We decided today to drive down to Olifants and breakfast there. The dirt road down follows the river all the way to Olifants. Unfortunately the game was not co-operating this morning (or for that matter the whole day). We saw very little and in fact concluded the day with having seen only one of the Big 5 – buffalo. It is not often that I can remember a day in the Kruger Park without seeing an elephant.
We did enjoy a nice breakfast at Olifants camp at the restaurant before heading back up to Letaba. We took the tar road back (the shortest route) and unfortunately didn’t see much on that road either. We did add a few birds to the trip list but even those were not significant. We are now at 110 birds for the trip (not bad after 4 days).
By the time we got back to Letaba the temperature was almost 30 degrees already (and that was before 10am). We spent the remainder of the day in the camp – reading, watching movies etc but all within the confines of the air-conditioned hut. Every time you ventured out it felt like you were opening the oven door while the Sunday roast was cooking. Helen remarked that it was so hot that we managed to defrost the steak for dinner today in the fridge! We did venture around the camp again and were blown away by the one set of campers (see photo). It was like a mini house and even included a car port and DSTV satellite dish.
We went out late afternoon for a brief drive but quite honestly had low expectations of seeing anything. It was 35 degrees at 5pm and no self-respecting animal would be trying to do anything in that heat. We did watch a baby hippo playing in the water though at one dam. It was very entertaining. He/she would get out of the water then run back in with a big splash, would jump on his/her mother and then over her and then back out again. It was like a hyperactive kid. We have never seen anything like it before and it was hugely amusing and entertaining. Probably the highlight of the day.
Dinner tonight was a repeat of our first nights supper – Steak Salad. Once again perfectly cooked steak (medium rare Stephen!) on the braai.
Until tomorrow …
P & H