If yesterday was a day for seeing Rhino, then today was a day for seeing Lion.  We surpassed our Rhino count with 14 Lion today. In fact we did so well with Lion that in the afternoon when we were at one of the watering holes someone said they had seen a lion in the bush and we weren’t bothered even to stay and look for it.

We had a long drive today from Pretoriuskop to Orpen.  It was about 180 km and when you only drive at around 35-40 km/h that makes for a drive that takes the whole day.  We left just after 6am from Pretoriuskop and arrived at 3pm at Orpen.  It was however I very productive game viewing game especially if you measure it by number of lion seen.  Fron Pretoriuskop to Skukuza took us about 2 hours and we saw a reasonable amount of game but no lion on that leg.  We stopped for breakfast at Skukuza and then headed further North to Satara.  The road from Skukuza to Satara was packed with game and we saw our first pride of 8 lion (including 2 cubs) on that road.  Shortly afterwards we stopped at dam and it was teaming with game (including some birds we which had seen for the first time on the trip).  Michael was scanning the tree line when he suddenly shouted out “Lion” and sure enough there was a big male lion under the tree. It didn’t seem that many of the other cars had even seen it.  We even lent our binoculars to a foreign couple so that they could see it (and they were delighted).

Not very long after that and we came upon a 5 lion at the next watering hole. Our fount of knowledge (Michael) who has been reading the mammal book told us that prides can be apart by 50 kms and so it is likely that they could all be part of the same pride.  Neither the 5 nor the 8 seemed to have a male present so the the male we saw definitely could have been with either batch.

Add to the 14 lion, great sightings of buffalo, elephant, giraffe, kudu, some more rhino, wildebeest, zebra and we really did see a huge amount today.  Add in that the temperature reached 40 degrees after lunch and it was a very surprising day really. In that short of heat you really don’t expect to see much wildlife but we really did extremely well.

The Kruger Park seems to now be outsourcing it’s restaurants and so we ended up having lunch at the Mugg & Bean at Satara.  Much better than the previously run national park restaurants.  And then also had a Debonaire’s pizza at Satara.  It was not particularly cheap but portion sizes were generous and the quality was good and that certainly made up for the cost (though to be fair my mother-in-law paid so who I am to complain!).

I was also impressed by the stick-ability of my mother-in-law today.  She and I were the only ones to be looking the whole day.  Everyone else dosed off at some stage. Admittedly Michael was next best in that he probably only dosed off for about 10 minutes (just before we stopped for a morning tea break – or ice creams actually would be more precise).

Late this afternoon Helen and I went for a quick drive out of the camp and we were pleased to add Black Backed Jackal to our growing list of animals seen.  It was also a good day for adding new birds including a number while I was just sitting on the veranda of the hut we are staying in at Orpen.  We are now up to 78 trippers but I am still missing Stephen as I am sure we would have seen more if he was with us.  What I have noticed is that we can now ID birds relatively easily and often don’t even need to look them up anymore.  We did have a good day of seeing birds of prey including seeing Brown Snake Eagle, Steppe Eagle and Tawny Eagle.

It was still 35 degrees at 6pm and only now (at 9:30pm) is it starting to cool down.  It is meant to rain tomorrow am and I think that will hopefully cool things down a little.  A lot of the Kruger Park has had substantial fires recently and many places are still smouldering even as you drive. You can smell it in the air even and so a little rain will no doubt bring all the green shoots out after the fires.

We had another braai tonight and enjoyed the falling temperature.  As you can seen Michael and Chloe got in some more maths studying before dinner. Just as we finished eating dinner Chloe spotted a honey badger.  They had warned us not to leave any food out because of the honey badgers and baboons.  So that adds another species to our growing list. And just as I type this the honey badger has tried to get into our cupboards (the kitchen is outside and has locks on all the cupboards). They clearly are quite clever animals. The wind has also picked up a lot and so maybe that promised rain is on route.

Until tomorrow

P, H, M, C and the in laws

(And as I finish the electricity has just tripped … and come back on again … must be the approaching storm/rain)

We have 2 nights accommodation at Pretoriuskop and so we decided today we would take it easy.  We still got up for an early morning game drive and left at sunrise (6am). To start with the drive did not yield much but then suddenly we started to see Rhino and ended up seeing 10 Rhino in about 30 minutes. At that point we had seen more Rhino than we had seen Impala!  It included a sighting of a crash of six Rhino together. That means Michael and I have seen 13 Rhino so far (and the rest of them have seen 11). You wouldn’t say that they were being continually hunted and that over 400 have been killed this year in the Kruger Park alone.  The rest of the game drive didn’t yield much except that we added Klipspringer, Duiker and Reedbuck to our list of animals (and Mongoose). We also added a few more birds to the list and including the evening game drive we are now up to 60 trippers but unfortunately no lifers yet.

We came back for a late breakfast and then spent the day in the camp.  Some reading, some sleeping, some watching of Ryder Cup Golf (the wonders of modern technology and being able to watch Supersport through my cellphone). Lunch and then some more reading, some sleeping, more watching of golf and Michael and Chloe did some Maths exam questions/papers (both are writing Maths exam shortly after we get back).

At 3:30pm we headed out for another drive.  The temperature had risen considerably over the day and when we headed out it was 30 degrees again.  Not a lot of game to be seen but we did finally add Wildebeest to the list of animals seen.  It amazingly took us over 2 days to see our first Wildebeest.  We did have some really close sightings (separately) of Kudu, Giraffe and Buffalo (right next to the road and they were bothered by us at all).  But it was a no predator day even though some people we spoke to at the camp said they had seen Wild Dog and a cheetah was spotted on the same road we had driven in the morning.  It is all a matter of timing though and we clearly didn’t have it today.  It was a very relaxing day though and that is probably what we all needed.

The mandatory braai to end off the evening with some good company and good wine (I made sure they brought it from Cape Town). We bought some Impala Chops from the shop today and gave those a try on the braai.  They were a little tough but quite tasty. Seemed fitting to eat Impala in the Kruger Park. We are staying a family unit (3 bedrooms) and interestingly we discovered (courtesy of the plaque outside) that they were originally built for the Royal visit in the 1940’s from King Edward.  They were especially mosquito proofed for their visit (I assume that meant they put up mosquito nets over the doors and windows). Not particularly luxurious for a King but we are content with it.

Until tomorrow …. P, H, M, C and the In Laws

We got up at 5:40am this morning so that we be out of the camp for an early morning sunrise drive.  We went to a bird hide called the Lake Panic Hide. I am not sure if it is the birdlife or the viewers who should be panicking.  There was only one car when we arrived and 8 when we left. We definitely got the most peaceful viewing for about 10 minutes before the hordes arrived.  There was a Black-headed Heron in it’s nest with at least 2 young ones. They were making an awful racket but did eventually calm down.  Numerous hippo’s and quite a lot of other bird life to be seen as well. After the mandatory coffee & rusks (and hot chocolate) it was back to Skukuza for breakfast.

We then packed up as we had to be out of our accommodation by 9am and made our way to our next camp – Pretoriuskop. As you can only check in at 2pm we took the long road to get there by heading south-east to Lower Sabie first. It turned out to be an excellent decision because the Skukuza-Lower Sabie is famed to be the best for game viewing the Kruger Park and it lived up to it’s reputation. It was teaming with game of all sorts – impala by the thousands, kudu, nyala, giraffe, elephant, huge herd of buffalo, zebra, steenbok, waterbuck, warthog.  We also saw another hyena (that is now three sightings). Add to that 2 lionesses lying on a rock and our first 2 hours out of Skukuza was pretty impressive.

We then turned west onto a gravel road to cut through to Pretoriuskop camp. The road was very rutted and was about 30 kms so everyone took a bit of a hammering on the road.  Chloe kept asking ‘How much longer on this road?’ I think it was worse the further back you sat but my hands felt like they were shaken to pieces as well from holding the steering wheel. We were rewarded though with another sighting of Lion – this time a very large male (with a beautiful mane) and his female companion. It was midday and around 30 degrees though so they weren’t doing anything but lying around.  There were also numerous Rhino middens (their piles of ….) and we hoped we would add one of them to our sighting list.  We were eventually rewarded when we got to Renosterpan (for those who don’t understand Afrikaans that means Rhino pan). You would hope to see Rhino there and we were suitably rewarded.

We stopped briefing at another dam for lunch (this time inside the car as we couldn’t get out) and then on to Pretoriuskop.  We arrived at 2pm exactly so that we could immediately check in and unpack into our chalet.  We are here for two nights. We all loafed for the afternoon though Michael was impressively studying for his Maths exam which he will do shortly after we get back.  He even tried to study for some time in the car on the dirt road!

Michael and I went out for a late afternoon drive and we managed to see three of the big five in just over an hour.  We saw three Rhino (including a baby), Elephant and Buffalo (right on the side of the road). Add to that some more birding trippers and we are now at 44 trippers.  Still missing Stephen in this regard because we definitely don’t stop as often for bird sightings and so the birding is almost incidental when we stop for something else.  Of course with only Michael and I in the car it would have been an ideal time for him to practice driving a manual but I would never allow that in a rental car and in a game park (with things like elephants around).

Back to the camp where Brian already had the fire going for the mandatory evening braai.  Michael and Chloe both now were impressively studying in the fading light with the LED torches. By 7:30pm the dinner was finished and Chloe and Michael were braaiing marshmallows on the fire.

Another early night as the early morning and fresh air has caught up with everyone.  It is now 9:30pm and everyone except me is in bed.

Until tomorrow

P, M (because he came out with me this evening), H & C (and the in laws)

 

We have been silent for a few months but we are back on the road again.  We are back in the Kruger Park.  It was quite a logistical challenge to get this trip organised as I had to be in London and Cologne before this.  I left Cologne, Germany yesterday afternoon.  My trip did involve plains, trains & automobiles just as the heading says but not in that order.  First, I had to take a train from Cologne to Frankfurt.  Unusually for Germany, the train was running late and of course (not unusually for Germany) all the announcements were made in German.  Hundreds of people milling around on the station trying to find out what was going on.  Fortunately I had booked an earlier train to allow for this possibility.  I still got in to Frankfurt airport 2.5 hours before my flight to Johannesburg was leaving.

It took about 15 minutes to walk from the train station (yes the one at the airport) to security, another 20 minutes to get through security and another 20 minutes to get through passport control.  Frankfurt airport has the strictest security I experience.  You basically have to walk through the scanner in your underwear and then the things still buzzes and you have be frisked (quite violently I might add).  The guy told me it was my passport (which was in my pocket) that set it off … seriously … didn’t know that paper set off the scanner!

The plane boarded slightly late and we left slightly late our of Frankfurt and we landed slightly late into Johannesburg.  All of this mattered to me because I was trying to get an earlier connection to Nelspruit airport (where I was picking up the van).  We ended up on a remote parking stand which meant a bus trip into the terminal.  Fortunately this didn’t take too much time and I managed to get through passport quickly and through to the domestic terminal.  At check in the lady said I must go to the ticketing counter to get my flight changed.  I did that and the lady at the ticketing counter told me I had to go back to check in to get offloaded from the later flight.  I did that and went back to ticketing again.  After about 10 minutes of punching keys and taking some money from me because I was changing flights, she said I was set.  Went back to check in again (now with about 40 minutes to departure) and they checked me in.  I was happily making my way to security when I thought to look at the boarding pass only to notice they had checked me in onto the original later flight! And that included my suitcase.

I rushed back to counter and pointed it out and they looked sheepish and tried to move me onto the earlier flight and said I was now waitlisted (even though I had been told there were seats available). I was also asking what was going to happen to my suitcase now it was checked onto the wrong flight. They eventually (after various phone calls) told me that I did have a seat and gave me a new boarding pass and they had changed the digital signature of my suitcase (I didn’t know my suitcase had a signature) and that it would definitely be on the correct flight with me.  I had my doubts and expressed them.

By this stage the flight was already boarding and I had to still clear security.  Usually that is quick but when I got to security there must have been 100 people in the line.  I realised it was cut to the front or miss the flight.  So I did that thing where everyone else looks at you with an irritated look and I cut to the front apologizing the whole way to every 5th person or so.  Through security (no beeping at all despite not taking everything out of my pockets) and straight to the gate for boarding.  The lady at the gate was the original person who told me how to get my ticket changed and she said she was pleased that I made the flight.  I told her what had happened and that I doubted my luggage was going to be on the correct plane.  I got onto the bus.

5 minutes of standing on the bus and same said airline person comes onto the bus to tell me that the baggage basement (didn’t know my baggage had a basement) had called to say my bag definitely would not make the flight. After speaking to the duty controller, she said I could move back to the later flight and arrive with my luggage if I wanted to do that (and they would try and arrange a refund) but she suggested I fly on the earlier one anyway (less work for her I guess). While we were talking the basement people phoned again to say that my bag definitely wasn’t making the flight as I checked in too late and the check in clerk should have told me that. NOT!

I resigned myself to having to waste an hour at the airport in Nelspruit and with much irritation got back on the bus.  We arrived at the plane and were told that we had to wait on the bus until the captain said it was ok to board.  We never got the signal and then it turns out that they had taken us to the wrong plane. Could this get any worse I was wondering. After eventually getting to the correct plane we boarded and someone remarked that they hoped the right luggage was on the plane.  I bit my tongue.

We landed at Kruger-Nelspruit airport just before 10am.  When I got off I told the airline lady my plight and she said I would need to go with her to do the paperwork for the bag. I said I would just wait and make 100% sure that it didn’t make the flight before I did that. And lo and behold, second bag off was my suitcase.  The very same one which twice had been confirmed by the basement people would DEFINITELY not be on the flight.  What airline you may ask – SA Airlink,  Organisation is clearly not their strong point.

I had made it to Mpumulanga before Helen and co had taken off from Cape Town yet.  They were on a 10:35am flight directly into Skukuza.  Yes – such a flight does now exist and is the best way to get to the Kruger Park because you don’t have to navigate any of the Mpumulanga roads. They left on time and in relative calmness.  I picked up the rental car – VW Kombi – and headed to Hazyview where I stopped to do some grocery shopping for the next 5 days.  The Spar Superstore was an experience. Most things sold in bulk.  Bulk chicken legs, bulk Ox tripe (in blocks), 48 packets of Niknaks in one bulk pack.  Obviously everyone buys once a year here and clearly things I would never consider buying. Fresh meat, fresh chicken not to be seen. As I drove out I found the Pick ‘n Pay which was more like my type of store but very small and with hardly any choice as well but I did at least get fresh chicken.

Then it was off to the Kruger Gate. I was now racing the clock and Helen and co’s plane.  I lost. Mainly because the road from Hazyview to the Kruger Gate is terrible. Cows, taxi’s, traffic police all driving with flashing blue lights on, buses, pedestrians … all of them thinking the road is just for them. Add to that potholes and a 60 km/h speed limit for 40 kms and it was an annoying journey.  I got to the Kruger gate and as I was entering I got a message to say they had landed at Skukuza.  I had about 20 minutes still to cover to get to the airport.  We were all re-united at about 1:15pm.  Stress over as we were all safely in the park.

Who would have thought I could write over 1000 words and not say anything about the Kruger Park itself! We went and checked in at Skukuza where we are staying tonight, had some lunch and chilled for a few hours before heading out this afternoon on our first game drive. We had already seen Elephant and Buffalo (2 of the big 5) and Bushbuck from the camp (they were in the river below the camp).  I had almost hit a Kudu on the way to fetching them from the airport and of course we had seen Impala.  In addtion, on the late afternoon game drive we saw Hippo, Nyala, Zebra, Girraffe, Warthog, Banded Mongoose and 2 Hyena. Add to that 18 birds so far (without really looking including some nice birds of prey like Martial Eagle, Fish Eagle, Bateleur) and it was quite a good drive.  Almost hit an elephant as we were driving looking into the setting sun and didn’t see the thing until we were amidst the herd. And had to fight off another lot as we crossed the river back into the camp as they were blocking the end of the bridge. Already seen around 100 elephant.

Back to the camp for a braai.  It is National Braai Day (offically Heritage Day) and what a better way to spend the day than in the Kruger Park. It was a loverly evening (around 28 degrees when we got back to the camp). When we last stayed in the same accommodation, Helen went to the fence and shone her torch right into the eyes of a Hyena.  Michael and Helen were repeating it tonight and managed to do a full repeat and saw (possibly the same) Hyena.  There were also two hippo chomping near the fence.

It is now 9:30pm and everyone is in bed and most are asleep.  I am about to join them. One noteable exception to this trip is that Stephen is missing.  He has Varsity and so couldn’t come. I am missing him for his birding prowess. Everyone else is missing him because this is our first time to the Kruger as a family without him. Sorry you’re not with us Stephen 🙁

P, H, M, C (and the in-laws)