today was no different despite the weather. We finally (after 10 days) saw our first jackal of the trip (though it was pretty fleeting). We did also have some good bird sightings and by the time we got back to the camp we passed the 200 birds for the trip.

By the time we got back it was raining pretty hard and as the day progressed it rained harder and harder without letting up at any point and got colder and colder. We even had to wear a jersey for most of the day (only time I have worn one the whole trip so far). We had planned to take it easy today and with the weather being so rainy it was easy to do exactly that. We caught up with some emails and just spent the rest of the day reading. At about 3:30pm I said to H that maybe we should just go out and even if we see nothing it is just enjoyable to be out in such different weather. We did see some game and added 1 bird to the trip list (and was also a lifer for H).

The rain is being caused by a tropical storm over Mozambique and I can only imagine the amount of rain it must be dropping on them as we are just getting the edge of it and it rained constantly here. I had no desire to braai in the rain so we decided to head to the restaurant for dinner this evening. Turned out to be a good decision as we saw a genet climbing the tree in front of the restaurant and we thought it was going to try take out a guinea fowl that was roosting in the tree. In the end it didn’t and then climbed onto the roof of terrace of the restaurant. So another cat to add to the trip list.

The weather is predicting to clear from later tonight. After today’s relaxing day, we plan on a slightly longer drive tomorrow am with the hope of adding some more birds to the trip list.

Until tomorrow …

P & H

Pretoriouskop to Letaba (via Skukuza airport)

Today was the last day that M, O & I were with us. Their flight from Skukuza airport was at 11:30am so we needed to get them there by 10:30am. We decided to let I sleep in a bit and only leave around 6:30am. We had planned to take the slightly longer drive to Skukuza but heading north on the dirt road and then east from Phabeni gate to Skukuza. It was a good call – the only issue was that I woke up with a very stuffy nose and we soon realised she had a cold or something. Not ideal for M & O as traveling with a sick kid is never easy.

The game life on the dirt road was brilliant but as soon as we turned onto the tar road heading east the game life improved dramatically. There was more of everything and we finally saw a hyena for M & O and there was another leopard in a tree (though in the distance). When we saw the hyena we also noticed a lot of vultures around and at the dam we found a dead (and rotting) hippo. The smell was somewhat overpowering so we could only manage a short time at the water hole before moving on.

We did also manage to add a few birds to the trip list before M & O headed off – they ended on 161 birds for 6 days (which is pretty impressive I reckon) and H & I are now on 196 for the trip as we added some more after they left as well. O added 9 lifers (she was hoping for 10) and M (I believe) added 5 lifers (what I could have missed one or two in his case). Helen is now on 405 lifers and is now targeting 100 lifers for the trip (though that might be hard to achieve but then again I didn’t think she was get past 400 when we started this trip).

We did one last bird hide stop at Lake Panic. It is one of the best bird hides (if not the best) in the Kruger. Unfortunately today it did not deliver anything special and in fact didn’t even add to our trip list. We headed into Skukuza camp and got some breakfast. M took I to play on the swings and found a vervet monkey stuck in the climbing net. Someone eventually came to try and free it and fortunately managed to do that much to I (and everyone else’s) relief. She was getting quite distressed at seeing the monkey trapped.

We got to Skukuza airport just before 10:30am and dropped them off and said our goodbyes as H and I headed north to Letaba camp. It was still another 160 kms for us to drive. The game though seem to recognise that we needed a boost for a long drive and we just constantly saw game of different varieties and usually in large quantities. We our 4th batch of lion as well – this time they were lying in the river bed in the shade of tree – from what we could see one female with at least 2 cubs. We saw large herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, impala, waterbuck, kudu (or duku if you’re I). We also saw another carcass in a river bed being fed on by 3 different types of vultures. It made the long drive that much easier for H & I. We stopped at Tshokwane picnic spot for a bio break and some drinks and then at Satara rest camp again for drinks and some leftover braai from the previous night (at least for me).

We got to Letaba around 3:45pm and besides a short walk to the shop we just spent the balance of the day chilling in our hut. We had planned on having pasta for dinner but that turned out to be harder than we thought it would be. Firstly, the hot plate took forever to heat up and we might have been waiting around until tomorrow am for the water to boil. Then we decided to give up on that and just heat up some of the pasta we had left over from last night instead but it is impossible to open the microwave because it hits into the stove plates! Seriously, how did they think it possible to fit the microwave in that spot?! (The cellphone signal is terrible and so I am not sure I will be able to post a photo of the issue – tried but wasn’t successful!)

We are both tired after the long drive and not in a rush to do anything tomorrow. We will just see when we wake up and then plan from there. It is meant to be cooler tomorrow with likely rain throughout the day. It certainly is pretty windy at the moment so that usually indicates a storm is on route.

Until tomorrow …

P & H (already missing I, M & O)

Pretoriouskop Day 4

This morning we went out slightly later again as the first 15-30 minutes of the drives had generally not been productive and so we thought between that and letting I sleep in a bit, we may as well head out later. Our plan was to take the main road east to the Shitlhave and Transport Dams in the hope of seeing some water birds at least to add to our trip list (and maybe a lifer if we were fortunate enough). As it turned out, it was one of the most disappointing drives we have ever had in the Kruger – basically no birds at all and nothing special on the game front either. Maybe that is what caused my headache which I couldn’t shake the balance of the day (despite a nap when we got back).

H summed up this mornings drives as follows “You know it is a bad drive when you saw less birds than game”. It wasn’t that we didn’t just see anything new, we just didn’t see anything. It was as if someone had stolen the game and bird life and only left a few to tease us into believe there was more. Maybe they knew it was Sunday and were all having a day of rest? We didn’t add a single new bird to the trip list and for H and I that remained true for the balance of the day. For M & O, they actually managed to add a few to their trip list and a lifer late in the day as well. H & my trip list is stuck at 189 birds and M & O have theirs at 160. This after saying yesterday that we should easily surpass our previous trip best of 200 (spoke way too quickly it seems).

Flapjacks for a late breakfast, a nap, a swim, an ice cream and then out we went for our late afternoon drive. On the road for only 1km and we spot a leopard and its cub on the side of the road. Number of other cars besides us = 0. We got to watch and photograph them without anyone else around and then when other cars arrived it was just 2 others and then the leopard decided to walk down the road (and proceeded to do that for over a kilometer). The cub kept dodging in and out of the bush as they walked. Probably one of the best sightings a leopard I have ever had. Even I was fascinated. And there is the paradox of the Kruger. A terrible morning drive contrasted with 2 minutes outside the camp and you see the best sighting of leopard that you could imagine.

Eventually the leopard and her cub headed into the bushes and seemed to almost immediately vanish from view. Timing is everything in the Kruger. We headed off back onto the route we had planned to take and while we saw some of the usual other things (elephant, kudu, waterbuck), nothing could top that sighting of leopard.

M did the braai tonight – chicken wings, steak, gem squash & mushrooms accompanied by H’s famous penne pasta. Tonight is our last night with M, O & I. Granny & Grandpa will be sad to see I depart tomorrow. We might miss M & O too! It has been a pure delight seeing the next generation enjoy the wildlife. I will even miss her asking grandpa for more tortoise or pala (egged on by M usually) and has a look of disappointment when grandpa doesn’t deliver immediately. We have one last drive tomorrow am before we drop them off at the airport – let’s hope it is a good one.

Until tomorrow … I, P, H, M (for braaiing tonight) and O

Pretoriouskop Day 3

As the sun is only rising close to 6am, we decided to only head out at 5:45am this morning. A few more minutes for I to sleep in the morning. H went in to wake her up and first thing she said was ‘Oh Man’ (in an American accent). She is quite the little character. When she tires of all entertainment from the vehicle occupants, O & M resort to some screen time on the iPad (don’t judge … it doesn’t happen often but it does help). She has been remarkably resilient and good though even on the longer drives. She definitely is fascinated to see the animals especially when they are close to the road. Tortoise, pala, elephant and duku seem to be the favourites.

We went out to the Shitlhave Dam and on route, H, M & O added a lifer and then at the dam we managed to all add a lifer (Green Sandpiper). H & I are now on 189 for the trip. Our best ever previously was 200 for 14-day trip to Kruger so we would be disappointed to not go well past that on this trip. I think it is a combination of the right time of year and our ever improving birding skills. H today went past 400 lifers (she has over 80 for the trip!). Given she started properly listing last year January, that is quite a remarkable count for less than 15 months. She bought herself a bottle of Rose wine to celebrate passing 400 tonight.

We did a few of the local around the camp loops including the one that we had seen the male lion on last night but he had moved off and no sign of the buffalo he was eating either. Besides a few kudu, some elephant, a sole buffalo sitting in the mud and some more klipspringers on the rocks, the game life has been pretty poor. Still no rhino and actually very few predators. If it wasn’t for the bird life we would have been very disappointed.

I (18 month old in case of doubt) had a nice long (over 3 hour) nap today and some of the others (M in particular) did similarly. Rest of us just spent some time relaxing, reading and really enjoying nature. It was much cooler today as it was overcast for most of the day and so we decided to head out a little earlier for our evening drive. Again we didn’t see a lot but just as we were about to drive back into the camp we saw a lone Red Duiker so at least something new for the trip in terms of game.

The traditional braai for dinner (chicken, sausage & vegetables) and then off to bed. It is amazing how basically doing nothing for most of the day really exhausts you!

Until tomorrow …

I, P, H, O (again for multiple klipspringers today) and M

Road Trip 2023

In some ways it feels like a long time since our January Namibia trip but in others it feels like only the other day. It was only 2 months ago so you might be surprised that we are ‘on holiday’ again (my Dad asked me ‘How much leave do you get?’ with a surprise in his voice when I told him we were heading off on a road trip today). This was a long time planned road trip with our friends – B & S and J & R. We also have a new addition – A & O – that have joined us for this trip. They thanked us for inviting them at dinner tonight and I replied ‘You better wait to the end of the trip to make that judgement’.

We left Cape Town this morning at 8am heading for Prince Albert which is our first night stopover. J & R had their Toyota Fortuner stolen some time ago so they are sharing a ride in our cars for this road trip. It is only just over a 4-hour drive to Prince Albert and so we weren’t under any time pressure so we took it relatively easily including a couple of toilet stops to get rid of the morning coffee(s).

The weather got progressively warmer as we drove and by the time we arrived in Prince Albert (around 1pm) it was in the high 20s (C) already. We are staying at Karoo Lodge and our host graciously let us check in early. After check in we headed to the Lazy Lizard for lunch (recommended by our host). We were impressed by the quality of the lunch (and generous portions). Some people wanted to take on a horizontal pose after lunch and the others of us just enjoyed the clean air and gardens. A&O only arrived at 4pm because they couldn’t leave earlier from Cape Town. After they arrived we headed for a bird walk through the town. We didn’t see anything special but added to our trip list. Slowish start on the trip list – I am on 19 and some of the others are on 20 – the one bird advantage is the benefit of not driving and rather being a passenger.

Drinks at the Gin Bar after the walk followed by dinner at Karoo Kombuis (recommended by A as they had eaten there before). At Karoo Kombuis you could get chicken pie, babotie (google it if you don’t know what it is) and roast karoo lamb. You can choose all of them, one of them or two of them. Desert was a steamed lemon desert or malva pudding. Genuinely nice, simple and straight forward dinner complimented by our own wine. We were finished dinner by 8:30pm.

It is 9:30pm and we are all already in our rooms and heading to go to sleep. Loadshedding starts at 10pm so basically nothing to do from that point onwards anyway. I am typing furiously to ensure I finish before it goes dark!

Until tomorrow

P, H (just because she is my wife), B (because we drank his wine and he paid for drinks this evening), S (by virtue of the fact that she is tied to B), A (good recommendation on restaurant for tonight), R (for photo below from his drone), J (for her choc chip cookies) & O (she has some work to do)

Aerial view of Prince Albert – photo courtesy of R

Pretoriouskop Day 2

At about 2am there was a MASSIVE thunderclap and that marked the start of huge thunderstorm. The windows of our chalet rattled. The thunder and lightening were close together and it was clear the thunderstorm was right over us. It bucketed down with rain but by the time we woke for our morning game drive it was clearing and soon the only sign of the thunderstorm was that the dirt roads had puddles on them. It seems some people sleep better through thunderstorms than others. I (18 month old one) seemed not to be disrupted at all (though I also managed to go back to sleep – I grew up in Pretoria where thunderstorms were a part of everyday life). O on the other hand said she basically didn’t sleep from when it started. H was having other problems in that she discovered that her bed was listing to the bottom right and then figured out that a leg was missing. She then took leaning / trusting on the Scriptures to a whole new level (see pic below).

We did get up to leave at 5:30am but as it was overcast it was still pretty dark so we ended up leaving about 15 minutes later. We headed west toward the Numbi gate and then just before the gate we turned up north toward Mestel Dam. It has generally been a fruitful route for us but this morning it wasn’t as fruitful as we would have hoped. The dam was very quiet with hardly any bird life or animals (except the usual hippos). On the drive back to camp O spotted a klipspringer high on a rock in the pose you see them in wildlife books. That plus the large herd of buffalo was the best sighting of the morning drive.

We had the balance of the day in the camp and did some camp birding. After we got back we went to the pool area to do some birding and I waded around in the shallow pool area. We then let I have a long nap in the middle of the day. When I woke up, I went to fetch her and she was standing up in her cot saying ‘Amen, Amen, Amen’. Clearly praying someone would come and get her out of her captivity.

We stayed in the camp until 4pm and went on late afternoon drive. There are numerous loops around the camp and we did most of them and just as we were basically finishing our evening drive we found a large male lion tucked in under a bush munching on a buffalo. Single lane road with 2 private game trucks there already resulted in us only have an oblique view. It was pretty close to the road and we could hear him eating but the view wasn’t great because of the bush and the game trucks. The private game trucks can be an annoyance in the Kruger but they were actually pretty decent and let us eventually move into a better spot. He clearly wasn’t going anywhere and so we left and let others have a better view. Fortunately now everyone has seen a lion at least. Game viewing was pretty sparse today though as we didn’t even see an elephant (which is highly unusual from Kruger).

Our bird lists are steadily increasing and I’m now on 181 for the trip, H has added 74 lifers (!), O has added 5, I have added 4 and M has added 2 lifers. We finished the day with a steak and veg braai. It was pretty warm again today (37 degrees C) and never really cooled off so it was very hot work doing a braai this evening.

Fortunately the camp generator is working and so while it is actually loadshedding now, I am able to finish the blog off in the light before heading off to sleep for the night.

Until tomorrow …

I, P, H, O (for klipspringer) & M

Lower Sabie to Pretoriouskop

We changed camps today so we decided to leave a little later (around 7am) as you can’t check in usually before 2pm. H went for a run before we left. Our body clocks now are attuned to waking us up before 5am it seems! It is also the coolest part of the day so if you’re going to run it needs to be early morning. Unfortunately it was load shedding from 5-7:30am and so no kettle for coffee which then necessitated boiling water on the gas stove instead. But the starter for the gas is electric too so no way of actually lighting the stove and of course we didn’t have matches either. I resorted to use a firelighter match (yes there are such things) and just hoped I didn’t blow myself up or burn myself in doing that. Fortunately I managed to avoid both of those issues. We ate breakfast at the house before heading out.

We decided to go via Skukuza (north west) and then back down to Pretoriouskop (which is south west of Skukuza and almost due west of Lower Sabie but no direct route between these camps). The Lower Sabie to Skukuza road is known to be one of the best roads in the Kruger to see Big 5 and is especially good for seeing lion and leopard. We saw none despite stopping at a group of cars and them telling us a leopard was there a few minutes (or seconds earlier). Outside of Skukuza there is a bridge over the river and despite it not being on our direct route M asked that we just drive over and back again before heading on our way again. On the way over, a game truck told us that if we turn right over the bridge and drive 600 meters there is a leopard in a tree. He said ‘you won’t miss it because you’ll see the cars’. So we raced off and on arrival asked one the cars and they said it had just climbed down from the tree and walked off. We honestly couldn’t not believe it.

We headed to Skukuza for a quick stop and stretch of the legs. M had called Pretoriouskop camp and they said they would let us check in early and so we headed off to the camp. I (the 18 month old I …not the me version!), was getting a little fidgety so we basically drove that road near to the speed limit (which is 50 km/h). We saw a collection of cars and slowed down and finally saw a leopard. Fast asleep on a rock in the shade. As it was clear it wasn’t going anywhere soon, we watched it for a few minutes and then continued on our way down to Pretoriouskop. We arrived at 11:30am and on check in they said our chalet would be ready only at 12pm so we had a quick (and early lunch) and then got the key, unpacked and put I (18 month old again!) down for her afternoon nap. We did some birding from the patio and added to our respective lists. I (the person writing) am on 167 birds now for the trip and H is over 170 with some ridiculous number of lifers.

We decided on no game drive this evening. H did some painting with I (18 month old) and then later we ventured to the pool area to allow I to swim with M and the rest of us did some birding. H decided to have a swim fully clothed as the water was very warm and much to the delight of I (I am now hoping you’re understanding when I refer to I which I, I am referring to 🙂 ).

We discovered as the sun was setting that the kitchen light was not working so we reported it and the maintenance guys pitched up with a wobbly ladder to fix it. It took them some time including swapping who was on the ladder. I just kept thinking about those jokes of how many people does it take to change a light bulb. They finally managed to get one bulb working and we accepted that was sufficient and they could sort it out properly tomorrow.

By 8pm we were all tired and read for bed and so I am finishing off this blog post and then going to hit the send button and turn the lights out and go to sleep. Fortunately the generator is working at the camp and so we have power despite it being loadshedding currently.

Until tomorrow …

I, P, H, M & O

Lower Sabie Day 2

We were up to leave again at 5:30am which with an 18 month old is pretty impressive. We wanted to go down south to Crocodile Bridge camp as a rarity (and what would have been a lifer for all of us) has recently been reported there. We didn’t have high expectations as no one had seen it in the last few days. It was about a 90 minute drive down and while we saw a reasonable amount of game (including two of the big five – elephant and buffalo), we did not see any predators and more unfortunately we did not find the rarity either. We did see another rarity for Kruger Park though – Capped Wheatear – though it is a bird we have seen elsewhere many times before, it is a rarity for the Kruger Park.

We had some coffee and hot chocolate at a dam nearby to Crocodile Bridge and stopped at the camp for a loo visit, nappy change and some purchases at the shop before we headed back up to Lower Sabie again. We took an alternative route back on a dirt road and some of us (excluding one person) had a fleeting glimpse of lion before it walked down a ravine not to be seen again. That was unfortunately the one sighting of predators today (it has been a bit of a dry spell on the predator finding). We got back to the camp just before 10am and one 18-month old was very grateful for a long midday nap (3.5 hours). While she was sleeping, we did some birding from in front of our house and added a number of birds to the trip list and H found a lifer for all of us – Green-capped Eremomela. H continues her raking in of lifers and is now on 65 for the trip (wow!) and 386 lifers in total. She has 158 for the trip and I am now on 151 because I stayed with I while she was sleeping and they walked to the shop and saw a whole lot of extras I had not yet seen. Some of us make sacrifices for love it seems!

We did go out on a short drive again this evening but given it was 37 degrees, the animals and birds were sparse. We did add a bird or two to our trip list but it wasn’t really a very successful drive. On the way back to the camp the road was blocked by an elephant. The car in front of us was pretty close (though they were at least in reverse) but the elephant didn’t really have anywhere to go and when they eventually moved it made it’s way into the bush and we could finally pass it. It is one of my irritations of the Kruger that people don’t seem to know how to drive when elephants are around. Earlier this trip we had a guy stop his car in spitting distance of an elephant and then turned off his car to take some photos. They should give a test to everyone about how to drive near elephants before they allow you into the park.

We had a braai for dinner again – chicken wings and ribs. One of our blog readers commented today that they like we say what we ate but why don’t I share what we drank. So for them – Castle Lite beer while braaiing (it’s hot) and chilled red wine (Cinsaut) and white wine (Chenin Blanc) with dinner.

Until tomorrow …

I, P, H (deserves 3rd spot for lifer find), M & O