Day 23… searching in the sun
2 January
I woke up happy and hopping this morning as I could drive as far and much as I want to, there were no limitations today to my drive and I was ecstatic. I woke up mum and sis after my shower and weren’t very happy about being awake at 3:50 and they took their time with getting dressed and packing the car. Eish, how I struggled with the women this morning, I was a bit bummed with them as we only left the camp at 4:40 and not my normal gate opening time…
The first thing we saw this morning was this beautiful sunrise
And then something that you will always see in the Satara area, or rather, I have seen these everytime I have visited Satara.
And a steenbokkie that was still hiding from the morning cold
We got some general game with willies, zebra and impala everywhere and every now and then giraffe. Just before Ngosto dam we got our first secretary in a tree
And then about 2km North of the dam there were trees all around us, we got our first breeding herd of ellies, my sis were ecstatic, unfortunately I couldn’t take kiekies of them as we passed them and I parked so that she could take some, they were kneeling in the road behind us and one lying down and rubbing himself on the tar. But as I looked in front of me I saw a car about 150m from us and they weren’t moving. I told my sis I wanted to move on and she asked for a few more minutes, THEN, I heard a bobby bark and I just knew it, I said sorry sis and started moving forward, I got to that car and they were looking to the right side, we were scanning the grass and then something jumped out of the grass just to disappear again…
Ooooh you should have felt the excitement in the car at that moment when what I suspected came true… He was the same spotty I saw on my way to Sable with Wendy, what are the chances. But this time he wouldn’t sit still and was walking away from the bobbies and ellies so we were facing the right direction and followed him. It was difficult to get kiekies as I was driving, trying to stay on the road as well but I got a few as proof of him…
He then went down a dip and disappeared for good, the car that saw him first turned around and when they passed us asked if we saw him, they were happy that we did and I asked them how long they had him for themselves until we arrived. They said about 30 minutes as he was grooming himself and posing beautifully but then the bobbies got to him and he decided to duck. Oh well, we had him form maybe 2 minutes but it was still amazing and a lekker boost to our morning drive. We were all smiles from there on.
But not to worry the sightings didn’t stop here, we had a heron on a far away tree
And a lone hyena strolling on the side of the road
We got to the Olifants bridge and climbed out for a stretch and then Mads drove past, we had a short chat and then she left us to look over this majestic river. Then it was time to move on, we took the tar road to Olifants camp and got a baby terry on the road
At the camp we bought some snacks and sat at the viewpoint enjoying the scene in front of us, we saw some waterbuck in the river and after about 30 minutes we decided to move on as we still had to get back to camp and it was starting to get hot. We turned unto the S91/S92 dirt road that takes you back to the Olifants bridge and had a Sharpes grysbok
And a tortie
on this road. And then we turned right into the S139, it was the first time that I drove the northern section of this road, and I think I would’ve appreciate it more if it wasn’t getting so hot. The road didn’t have a lot of shade and it was very dusty, but what was great about this road, was every now and then having a view of the Timbavati. We saw a few general game, a hippo sleeping under a tree and 7 ground hornbills.
Also at the birdhide we saw African spoonbills, herons and hippos. We had a quick break at Timbavati picnic spot and decided that as it we were a bit tired we are rather going to take the shorter S40 home and chill a bit in camp. We didn’t really see anything else and were glad when we arrived at home. I took an afternoon nap and they didn’t like the heat, so were sweating underneath a little tree for some shade. I woke up at four and dragged the two into my car, informing them that the heat would reside soon.
Something new we experienced on the S100 was that the rain we got, had let out a platter of bugs and the birdies were having a feast… There were too many flying around so I couldn’t get a kiekie of them in action but there were swallows, rollers, eagles and other birdies I couldn’t identify. Here I could at least take a kiekie of a juvenile Bateleur and Tawny in a tree.
And the great thing about the S100 is that you always see animals, we had zebbies, giraffes, waterbuck and willies on this road. Then a grumpy ellie, we were waiting for him to cross the road when our neighbours came from the front, they informed us about lions just 2km left of the S100 turn off, we thanked them and went on our merry way.
We got there and saw 3 or 4 cars sitting patiently, I stopped and couldn’t see a thing, we asked the people in the one car that had ear to ear smiles where are the lions where they pointed right next to them. Uhm, where?!?!?! My sis and mum saw him after a while and I still saw buggerall, and then after they actually took my face and shoved it in the right direction I could see a tail… I told them that I’m not going to wait here hoping for them to stand up, I would rather want to turn back and take the H6, so we all agreed and we were back on the road again. Well, let me tell you guys, it was the best decision I made as we were about 8km from the H1-3 when I saw this coming from the bushes…
We wanted to stay longer but we were pushing the time at that moment, so we left the 3 young males with sad faces. I couldn’t even stop to take a kiekie of a huge breeding herd of buffies, I had to take an action shot.
We got to the gate 18:40 and were frowned upon as we entered but at least no fine. We got to camp very happy with our sightings of the day, mum got her leopard as she is a bit spotty and sis her playing ellies. I started the fire and in no time we had the smell of chicken sosaties wafting through our camp. We also had some baked potatoes on the fire and made some salad, we scoffed it all down very quickly in between laughter and stories about what we saw that day watching the sun set from our perfect view of the bush.
To be continued…
