Having the Time of my Life revisited (October 2016)

[Mel]

could be a Puffie... there is a lot around Grootkolk

Even that would be possible! Luckily, we never saw that puffie. But clearly the track mark coming down from Franco's unit

[Mel]

Those lazy days at Grootkolk are the best, Mel

It is great to see that much Kudus together and on top the eland as well - Great shots too

They were best because it was our way to snuggle into holiday mode And once you made peace with the fact that you only get to see what you're supposed to see, it's quite easy to spend most of the time in camp and just enjoy a good book while the birds are singing and raiding the waterbaths you supply them with. And of course watching the antics of all the antelopes around Plus, they will always let you know well in advance when the big boys (or girls) wander in So, it's easy to be prepared and get the camera ready for that case.

[Mel]

Sigh....so homesick. Grootkolk is truly a gem.

The pic of the kudus against the straw colored grass is lovely .

I couldn't agree more, ExFmem... and six nights at that gem is much more luck than one can actually handle

[Mel]

Fantastic pics Mel, especially the "vulture sunset"

Thanks Bushcraft! One of my favourites as well

[Mel]

So, we're still enjoying the lazy days at Grootkolk And when I said the lions didn't hog the camp, I didn't mean that they never popped in for a visit. But this time they didn't stay for days on end It all started during the second night. Shortly after 3 am, to be precise... A loud roaring had us jumping up straight next to our beds. Lions seem to have a knack for that time of the night Once awake we could make out that the noises came from the area behind the camp assistant's unit, so no need to get our knickers in a twist. We went back to bed. Having just dozed off again, the second round of roaring started only another 20 minutes later. Still very loud, still very distinctively from an area we couldn't see anthing in. Right, eyes shut again... This story could be told until everyone is totally bored because nothing ever happened. At some point the roaring sounded so distant and coming from the north (rather than the east behind the camp assistant’s unit) that we calmed down completely. Well, the SO did. My night was over, so I got up and made myself some coffee and sat outside. It was around 4.30 am by now and the prospect of taking a nap later on was enough to convince me that I didn’t have to sleep anymore. Of course, once the sun came up, nobody showed up at the waterhole. But we hadn’t expect that anyway. By the sound of it, the guy had moved off. About an hour after gate opening however there was more roaring coming from up the road again. Confusing?! We hadn’t meant to go anywhere that morning but decided to drive a few kays down the road to check things out. And here they were. At least part of the family:




The one on the left is the ugly kid joe that we had seen the previous year too. The one on the right is his not much younger cousin who was presented by his mother a couple of weeks after we were back home again. I actually saw photos of her carrying the little one in her mouth into the camp. Geez, how I would have loved to see that!

Anyway, Ugly Kid Joe has turned into quite a cheeky teenager. Not so long ago, he obviously spend an hour in the fence area of unit 4 in the middle of the night. Story goes that the visitors were rather scared and had tried to get Franco do something about it. But what can a camp assistant do when there are lions all over the camp? He’d be eaten up before even managing to get half way to the units... Btw, for those of you visiting sooner or later – check the scratch marks at unit 4.

[Mel]

It didn't take long for them to disappear into the dunes about 2 km behind the camp. We turned around and settled to see if they'd show up for a drink. But they only joined the party later in the day, approaching from the south...

[Mel]

But we had a great party! We did some...

...sumo-ringing




...telly watching


...shuffles

The guy on top lost because he couldn't get the empty chair

[Mel]

There was...

...dancing


...piggy-back rides


and some more telly to calm the youngsters down.


Once they had gone to bed, we had a few drinks with one of the adults.

[Mel]

Well, I will have to admit that I took some writer's liberty... The males didn't show up until the morning two days later.
We were out watching... uhm, something else. But that's a story for another episode, so for now it's lions My trap camera however caught the two males drinking:



When we arrived back at the camp around 1 pm, they were camped out underneath a tree next to unit 4, clearly visible when approaching the camp on the access road. In fact,
one of them just left the waterhole as we drove down, but after the morning we had, we couldn't care any less that we had missed a lion drinking

After the one in the previous post had drunk, he laid down just out of the floodlight ring on the right of the waterhole. But we could hear him. Loud and clear since he was talking to his family who regularly answered. By 10 pm that night the roaring got quieter and we were able to enjoy a peaceful night

[Mel]

The next morning yet another male came to drink at the waterhole. He definitely wasn't part of the pair from the day before because a) he didn't look anything like any of the other two and b) he was extremely nervous and kept looking around, drinking, moving backwards and forwards and drinking some more before scampering off towards the south.







And with that, the lions at Grootkolk are done and dusted