Time to start heading north

[Flutterby]

Luckily, we've never had problems with monkeys or baboons at Tamboti. Great sightings so far!

[Lisbeth]

Those cousins of ours can ruin the whole stay

Lovely kudu bull and a nice young lion

[Alf]

What a great start

[krugerbru]

After some breakfast things, and a farewell to the beautiful Tamboti, we were on the way to Balule. I've stayed there once before and I was blown away by it's simplicity. I had opted to stay in one of the huts, rather than erect our tent, especially with us only having one night there.

A little history leasson about Balule first: "In order to keep things nice and separate, the first (and only) rest camp for all races (other than whites) was opened in 1932, at the suggestion of then-Minister of Lands and future prime minister, JG Strijdom. It was located on the south bank of the Olifants River, after which it was named. But then, in 1961, the ‘Olifants’ name was given to the newly renovated whites-only camp on the other side of the river and the black camp changed its name to ‘Balule’, a contraction of the XiTsonga name for the Olifants River."

You can find some more info here

What I love about this story though, is that Balule is now one of the most popular camps in the Kruger National Park, for people in the know. It’s booked out months in advance because it is one of the most peaceful places in the entire park. The lack of a shop, electricity or reception office, along with the cute parrafin lamps on offer to only a handful of basic rondavels makes this a Kruger Park must!!

Back in the car, we were all looking forward to sitting on the deck at Olifants and enjoying a cold one, and maybe that's why my memories of that drive seems a bit blank, the toll of the 4AM rise and shine also causing my peripheral vision to narrow and the sleepy gaze to lock in.

I do remember thoroughly enjoying the S39 all the way up to Olifants. The woodland greenery along the Timbavati river feels like it's always going to produce something special around the next bend.

Got a decentish shot of a Lilac Breasted Roller below



It's definitely one of everyone's Kruger favourites, and mine too.



Straight to the deck and Olifants, and my eldest was starting to get hangry (you know when the hunger makes you angry), so despite having a week's worth of meat in the WAECO, a giant sized burger was needed to supplement the supply.



If you stay there a while, you're always guaranteed to be blessed with some elephants coming down for a drink.

While the kids had a quick dip in the pool to cool down, I managed to ID that Stiletto snake from the night before which I excitedly told the rest of the party about. They were suitably impressed.

Now I can't remember where I took this picture, It was between Olifants and Balule, so I can only assume it was on the low water bridge. It sums up a lot of what I enjoy about Kruger, how the power of the fauna and beauty of the flora combine to leave you speechless.

[Flutterby]

That is a stunning pic!!

I know all about 'hangry' from one of my son's friends....she becomes impossible if she doesn't get food on a regular basis! And that burger certainly looks like it hit the spot!

[Mel]

You should take up writing! What a wonderful narration you provided here

Good pix too

And thanks for teaching me "hangry". I can get like that at times

[Richprins]

Excellent!

I know that loss of peripheral vision, bru!

Thanks for the food pic!

[Lisbeth]

My sister used to get "hangry" and maybe still does

Lovely pics of the Olifants River.

As Mel says, you are a great storyteller

[krugerbru]

My sister used to get "hangry" and maybe still does

Lovely pics of the Olifants River.

As Mel says, you are a great storyteller

thanks so much. I do enjoy writing about my travels. I wish I did it more, but often the daily grind gets in the way. I thank you all for motivating me to write more

[krugerbru]

The evenings at Balule are always intensely peaceful, which is in contrast to the flurry of activity that precedes them when night starts to fall. The swallows are returning to their nests, and the hippos are snorting at one another, presumably discussing how awesome the Olifants river area is. You get to appreciate this here because like I said earlier, it's so perfectly isolated.



We opted to skip the afternoon drive this day and enjoyed the patrolling hyena who seem to still be conditioned to wait for a cheap meal. Evenings can be a bit shorter here, as there are no lights, only the paraffin lamps, so we wanted to make the most of it. Our head torches were dug out of the bags and they gave just enough light to ensure we never burned the braai meat or knocked over our flimsy camping wine glasses.



I was just reminded about an amusing thing that hapenned to us while braaing. All of a sudden someone from another bungalow rushed up to us (in the pitch dark) and put his meat on our braai, without even introducing himself ;| We were all sitting there in a bit of disbelief while he casually explained his fire is going out and he needs to bbq his chicken. This all seemed completely normal to him. Welcome to Kruger you crazy Canadian.

Morning came and at 4:30 we were out of the camp again, and if you don't know Balule, please be careful of the electric wire at perfect height on the gate. My father has amusingly (for me) shocked himself when coming back into the camp on a previous trip.

The Mopani trees dominate a fair bit of the vegetation to the immediate north of Olifants, and in summer can make viewing anything deeper than 10m into the bush, quite tricky. It's also not the favourite meal of a lot of your antelope you'll encounter further south, so you really need to be on top of your game.



We spent some time at the lookout on the S44 Letaba River Road enjoying the waterbuck down below and the hippos grunting in the distance.

We saw some beautiful Kudu bachelor herds, which as I mentioned earlier, always deserve a second look and a photo.



By the time we returned to camp, we were the only ones there. Our Canadian friend had excused himself without so much as a goodbye . We proceeded to move the tables around like we owned the place, and soon had our own breakfast preparation area setup next to the fence, which was right alongside the river.

My wife ambitiously tried to cook us pancakes in our Skottel for breakfast. Well, they were definitely 'bush' pancakes, 'blackened' on one side and a bit doughy on the other. I blame our equipment. A standard skottel pan is actually a flawed design, why could they not have made the pan flat, like a frying pan. Problem solved. We had the local hyena patrol accompanying us while we enjoyed out breakfast Savannah's.



See you again Balule, especially your wonderful camp staff and your hyenas!