Friday 22 January 2010.

I left Johannesburg at 0500 to meet with my friend J. J. in Bronkhorstspruit.

We had a pleasant drive to Phalaborwa (from Sotho: better than the South) and entered the Park at around 1200.  It was very hot and humid.

In this area the Park has put in some 2 Wheel Drive tracks for vehicles with a high ground clearance.  I don't know if this is on an experimental basis, but they are interesting.  It reminds you of driving around on a farm somewhere.  We drove on two, for us, new tracks and ended up on the banks of the Letaba River (from Sotho: Sand river) at a viewpoint.

Our Camp was just across the river but we had to retrace our tracks by 24 km to get to where we wanted to be.

We spent the first night in Shimuwini Bush camp.  (The place of the baobab).  The Bush camps are kept fairly exclusive and normally have around 14 chalets and no facilities such as shops.  They also have a stretch of private roads, which is for the use of residents only.

This was my first time in Shimuwini.  The manager on duty was very friendly and efficient and came down later to see if we had settled in.

It is located on the banks of the Letaba river and has been kept in a natural state.  The chalets are in clusters of three and separated by natural vegetation from one cluster to another.

Shimuwini

Only four of the 16 chalets were occupied.  There is a lawn in front of the chalets up to the fence.

We unpacked and saw that we had a slow puncture in the front tire.

JJ started to change the wheel and I saw that the sweat was pouring off him.  To alleviate his suffering I brought him large glasses of ice filled with vodka and orange juice.

The heat was palpable and we sat on the veranda and downed glass after glass of the stuff!

A duiker  then came to visit us and refused good food such as apple but was happy to munch away on beskuit.  I know you are not supposed to feed the animals, but this one was almost domesticated!

The sunset atmosphere was very peaceful with a few crocodiles drifting in the river and birds flying along to find their roost for the night.  Later hippos came up the river and climbed out to go grazing; obviously accompanied by the normal grunting and snorting.

After a supper of lamb chops and boerewors, accompanied by my famous potatoes and onions, dry baked in a potjie, we went for a swim.  Yes, Shimuwini is the only bush camp that I know of that has a pool.

As bush camps go, Shimuwini does not rate that highly in my estimation.  I measure all camps against Biyamiti.  My reasons are that it is in Mopani Bush.  This gets quite dreary after a time.  Although there is a road along the Letaba River, it is not as scenic or as game productive as the Biyamiti Road.  The chalets are not as well appointed as Biyamiti.  The fridge does not have an ice compartment and is placed on the stoop.  We had to put the ice bricks in a freezer at the camp gate.

Biyamiti has a proper kitchen.  For an extended stay, Shimuwini does not have access to the number of roads that Biyamiti has.  The fridge was so loud that I could not leave my door open to try and catch any of the almost non-existent breezes and I had to swelter through a very hot night in a room where the hot air was swirled around by an overhead fan.

Saturday 23 January 2010.

We left at around 0530; the camp gates open at 0430, for Mopani camp. At Mopani, we had breakfast on the veranda overlooking the Pioneer dam.  The dam was very full and we had a good sighting of the beautiful Violet-backed starling.

We then drove to the Stapelkop dam, as I still needed a photo of that area.  At the dam a large herd of elephants were playing in the water.  Although it was still early, it was already hot.  The teenage elephants were chasing birds and just generally showing off and having a good time.

From there it was a long drive to Letaba, Olifants, Satara and our destination Talamati Bush camp.we drove to Olifants along the scenic route next to the Sabie River and we came to a small isolated pond on the right-hand side of the road.  We stopped to look at the terrapins and when they saw us they swam towards us as fast as they could with their little heads and necks stretched out of the water.  A small crocodile also swam towards us.  We didn't understand what was going on until we saw the terrapins climb out of the water and come running towards our car as fast as their little legs could carry them.

We realised then that tourists had been feeding the terrapins and they were looking for a free meal.  The crocodile was trying to catch the terrapins as they clambered out of the water!

Olifants is undergoing major alterations and they have completed a wooden deck for the restaurant with trees growing through the flooring.  This gives a great view of the river below and also allows you to sit in the shade of a tree.  When it is finished it's going to be a real winner.

The drive to Talamati was uneventful, with the normal sighting of game.  At this time of the year the bush is very green and lush.  Some areas had more rain than others and here the grass was very high, making it difficult to see game.  According to my GPS we were supposed to arrive at Talamati at around 1810.  The gate closes at 1830.

We were driving along and around a bend in the road came a huge bull elephant, strolling casually towards us. 

We stopped and reversed, giving him time and space to move off the road.  He still came along. 

We reversed some more, still he came. 

We reversed again, no difference. 

We stood our ground hoping that he would take the hint and move off.  No chance.

We could see that he was not overtly aggressive but that he almost seemed to be playing a game with us.  He was enjoying the feeling of power he had.

We then turned around, because we thought that this "game" could get a lot more serious.

Further down, the road split around a tree.  We debated whether we should wait at the end of the split and then see which way he would go.  We would then charge past him.  But as there were only a few metres and a few bushes separating the roads, we decided it would be too dangerous should he decide to escalate the incident.

In the meantime the GPS showed us that we would not make it back into camp by 1830.

The afternoon game drive vehicle then came up behind elephant.  We stood our ground hoping that he would feel pressurised from the front and the rear and move off the road.  Dream on!

The game drive vehicle then shot past the elephant at the split in the road.  We asked the Ranger to chase the elephant away and he said he could, but to do so would frighten his passengers.  He then carried on with his drive, leaving us behind to deal with the elephant.

We drove a bit further and he still came ambling down the road.

I then decided that we needed to take drastic action.  I waited until he came closer and I then climbed half out of the window of the car and started shouting at the top of my voice and waving my arms about.

The elephant came to a dead stop.  He lifted his head and I swear you could see the consternation on his face.  We were not playing the game according to his rules.  This was not part of his experience.  Tourists don't shout at elephants.

He stood frozen for what felt to be an eternity.  We could see that he was trying to decide what to do.

J. J. then clapped his hands and I joined him, still shouting.  This was too much for the elephant.  He veered off the road and then turned to look at us.

J. J. turned the car and we shot past him.  We broke the speed rules and made it into the camp 10 minutes late.  The gate was still open and the manager was not perturbed about our late coming or about the behaviour of his elephant.

Note the Game Drive Vehicle behind the Elephant

That evening was very hot and humid again.  There was distant thunder and lightning in the sky, but no promise of any rain relief.

Talamati is on the banks of a dry river and has a very nice waterhole which is lit up at night.  There is a lot of resident game in that area.

We were sitting near the fire listening to the baboons settling in for the night.  The large trees in the camp and all along the fence, a few metres from us, made us feel as if we were deep in the bush.  Suddenly, very close, a leopard coughed twice.  We shone out torches into the bush, but it was too dense to see him.  He was obviously watching us.

At around 0430 the next morning, the loud rasping of a leopard, very close to our chalet woke me.  We looked for him again, but could not see him.

Sunday 24 January 2010.

We left at around 0600 but did not have far to drive that day.

On our way we had some good sightings of Steppe eagles and Hobby falcons, all the way from Kazakhstan and Russia.

We stopped at Orpen dam to see if it had any water.  On our last trip there were only a few centimetres of water left.  Now it had filled up quite nicely.

There was a large group of Chinese there, clicking away at everything and making a lot of noise.  This was their first experience of Africa and they were wildly excited about everything that moved.

We met them again at the Nkumbe viewpoint.  This is on top of a small mountain and one can see for miles.  The grass plains below are usually full of game.  The one Chinese got very agitated when he imagined that he saw lions hunting rhino below.  He was shouting and waving his arms about.  Somewhat like me trying to chase the elephant away!

I checked with my binoculars but there were only three rhinos having a leisurely mud bath.  No sign of lions.  There were six giraffe as well and some wildebeest, identified by the Chinese as buffalo, all of them very relaxed.

We arrived at Lower Sabie at lunchtime.  It's the first time that I have stayed here.  We had a chalet designed for handicapped people which meant that our veranda had a wall around it to prevent wheelchairs from tumbling down to the lawn below.  The chalet does not have any stairs.

The chalet overlooked the Sabie river and we had a great big Sycamore fig in front of us.  This tree attracts a lot of birds during the daytime and fruit bats at night.

For the first time we had air conditioning!  Hallelujah!  We closed up everything, turned it on full blast and had a good nap.

We drove down to Crocodile Bridge that afternoon.  On the way back we saw a pile of lions under a tree about 400 m away.  They were sleeping and their bodies were so entangled that we could not count them properly.  We estimated there were nine lions there.

Later we saw a large herd of buffalo and quite a few rhino, as well as elephant.

At the Nthandanyathi hide a rhino cow and her half grown calf came very close to us trying to cross the road.

There was water in the river and the elephants came to the hide to drink and to throw cooling mud behind their ears and under their bellies.

We had so far, seen four of the big five on that day.  The only animal that eluded us was a leopard.

Later in the camp as we were waiting for our fire to burn down we were watching what the couple in the chalet next door were doing.  He started a charcoal fire and also started a gas skottel.  This was new to us.  Most people have a braai and are OK with that.  This was obviously a gourmet chef and he  whisked up a starter and a main meal for the Missus and himself.  I take my hat off to him.  It was stinking hot and humid and J. J. and I were just trying to catch a cooling breeze and not do anything that would cause us to break out in a sweat.

After supper we went for a swim in the salt-water pool.  The water was lukewarm and not very refreshing but that least had washed off all the sweat.  Some black yuppie girls were there as well.  Overweight and very loud.

Monday 25 January 2010.

At around 0300 it started raining.  What a relief.  I switched off the air conditioner and let the cool breeze come into the chalet.  It was still drizzling when we left at around 0630.  Kruger is always full of surprises and this day was no exception.  We saw a hippo next to the road obviously very comfortable to walk around in the drizzle.  He just had a very mean look to him as if we owed him money.

We saw a number of Tortoises on the tar road.  I believe they go there deliberately to drink from the puddles of fresh water on the road.

We have all heard that Kruger has an overpopulation of elephant and most tourists get slightly bored with them after a few days.  On this day we drove around six hours from Lower Sabie to Skukuza and then to Berg-en-dal.

We saw five rhino, hyena, two leopards and no elephant.  Unbelievable.  I can now safely say that Kruger probably has more leopards than elephants!