Flutts, The Brat and Mommo Back in Kruger *

[Bush Brat]

Yes, the time has come for us to start our TT again because in three days time we will be back in Kruger! However, me and my mom thought that it was a bit pointless for us both to do a TT on the same trip, so we have come to an agreement whereby she will do all the routes and basically write the story and I will post my pics along the way!

I am pretty sure that when you read the title you were a bit confused as to who 'Mommo' is - that is what I call my grandpa. I invented this name when I was small and no one knows how I came to calling him that, but nevertheless it stuck!

The routine will remain the same this year - my dad will stay at home while we are away, looking after the dogs. But something has changed - this year we will not be taking our annual 7 day trip in Sept./Oct. but instead now in August because I am at a private school and the holidays are different. We don't know what to expect from August but we have heard that it is one of the best if not the best time to go to the park! We will definitely be keeping our hopes up! The itinerary for this trip will be 14 August - Olifants, 15 August - Tamboti, 16 + 17 August - Pretorisukop and finally 18 + 19 + 20 August - Lower Sabie. We went to Tamboti in our trip in April this year and fell in love with it so we just had to book it again for this trip - we would have booked there for longer but the road to get to Tamboti is still being repaired and the detour road has never been good for us! Pretoriuskop is a newbie for me so I will be looking forward to see what it produces! And of course Lower Sabie, our favourite camp in the park deserved a beautiful 3 nights!

As I am sure you all know by now that I got a new camera recently so that is another bonus for this trip, me and my mom will be 'battling' to see who can get better pics!

I am sure my mom will have some stuff to say that I failed to mention so I will leave it up to her now to finish the job!

[Flutterby]

Not much else to add, except that excitement levels are building! Oh, and on our trip to Pilanesberg last weekend I discovered that my binocs are dead!!

[Flutterby]

What a busy day!!

Got the car washed, did all the shopping, marinated the chicken, made the sosaties - lamb & beef , made a chicken curry, and meatballs in a tomato sauce, and lastly, did some ironing!

[Flutterby]

Exactly pooky. Must just make some muffins today and pack and then we leave at 1am in the morning.

Please keep the cold weather with you!

[Bush Brat]

Thanks guys!
I am waiting for the last load of washing to wash and dry and then it is time to pack! Is that all for me? -O
What am I gonna do until 12:30pm? -O

[Flutterby]

So, the muffins are done, cameras charged and cleaned. I even managed to fix my binoculars!!

I met Tshukudu earlier and got my Timbi bumper sticker, so my car is looking good!! Thanks Sprocks and Tshuks for getting them to me!!

Now it's time start packing the car.

[Flutterby]

Tx BC, leachy & Lis...definitely plan on enjoying ourselves!!

Just averted near disaster!! We always take box wine to Kruger just because it's easier to store, and we then end up taking the bag out of the box and putting it in the fridge, but for the first night we always have warm wine, so this time I decided to take the bag out now and put it in the cooler box. When I went to put something else in the cooler box just now there was about an inch of wine in the bottom of the cooler!! The plastic must have torn when I took it out the box!! So, time for a Macgyver move...I found some repair patches from the Brat's old lilos and fixed the wine bag!!!

[Bush Brat]

Well, goodnight everyone! Wish us luck and we look forward to telling you our exciting story when we arrive back!

[Flutterby]

August 14: JHB - Olifants

So, on Tuesday night, I got into bed at 8.30 hoping for a couple of hours of shut-eye before leaving. The Brat had decided there was no point in going to bed and watched TV with SO. I fell asleep quickly, but woke up after 45 mins and then couldn't fall asleep again! Eventually at midnight I got up and finished packing the car and made coffee and padkos. My dad arrived at about 00.30 and we packed his things and were ready to roll!! As we got onto the highway I was asking my dad if we should go via Pretoria or Benoni....we decided on Benoni.... when my phone decided to make a call on its own and phoned Sprocky, who then heard our discussion regarding the route!! I only found out about this the next morning when Sprocks phoned to find out if we had arrived safely....so sorry we woke you at 1 in the morning Sprocks...I was so embarrassed!!

Earlier on, I had had much discussion on the rest of the route, here and on FB, with everyone saying that the road between Belfast and Lydenberg was really bad, but apparently there were lengthy stop-and-go's on the White River road (even in the middle of the night) so we eventually decided on the Belfast route, and were really glad we did. There was stretch of about 5kms that had some potholes, but because the road is so quiet at that hour it was easy to avoid them. We made very good time and reached Phabeni just after 5.30am, and we were the 3rd car in the queue. We got all the cameras ready and soon we were in the park!!

We headed down the S1, and it was a cool 8° with some beautiful cloud formations adding to the glorious sunrise.





Our first sighting was some impala, then an ellie in the distance and some buffs. A quick stop at Nyamundwa waterhole produced 2 fish eagles soaking in the early rays.





We carried on and found kudu, duiker, zebra and giraffes in the road. I had too much lens but couldn’t be bothered to change it.





We soon turned onto the H11 which produced a first for all of us!!

[Flutterby]

August 14: JHB – Olifants cont.

So we got onto the H11, and soon saw a few cars up ahead. We got a glimpse of something black and white between two cars and thought it was a civet. As we approached we realised it was…a PORCUPINE…in the road!! In all our trips we have never seen a porcupine in Kruger, and it was even on the Brat’s wishlist!!!



The car in front of us moved off and we had a front row seat.



At first we thought he was eating something as he was opening and closing his mouth all the time and drooling, but then we saw he had an injury on his right cheek. He didn’t seem happy at all. He eventually moved into the bushes, but we were with him for a good 20 minutes. I think the fact that he stayed on the road for so long, with all the traffic, proves that he was not well. It was a fantastic sighting, just sad that he was injured.

View Video

That Brat took more photos as I was manning the video camera, so I’ll let him show you his pics and reveal what we saw next!!