You might be wondering why the blogs suddenly stopped but the issue is not the desire to send a blog but rather the fact that my internet access suddenly dried up!
we had a morning game drive on Thursday at Ngala and we went out in search of rhino. Due to poaching, the prevalence of rhino’s in the area has declined substantially. The rangers told us that about 20 years ago you could go on a drive and you would definitely see 3-4 rhino on one single drive. We had been there for almost 3 days and hadn’t seen one at all. We set out to see if we could find one as they knew that a mother and calf where relatively close to the lodge. We did some roads to the north we had never done and then when heading south the tracker suddenly said ‘rhino’ and sure enough there was the mother and baby rhino. It was such an impressive sighting (my best ever of a rhino). The baby was frolicking around and kept running into his mother. Would run toward the game truck and then stop and turn and run back again. It was very cute to watch and enjoy!
We had our last coffee stop overlooking a dam and then back for breakfast at the lodge, pack up and leave. It was a fabulous 3 days but it was non-stop and you almost feel like you need a holiday after it! We had a 90 minute drive back to Hoedspruit as we had to drop MO off at the airport as they were flying back to Cape Town (they had a wedding to attend on Saturday). We also needed to do some grocery shopping in Hoedspruit before we headed back east again to the Orpen Gate of the Kruger National Park (KNP).
We headed into KNP and toward Satara which was our next stop for the next 3 nights. We saw a lot of the standard game (giraffe, zebra, impala, baboon, vervet monkey, steenbuck etc) on the way into the camp. We got in around 4pm and check in to find that the cellphone signal was very poor or non-existent (hence the lack of blogs). Dinner was a braai (as you should expect) and then it was off to bed and sleep pretty early as we were all exhausted from an early morning and a jam packed day!
Until the next time I’m able to post …
P, H, S, K, M, O (for the last time), C, J, B, R, J, S, B
Today was my 50th birthday and I honestly could not think of a better way to spend it but in a game park with my family and closest friends. It was a fantastic day of great memories.
We headed out for our morning game drive at the usual time after being woken up at 5:30am. The plan was to do a ‘Grade 2’ walk and that means tracking elephant, rhino or buffalo on foot but in order to do that you need to find their spoor and then track them. We couldn’t all do that together so the plan was to split up and do separate ones. We headed to an area where they usually find rhino and the other vehicle headed to a different area after hearing there was an elephant bull in the area. The other vehicle with Eric as the ranger just happened across a lioness and that ruled out the possibility of them getting a walk in. That lioness then reunited with her cubs.
The possibility of spotting something on foot immediately was overridden by actually spending time with lions and cubs and so we headed over to the area and after the younger generation were finished, we took their spot and watched the lions interacting. It was amazing to see (and hear!) the cubs feeding. It was also interesting to watch a lioness return to the pride and how the other lions responded by rubbing up to the others. By the way, I forgot to say that before we saw the lions we happened upon 5 hyena including one carrying a rack of ribs!
We then started to head back to the camp but instead of breakfast at the lodge, they had organised breakfast in the bush for us and the other guests. It was a lovely experience especially on your birthday! We then walked from the breakfast venue back to the camp instead of driving back. The walk was a ‘Grade 1’ walk so really trying to avoid the game but rather just talk about the ‘smaller’ things of the bush including the different plants/trees, ant lions etc. It was really interesting though pretty warm. It took us just about an hour to walk back (though it was only 2 kms roughly). We did hear elephant noises and the guides were very quick to direct us away from them so that we didn’t in any way get into danger.
We got back to the lodge at 11am and lunch was at the usual time of 1pm. Everyone was pretty full so we only headed to lunch a bit later and most people had very limited lunch given how late breakfast was. When we were finishing up at lunch we saw a herd of elephant come down to the pool area to have a drink so we all rushed over to watch them do that (the way it is constructed enables you to do that safely).
By the time we were finished watching it was already almost time to head off for the afternoon game drive. This time all the family went together to celebrate my birthday on the one truck. Immediately we got on the truck Nikki told us that they had found a female leopard with a Nyala kill and while they hadn’t see them, she had 2 cubs as well. We headed straight to the area to see if we could get an opportunity to see them. It was better than expected. The leopard was up the tree just lying but after a fe minutes the Nyala head fell from the tree ans she immediately jumped down to eat some and also to cover the scent. She then called in the cubs and basically out of nowhere they appeared. They both ended up scaling the tree and feeding from the remaining carcass. What an incredible sighting.
We then headed back north for a drinks stop but on route Nikki told us they spotted aarvark spoor and we should just check them out. They are very hard to see. After a few minutes our ranger said ‘Look there – one in the road’ and we all couldn’t believe it. M actually turned and told J how lucky he was to see it given how rare sightings are. As we moved closer the aardvark never moved and then we realised it was a bronzed aardvark! The rangers and their respective girlfriends (both of whom are also at the lodge) had played a prank on us! But the good news was that they had a bush drinks break already set up for us including a cake with a sparkler for my birthday. Another special experience!
After a long drinks break, we headed back to the camp and saw a hyena on the way back. Dinner was in the boma again tonight (beef & trout for main course) and a lovely way to top off a fantastic day to celebrate my 50th. The number of birthday messages was almost overwhelming. It was a truly special day with great friends and family. The only downside was that our friends who live in the UK never made it out due to Covid … we did miss you S&L!
There is a wake up call at 5:30am. H and I were already awake by this point. Coffee, rusks/biscuits in the main lodge and then onto the game trucks for our morning game drive. It was chilly this am when we left. Fortunately they give you hot water bottles and blankets. Double jerseys, beanies & gloves all part of the gear for a morning game drive. It didn’t take long for the rangers to find 3 lion. The one vehicle (with the younger generation) got to see them walking before they lay down. We joined later mainly because of the stops for birding. I did add another lifer (Stierling’s Wren-Warbler) which takes my tally to 483. Some of the other birders have added significantly to their tally’s during this trip.
Photo courtesy of B (female)
The lion’s weren’t doing anything and so we left them after spending some time with them and then met up with the other truck for our coffee/tea stop. We got back to the camp just after 10am which meant we ended up finishing breakfast at 11am. Lunch was at 1pm, afternoon coffee/tea (and cake) at 3pm, game drive (including evening drinks stop) and then dinner at 7pm. Basically you go from meal to meal with a game drive to break the meals! One crazy person did manage to fit in a swim though (see pic above).
This evening’s game drive resulted in us seeing another 6 lion. This time though we got see two white lion. H and I had seen them in Feb when we drove into the Kruger Park and we got to see them again today. Our ranger (Nikki) told us that there are only 3 white lion in the world at the moment in natural habitats and we got to see 2 of them today. Unfortunately they also weren’t doing anything so we watched them for some time and then moved on to find a spot for our evening drinks. We had split ladies and men on tonight’s drive and the ladies joined us just as the sun was setting. There is nothing quite like a bushveld sunset.
After drinks we slowly made our way back into the camp and we managed to see a few animals but the most impressive was again seeing a Fiery-necked Nightjar just sitting in the road. It even obliged to have some photos taken with the spotlight being shone on it.
Dinner this evening was in the courtyard and the main was a choice of chicken or kudu loin. I (obviously) had the kudu loin which was really delicious. The tiredness of the fresh air and early morning and constant eating kicked in for everyone. It is not yet 10pm and I reckon most people are asleep already! I can hear the hyena calling though … lovely sound to fall asleep too.
Last night we could hear an owl hooting outside our window and so S and I went to track it down. We found a pair of them in the trees right outside the house we were staying in – African Wood Owl – which we had last seen in 2016 in Namibia. Really nice to see especially since we haven’t seen an owl for some time.
A sub-group went for a run this morning around the lodge and golf course and I went to buy some fruit et al for breakfast. The balance slept in until later and then the younger generation went to play Putt Putt before we checked out and left Kruger Park Lodge. On the way over to the Putt Putt S saw a lifer – bronze mannikin – and took me to see them too so that takes my lifer list to 482. Hopefully more to come during this trip.
We arrived at the lodge just before 1pm and once we had been allocated our rooms and settled in we met for lunch. Lunch finished at 2:30pm and then we had 30 minutes free before meeting at 3pm for afternoon tea/coffee and our first game drive. We have two rangers – Nicky & Eric. We decided to split the trucks between young and old and the older group headed off with Nicky. They were trying to find a rhino with a young calf and so dropped off the trackers to try and find them and we went on to see what else we could see. We saw a herd of elephant just finishing drinking at a waterhole and then another vehicle saw a leopard and started following it.
Photo cred: O
We joined the other two vehicles following the leopard. To do this required a lot of off road tracking through some thick bush at stages. You have to pay attention or you get taken out by the branches! We followed the leopard for some time as it first tried to take out an impala (but didn’t succeed) and then tried opportunistically to take out a hare (and again wasn’t successful). We had some really good views of the leopard even though the light was fading quickly. A great experience for everyone including for the first timer!
Drinks just after sunset in the middle of nowhere and then we headed back into the camp at got back just before 7pm. We had dinner in the boma (selection of meat – lamb, pork ribs and boerewors). But 8:30pm we were all tired and headed off to our bedrooms. A lovely day and a reminder of how blessed we are to experience these things even in Covid times. We don’t take it for granted that we are all healthy and to enjoy the time together.
Until tomorrow …
P, S (for the lifer he found and took me too), H, K, C, J, M, O, S, B, R, J, B (the latter B is the husband of S and gets his place on the blog for critiquing yesterday’s blog)
We woke to a cold, misty morning at Hazyview. It was 2 degrees when I woke up at 6am. It actually didn’t feel that cold – though I’m not experienced at feeling 2am!
We had a late morning breakfast and then after breakfast walked around Dullstroom again. We eventually left Dullstroom at around 11am. We could only check in at our next accommodation at 4pm so we decided to detour via Pilgrim’s Rest and God’s Window. The road to Lydenberg (on route to Pilgrim’s Rest) has significant potholes. In fact all the roads we drove on today had the same problem. The phrase of the day on Waze was “Watch out, pothole on road ahead”. The road was littered with them. One road even had each one numbered and we only noticed that at a point that started with 49 (we were traveling in descending order). That was in about a 5 km stretch so it gives you an idea of how many potholes there are on these roads.
We did a brief stop at Pilgrim’s Rest but it was incredibly disappointing at how run down it was. It was a shadow of what we had experienced previously but admittedly we haven’t been there for at least 10 years. We gave up on the town very quickly and headed into Graskop for lunch at Harry’s Pancakes (fairly famous for it’s pancakes). M was the first person to place an order and he ordered a salad. The waitress said “This is a pancake place! You can get lettuce at home!” 🙂
After lunch we headed for God’s Window. It is a beautiful viewpoint from around 1700m you can look down to the Eastern Lowveld which is at around 700m above sea level. Stunning views which no photo really can do justice for what you see in person.
After God’s Window we headed to Hazyview which is where we are staying tonight. We are staying at Kruger Park Lodge (https://www.legacyhotels.co.za/local-destinations/kruger-park/kruger-park-lodge) which is situated on the Sabie River and on a 9-hole gold course. It would have been nice to have been able to play 9-holes but with such a late check in and the sun setting at around 5:30pm, it was not a viable option.
We have two separate houses here at Kruger Park Lodge – one with 4 bedrooms and one with 3 bedrooms. They are very nicely appointed and while you could self-cater, we decided to keep it easy and eat at the restuarant rather tonight. It was another enjoyable evening with lots of banter.
Until tomorrow
P, H, S (because he was only one to remember that it was father’s day and wished me straight away), K, C, J, M, O, B, S, B, R, J
We had a 4-hour drive to OR Tambo airport to pick up R&J who flew in from Cape Town today to join our group. We decided to have breakfast at 7:30am so that we could get to JHB airport around midday. That should have also timed it well for arrival of MOSK (or SMOK or SKOM whichever you prefer). I say “should” because just as they were about to board their flight they discovered the plane had a technical issue. If we have learnt anything during Covid times is to take nothing for granted. After a period of time they were told the flight was cancelled and they would move them onto the next flight which was at 3pm! Given they were originally on a flight at 8:30am yesterday (that was also cancelled) and then moved to 10:15am flight, leaving at 3pm was not an option really. Nice one BA! After they got their luggage back, they managed to get seats on another airline which departed at 12:40pm and fortunately it did actually leave then.
Lots of whatsapp’s happened while we were driving (steadily and smoothly – the driving that is!) through the Free State, cross the Vaal River and into Gauteng. We got to OR Tambo airport at around 12:30pm and picked up R&J just around the time MOSK were finally departing from Cape Town. Fortunately they had their own car rental so the plan is that they would just follow after and join us when they could.
It is about a 2 hour 15 minute drive from OR Tambo airport to Dullstroom which is where our next overnight stop is. We stop for lunch on route and arrived late afternoon at Critchley Hackle Lodge (http://www.critchley-hackle.co.za/) in Dullstroom. We have stayed here previously and it really is a lovely setting around a Trout stocked pond. Dullstroom isn’t known for its warm temperature though – when we arrived it was 11 degrees C and currently while I type this (6pm) it is now 7 degrees. I reckon it will be a cold night/early morning! Fortunately each of the rooms comes with its own fireplace which may actually need to be used tonight. We had a short walk around the town after we had put down our luggage and then around sunset a group crazily went for a run.
MOSK arrived safely at 5:45pm after a full (long) day of traveling for them. We are delighted that they have joined us safely after the day’s drama. One well known member of our family has been known to say “you can’t fine tune life” and today was a reminder of that truth.
We had drinks in the bar before dinner and then the 13 of us moved to the dining room for dinner. A number of us were looking forward to trout for dinner only to be told they didn’t have any (even though it was on the menu). The second choices were good though and everyone seemed to enjoy the evening. There was live piano music and the one end of the table started guessing the songs while the other end were guessing top 10 countries by GDP per capita. Everyone seemed entertained at least!
Until tomorrow (assuming we don’t all freeze to death tonight … do have fire going in our room now).
Today’s drive was a 7-hour stretch from Matjiesfontein to Bloemfontein on the N1. We had breakfast and headed out just after 9am. Fortunately for most of the drive today the traffic was pretty light and therefore the drive was fairly easy. We did a few toilet stops and one stop for fuel and then we stopped at Richmond, Northern Cape for lunch. We chose Vetmuis Plaaskombuis for lunch – to be fair it was seemingly the only viable option in the town. We sat outside and enjoyed a bit of the warm weather and stretching of our legs while waiting for the food to be served.
After lunch we still had about 3 hours of driving to get to Bloemfontein and after doing one stop for toileting, we arrived at our overnight stop in Bloemfontein. We are staying at Liedjiesbos (https://bloemfonteinaccommodation.biz/). It is a bit outside of Bloemfontein – more in the small holding area – but relatively easily reachable from the N1. The accommodation is very and easily matches what you can see on their website. Unfortunately I never managed to got a photo before the sunset so you’ll have to trust the website for what it looks like.
Liedjiesbos organised a meat & cheese platter for dinner tonight and they have an honor bar where you simply help yourself and mark down what you have taken. We seem to be the only people staying here tonight and so we had the place to ourselves for dinner.
Tomorrow we drive to Johannesburg and meet the balance of our party who are flying into OR Tambo airport and then onward to our next overnight stop.
This trip has been a year in planning and we have counted down to departing today. You can take nothing for granted these days with Covid and we were never sure whether it would happen or not and if it did happen what restrictions would confront us. The good news is that we left this afternoon for 2.5 weeks of holiday and celebrating my 50th birthday.
We had originally planned to fly up to game park area (where we are headed) but after B bought a new car and I so enjoyed driving my car up to the ECape recently, we decided to drive. We left this afternoon at 2pm for our first stop on route. We decided to just take a few hours off our drive tomorrow by stopping at Matjiesfontein on the way north. It is just under a 3-hour drive and we arrived at just after 5pm. There was a significant amount of traffic on the road heading out from Cape Town but after about an hour it (fortunately) reduced significantly.
On arrival at Matjiesfontein we went to check in (the town is basically just a hotel for those of you who don’t know) to discover that they only had 1 room for us when they were meant to have had 3 rooms. I had booked on their own website! Fortunately I had a printed copy of the confirmed reservation to show them. Not that it seemed to matter because they told us that they were fully booked! I said that really wasn’t my issue and that they better sort it out. A manager came and said they would check whether some people were still arriving or not. They called them and I could overhear the conversation and it turned out they had a ‘tentative’ reservation. I could not believe that they would even call someone with a tentative reservation when they had a confirmed reservation (and some irate) customer right in front of them. Fortunately they weren’t coming and so we were able to get 3 rooms for us (it is H & I, C (daughter), B (friend) and J (boyfriend of C … first time to SA and first time on trip with us).
We had a quick walk up and down the main road before having some pre-dinner drinks and then we headed in for dinner (6 of us had lamb chops – we are in the Karoo and so Karoo lamb chops was the predominant choice – and one outlier had the fillet). An enjoyable dinner and as always (and more importantly), enjoyable company.
Only 3 people decided to head out for the morning game drive – H & B decided that a sleep in was necessary but S, K and I headed out. I’m pleased we did because we saw another lifer (Monotonous Lark) which took my lifers for the trip to 4 and my total lifer list to 479. S is not far behind me on 469 having closed the gap over the last 7 days by seeing a number of birds I have seen but he hadn’t yet. We didn’t see any other major game on the drive but did add a few birds to the trip list as well.
It rained on and off during the day and remained relatively cool (around 26 degrees) for most of the day. We headed out for an evening drive at about 4pm and after seeing very little game on the route around the camp we decided to head south a bit on the main road and see what we could see. About 5 kms from the camp H shouts “stop, go back, leopard in a tree”. Sure enough – there is a leopard sleeping in a tree. It was a great spot. See if you can see it in the picture below. This was about 15 meters from the road (photo taken on my iPhone).
We waited for awhile and it didn’t seem interested in moving and so we headed further south, did a loop and came back. Still in the same place so we decided to wait. It would take us about 10 minutes to get back to the camp so we had until 6:20pm before we had to leave. At 6:15pm it sat up and then started to climb down the tree and then headed off away from us into the bush with all the animals nearby (including impala) alarm calling. We had to head back at that point but it seemed unlikely that that was going to kill anything nearby as it wasn’t concerned about concealing itself at all as it walked.
It was our 5th leopard sighting and all of them have been very good – though one of them was pretty fleeting. We were also the ones to spot all of the leopard sightings which also is much more fulfilling than someone else seeing it first.
Our meal was a braai (how could it not be). Overnight it rained heavily – so hard at times that I wondered whether we would have a flash flood! It rained most of the night and it was very wet outside. Packing the car without stepping in puddles was basically impossible. We had 120 km drive inside the park to Phalaborwa gate and then 70 kms to Hoedspruit airport. It rained the majority of the way and game viewing was nearly impossible due to heavy rain. We did see black backed jackal on the road and also some of the standard game – impala, kudu, elephant. Birding was non-existent except for some swallows and a few raptors. My trip list ended on 152 birds. Better than last year but I was hoping for more. We didn’t see so many ‘standard’ birds – I am sure the weather affected our birding significantly.
We got to the airport with about 1 hour and 30 minutes to spare before our flight. The flight left on time and landed slightly early into Cape Town. Safely home by 4pm.
We throughly enjoyed the time. I could have stayed for longer actually. We are already looking forward to our next trip – which hopefully will be possible despite Covid – to celebrate my 50th!
It was overcast for the most of the day and the temperature never got much above 27 degrees. It was actually relatively cool at times especially when driving with the window open. We did head north for our morning drive. Unfortunately, due to the heavy recent rains up north, some of the dirt roads are still closed. That included the river drive that H and I love to take when up in this area. It consists of 3 loops actually and fortunately the middle one of the three was open so we could do that. The road follows the river and the you generally see a lot of game and birds. Overcast conditions aren’t great for birding though but it does tend to favour seeing game.
We saw an Eland (pretty rare in the Kruger and harder to see than most of the predators) while still on the tar road. On the dirt road, as we rounded one bend there was a hyena in the road with something in its mouth. It immediately ran off and while we were trying to find it a leopard crossed the road and then we fortunately had another brief glimpse of it in the bush as well. We never saw either of them again but we went back to the spot the hyena emerged from and you could smell a carcass (though we couldn’t see it). It was probably a kill by the leopard. We also saw two honey badgers running down the road as well during the trip. Our favourite road did not disappoint again.
I had some meetings late morning and early afternoon and the rest spent the day resting before we headed out on the evening drive at 3:30pm. It was again a pleasant drive but no new game and no predators. We did have another altercation with a male elephant (very old, with one very long tusk and the other broken off half way) which required us to reverse for about 500 meters before it gave up and let us go past. Given past experiences with elephants, I am particularly cautious now though it does feel like we had more run ins with elephants this trip than previous ones.
It was our last dinner (braai) with M & O as they would head back the next day. Another enjoyable evening and into bed relatively early (fresh air, sun and early mornings!).
Until later …
P, H, S (he braai’d and washed up), M (he got the fire going), O, K & B
