Africa Wild

We stopped at Lake Panic on the way to the golf club, but there was a gang of cars in the parking lot, so we drove straight out again and continued on to the club.

I had remembered to pack some slops under my car seat to avoid a repeat of the drama with the aunty from the golf shop that insists on shoes to enter, but the construction that was still on the go made me much more uncomfortable than the slops did.

When I checked out the new menu and the new prices, I became even more uncomfortable, but since we were there and hungry, we ordered the gold-plated toasted sarmies anyway.

I believe now that the construction is complete that the golf club is much better, but I preferred the old style feeling and especially the old prices.
The drive back down the H4-1 to Lower Sabie produced the normal gang and we only took pics of an ellie herd crossing the road.


We arrived back at Lower Sabie around midday and the cloud cover had lifted slightly so it was boiling hot.

When we stopped, I scrounged around in the back of the bakkie for another bag of wood while the clan cruised to the EH2’s with the cameras.

Suddenly there was shrieking which caused me to bang my head on the bakkie bin.

“#$^* WTF”

The clan came charging back to the car

“SNAKE!”

I’m no snake expert but what we think is a yellow bellied sand snake had been suntanning on the cement outside the hut and Albert nearly stood on it. The snake was now parking off in the ground cover next to the unit checking us out, so I snuck in for a pic.


Suddenly more shrieking and a family highland fling dance, another snake came out the ground cover 2m away and headed towards Bushpig’s hut which set her off at pace to make sure her door was closed.


The new snake ducked across the open patch of sand between the EH2’s and headed straight towards an open door on the opposite end, so I called to warn the occupant.

“Watch your door, a snake is coming your direction”

The occupant didn’t speak English to well, but he approached his doorway while looking at me, so I pointed down. It took his brain a few seconds to adjust, he shouted something in a strange language, and then came flying out of his unit and across the sand patch in the opposite direction.

I didn’t want to offend him, but I was battling to not burst out laughing. The snake then stopped and slowly moved off back towards our unit where the other snake was hiding in the ground cover.

I convinced the semi-English-speaking man that we thought it was harmless and that there was another snake outside our unit, so he got his camera and followed along.

The Cow and kids then announced that they were going to the ablutions and that I must chase the snakes off.

Suddenly more shrieking halfway to the loo

“SNAKE!”

I charged off that direction while followed by the now paranoid man. It was the same model, but much smaller.

I think 1 of these snakes was a female and the others males trying their luck as that’s the only thing that made sense.

The new snake ducked into a log, the clan continued on to the loo, and I returned to our unit to check on the other snakes, but couldn’t find them, so when the clan returned, I just stated “they moved off” which was accepted.

It had been a long morning drive, so we spent most of the afternoon in camp and did a walk along the fence line which produced a rock monitor sleeping under one of the benches, which would have given any user a big fright, and the normal buffalo, hippos, etc along the Sabie river.


For the short afternoon drive we decided to head up towards the causeway once again as the sighting board indicated that it was rather quiet down the H4-2 and up the H10.

Our first stop was just after Sunset Dam for a Martial eagle.


Around 1km after Lubyelubye something caught my eye as well as Bushpig.

“There, what’s that”

A second later we all shouted “Leopard” at the same time.

The leopard was cruising around in the thick grass/bush so it was difficult to focus the camera, but we eventually got some pics.

The leopard ducked behind some bushes and we lost sight of it, so the forward/reverse mission started and eventually we found a semi view through some thick grass for 1 last pic.


We sat for close to 20 minutes watching the now flat leopard spots and the clock, but eventually decided to turn and take a slow drive back towards camp and stopped for pics of a BSK and some sleeping lion that had come out into the open on the other side of the Sabie river.


When we arrived back to camp there was a commotion on the go in the camping section right next to the EH2’s and some guy was talking on a microphone. This instantly pissed me and surprisingly the family off, so we took a walk over to see what was going on.

It was a religious group of more than 30 families, they were camping and staying throughout camp, but had gathered on the 4 or 5 camping sites next to the EH2’s for a braai. They had set up speakers, an amplifier and some guy was giving an introduction speech.

I have no issue with gatherings in Kruger, but one can’t impose on others, one has to stay within the rules and respect the reason some are visiting in the 1st place, so I’m not certain how Sanparks could allow this. I have read a few reports that Sanparks staff in certain camps throw the odd party lately that can clearly be heard by visitors within camps, this worries me because listening to the night sounds is part of the Kruger experience that seems to not be understood by the staff, especially on Friday & Saturday nights. I have also personally experienced this at Skukuza, Satara & Lower Sabie on different occasions.

Bushpig took the selfie below on her cell phone from the EH2’s later that evening as the social braai was noisy enough to piss off teenagers and in all the public ablutions the “program” had been put up.


We were leaving for Talamati in the morning so we made a mental note to avoid Tshokwane at 10am because the “program” indicated that this crowd was going to pull in there. I also noted a picnic at Mlondozi on the “program” for later in the week and wondered how that site would handle these numbers.

We decided to duck into our units early as we were getting irritated sitting outside and I made another mental note to recover our curtain holder in the morning, but decided to leave the bat blocking black bin bags in the thatch holes as they would assist the next visitor.


To be continued

As usual great trip report, Bushcraft,

with all the obligatory leopard sightings You had also lovely lion sightings beside the sad sighting of the poor lion junior, cheetahs as well as wild dogs

Did you also saw impala? So far cannot remember having seen a picture

Also had a great laugh over the snake encounter at Lower Sabie camp and now I am aware where to use the braai tongue besides for the braai as well

Ready for more

Hey, Bushy, long time no smell!

Yoh, you are going at pace, I'm taking it one page at a time!

Lovely spot at Jozini, and your snake ascapade while on green biscuits is gripping stuff!

Pumbaa,

Thanks for checking this out, even though it's 6 months late

There will be 1 pic of an impala that Albert took coming up in one of the future posts, it's a flying impala though

Those potato tongs Although they saved us twice

Hey RP

Ja, life has been very busy the last few years since I got retrenched, it's all about work now to stay afloat

I'm going at pace because I have a week's break between projects at the moment, so have to finish before I'm jammed again Catch up at your pace

Nkonkoni tiger fishing camp is a cool stopover spot, but rustic, hides have collapsed due to no maintenance, etc, so it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea, but the price is good and it's close to the Swazi border.

That snake , I had to concentrate hard

3rd October Lower Sabie to Talamati

I woke rather glad that we were moving to Talamati for the night due to the “gathering” that had taken over Lower Sabie and I can only take so much of the crowded southern roads before going loopy, so we always have a bush camp or 2 in our trip mix just to get some peace for a day/night. Talamati can be hit and miss sighting wise, but we definitely relax more in the bush camps, it’s just a pity they are so expensive.

We were packed and at the gate at 5:25am, but found ourselves in the mix with the men from the gathering who were going to have a “wandel in die word” at Sunset Dam for 45 minutes. Not sure how it was possible to do this at Sunset dam, but we cruised straight past the dam without stopping to find out.

Our 1st stop for pics was as we went over N’watimhiri Bridge as a lion pride was below, including some that were drinking and a rather large junior still suckling.