240kms in 2 weeks... hell yeah

African sunrise...istant cue for: NAAAAAAAAAA

Day 1

My car nearly died. Seriously. Poor little Getz was forced into finding her inner 4x4 spirit while conquering corrugated (valleyed) roads layered with evil rocks with an interior full of people and luggage. It was rather stressful. (Note to self: make sure you’re on the insurance for dad’s big car before next grand adventure). Anyway, five hours after leaving Durban (I drive slowly to save petrol ok?) we get to Mkhuze for the game census. Rest of the day was spent finding out what will be plotting over the next two weeks, claiming beds and meeting fellow minions. 

Happiness is mud

Day 2

8km transect of up-down rocky terrain to start. Found out I was a lot fitter than I thought I was and it made me want to start hiking more often. Mountains, I want to see mountains again Gandalf [/geekism]. Not much game save for nyala, a red duiker and a grey one and a buffalo. Though apparently elephants climb mountains as seen from the giant poo piles and pushed over trees. I would’ve loved to have seen that.

Talk around camp fire was highlighted by the naming of the semi-tameish genet. First named Brakkies by the Afrikaaner, but then countered with the more dignified suggestions of Cecil and Francois by the Englishman. Much laughter ensued.

Brakkies...or Cecil....or Francois

Day 3

Turns out I sleep like the dead. Bushbabies  Galagos, hyenas and wildebeest all failed to rouse me.

Boredom nearly killed us on the transects in the link property. It was longish, flat and all we saw were pelicans and  a whole lot of cows…and a dead reedbuck. Loverly.

Waiting for the lift after we finished made up for it because it was hilarious. So, we ended up at this huge tree with a shack next to it.

So we sit down and we see this guy walking in the reserve link property thing with these two knobkerrie-type things which aren’t allowed in the park. After he sees the ranger he promptly saunters to the nearest bush and throws them in, in full view of everyone, because he was so inconspicuous like that. Then he continues walking while doing these random air punch-combined-with-dance-steps moves. Our ranger tries to call him over but gets ignored like five times. Eventually this guy (obviously drunk or high or both) comes over and our ranger starts interrogating him in English, then switches to Zulu, then back to English – with no comprehension dawning in this guy’s mind. This goes on for a long time, with my friend and I trying our utmost not to can ourselves laughing. Anyway, the guy eventually gets the point that these knobkerries are not allowed in the park and runs off skipping after our ranger tells him to go find his leader/chief/nduna.

The funny didn’t end there however. Our ranger thereafter decided to trundle off with some new lady friends. My friend and I are left sitting on this tree with these two randoms and a (very unhappy) cow. We tried to cease to exist while the two of them try to figure out how to get the cow across the cattle grid (bearing in mind that there are several long sheets of corrugated iron lying on the floor). After like 20 minutes they worked out that using one of these sheets would be a good way to solve their problem if they put it over the grid.

Once this eureka moment was put in place, they started herding the cow towards the gate. At one point the cow was literally yanked off its feet as they intelligently tied the rope around its leg. We thought it was dead as it didn’t move despite several attempts by these guys to get it on its feet…until it got a kick in the head (not a hard one). It got up after that and the rest of the crossing went smoothly.

Then, when we eventually got picked up and were driving back to camp we came across these two again. Our ranger got out and started questioning them as you’re not allowed to bring cattle into the park without first consulting the head office. The punishment ended up being 20 push-ups, which made the guy very unhappy while entertaining the rest of us.

Just LOL

Day 4

Walking felt like forever today! Was about 7.5kms per transect plus quite a bit of walking between but at least we saw stuff! YAY! Granted it was the standard impala, nyala, wildebeest and zebra story but among those were a few warthogs, red duiker and suni.

Our ranger doing some pondering

Day 5

PAYDAY! Well, not for us since we’re getting paid with food, but all the rangers got paid and went home so no walking for us. We decided to kill my car some more  do a game drive. Didn’t see much until we got to the Nsumo Pan where we saw hippo and were very entertained by an egret landing on the popping up hippo heads and sinking with the hippo when they decided to submerge again. Drive back to camp was more successful but no super cool stuff.

Funny egret on a hippo

Day 6

Best transects! Both were long (around 8kms) but flat so it was easy enough. Actual transects didn’t provide the best-transects award but we had lunch at the Masinga hide which was amazing. It was like the whole Serengeti piled in around one watering hole. So many animals and so many photos were taken. It made me a happy person.

Zebra reflection

Day 7

Hell transects were hellish. Not only were the transects long themselves (~9kms each) but you had to walk so far to get to and from them and the car as well as between them. Easily a +25km day. Meh. I did feel rather accomplished after conquering the physical and mental drain. Only redeeming points were the stunning views at the beginning of the second transect, you could see for seemingly endless miles of bush. It was close to mind-numbing but alas, it was a sense that was dulled by the walk ahead.  

Also saw a hyena which was the only predator I saw in the whole two weeks. Sad Natta is sad at this fact.

I will nap....here

Day 8

Rest day comprising of a shopping trip to the bustling metropolis of Mkhuze and meeting the new peoples.

Impressive tusks are impressive

Day 9

Really dull. Saw ‘nothing’. 8.2km and 2 sightings….greaaaaat.

Look how little it is AWWW

Day 10

Hide transects again yay! Hide was open to visitors again (it was being renovated last time) so had to deal with other peoples including annoying toddler who would. Not. Shut. Up. Gosh, at a hide you should be silent and if your kids don’t know the meaning of the word shush then don’t bring them along. Really, consideration for others, people. It’s not that hard.

Not as many animals but I did end up having a discussion about conservation and park management (in hushed tones when all the animals left) with this random guy which was very interesting. He also saw cheetahs…twice…not fair.

Like a boss

Day 11

Quick day today, finished the 20 odd kms by 12:30. Nice walks too despite the rockiness. Saw 6 rhinos (only white unfortunately). I even managed to spot a mommy and baby that the ranger walked straight past. Kudos to me! There was also a carcass of a rhino killed by poachers (via a snare) which I smelt like a kilometre away and it made me both depressed and really angry.

That's what the giraffe thought of me taking photos

Day 12

Short transects! Seriously first one was 700m through this stunning fig forest. Big, mind-numbingly wow trees. Sadly half the transect was infested with chromelina and there were no elephants. Other transect was 4km but felt like 20 because the ranger walked so slowly.

Big tree is big

Day 13

Another easy day, more painfully slow walking but we managed to speed up on the second transect. Again, nothing super special in the way of sightings.

More cuteness

Day 14

Uuuugh….so much driving to Makhasa and then sooo much walking in sand at a speedy gonzalez pace. Legs were rather unhappy at the end of it. And we saw nothing of great interest…

Wallowing party

Day 15

Leaving day. Yeah, despite the whining above I really loved the two weeks. Got good experience, learnt a lot, found new friends and opened up some new opportunities for the future. Also, the bush just has that ability to make me happy. I miss it already.

On an exciting note: my friend can organise for me to go out and see wild dogs!!!!! YAY for having 

 connections.

And I am out…until next time. 

Somewhat less than enamoured…

Young kudu with the most amusing expression ever

I won’t lie, Kruger was a bit of a let-down after all the hype of going. That may have been part of the problem but still, I can’t say I left with the sense of wonder that usually accompanies my bush escapes. Yes, we saw lots of the standards: impala, elephants, rhino, warthog, zebra etc. The stand out sighting was a leopard casually lounging on a branch just 10m from the road. And, as usual, we kept missing the wild dogs. Seriously, we choose one road to get from A to B, they are on the other. Clearly I need to clone myself and drive all the roads! 

Traffic...African style

A major downer on the whole trip was our stay in Pretoriuskop Camp. My mom specifically booked it because that’s the area where wild dogs are often seen…except when I’m there. The service was shocking. The lady at the office looked like she could think of a million things she’d rather be doing and couldn’t care less about the issues at hand. My hand itched to connect with her face and I’m very glad my mom dealt with her. Also, the units were organised with a shared kitchen, but guess what? There was nothing. No plates, no cups, no cutlery. Nothing. And when we got to the office to ask about this all we got in response was: Sorry, there are no plates. Seriously? Ser-i-ous-ly? This is one of the premier parks in the country and they can’t cater for the basics or be even remotely helpful? And the restaurant was also rather terrible. Not impressed and that camp is definitely not getting my business again. 

Ours, ours, all ours!

The view from our house...I could get used to it

The last place we stayed at was amazing however. It was a huge house at the Skukuza Camp, divided up into five rooms (from what I recall) that each slept two people with a large kitchen and eating area, that overlooked the river. Really was fantastic and I’ll definitely try muster up a whole bunch of people and go road trip there. One day… 

We had a visitor :)

Went on a night drive as well. Watched an awesome red moon rise like on the Kalahari. Didn't see much in the way of predators but I saw my first bushbaby. Those things can move FAST for such little critters!

New type of camouflage for cars...I dunno, it amused me

Another thing I learnt on this trip is that early morning drives are possibly not worth the early wake-up. Can't say we saw anything remarkably interesting during these drives... but, since I was only there for 3 days I was going to get the most out of it.