We arrived at the gate at about 5:50, were about 6th in the queue and on our way into the park at about 6:15. I think people were a bit put off by the rain.
Morning Drive: Crocodile Bridge Gate/H4-2/H4-1 to Skukuza
When we left this morning, there was a slight drizzle, but Melly had promised us the evening before that it was going to be 30 degrees as per the weatherman, but I think we all know by now that he’s not meant to be trusted.
Our first encounter this morning was with some sleeping giraffe. This is the first time that we have ever seen giraffe lying down and we were all totally amazed. They must be very vulnerable in this position if there were any lions around.
A few minutes later it start pouring with rain, but we were already in the park, so decided that the weatherman couldn’t be that wrong and just now the sun would come out, therefore we continued on.
What I found amazing was all the impala that came out and onto the road to drink from the puddles of water that had formed in the road.
Our youngest, who sits in the middle of the back seat, likes to watch for animals in the road and shout out each time she sees something. We normally have already seen the animal prior to the alarm from the back seat, but we have mastered the fake surprise, because she lets rip if anyone else says that they saw it first, but now with all the impala in the road, the alarm was sounding so much it was giving me a headache.
By the time we reached the N’watimhiri causeway everyone was feeling rather despondent and I later found out that most of Supernova’s crew was sleeping. I stopped at that dirt road entrance and asked Supernova on the walkie talkie “Tar or dirt”, he said “whatever”. As I headed in the direction of the dirt, Chantal started to protest “We don’t have a 4x4, it’s still pouring with rain!!”, but I ignored all the comments and continued.
The drive was quiet until just before joining the tar again. Suddenly I shouted leopard and then the usual camera frenzy began. The instructions were flying from the passenger seat “Stop, move, you too close, go, let Supernova and Melly in”.
The rather large “cub” was charging around, in and out the bush, stalking and pouncing on her mother, etc, and the panic started in my car, because that usual slow motion that seems to happen at sightings like this was happening again and I was shrieking, because we still didn’t have a photo.
They were standing in the road when we spotted them, but by the time we were ready, they were already on the grass.
Fortunately the curious cub was bored with her mother’s company and came back out the bush to check us out.
The mom didn’t seem as pleased with our presence and kept giving us the hairy eyeball. I had to warn Chantal to watch her window.
The naughty cub walked into the road and right up to our car, stopped next to Chantal’s window, checked out the yellow ribbon and then the windscreen wipers. Her head was moving from side to side as the wipers moved.
The poor mother sat patiently on the grass and waited.
The cub got bored with the wipers and decided to walk around to my side of the car and check me out. I couldn’t believe how totally unafraid she was, especially when she stopped right next to my open window and allowed me the opportunity to take such close up pictures.
After a few minutes the mom got up, looked at her cub and moved off into the grass. I almost felt that she said “enough games, let’s go”. The cub seemed to be disappointed at having to move on.
The mom moved off just beyond the first line of trees and sat down to wait for her cub, which was stalking her again and proceeded to jump on her back. This caused mom to move off into deeper bush.
It looked like they were heading for the tar, so we shot around to wait for them, but after 20 minutes it became clear that they had given everyone the slip, so we moved on to Skukuza for a Deli breakfast.
We found this little guy just outside Nkuhlu.
After a quick loo break and a check at the sightings board, we found our first waterbuck.
The rest of the trip to Skukuza was very quiet except for these buffalo.
Skukuza Deli was quite full, even in the rain. While Supernova and I went in to order breakfast, Melly went back to the car and Chantal was left babysitting the kids.
Supernova made it through the queue and was off to get the coffee. I was halfway through explaining my order to the technically challenged cashier, when I saw the entire table of kids disappear and Melly was running behind them.
The kids were behaving, so Chantal had gone for a short stroll to the viewing deck and something in the riverbed caught her attention; a white puff was moving in the grass and the next thing she shouted “leopard”, which caused the mass evacuation that I was witnessing from the cashiers counter.
2 seconds later Bushpig came charging into the Deli shouting “leopard at the fence”, which caused me to abandon my eggs sunny side up explanation and join the crowd that was sprinting outside, much to the confusion of the cashier, who by now had got as far as scrambled eggs.
My arrival was 5 seconds to late, the leopard was gone. Chantal was walking around like a Cheshire cat, I wasn’t impressed as she was now one leopard up on me and all I could say was “where’s the photo” but was jealous as hell.
Supernova came out the Deli 2 minutes later with the coffee and asked what all the commotion was about; I think that he was as jealous after the story was told.
Chantal had to redo our order, while I sat at the fence.
It was after 11am before we left Skukuza and it had started raining again, so we decided to make tracks for Croc Bridge.
The drive down was fairly quiet, but nobody in our car was really looking too intently, because in the rain with all the windows up, it just didn’t feel the same.
Chantal did however find her first owl for the trip; it’s an Eagle Owl I think
Next was this little tortoise, who gave us a laugh as he tried to get over the stick in the road. We always seem to find these chaps in the rain.
Just before Croc Bridge we found this tree full of vultures and they were all trying to hide their faces from the rain.
As we drove out Croc Bridge, on the bend just before the bridge, we found this big elephant having a feast.
The teeth rattling dirt road awaited us, so we had stopped for a loo break to avoid an accident on the dirt, but Supernova and Melly continued.
On the drive back to Ngwenya, Chantal spotted a car broken down on the side of the road and said “should we help?” It was Supernova and Melly – they had driven over a piece of metal in the road and now had a flat tyre.
I have never changed a Discovery’s tyre before and all that I can say is “@$%&@#$”.
