Five days or so into this trip and for the first time ever I have done hardly any travelling at all….i
don’t think I have even done 50 klicks since arriving.

Largely due to the fact that I was so run down on arrival…that and giving up smoking…(again!) and coffee, well almost…I have been taking it very easy on myself. Thank goodness for sunset dam.

Sunset Dam is merely a walk away from Lower Sabie camp, and quite frankly there has been no real need to go further as the place has been so busy.

I have taken a couple of very short drives, once to see a big male lion on a kudu kill just south of us here and this afternoon a short drive north to see a leopard sleeping up a tree with a smallish cub, both of them were not particularly good sightings, but I knew they were there through listening to other campers and Ross and Eve…who have both been very busy and have had some wonderful sightings already.

However, as I say Sunset has been so lively that I have just sat there for a couple of hours or more every day messing around with a new camera that I am trying to get to grips with.

At one point today there must have been at least 500 animals around the dam….and they just kept coming and going; Hundreds of impala, dozens of warthog, herds of zebras, groups of kudu and wildebeest, Rhino, giraffe…and of course with so much game around there is always a chance that some predator may come down for a bite. Additionally the birdlife has been superb, Open billed storks, yellow billed storks, marabou storks, wooly necked stork, grey heron, egrets, hammerkops and more. Maybe 40 crocodiles and even more Hippos most of which were basking in the sun and moving in and out of the water…..it really has been a hive of activity creating typical and perfect African bush scenes.

As for me, I am certainly a lot better than I was a few days ago…a great deal of eating and sleeping and a few glasses of red wine around the fire in the evening. Sometime soon I will be venturing out further and will start seeing more exciting events.

One thing I must say for anyone reading who knows where I am, having spent a lot of time in camp I am truly happy about the camp itself. If I am really honest I was getting worried about a few things here in the recent past…even to the point where I started to think that I may have to start finding different ‘bush’ venues for my trips…however, not any more. Everything here is as it should be which is fantastic news I think for the ‘regulars’.
Cheers!!….i just got my first glass of wine for the evening…no doubt by the time Eve’s Chicken curry is ready I will have had a few more….got to compensate for the smoke and coffee somehow!!