The afternoon of day 10 and i am sitting at the Matjulu water hole in the hills at the very south of the park. Strangely enough i have just heard a couple of low key ‘whoops’ from a nearby Hyaena, i can’t say i have ever heard them in the daytime before!!??

Not much going on here at the moment, the occasional visitor to drink, couple of warthog just now, a lone elephant and of course the ever present birds, in this case, blue finches, glossy starlings, white fronted bee eaters, francolins, hammerkop, europaen rollers and more that i can hear and but not see clearly…as always a few various ‘little brown things’ whizzing around that are not so easy to identify.

Yesterday, day 9, turned out to be a brilliant viewing day, as it was the day when i had to drive back down to the south i kinda thought beforehand that it might not be so good for seeing things as i had a fair way to come, nearly 200 klicks, but it was fabulous viewing throughout the morning in particular.

Leaving satara camp just after 5.30 i had decided to stick to the tar road all the way down and then relax a bit after i had arrived.

First stop for a cup of coffee was on the bridge over the N’wanetsi and lo and behold, looking down just down on the right hand side where the river bends sharply to the left with a kind of confluence with a floodwater channel i see 4 young lion cubs playing as the sun rose. Beautiful to watch.

The cubs were probably about a year or more older so are starting to look and sound like lions but ‘puppy playful’. There were at least two lionesses on the bank behind some bushes but they seemed to be sleeping.

The young lions were fighting and growling with each other, slipping and sliding down the bank, standing up and pulling down young sapling trees and letting them go again like slingshots then trying to catch them again on the rebound…great fun to watch.

One could see the different characters amongst the four of them, one was clearly more naughty than the others with one nearly as bad, another was much quieter and laid back, the other seemed tro be doing what the others did just because they were.

Superb start to the day and i sat there for about 45 minutes until they moved off into the bush after one of the lionesses had got up and moved back deeper into the bushes. Hopefully i got a couple of good shots and definitely got some good footage.

Very shortly after moving on, probably not much more than a kilometre i came across a Ostrich couple walking along the road with 9 young chicks. I followed them for a couple of hundred metres, also lovely to see. The young ones were about the size of small chickens…it looked a bit like something out of a Walt Disney film.

Five klicks later i turned off onto the Sweni dirt track, there is a water hole just a few klicks along from the tar road ands i had seen a couple of lion there a couple of days ago so i thought i would have a quick look. Sure enough there were six lions there, including, i am sure, the mating couple i had seen previously.

They were quite far from me though on the ridge of the far bank but nice to see all the same so i had another coffee and sat for ten minutes or so before heading back to the tar toad and south again.

As i turned onto the road i saw a large troop of baboons just spreading out for a days foraging, i guess they had spent a night in one of the giant fig trees leaning over the Sweni. There were many, maybe as many as fifty with plenty of young ones, Spread out over more the 300 metres it was stunning to see as the rising sun which was just beginning to gain height and strength was shining onto the other side of them so that from my position it gave them each a sort of glowing golden syrupy kinda aura as they walked along.

Even though i had stopped a few times i was making good progress so i turned off again onto a dirt track that loops around the edge of the Nwaswitsonstso river which also proved to be a good move.

As i turned into the river i came across a whole load of animals eating fruit from a tree where another smaller troop of baboons were feeding and then dropping the fruit after one or two bites. I am not sure but i think they were Loquats, i will have to check on them also.

Amongst all the various buck were a couple of youngish, but fully grown bull Kudus that were locking horns and having a bit of a tussle…when you hear those horns clash it makes you realise just how dangerous these seemingly harmless animals are.

Another quite big bull elephant is just approaching the water hole here, i had better get back in the car for a while.

Well that was quite a moment…30 or 40 minutes in fact. The elephant was not so big as i first thought…but big enough, certainly 3 metres to his shoulder. As he was approaching i thought he looked quite irritable and menacing and i was right. I think he may of had a problem with his right front lower leg or pad as while he was drinking at the water hole he kept on squirting every other trunk full of water onto it.

He kept looking over at me and was clearly not a happy chappy. Also, although the water hole is about 30 metres over to my right, about 10 metres directly in front of me is a concrete water tank. Normally elephants choose to drink from these, maybe the water is sweeter or maybe it is because that apart from birds they are pretty much the only creatures that can get to them. When he first arrived he tasted the water in the water hole and then came straight over to the tank. It must be dry or shallow (the walls of the tank are about 3 metres high) and when he reached over with his trunk to get inside he came out empty. After walking around it a couple of times he went back to the waterhole where he had a good drink and splashed water over his foot. Then he turned again and came at me with his ears out. I must be honest and admit that i had a couple of nervous moments and actually started the car and reversed a metre or so to let him know that i was not interested in grief…to say the least!!!

While all this was going on three zebras came down to drink and as i reversed he turned and charged them off…brilliant to see and feel and experience but i missed the shot as i was too concerned for my own safety. I have been ‘mock’ charged by elephant before a few times and i can assure you it has to be one of the most frightening experiences that a person can have. The one time i came across a huge jumbo that must of been 4 metres to his shoulder and was in Musth…he just seemed to keep coming…it really gets the adrenaline going but i will eventually get around to writing about those experiences in my bush diary or bush talk sections.

This went on with the zebras for five minutes or so though so eventually i did get a couple of shots showing the elephant kicking up some dust as he went for them and there in the bottom of the pic you can see the zebras scampering away so i shall up load them shortly.

People wonder how i can have the patience to sit for hours at these place….moments like these are my answer!!

When i was watching the lion cubs yesterday morning there were a few other drivers who saw them, took a picture and then drove off…it always amazes me…people drive around for ages looking for lion and then when they find them they watch for a couple of minutes and drive off again, or if lion goes behind a bush they drive off straight away without waiting to see if they come back…invariably they miss the best parts and i am sure they cannot get a true sense of bushlife…certainly not in a sensuous way which for me is what it is largely all about. Some folk are so bad they may as well go to the zoo. I hear people say they have ‘done’ the bush…hah!…meanwhile they came for a few days, drove around with their windows closed in air conditioned cars and made a list of what they spotted. Oh well…it takes all sorts and each to their own. i guess it is not every bodys cup of tea.

Anyway, where was i…the kudus fighting with each other on the N’waswitsonso…also wonderful to see and you realise how powerful these creatures are when seen in action at close quarters.

I remember once i was driving in Hoedspruit with one of my managers following me in a volkswagon beetle. It was late in the evening and quite a dark moonless night (they don’t have street lights…lol) we were doing over a 100kph. A female kudu came from nowhere and he could not help but hit it full on. The kudu got straight up and ran off…for sure that must of been adrenalin and we suspect that it might of died later from its injuries it was such a serious collision, but the guys car looked more like a wedge shaped sports car then a beetle…it was a write off from an insurance point of view and they were very lucky to have survived themselves.

Back to yesterday again, i keep digressing, so many stories to tell.

I was really chuffed that i had taken the loop track by the N’waswitsontso…it turned out to teeming with baboons, kudu, impala, steenbok, duikers and others all eating on the fruit that was being dropped by the baboons. The one baboon jumped onto the bonnet of the landy for a while and just sat there eating fruit!…a lovely experience and a great crowd to share another coffee with. ( a lot more stories to tell about my experiences with baboons too….once again i will get to them and log them into the Bush diary column.

By the time i got back onto the tar it was getting on for 9.30 am so i decided to stop at Tshokwane for breakfast which was maybe another 10 klicks down the road, which i did, and had one of those hearty English breakfasts again whilst shooing off a couple of cheeky monkeys that kept coming and sitting on the chair opposit from me and waiting for a gap to pinch my food (you only have to turn your eyes for a couple of seconds with these blighters and they will have the toast off the plate).

However about two klicks north of Tshokwane, about 40 metres over to my left i came across a lion giraffe kill. There were a couple of other cars there which is basically the only reason i saw it and did not stay long. The other driver told me that the kill was over a day old and apart from getting a quick snap of one of the lions having a snack on it i could only see one other. I figure there must of been more though as it looked liked a reasonable sized giraffe which are are not the easiest animal to bring down even for a lion.

Somehow giraffe kills are always the ‘saddest’ of kills to see, such beautiful graceful animals …even when they are stretched out dead on the ground.

(Jeez…i just heard another elephant rumbling behind me somewhere (the Matjulu river bed runs behind me in a horseshoe bend which is quite dry currently)…i hope it is not the same one again come back to have a real go at me.)

After breakfast at Tshokwane yesterday it was around 11am and i pretty much made a beeline straight for my new camp at Berg n Dal once i got going again.

I arrived at Berg N Dal around 1pm, set up camp (i could not upgrade to a rondavel this time), showered and headed out again around 3pm after a quick walk around the camp.( i almost forgot, there was a fine male lion with a ginger mane and black ‘beard’ sleeping under a bush less than 50 metres from the gate to the camp just twenty metres off the road as i arrived)

I had forgotten how nice the camp is. There is a “rhino walk’ around the perimeter and through the ‘bush’ parts of the camp which is lovely and provides great views over the dam there. Elephant, mountain reedbuck, Maribou and warthogs were present as i walked round.

I headed out again before 4pm to re explore the dirt track that winds around the nearby hills and koppies, i had also forgotton how beautiful the scenery is here, twisting and winding, up and down, through dry water courses and i was really quite surprised at how much game i saw, kudu, rhino, elephant and various other buck. I did not feel like doing anymore driving and came down here to Matjulu to sit out the afternoon. I was rewarded late in the day when a small herd of 15 elephants came down for a drink, including one very young one who was being well shielded by his mother. Lots of growling coming from deep within one or two of the elephants throat.

I was really hoping to get a good sunset shot with the hills but unfortunately the clouds came over and i did not…maybe tomorrow night.
However, as i headed back to camp soon after 5 .30 i arrived there to find a few cars parked by the lion who was walking around and roaring away like a good’un….fantastic way to end the day.

I lit a nice fire outside my tent and could still hear the lion roaring until past seven and still withina fifty metres or so from where i was camped
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Today i was up very early again and after making a pot of of coffee drove up to the gate before it got light and sat on a rock near the entrance watching the sky turn from blackness through various shades of pre dawn grey until the sun started to rise at about 5.30 when i drove down here to Matjulu.

It is only a 4 kilometre drive but i saw plenty of grazers along the way.

Plenty of early birds around at the water hole, a couple of hyaenas and another elephant came down for an early morning drink before i left just past 7 am and drove up to the top of stein berg which is quite high with a fairly rough track taking you up there.

I had a little walk around on top, admired the views all around me and then went back to camp to chill for a few hours and have some food.

I went back the via the Matjulu river track where i found an aging male lion dozing under a thorn bush shielded from the early rising sun which was quite intense, where i sat for a while.

The river was about 50 metres beyond him from where i was sitting and on the far bank a large herd of maybe 300 buffalo were walking eastwards. They got his attention alright and as i watched him sit up and perk up i could sense that he was looking on them with hungry eyes and anticipation until he realised that he was too old to tackle such a herd on his own and anyway they were too far off to try anything.

On the way back down here this afternoon at 2 pm i saw two groups of 6 White Rhino, each with the mother and the rest being about half her size in both instances, wonderful to see as i am sure everyone knows the white rhino is still on the list of endangered animals.

And now it is 5.00pm and i am going to sit here for another 45 minutes or so and see what comes down before heading off into my last sunset for this trip, a nice fire and some baked mealies and spud.