under the weeping boer bean tree *

[leachy]

and so it was...........

that while sitting under the weeping boer bean tree

that i was able to reflect on the events of the day...

10 days... to be exact.......

the specific schotia brachypetala is located outside unit number 41 in lower sabie
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my constant companions were these insects (that i am unable to identify) feeding on the nectar that weeps from the tree onto the furniture and people....
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the last time that i had been there was in december of last year

and now i was rather distressed to see that all the efforts to try and cultivate grass around the huts had failed.... unless it had been drowned by the flood waters in january.

i was, however, pleased to see that someone on the horticultural staff had ventured into creating some more suitable landscaping
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they even planted some lights.....


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i hope they do not grow too tall because at this height they are actually a lot less intrusive than the street light in the centre of the courtyard that is now mercifully out of order....



on the day that i arrived via numbi gate it was hot enough to melt michael jackson's face off.
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i took the s 21 towards lower sabie and my being was in a semi heat stroke state....



i saw a number of mammals but never looked at any of them..



the first thing that actually caught my eye was this van wykshout in bloom
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then i pulled in at the random waterhole 5ks from the eloff street intersection..

not a lot of water there at all..........
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[leachy]

mudfish ????????



no...........warthog....



or..... as i have heard some folks from north america say.......

"oh my gawd ??????? look at the waterhog..."
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two of them were having a cooling mud bath.
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i am told that a mud bath is good one's skin...

in fact many people travel to far off destinations and pay lots of money to have a series of mud bath treatments ??????????

who would have guessed ……..






so… when I arrived at the waterhole there was a random no name brand small rental car parked at the side.

a pale skinned young fellow with a bad accent stuck his head out of the driver’s side window and hollered……..

"oi !!…….. thes ay cheayta in tha trayee……"



i looked around and seeing only the warthogs, a hammerkop and a giraffe and nothing in any of the trees

i gave him a blank stare..



"in tha direksun of weha tha geeraff is lukkin……."



i looked again................

and then i saw the “cheetah” lying in the shade under an acacia on the far side of the waterhole..
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i think the giraffe must have seen it too...

because she wet herself……
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well done and thank you to this foreign dude and his female companion for pointing that out to me………





so.... the leopard was just chilling under the tree.........

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when the 2 little piggies had finished their spa treatment and were heading off elsewhere

i felt my heart beat in my throat......

as these two trotted off in the general direction of the leopard..........



camera at the ready i tried to slow down my breathing and stabilize the lens………………



so it seems that this panthera pardus was probably a

muslim or a jew or a hindu or a scots highlander or a seventh-day adventist or a rastafarian or an ethiopian orthodox....

‘cause he never even gave them a second glance..

their advantage of being a non-ruminant cloven hoofed animal…..……



a long while later he got up and ventured out from under the shade
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and moved to another tree
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where he proceeded to sit and yawn the afternoon away……..
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the giraffe had left...

and then the tourists left ....

and i was alone watching a yawning leopard ....



trying myself not to nod off ..

as the temperature soared and the time passed slowly by…………

[leachy]

so ...........

after what seemed like an entire ...or is that entired ??? afternoon

the shady leopard left his shelter and ventured very gingerly down to what was left of the water.....

keeping a cautious view of his surroundings..

he settled down to some thirst quenching......

stopping every now and then... to observe the area...

and then............

as was his approach

he stalked away into the bush........
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[leachy]

i sat there with a smug expression...



having been able to sit there watching this majestic cat all on my own......



i had taken just over 60 photos of him from the time he left the yawning shade.. till he left the waterhole.......

probably a good thing that my burst setting was on slow..



i continued on the s 21..

and was stopped by a kind old gentleman who told me to turn left at the tee junction 'cause there was a leopard in a tree just beyond the bridge..

he added that i would not miss it 'cause there were lots of cars there...

i thanked him for his information and turned right at the t junction.....



just before lubyelubye, i noticed the waiting area for the kill cleaners....
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and then a few cars at a lion crossing........
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it was as though this lady was controlling a scholar patrol


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these scruffy teens with fighting scars evident at this young age

reminded me of joburg southern suburbs on my week ends in away from boarding school ...
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this was how it should always be.....

there were more lions than cars......

this busy pride was to be the cause of numerous traffic jams over the next ten days.......



mom and her sister had taken her laaitie out for a drink .....
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and this family was having sundowners at the dam.....
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now i was thirsty after watching all this drinking !!!!!!.......

and it was time for me to have a whole bunch of sundowners

next to a pile of burning wood and listen to the sound of sizzling fat from a flattie........
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[nan]

How these scholars can go to school, with a so full tummy
and dangerous for these Ellies to have sundowners

superb episode... again a lot of cats

and the last one

[Richprins]

Good stuff!

The last pic is leachy's throat as he's having a sundowner!

[Amoli]

Great to get the news of a pile-up and you can miss it..

Lovely ellie pics,
and super giraffe throat..
That's a looooooong thirst you have to quench there...

[leachy]

having lit the fire..

i sat down with my resident superhero “leatherman”

and kept him supplied with thick strips of seasoned dried beef to go with my containers of cold malted hops and barley.



there was a slight breeze that assisted in cooling the ambient temperature and causing the flames to dance a bit more vigorously…..

soon.. i was turning the nkuku into a crisp golden brown hue

and adding copious amounts of butter and salt to the steaming coal-baked potato.



i awoke at 4:30 the next morning with a lot of wind………

luckily.... it was all outside my hut....

but it was a cold wind and i could not see any stars…

so went back to bed and woke up an hour later to a dull, overcast day with the chilly wind still pumping….

having completed my ablutions and a leisurely healthy breakfast

i ventured out along the h10..

the wind was so strong that the giraffe were forced to browse headlong into the wind on low foliage
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recognise this ????
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with the oxpeckers on the leeward side
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or clinging on for dear life...
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and the vultures were "stranded" like sailboats

all facing windward in the harbour.
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i encountered a small group of buffalo also with their resident groomers ...
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enjoying a good scratch .....
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i am sure he was the boss......
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i don't recall ever having seen an oxpecker on a steenbok ..



yet they often seem to be ones who could seriously do with one......
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i suppose a steenbok with an ox pecker would seem a bit out of proportion.....
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a bit of parenting going on........
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why did that remind me of the simpsons ????



quite a bit of itchy and scratchy ...........................................
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and ........




could that be krusty the clown.?????????????.
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nah .......... stop day dreaming......



now.... here was a familiar sight.....



i remember seeing this warrior

with his imposing sharp tipped scimitar shaped tusks on my last visit...
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got me thinking about the immortals at the battle of thermopylae....



nah............................. stop day dreaming....

so....

i headed back for camp

after a brief unpleasant stop at mlondozi

(did he not write that song ..."oooohh lui-perd" ??)

[leachy]

so nothing much else happened


except that heksie and maheksie had pitched their campsite just across the way from my villa

and they joined me in my lapa under the boer bean tree for some libations and scoff .

there was lots of smoke from the fire that night

as the tree seemed to weep a lot more than normal…

unless it was heksie’s gwaai that caused it…..



twas a pleasant evening despite the plummeting mercury

and we were all excited because the next day we were going visit bushcraft and the clan for a lunchtime braai in the metropolis ……..



the next day I made the most of my warm bedding and had a bit of a lie in as it was quite cold

and it was a sunday…..

i decided to take the s21 route and avoid the highway

but stopped briefly at lubyelubye to find the leopard or the lions

but was only greeted by this vulture…
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found this little bee eater…… the bee was not that little……..
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and then i heard this ground scraper thrush…

quite well camouflaged and i probably would not have seen him if he was not scraping around….
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the look he gave me

when i asked about the state of the sand roads

and the and why the ground scrapers were not helping with the maintenance….
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i popped in at the stephenson-hamilton pit stop….

i am always amazed at the ability of these rock figs to grow out of the rock….
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it was getting closer to lunch time and the impending braai

and i must have been getting hungry ‘cause all i could think of when i approached this was ...

"hmmm...........double buffalo burger !!!!!…”
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when i got to the gates of the city i had a bit of time to spare

so made a detour passed the shop……



could not even find parking…

someone had moved the hajj to skukuza….



it was easy enough to find bushcraft’s lodgings

as it is the biggest complex on the estate

and there was this enormous trade mark pyre in the front garden

[leachy]

so.........

as many of you may have seen on viewtopic.php?f=46&t=3225&start=110

the gathering at bushcraft's villa on the upper sabie was a very pleasant affair,



but as is the norm......

it had to come to an end

and before pouring too many diuretics down my throat and impairing my ability to drive or work with power tools

i said my good-byes



and headed for my high density public housing facility in lower sabie

where heksie and maheksie and i were going to tan some meat and continue imbibing after sunset

once again i traveled via the s21 and next thing i realized i was at sunset dam....



there is this resident flock of yellow billed stork (with one out of place marabou) that frequents the shoreline
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what intrigues me is that they regularly move from one spot to another

like 4 times in one day....


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these spots are not too far from each other but the birds always stay in a close knit group
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my questions are....

who decides when to move and where to go to and why ??????



maybe, it is the early evolutionary stage of swarm behaviour......

that phenomenon that we see when colossal shoals of sardines move in unison

or the amazing ability of the immense swarms of red billed quelea to fly in those massive formations

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research has shown.. that it just takes one in the group to move.. and the rest follow "blindly"
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that night in lower sabie

a tour group of auslynders in a great big 3 ton lorry
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had commandeered my table and chairs and "personal space" under the boer bean tree

but fortunately we had arranged to gather at heksie's gazebo for libations and sustenance.



the night was chilly so we were "forced" to put our warm clothing on via our throats and tummies......
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