Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
9th August - Satara Camp - 1.50am
Yesterday was our first full day in the park - My God - What a day!
We got up early as planned, had breakfast, packed and were on our way by 10 past 6. We drove to the waterhole near the camp, as we were getting near it a hyena ran in front of us. They are HUGE, strong looking animals. I had always pictured them as a bit thin and straggly with their nervous laugh, but no, I was very wrong. We saw a second hyena as we approached the waterhole, it kind of looked up at us and kept running. We stayed about 10 minutes but we couldn't see any movement coming towards the hole so we drove on, staying on the dirt road.
About 3 minutes on, we came across 2 cars stopped - a sure sign of animals. There was a black rhino to our right, stamping and moving around. Then Ewan has looked to the left of our car and about 5 metres from us, sitting in the sun, amongst the swaying grass - was a fully grown LION. He was beautiful. He sunned himself for a few minutes then very nochalantly strolled across the track, brushed up against a few trees and walked away. I know lions are hunters and can kill humans, but quite frankly he looked as beautiful and playful as any domestic cat. The king of beasts had passed our way. It wasn't even 6.30 yet.
Now, I'm bound to get the order of events wrong, but in a nutshell, we saw a lot of animals. Beautiful, wild animals living naturally.
A bit further on from the lion we found the lioness, there looked to be 3 of them. They were hidden better than their less shy male counterpart had been. We could hear some crashing behind them but they didn't seem worried. Sure enough around the next bend in the road, we spot the elephants, eating and demolishing everything in their path.
I have already forgotten what came next..it was one of the most exciting days in my life...I know that I saw giraffe, they seem less used to vehicles and were very wary of us. It is so incredible to see them at close range, feeding and somehow managing to look graceful despite their incredibly long legs and neck. Buffalo with their helmet like set of horns, coated in mud, and quite frankly just a little bit pissed off that we were there. Hippo's sunning themselves or swimming in the heat of the day, yawning and showing us their big toothy smile. Warthogs with their stocky, muscular little bodies, mohawk hair and fierce tusks, running past us with their tails struck straight up in seeming defiance. Zebra's trying to stay cool in the shade of a tree or running past us to get to the waterhole. Many, many impala, so sleek and small, they look too fragile for Africa. Kudu, Eland, Steenbok, Wilderbeest, more elephants, more giraffes, more hippos, babboons and incredible vibrant birdlife, all set against the wild African landscape.
It took us nearly 6 hours to get to Satara Camp, and throughout that drive we wouldn't have had more than 10 minutes without spotting an animal. There are 130 000 impala in the park, so you see them most often, but the other animals are always around, it's spotting them that can be difficult.
Satara Camp is older than Bergendal, and isn't on a water source. So there isn't anywhere near the greenery, instead it's more like the park itself, very dry with patchy vegetation.
Our hut is a rendered round, brick building with a thatched roof. Again, it's fully self contained, but the kitchen is on the outside. Every hut has a bbq. These South Africans are made for their braiis (I think that's how you spell it)?? We tried to do some washing but the laundry was closed, I'm wearing my penultimate pair of undies, so fingers crossed they open it today.
We didn't cook our own dinner, we instead bought a pie with mash and gravy. They had a deal on, for 60 rand each we got an enormous pie and 2 beers each. The pie was too huge and laced with kidneys, even Ewan struggled to finish it. We also had to fight off some very persistant local birdlife.
We went for a drive around sunset (you have to be back by 6 before they shut the gate). We went to a waterhole close by but it was just a muddy pit. They are coming to the end of the dry season and there's not much water around for the animals. We saw more impala, wilderbeest, baboon and warthog but no lion kill by an African sunset.
We leave in a few hours for a sunrise walk in the park with armed rangers. Bloody Hell.
- comments