Another great trip…they all are!

An unusual trip in many ways, but largely because i was on a complete detoxification. I am quite sure that i was a bit diddly and not functioning properly.

I stopped everything…smoking, alcohol, vitamins, coffee, energy drinks (after the first few days), meat(except for bacon at breakfast).

I think it was good!!

Completely lightheaded at times, my sleeping patterns went out the window and i found myself sitting under the moon at odd times throughout the nights checking out the milky way and the stars and satellites passing by.

Of course sleep does not matter when i am in the bush, it is very easy to have a nap at any time during the day on any day.
It showed in my photography though…at least that is my story and i am sticking to it! I was a bit disappointed all the same, of the 1430 pictures that i took i deleted over 400 on my first perusal when i got home and was only really pleased with about 20 or so. Not that it really matters…just gives me reason to go and take them all again!!

I saw and experienced some wonderful sights and moments, some of which will not be so easy to see again quickly i am sure.

There was one day when i spent just about the whole day with two mating Leopards…fantastic!…a first for me, and although i have got quite a few pictures of them, there were none that i would be able to print off and frame for the wall.
A few people came by during the course of the day and while chatting i offered to send them the best pics of the two leopards. I feel a bit sheepish now i have seen the quality of the shots but i will be sending half a dozen out to the various folk who mailed me, at least they will be good mementos of the sighting for their personal albums.

Sorry for the delay by the way people…reality has gotten in the way of things these past few months.

There were many more highlights, i sat with 9 lions for a couple of hours one morning early…playing and ‘Kangaroo’ boxing with each other, stalking visitors to the waterhole we were at, i saw another pride of lions taking an impala off a crocodile. On other occasions i saw 5 lions tackling a herd of about fifty buffalo for about an hour and a half, another pride protecting their buffalo kill from about 100 vultures.

I had a real moment with an old bull elephant where i truly had to focus on holding my nerve. On three occasions i saw different birds taking snakes, killing and eating them.

I saw a lion and a rhino facing off to each other at one stage, no contest though, and the lion knew it.

At one point i was parked up by a dam and within 360 degrees i had good sightings of all of the ‘big five’ at the same time, good sized herds of buffalo and elephant, a leopard sleeping up a tree and the lion and rhino facing off.

The list goes on with every day of the trip producing something special.

Unfortunately i had to cut the trip short though and came home after just 30 days, i checked my messages around about the 8 january and realised i needed to get back…too much going on at work.

I came back hoping to be able to return for another month at the end of January but it has proved not to be. Never mind, i will get up there again soon enough, and with the way this financial crisis is going the year long safari to the kruger may come sooner rather than later.

Anyway, i have uploaded some of the pictures i took into the gallery and the blog of the trip follows below together with a few more pics.

Anyone who is reading this has no chance of enjoying as much as i did, but i hope you enjoy anyway.
Ciao ciao

WINTER 2009

Where does the time go?

I set out to write a regular blog on life from the perspective of living in Jozi, and from last spring when i first jotted something down it is now nearly 10 months later. I have written nothing since and it seems like a heartbeat ago!!

Yet when one looks at the events that have taken place over the past ten months it is easy to understand why the time seems to have flown by. It has been a very eventful 10 months indeed!

One of the Iranian ‘dissidents’ wrote of their situation “is this the new revolution or just another ‘tiannanmen Square”. I suppose the same question could be asked of the world at large.

Now, at the end of June 2009 it looks increasingly like it will just be another Tiannenmen Sq, and i suspect that were the same question asked of the world the result would be the same old, same old.

I watched the American elections with great interest. I was left with the thought that it was nothing less than a great big ‘Punch and Judy’ puppet show.

A big production.

I read somewhere that Barack Obama spent around 2.5 BILLION dollars to get elected!

$2.5 Billion. How many people would that feed, clothe and educate over five years? I don’t know but it must be millions. It seems ridiculous.

However, having said that i must say that Barack Obama is the first person who has come along in my lifetime who i would have willingly voted for were i an American, and i will be following his progress staunchly.

To my mind he is the first true leader the world has seen in a long time, barring the likes of Nelson Mandela who was never truly afforded the opportunity to lead, bearing in mind that he was on the back foot (and worse) for most of his life.
I only hope that Obama is not taken out and is able to go on and fulfil his potential which i am sure will set the world on a new path of righteousness.

The financial crisis has kicked in hard hasn’t it? There is little doubt that even if everything was put right today the impact of it all will be with us for a while to come.

We appear to be very fortunate here in SA. Not only have we been governed financially by what has proven to be very astute financial politics, but we also have many things to help us through such as all the jobs being created by the preparations for the 2010 world cup, massive improvement programmes to our roads and infrastructures and an unparalleled demand for new housing. The silver lining to what has been a darkish cloud perhaps?

What happened with all the various inquests into the cause of the financial collapse i wonder. Spin Flu…i mean swine flu suddenly reared its head and the financial story seemed to get blown off the radar regarding newscasts. Is anyone going to be held accountable?

Then along came the expenses scandal from parliament in England.

Apparently they are still only a third of the way through checking everything!! Politicians scamming the taxman, flipping their second homes to line their nests, claiming for the most outrageous expenses such as moats around their homes, gardening, buying fancy furniture, pornographic movies…the list goes on.

What i find most outrageous of all is the fact that they not only try to defend their actions but they seem to think it is ok to just pay the money back and simply apologise!!

How many people sit in prison today for relatively petty crimes who would cut off a finger for the opportunity to just say sorry and move on with their lives.

The greatest crime will occur if the most blatant abuses are not tried in court as would be the case with virtually any other member of society.

Then there is the brown clown. Now i don’t want to assassinate the man’s character, there are clearly many good points to him.
However, since his initiation as prime minister, following which he attempted to impersonate Winston Churchill when a couple of unexploded bombs were found in London and a fire was started at Glasgow by a couple of ‘wannabes’ he has gone on to ridicule himself by virtue of the seemingly obvious fact that he thinks everyone else is stupid.

Take the expenses scandal for example, not only did he try to condone his cabinet ministers who were caught up in the scandal by saying they had apologised and paid the money back, but he also tried to tell us that it was not the fault of the politicians involved but in fact it was the fault of the systems in place. Poor little politicians!!

How absurd is that?

The systems probably are outdated and in urgent need of overhauling but after all is said and done it must be said that the systems were put in place to be populated by honest and honourable people.

Clearly they are not honest and honourable people as a whole.

Here in SA we also have a new president in the form of Jacob Zuma. His election following closely on the heels of a complete furore of various public scandals, financial, sexual…
I accept that there is never smoke without fire, but one also has to accept that in the world we live in today there are also many smoke screens created by many people for many reasons.

From what i have seen and heard so far i think that the guy has to be given a fair chance. The fact is that he appears to be attempting to tackle all of the important issues and making all the right noises in all the right places. As with everything, time will tell.

Meanwhile, the life goes on, as it always does. Whatever happens i will still be having a chuckle with the mirror each night.
What else??

Anything can happen at any given time at any given place, why worry? The truth is that the uncertainty of everything is actually what makes this life so exciting. I love it all, good and bad.

Look at the USA football team. A few days ago they were going home from the confederations cup taking place here in SA, effectively in last place. Last night they beat the current world number one team to progress to the final!!
Tonight SA takes on Brazil in the other semi. What fantastic motivation the yanks have provided for Bafana Bafana. USA v SA in the final, now that would be a headline that turns the sporting world on its head.

Well, it is a typical Jozi winters day here. Blue blue skies, not a cloud to be seen, warm and sunny, albeit with a bit of a chill in the air from the bad weather coming in off the coast. Tonight will be cold when the sun goes down but guess what??….the sun will come back up tomorrow and summer is on its way.

Finally the weekend came…and all i felt like doing was crawling into bed and sleeping for a month!!

But of course i did not do that, i went with a view to just getting there and then sleeping off my grotty feeling.

The night before only exacerbated my general tiredness and after a totally disturbed sleep i got up at 3am with only a few hours sleep under my belt…amazing what a couple of red bulls can do though!!…not to mention the fact that when the morning arrives for me to head for the bush i am like a kid at Christmastime!!

I left home just after 5am and arrived at Malelane just after 9am totally wired from the drive. By 10.30am i was sitting a Traders Rest in the park ordering up a big farmhouse breakfast. Great to be back even though i was not 100%…just being there made me feel slightly better.

I took the old Voortrekker dirt road through to Pretoriouskop where i checked into my hut soon after midday.
The rest of the day was spent in camp, sleeping, walking around the camp and just relaxing taking it all in once again.

That night i slept solidly for over nine hours which was wonderful and left me feeling a lot better. I left camp just after 5am and started heading north. Three days travelling ahead of me to reach my final destination at Punda.

The scenery was beautiful, everything being so green and fresh, clearly, there had been a fair amount of rain and i was thinking that there may be more to come. Something was leaving me with a feeling of foreboding and i was not sure whether it was the rain or just me not feeling quite right.
It did not really matter, i was going to enjoy myself whatever the elements threw at me.

Before long i came across two elephants mating very close to the side of the tar road i was travelling. They startled me actually as i was doing about 40kph and i certainly startled them as i was so close, the female tried to move off whilst the bull was still mounted on top of her and by the time i had stopped they had started to move off so i lost the photo opportunity. Great to see all the same, not the most common of sightings and my sense of foreboding was gone as i took the sighting as a good omen of things to come.

Further up the road i pulled off the road and parked up at the old Transport Dam for a coffee.

I spent quite a bit of time at this dam on my last trip and was surprised to see how high the water had risen, the water was at least a metre higher and therefore covering probably three times more space than a few months previously. It never ceases to amaze me how different a place like this can look with such different water levels, it was almost unrecognisable to the place i had spent time at in October.

Moving on i pulled into Skukuza for some supplies and then onto Tshokwane for breakfast where i was inundated with glossy starlings, hornbills and vervet monkeys all hoping to get some crumbs from my plate.

Further north i pulled up beside the Mazithi dam to watch some spoonbills and various other storks and herons feasting. There was obviously some kind of movement going on below the water as all the birds were constantly picking up crabs, frogs and small fish.

I was started to feel a bit rough again so from Mazithi i headed straight for Satara, arrived around noon, checked in and slept for a couple of hours again.

In the afternoon i went for a drive along the Nwanetsi dirt track, one of my favourite areas for seeing wildlife and it did not disappoint.I came across three lion cubs, quite gorgeous, and probably the most ‘Orange’ in colour that i have ever seen. I sat with them for quite a while and got some lovely pictures.

There is always something very special about watching young animals that leaves a smile on the face and these three were no exception.
In between dozing and flopping around they were half heartedly play fighting with each other and snarling at a few birds that came quite close, very entertaining.

After about an hour or so i moved on up the track and after maybe 500 metres i pulled up sharply as on my right in thick riverine bush i saw a male waterbuck with his back to a particularly thick thorn bush with his head down and waving his horns menacingly.
As i stopped i realised the waterbuck was being attacked by a very large lioness when i saw her crouched low in front of the waterbuck.

I had obviously just missed the original attack and thought i was in for a treat till it became obvious that the bush was protecting the buck and with those big horns swirling around the buck seemed to have the upper hand, although very stressed.
Within seconds of me stopping the buck must of realised the lionesses predicament and he turned, leapt over the thorn bush and was gone. I was surprised that the lioness did not try to follow, maybe she had taken a hit from the horns before i turned up.
All too quick for me to take pictures unfortunately but very happy to of seen it.

After that i headed back to Satara as i was starting to feel a bit rough again, and that night i was asleep by 7pm.

16 December

Another good nights sleep and i was up at 3am ready to go again.
I had decided the day before that as today was supposedly my shortest travelling day as i headed north, i would spend the first few hours of the morning around the N’wanetsi which i did.

Amongst other things i saw quite a big herd of Buffalo, maybe 400 (big by todays standards) and at one point a few buff came too close to some elephants who promptly chased them off trumpeting.

A small victory for the elephants who then proceeded to wander off into deeper bush. I sat with the herd of buffalo for a while as they too started to wander off, grazing as they went.

When one sits with a herd of buffalo like this it is easy after a while to distinguish the different families in the group and their different ways. Each family has its own leader who generally stands out from the others,but a leader for the herd en masse never seems apparent, they seem to interact as one ‘democracy’, unless there is danger when the bigger bulls then get between the young and the danger.

In this instance there was no danger and as the herd wandered along grazing there were all sorts of activities going on amongst the various groups, young males play fighting(although one suspects that whilst playing they are in fact asserting their physical strength and prowess for the future), mating, mothers herding the very young along and keeping them close.

I got very close to a mating couple, and unlike the mating elephants from a couple of days ago ,managed to get some shots…felt a bit like a peeping tom, and at one stage the buffalo male seemed to get a bit irritated with me for being so close, perhaps they could hear the click of the camera.

I pulled into Satara around 7.30 am for breakfast and a shower before heading up to Olifants camp where i was booked in for the night.

On arrival there soon after 10.30 i changed my booking to Letaba which is about 50 klicks further north. At Letaba by noon i managed to change my booking to Shingwedzi which is another 100klicks further north still. After a quick lunch and a walk round the camp, including calloing into the ‘elephant’ museum which houses the tusks of some of the old ‘super’ tuskers, one of which, Mandleve, i was fortunate enough to see whilst still alive back in the early eighties.

I called into the Mopani camp for coffee before continuing, stopping at the Tropic of Capricorn for a brief period to stretch my legs a bit, Finally arriving at Shingwedzi soon after 4.30.

For most of the drive i was more intent on getting there as opposed to trying to spot game but it was a nice drive anyway, coming across three sleeping lions, Tssessebe, elephants, buffalo and the usual buck feeding by the sides of the road.
By the time i arrived at Shingwedzi i was feeling quite stuffed again and decided i had had enough of the cab for one day, so i spent the rest of the day walking round the camp in preparation of another very early night.

I have so many good memories of each of the camps in the Kruger that apart from the pleasure derived from the fauna, birdlife and small animals that can be found in the camps, walking around quite often becomes a trip down memory lane.

A very early night indeed, so early in fact that i was up at 1am for a walk round the camp in darkness…very different from walking in daylight i can tell you. The noises are completely different and quite creepy at times but i find it quite exciting. Every little rustle in the undergrowth gets one going a bit but the torch provides comfort. I keep meaning to buy a black light, must do it so i can get some illuminated shots of scorpions etc, they come out in a kind of purpleish neon see through.

It was raining lightly which was nice, but eventually drove me back to bed for a couple of hours. Up again at 4am i spent a good hour on my stoop, drinking coffee and listening to the daytime bush life start to wake.

I was on the road again just after 5am in the grey light of dawn on the last leg of my journey north to Punda.

After about a half hour i came across two young Hyaena cubs playing by the side of the road and sat with them for quite a while drinking more coffee. Great fun to watch them fighting and playing with each other. They seemed to take quite a liking to my car and tried to get their teeth into my tyres and bumpers!!

Eventually, after another hour or so a large female came through the brush to join them and after laying around for a while they all disappeared into the gulley that ran under the road where i was parked.

Carrying on i reached Babbalala at where i stopped for some boiled eggs and rye bread. I noticed that both of my rear windows were down, i must of pressed the wrong button earlier when it was still darkish, and to my horror i discovered that they were jammed. I was wondering about the feelings of foreboding that i had earlier when i left home and i wondered if it was to be a trip of mishaps…in three days i had broken my reading glasses, broken a new pair of leather slops, realised i had left a couple of things at home and now my windows…what next?.

The rain had picked up a bit in intensity so i managed to block the windows with a windscreen sun reflector, cut in half and taped to the windows it proved quite efficient for the next month, not only for the rain but also the heat during the days.

The last fifty klicks up to Punda was fairly uneventful except for a beautiful barn owl perched near the side of the road, and i arrived way before noon.

The camp was drenched and i was thankful i had not been there the night before. I built my camp right by the fence overlooking the waterhole, a lovely spot but i was a bit concerned about the rain.

Feeling very relieved to have finally arrived i walked up the koppie to the camps restaurant where i tucked into another big English breakfast whilst sitting outside under the big Baobab tree outside reception. It was a great feeling to be there knowing that i had a good month before i would be moving on again….a month at that point seemed like forever. Heaven!!

I went out at 3pm for an afternoon drive around Mahonies Loop which is a dirt track that winds it way for 25 klicks around the Koppie that the camp sits on. It is a particularly lovely drive through the valleys and over smaller hills that surround.
I saw plenty, Golden Orioles, red headed weavers, puffbacks, the smallest impala calf i have ever seen walking around…it must surely of been only a few hours old. Several buffalo, elephant, nyala, duiker, grysbok. It was all very peaceful, beautiful and calming.

That evening around 8pm the still night was shattered with extremely loud roars coming from very close by, it honestly sounded like something out of some pre historic dinosaur age. I quickly realised it was the roar of a big bull elephant that was leading his family down to the water hole. There were eight of them including a tiny young one that was no more than a few months old.
Sighting elephants at night is very special, they are almost ghost like in appearance as they seem to float along, almost surreal fact.

I was standing right by the camps fence and they all drank just a few metres from where i was standing, then to top the moment off i could hear lion roaring in the distance.

Unfortunately i did not have my camera to hand but i have resolved to try and get some night shots on my next trip.

18 December 2008

My first night under canvas was lovely although i woke a few times during the night, but even that was a pleasure as i lay listening to the night sounds.

I slept in till 5am and took my time getting up whilst enjoying the peacefulness of my camp.

Around 5.30am I left camp to drive around Mahonies loop again but in the opposite direction to yesterday. It really is a beautiful drive and coming round the other way made it feel completely different.

I stopped at various points taking it all in and eventually spent over 4 hours doing the 25k drive. ‘Bushified’ and tuned in, it normally takes two or three days, and it was no different this time around.
All the stresses and strains of work and everyday life were gone, vanished.

I was totally immersed in the wilderness with not a care in the world, the therapeutic power of solitude amidst such beauty and wildlife weaving its magical spell over me.

Back to camp just after 9am I napped till 10.30 when I was woken by two vervet monkeys who had crawled under my tent into the kitchen area and were busy going through my picnic basket!! They obviously did not realise I was there sleeping and caught a real fright when I stood up and shouted at them.

After mooching around camp for a while and a nice farmhouse breakfast outside the camp restaurant up on the hill I decided to go out and start to re-explore the area, having not been so far north for several years.

I ended up driving up the Dzundzweni koppie where the views over the bush eastwards are quite magnificent. From there I went back down onto the dirt track leading up to the koppie and parking up under a lovely sausage tree overlooking a water pan that nestled under the north side of the koppie.

A bull elephant was about 20 metres away, sleeping with his tusks hooked into the branch of a tree to support him while he dozed. Several bull buffalo were wallowing in a mud bath by the water, crested guinea fowl wandering around, plum coloured starlings, wood hoopoes feeding young in the trunk of a nearby fig tree and after a while a very brown Rhino cautiously stepped out of the bush line and came down for a long drink.

Whilst watching the Rhino warily wander around a couple of Grysbok appeared off the koppie to my left from where the were grazing around the car, very unusual for such shy creatures, and I was very pleased to see them and get some shots as it must be quite a few years since I saw them last.

Heading back to camp at 4.30 I came across a very old male lion resting up against the side of a huge termite mound, by huge I mean about 12 feet high and maybe 30 or 40 feet in diameter!. The lion looked pretty well stuffed, breathing and panting very heavily, his face looked like he had been on a serious ‘bender’ the previous night….at least that is how I look on the morning after!!

A quick pic and I moved on to Thulamila which is just 3 klicks from camp near the Punda Maria gate. It is a lovely spot and I found a small male ellie gorging on figs that covered the ground around the tree. He was most amusing, eating, drinking, having a good scratch against an old stump that was conveniently there and farting intermittently. Hells bells they smelt rotten!!….and I gave him a piece of my mind about being rude, but I think that made him chuckle to himself and let even more go.

Rain was in the air as it had been for a few days and I felt it would come that night. It did!…and how. I woke up at about midnight to find my mattress floating in about 2 inches of water that was flowing under the tent, a strange feeling. After assuring myself that the tent was holding up ok I dropped back off again and slept soundly till 5.30.

19 December 2009

I was up and out very quickly and about 6.30 ish I came across the old lion again, walking towards me along the centre of the road. I pulled up and had the pleasure of watching him as he approached and walked past me within touching distance. I reversed slowly and within another 30 metres or so he went into the brush and within 20 feet from the side of the road he started feeding on a young buffalo kill, just a few metres from the termite mound I had seen him at the day before.

I realised that when I had seen him yesterday it must of been soon after the kill had taken place which was confirmed by a ranger who came by soon afterwards. He told me that the buff had been brought down by three females yesterday afternoon who had then given up the head, front legs and top half of the body to the male which is what the old lion was feeding on. No wonder he had been panting for breath so much, he had just taken the half buff (probably weighing at least half a ton) off the females and then dragged it for 40 metres or so to where it was now in a small thicket near the termite mound.

The old boy fed for a good half hour before lying up on the side of the mound again where he proceeded to sleep off the feed.
I headed off to my spot under the sausage tree a few klicks further on.

So pleased that I did, as I approached I could see something drinking low down by the water’s edge, and as I got closer I realised it was a beautiful male leopard. He really was a stunner, quite massive for a leopard and in beautiful condition.

(It is taking me so long to write up my last trip and upload that the story is getting hidden behind previous entries, so rather than just add on to the bottom of the blog as i have been doing periodically, i am going to finish off and add to the top where it can be accessed more easily)

I watched him drinking for about 10 minutes before he got up and walked off into the bush. I could see that his belly was full, too full to be only the water he had just drunk so i suspected that he would not move far until nightfall.

Feeling peckish i served myself a couple of hard boiled eggs, rye bread and coffee. A simple breakfast but when sitting under a sausage tree in the middle of the bush with magnificent views over the bush and the foothills around Punda in the background, birds of all varietys chirping away, leopards a few metres away and various other comings and goings of animals it is as good as any five star meal that the very best of establishments could possibly serve up!.

I sat for another couple of hours before heading back to camp for a snooze. Nice lunch under the Mopani tree and a very relaxing few hours around camp until after 3pm when i drove back to ‘Mogamba’…i felt strongly that i might get another glimpse of the leopard.

I arrived to find a very noisy bunch of vervets swarming all over the fig tree gorging themselves, it is a bit like watching a rowdy young family of kids at a picnic.

Sure enough at about 4.30 the leopard appeared again and i sat watching him till 6pm when i had to leave to get back into camp before the gates closed for the night.

I had met and chatted with a lovely lady from America a couple of times over the previous two days and that evening i joined her for a bottle of wine outside her lodge which was very nice. I don’t normally socialise when i am up in the bush but i must say it was a very pleasureable evening and we had lots in common, the conversation flowed freely. She was quite a character with a great story to tell and in fact had recently had a book published about her own adventures in Africa to date. Having now read the book it has given me added inspiration to finish writing my own. Thank you D, i truly hope that one day our ‘ships’ will pass again.

The next day was a bit of a babbalas day (hangover to the non SA people reading), as much as i had enjoyed the previous evening i was regretting the wine!! So at that point i went into full detox mode and did not have another beer, cigarette or coffee for the remainder of the trip.

The days viewing was great though. I went back to the sausage tree at Mogamba passing a bunch of vultures that were busy cleaning up the old lions buffalo kill from two days ago.