Day 13… a long drive produces some special sightings
23 December
Wendy wanted to sleep in so I took off this morning very early, something that astounded me was the fact that CB is very chill when it comes to waiting at the Gate, it was 4:20 and I was standing in camp checking the gate and there was only one car waiting so I decided to go join him… no rush what so ever. I planned on searching for servals this morning so I took the H5 to skuks then the tar to LS and S28 back to camp.
I do like dirt roads but the worst road in the Park is the H5, I was rattling all the way to the S114 that morning but that is the thing you do when you search for something special. Did I find one? EIsh, no. But some other special and a new sighting was seen that morning.
Ground hornbill
I saw this hyenas dashing across the road and when I got to the spot, I only saw him poking through the grass.
Some mr. Majestics
And then a new one for me, a female kudu with leucistic blotches
A tortie
And on the Skuks low water bridge I got my first marabou quenching his thirst
Then some yellow billed kites sunning
And there were ellies all over the Sabie river, they were in desperate need of some swimming, these were two separate sightings… but to tell you guys the truth I saw a herd almost every 500m.
I got Wendy at Lake Panic and after stopping for some cold refreshments at LS we were on our way back to camp. The road was so dry and dusty, just accentuated the summer heat, and it was a reason why didn’t have so many sightings on our way back.
And some buffies crossing the road after a refreshing mudbath
We stayed the afternoon in camp, and I took an afternoon nap, when I woke up it was time for another afternoon drive and Wendy was joining me on this drive. There aren’t really loopies to take around CB like the other camps so the only route I thought would be nice to drive in under 4 hours was the S25->S26->H5->camp.
Our first roadblock was this ellie, I made it safely to the other side but had to wait as the beast didn’t really like huge cars…
More ground hornbills, this one had the intestines of some unfortunate animal
Kudu
And to end a great day with a beautiful sunset…
That night I had my legs up the whole time, wondering when a scorpion would visit again but fortunately no nightly visitors came to our camp. We braaied some wors and had baked potatoes with some melted cheese on top. We talked and shared sightings till about 9:30 that night, enjoying our ice cold KPA’s and then it was time to go to bed as tomorrow starts early again.
To be continued…