Up at 5:10am again to head out by 5:30am. When we opened the door and went outside the heat and humidity hit us. Thank goodness for air-conditioning in the rondavel! It was 24 degrees at 5:30am and it just got steadily hotter and hotter and eventually rose to 37 degrees C. It was HOT today!

This morning we headed north and then turned west toward Timbivati picnic spot. We saw a reasonable amount of game and steadily added to our bird list. The bird list stands at 110 currently. No predators at all today but it still felt like a good day for us as we don’t define our game viewing only by predators. The highlight of this morning’s drive was seeing a Black Coucal. They are uncommon and Kruger is really the only place to see them in SA and even here it is pretty hard to see them usually.

Just as we got to Timbavati picnic spot we saw some kudu and impala all frozen and staring in the same direction and we could hear birds alarm calling as well. There must have been a predator (probably leopard) but we did not see it despite looking quite carefully and traversing the area a bit. Morning coffee followed at the picnic spot and then we headed north to Ratel Pan bird hide. It was pretty disappointing as there wasn’t a great view and very little bird life to be seen as well. We headed back south and ended up back at the camp just after 9am.

We spent the balance of the day until 4pm in the camp just relaxing. When we headed out at 4pm it was 37 degrees. We did a bit of the same route we had done on the first morning drive and then stopped at the river for about 15 minutes and enjoyed the silence of the bushveld.

After a short walk around the camp, we started the braai for dinner. We had ostrich steak salad for dinner tonight. It was so hot I had to braai with my shirt off. There is hardly any wind at all and so every time there is a slight breeze even it is greatly appreciated.

Tomorrow some others join us and we are greatly looking forward to that!

Until tomorrow … P & H