Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Satara Camp 5.40pm
We lived.
We survived our naked journey into the African Wilderness. When I say "naked", I mean we weren't protected by a vehicle, there weren't any nudie runs. It was still pretty amazing / terrifying in equal parts. Knowing that if you came across lion, buffalo, cheetah, elephant or rhino you could end up hurt, or worse, the animal could be shot.
We were out of the camp gates by 5.30am and it was still dark. We drove for about an hour before the rangers pulled up well off the main road. It was a good trip in, we saw jackal, black rhino and hyena. The rhino ran off as we approached, (they're suprisingly quick), I have a beautiful image of him silouhetted against a brightening morning sky.
The hyena were really busy marking their territory. I thought maybe it was a breeding pair, Ewan pointed out the appendage that would indicate that they're males. Turns out we were both wrong, they were actually females! They have fake male bits to help them give birth (check this??) and I'm guessing as a survival tool. The females do all of the marking because they are dominant in the pack.
It was right on sunrise when we started the walk, the babboons yelled and hollered and alerted all of the animals to our presence. We crossed a creek, it didn't have much flow in it, but there was a sizeable pool where you could see animals had been coming down to drink. Crossing the creek was the only time I saw the rangers look a bit cautious. The rest of the time the 2 of them were up the front talking.
It was great to be out walking in the bush after so many hours driving along looking at it. The ground is suprisingly soft and powdery, not hard baked like our Australian soils can be. It was a fresh start to the morning, but not cold. Ewan was a good spotter, he saw the jackal which appeared to be following us at a distance, and he spotted the wilderbeast. They're funny animals, they make a sound like a motorbike trying to start. There were 2 big males about 100 metres away on either side of us. They decided to join forces and made a big show of running and bucking and throwing their heads around. We walked to a dried up waterhole, just dried mud and bleached tortoise shells were left. We had an orange juice and a chat. I asked one of the rangers about the damage to the trees that you see throughout the park. He said the elephant will do that to get more nutrients from the inner parts of the branches. They kill that part of the tree / shrub in the process though. Kruger currently has around 14000 elephants, the park can healthily sustain about 7500. While the politicians dither about culling or re-location, the numbers are exploding and the park and all of it's animals are suffering.
We walked back and learnt how to identify different types of poop, (kuna), giraffe poop looks like shiny black peas. Small intricate work from a big animal. The male hippo uses his tail like a fan to spread his as it's settling. It's part of marking his territory, or the other African story is that the hippo made a deal with God, in order to be able to cool himself in the river he promised to never eat a single fish. So he spreads his dung like that so that God can see there are no fish bones in there.
We saw the whole herd of wilderbeest on the return leg, they kept a wary distance, thankfully! Back to the truck and back to the camp.
It was great to be out in the bush, but due to the fact there were no life threatening moments, kind of a let down. I was sure the Italian lady who'd worn a red jumper instead of the earthy, neutral tones we were supposed to, would be eaten. I hung around her, camera at the ready.
We grabbed our gear and headed off straight away, and headed for Letabo Camp. It's huge and has an ATM, which we needed to use. It's a lovely drive, the vegetation is different in the north of the park, it seems to have more colour in it. We saw impala, elephant and giraffe. As we crossed Olifants river there were crocs and hippos on the bank. You can get out on the bridge there and have a really good look.
On our way back we stopped at Olifants camp. It has an amazing view of the park and the river runs through there. The elephant come down there to cool off. It was really magical. I'd love to stay there if I get the chance to come back.
We took a dirt road back part of the way, it followed the river and I was hoping to spot a cheetah lazing in one of the trees on the riverbank. No cheetah, but we had a very close encounter with a herd of buffalo. They had calves too, so I was a bit nervous about being only a metre from them.
The different viewing spots along the river were spectacular. We could see hippos sunbaking and elephants cooling off at the waters edge. We saw some waterbuck standing on the sandy edge, possibly wondering where the hell all the water had gone!
We also saw the biggest giraffe imaginable. I know I shouldn't be suprised, but he was twice the height of any other's we'd seen. He was standing in the middle of the road, like some ornate bridge who's legs you could drive between. He watched us for a few seconds then moved on. We saw a group of about 9 giraffe a bit later on too, it was around the time we witnessed some crocodile love. An enormous croc came out of the water and a little way up the bank, it was HUGE, but looked even more so because there was a smaller croc underneath. There was writhing, gnashing of teeth and throwing back of heads and then they both swam away, presumably to have a cigarette. All serenaded by the grumbling of hippos.
It wasn't long after this the world's largest elephant took instant dislike to our car. He was walking on the road towards us. After much hurried reversing and fervent praying, the big old man passed us by.
We got back to camp and located the laundry (hurrah!), it cost us about $1.25AUD to wash and dry the clothes (so bloody cheap!). I don't know if you've used a laundry mat in Australia recently, but somebody's making a tidy living out of those machines.
We ate dinner in the camp restaurant. The dining room was lovely, wrought iron candelabras and wooden camp furniture. The food was average, great heart attack material. Not that that seemed to bother the enormous South African's beside us who kept loading their plates up with the cheesy, salty concoction. Fingers crossed.
- comments
Sabrin Hi, We liked your blog post and we really would like to invite you to visit us the next time you come to South Africa and the Kruger park.