9th Satara to Lower Sabie continued
The Cow and I now started to scrap again because I wanted to drive up to the impala as that’s where the lions would end up and the Cow wanted to remain with the lion which was hiding in the hole.
The lion in the hole seemed to relax after a few minutes, so I got my way and we drove up to where the impala were and found the lioness which had run towards the right.
The stage was set for action so I was hyped up as normal and issuing instructions, but then nothing happened for 20 minutes and as you may have gathered I’m not the most patient person, therefore we drove back to the lion in the hole; however nothing had changed, so we drove back to the other lioness.
Another 10 minutes past and then 1 faulty lioness we hadn’t seen decided to go on its own mission after the impala and stuffed the entire thing up which freaked me out.
“More doff lion, let’s move”
Mazithi Dam produced a few ellies looking for shade under a tree on 1 side of the road and a cheetah hiding far off in the bush on the other side. We were again battling to take long distance pics in the heat haze and as it didn’t look like the cheetah was going to move closer we decided to continue on.
We stopped briefly at Tshokwane for a loo break before continuing down the H1-2 which only produced the normal locals and a klippie at Kruger tablets
Things were relatively quiet until the S79 causeway with only the odd member of the usual suspects popping up, but just past the S79 turnoff we found a few cars on the side of the road and it was immediately apparent what they were looking at.
The dogs were out for the count and as it was fairly close to Lower Sabie we decided to rather head on to camp and return later when they were hopefully more awake.
A few km outside Lower Sabie we stopped to check out some ellies in the riverbed and the Cow spotted a lioness cooling off fairly close to them, so I had to mission with the car until she could get both in the frame.
We were all tired of the car by the time we pulled into Lower Sabie car park so I didn’t wait for a parking and just ramped the pavement like half the other people were doing as the parking facilities can’t handle the day visitor numbers.
We had booked the FU5 unit which is next to the EH5/EH3 huts because my work mate and extended family had 2 x EH5 huts and were arriving the following day, so we planned a big get together braai for our last night and staying close together is easier with small kids at bedtime, but the Cow returned from booking us in slightly confused
“They have circled unit 1 on the map”
“Rubbish, the FU5’s are next to the huts; we have stayed in them 5 times”
We headed down to the “FU5 hut” and found it occupied, so decided that we better check out the circled map again and it definitely indicated unit 1 which is right next to the entrance to reception, the shop, Mugg and Bean, etc, so I was wild.
“No way, that’s an old guest house which has been cut in half to create 2 x BD3 units”
Unfortunately my worst nightmare had come true and we were in unit 1 right next to the chaos and the joke is that they still charged us for an FU5, but just put 2 extra beds in the “lounge” area; however that’s where the initiative ran out because the unit only had 3 of everything else in it, so I was happy for the plastic utensils we had brought from home. At R1830 per night I certainly wouldn’t have booked this unit, but there was no other spot in camp, so we had to accept the situation.
The noise from the shop and Mugg and Bean was driving me mad, so I suggested leaving Kruger early and heading for Imfolozi, but the clan gave me skew looks, so I decided to drown my pelican with a few dops while walking around a quieter part of the camp. The Cow took a few pics while on this peace patrol
At around 4:45pm we decided to head up the road to check on the wild dogs again, but first stopped for a fish eagle close to Sunset Dam.
A few Lubyelubye lions were sleeping on a rock again resulting in a traffic jam, so we took the first gap and continued on because we had seen enough sleeping lions.
Unfortunately the wild dogs up the road were in the same mood as the lion and were still out for the count.
Time was ticking and it didn’t seem like the dogs were going to wake up anytime soon, so we headed back to camp for an early braai start.
The braai didn’t start off well because at least 12 different clueless families decided to cruise through our unit to get to the shop, Mugg and Bean, etc, so I found myself greeting strangers at our braai every 5 minutes.
The Lower Sabie deck noise continued until after 10:30pm and in the future I will always feel sorry for anyone seeking peace who ends up in unit 1 or 2 at Lower Sabie.
We normally end our trip at a place like Biyamiti because by that stage we have all started to relax and the charging for game takes a back seat and peace takes priority, so I went to bed with a major long lip as I felt cheated.
To be continued