When the alarm went off at 5am this morning I wasn’t keen to move as it had been a late night at RP’s spot and my pip wasn’t feeling too healthy, therefore when the Cow silenced it and didn’t move I just keep quiet, but the darn thing went off again 15 minutes later, so I was forced to move.
We were also moving to Biyamiti for our last night, so all the packing had to be done, which I definitely didn’t feel like doing.
We eventually had the car packed and were ready to leave just after 6:30am, however I noticed that there was no movement from RP’s spot, so I was seriously tempted to hoot outside his window, but decided it would irritate more than just RP, therefore chose to duck on our morning drive.
The plan was to head to the S79 causeway where we had spotted the mating leopards the day before and then just take things from there.
As we left camp I broke the news to the family about RP’s ice bucket curse, which didn’t go down well, so I said “Don’t be crazy, we are in the south so we will definitely find a predator of some sort”.
First up was a hippo cruising on the wrong side of the river and then some hornbills in the road.
I had high hopes approaching the causeway and drove it very slowly, but saw nothing until we were close to the end. It was Wendy stopped on the side of the road as the dirt met the tar, so I immediately said “Hey there’s Wendy”, but then remembered the “coffee” making story, therefore I stopped while we were still on the dirt and said to the Cow “What do you think Wendy is doing” and the Cow also wasn’t sure, so I said “Do you remember the coffee story, we better duck”, so we quickly charged past Wendy all looking out the other window in case she was “making coffee”.
Just up the road we found Heksie and her mom, so I shouted morning and explained our “Wendy sighting”. They had also done the causeway with the same hopes that we had, but also nothing.
We stopped at Nkuhlu and shortly thereafter Heksie and Wendy arrived.
I explained my RP induced sore pip and the ice bucket curse, so asked if they spotted any predators to send me a message as I had to break the pattern. Wendy explained that she was actually really pouring herself a cup of coffee. They headed up towards Skukuza and we ducked back towards Lower Sabie and I thought to myself “There are 3 of us looking now, so we have to break the curse”.
Next up for us were a few junior franklins which are actually a major mission to photograph.
We then found nothing much else all the way to Lower Sabie, so decided to drive a little of the H10, but after 8km had only spotted a buffalo, so took a pic and turned to head back.
The H10 Bridge produced a few locals who got the rats excited, but I was now starting to flap about this darn curse.
We then decided to drive down to the S28 turnoff as we had spotted a leopard there the previous day and others had found him there the day before also, so we stopped on the little bridge just before the turnoff, switched off and relaxed.
I was fairly happy with this relaxing for a change as I could rest my pip, but in 5 minutes we were surrounded by cars all chirping “What, where, etc”, so I lost it and continued on down the H4-2.
100m meters later we found an oncoming car stopped in the middle of the road and a camera was sticking out the window, so I slowed and stopped 5 meters from them as I didn’t want to drive past them while they were trying to take a picture of something. We then realized that they were taking pics of a LBR next to the road, so the Cow decided to also take a pic, but as she was about to the bird flew off.
Suddenly the oncoming car started revving, so I looked at them and an old duck was shaking her head violently at me, which I couldn’t work out and then she spun off, so I said to the Cow “What was up with that old bat” and she didn’t know.
We sat for a minute trying to decide what to do next as it was still early and we could only book in at Biyamiti at 2pm, so eventually decided to turn and head back to Lower Sabie for some hot chips as I was lacking in enthusiasm.
As we turned we were faced with the traffic jam we had created on the little bridge just after the S28 turnoff, as all were still convinced that we had spotted something there, so I was forced to stop behind the gang and wait for them to get bored of the imaginary sighting.
The old bat from the LBR sighting was also there and blocking the road as she had pulled up next to the other cars on the wrong side of the road and she obviously knew somebody else there as she was chirping out her window.
Suddenly she blurted “I had a beautiful bird in my view finder and that @@#%#%......*@#$$# behind you stopped and chased it away” (but in Afrikaans). It took the Cow and I a few seconds to register what the bat had just said, but when I did I was wild, so slammed my car in first and drove right up to the car in front of me and said “Hey, excuse me” and the Cow also suddenly let rip “I will get out and slap the old duck”, which caught me by surprise and I nearly started laughing.
The bat either heard us or spotted our instant approach and speed off.
We sat there shocked for a few seconds as we had made a point of not interfering with her photograph and it was just a LBR.
I now had forgotten that I was in KNP and wanted to make a speech with this bat, so decided to follow her up the road and tell her that her fabulous bird was just a LBR and there were thousands in KNP and just maybe I should wash her mouth out with soap as I had kids in the car listening to her conversion.
The bat was still out of sight by the time we reached Lower Sabie, so I thought that we would catch her in the car park, but we couldn’t find her car, so we eventually decided to just go and get the hot chips, but I was still wild.
We took pics of the normal hippo gang while waiting, but the entire time I was looking out for the bat.
The chips were taking their time as usual, but it was busy, so I decided to take the junior rats on a tour of the safari tent section and met a cool American dude who let us check his spot out. As a large clan we have never been able to stay in these tents, but I’m plotting to book 2 for next year.
After an hour we had finished the hot chips and I still had no messages from Heksie, so we decided to check out the sighting board, but in 3 years the magnets still haven’t been replaced, so the 1 or 2 remaining lion and leopard magnets move around with each new person, therefore we gave up on it and decided to just head down to Biyamiti.
Albert moaned all the way to the car “Dad, why did you take the ice, RP has cursed us”.
To be continued
Probably the same ones spotted by RP 
