I wanted to try to get to Lake Panic for sunrise (realising all along this was a futile task with SS), so set the alarm for 4:30am. It was still dark at this point, and I pushed him into the shower whilst I made tea, cereal, poured the fruit juice etc. Waste of an extra hours sleep in retrospect as whilst that meant we were at Lake Panic by 5:20am, we did not see anything we had not seen when we had arrived an hour later the previous day. But it is a very special place at any time - the peace, lack of any human sounds, just sitting and listening to birds and hippos doing their thing. Mesmerising really.
After an hour or so, we decided to go and see what else was happening around the Park, swelled with our success so far at sightings (which of course is all luck). In particular I wanted to see some elephants, and SS wanted to see some different geology/topography, and cheetahs of course. So we decided to drive towards Lower Sabie (SE of Skukuza).
There was not much around at this time - we saw some more vervet monkeys hanging around.
And a little primate just hangin' in the middle of the road - he was not really bothered by us, and had no intention of scampering off.
We saw our first kudu - magnificent set of horns!
And we stopped off briefly at the Nkhulu Picnic site - there are a lot more of these sites that have sprung up around the Park where you can stop and get out to have some food, stretch your legs, take a loo break etc. Great idea. We had a nice time by the Sabie river, watching some hippos, people watching, and ate our apples.
Watching three hippos frolic around...
Back in the car, we decided to take some of the side, non-sealed roads as you tend to see more. Not today however - this was as exciting as the view got really...
Crossing a causeway there was a buffalo, but in a 15km long road this set of solo horns was the only sighting.
On to Lower Sabie, where again we got out, read some interesting posters they had up about the topography and geology of the Park, and also visited the Park Shop of course. Just research to make sure they all have the same thing, priced at the same level (they do).
The useful part was the sightings board where people helpfully put up what was seen and where on the previous day - I could see the road just south of the park had had a lot of elephant activity, and Simon saw the road NE had some cheetah sitings, so we were set for our afternoon driving route. First a little further south towards the road with the elephants. On the way, we were again flashed by a helpful car, who told us to take the next left turn as there was a leopard in the tree. Sure enough, there he was. Surrounded by 4x4s who were NOT moving to allow newcomers in squat little tin can VW Polos to take a look.
About 200m down the road I saw something much more exciting - I think this is a fish-eagle, but don't quote me! I am not the best bird spotter/identifier. Beautiful position in the dead tree against the blue sky. We stayed and watched him for about 15 minutes, with other cars slowing down, asking what we were looking at, us pointing out the bird, and them looking at us as tho' we were mad, shrugging and driving on (presumably looking for leopards!). One other car did join us for a longer viewing, and again my lens envy came out - this guy had a MASSIVE lens, and a bean bag the size of a normal pillow to support it on the door of the car... Sigh.
Off went Nelson the elephant into the bush, nicely caked in cool mud. The temperature at this point was well over 30 degrees again, so I could see the muddy enticement.
I was excited to have seen him, and so we buzzed along up the road a bit further, only to see another elephant on the far side of the causeway up ahead. Not realising what we were driving into, we moved further up the road on to the causeway itself... I was excited to see another elephant on the right hand side of the road up ahead, so I slowly moved up towards the small causeway...
Looked to the left, and there was a huge herd, including babies only about a year old or so, all splashing around in the river having a FABULOUS time. I was a bit nervous, given the number of babies and potential for angry mamas, but we stopped to take a look and so SS could take some photos from his side of the car.
I kept looking around, and lucky I did, because from behind I suddenly saw emerging from the bushes... THIS
She was MAD, ears at full flap, trunk raised and honking at us as she walked with purpose straight at TinCan... Luckily she was emerging from behind, and so I just said, "Right, we're out of here, and foot flatted it down the road for 50m (as much as you can in the TinCan), until we ran into THIS...
Not a good situation, I was looking out the rear view mirror, and luckily the matriarch was not in sight at this point, because immediately behind the little family above, emerged a teenage large elephant who did not like the look of us. She got halfway across the road, stopped, and turned to look right at us. Flapping her ears. Angrily.
So, now we were pinned on the road between Junior Flapper ahead, and Big Mama Flapper behind.
"Oh My God, whaddoido? Whaddoido?" was me. "Don't know don't know don't know" was SS. I put TinCan in reverse, adrenalin coursing, and decided if I could just give the Junior Flapper enough room to get across the road, she probably didn't REALLY want to charge us. I crept back about 10m, and stopped again. Junior Flapper shook her head a few times, decided it was all too hot for this, and lumbered off across the road. The minute she was off the road, I put my foot flat to get past her. As TinCan squealed past I saw her out of the corner of my eye, turning back to the road looking grumpy, but we were past by then, and breathing hard. Phew.
Further down the road, once we relaxed a bit, we saw our first zebras...
Together with this adorable little buck nursery - aren't they the sweetest little things all hanging out in the shade in the heat, with the one kindergarten teacher left in charge...
Back on to the main road, and then on to the second sandy road of the day (this was the one where the cheetahs had been spotted, and the cheetah is SS's favourite animal of all time).
Unfortunately the cheetahs proved elusive, and in 42 km of dry hot road, we were not rewarded with any special sitings. It was so incredibly hot, and the sun was beating down on my right arm - during the time so far in the park I had acquired a lovely patch of sunburn on my "driving" arm which screamed whenever it was in the sun (which was slightly too often for my liking). We passed one patch of business (some wildebeest with their attendant zebras).
And then we hit miles and miles of this... Hot dry road. There was no turning back, and I knew I had another 28km to go. SS promptly went to sleep, and I went as fast as the speed limit and TinCan would allow in the midday beating sun, wishing we had never gone in search of cheetahs.
Towards the end of the road there was another waterhole which provided a break as it had attracted the only animals silly enough to be walking around in the heat of the day - giraffes, and a particularly cute warthog family. We stopped for a few minutes to watch them.
And this photo really does put the size of a giraffe in scale - that is a 4x4 just behind it!
The baby giraffes are very cute.
And I do love watching giraffes drink - so awkward for animals that are otherwise so elegant.
Here is the little warthog family.
And a medley of zebras - I have no idea what the two on the left are doing - reminds me of walking down the street with my sister growing up and fighting for the middle of the pavement.
It really was standing room only.
Back on to the boring sandy path, and then on back to Skukuza. We decided to book in for dinner at Selati restaurant on the far side of the camp for our last night - this had always been tentatively the plan, and we did not have enough food to last for the full 4 nights in Skukuza. Skukuza used to be on a railway line, and when the line was decommissioned they rolled one of the last carriages into a siding and have converted it into a bar. The station platform is now the restaurant. Lovely idea and provides a sense of history in the park. Booking in involved writing your name in the appointment book with time and date next to it since the restuarant is not attended during the day.
All booked in, we headed back to our rondawel. Unfortunately, this is when I opened the fridge to discover that we had been burgled. I should explain that the fridge is outside on the stoep or patio, and you are advised that because the monkeys and baboons now know how to open the fridges, you should leave a chair or table wedged against the door at all times to stop them raiding the fridge (literally). We did this at all times, and so clearly this theft was human. Very sad. They took our tray of four piece of corn, a Tempo bar, and two apples. Didn't take the wine or boerewors, so I had my suspicions it was the guys that were working on the rondawel next door - they are the ones most likely to have been watching when we were in and out, and also to know we had things in the fridge. I remember when we stayed in the Kruger in the 80s we did not even have locks on the doors of the rondawels, so it is really saddening to see these sorts of changes.
In any case, I made us some chicken salad sandwiches for lunch, and we had a quick nap then sat out watching the lizards and the river.
More entertainment then arrived with our new neighbours checking in. As they were unpacking their groceries, she made the mistake of turning her back for a minute, and sure enough, in swooped Papa Vervet who decided the yoghurts looked really nice. The man chased him off, but it was too late by then, so there was nothing for it but to laugh and take photos of the intrepid little man. They are incredibly dextrous, peeling the lids off each yoghurt in turn, and tasting which was best to determine the order of eating...
Papa Vervet had a good snack, then took the four tubs down to Mama Vervet to share the spoils. They look so cosy relaxing by the river with their picnic...
It turns out that they were only the vanguard however - and soon behind came the rest of the troop. Babies, mothers etc all looking for a snack. Lock up your food!
The males are actually very aggressive about the food, and have some sharp teeth on them. There are warnings given everywhere not to feed them - the main reason being that when you give a male monkey food, you are acting submissive and making yourself into one of its troop. This means the monkeys will start regarding humans as lower class and lose any residual fear.
Sunset started slowly, and we enjoyed it on a bench next to the river with a cool beer.
And, in SS's case, with a newspaper. He assured me he was enjoying the sights and sounds of Africa in between paragraphs ;-)
It was a lovely, pastel sunset.
Time to get started on "Man Make Fire Part 2 - the Bug's Revenge".
We were inundated. Not with mosquitoes (I had mosquito milk with us in any case). But with very large, bluey-black beetles that were determined to fly into my hair. They were joined by the scarab beetles, christmas beetles and various others I didn't know.
But soon the fire was ready, and on went the peppers and wors. No corn of course thanks to our thieves of earlier.
And there we were - boerewors, peppers, salad and buttered bread. YUM.
Halfway through dinner all the power went out. There were many loud bangs which initially SS thought were a susbstation blowing up, but was just the lightning moving closer as the storm from went over. The power came on briefly, and then was out again. I had a torch, and we stood outside the rondawel in the dark, with SS enjoying his first ever electrical storm. It was not the strongest I had seen (having grown up in Johannesburg), but the lightning strikes were so bright it was like daylight. Amazing. The storm lasted about 90 minutes, and then the heavy rain came through. This meant SS had a great night's sleep with the heavy rain and excitement from the storm.
Adrenaline-inducing ellie pictures - they looked pretty cranky! BTW - it's a tawny eagle :-)
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