April 28th
An exciting day ahead of us as today we were off on safari again. Pick up time was 6 am, total travel time to the game park was an hour and 40 minutes, probably why we had to be away so early.
3 4X4 Land Rovers were our transport for the day. Ian and I went to the back and the highest point. Trying to climb onto the seat was amusing as Ian had to give me a boost up just to get up there. Much hilarity from our fellow travellers until those in different vehicles tried to get into the back too.
The first part of the journey was on a tarmac road, but the majority was on a rutted dirt track. With the recent rains, this made the bounce at the back of the Land Rover really uncomfortable. Maybe I should have gone for the front seats instead of the back.
Anyway once in the reserve, the hunt was on. For over an hour, we travelled along tracks to find
something with four legs, but nothing was found! Really disappointed our
driver took us to a lodge with a watering hole in the hope of seeing
something, but apart from a swish of a tail from a buffalo, that was it!
Here we had a wee break before setting off once more to hunt our
quarry.
Not far from the lodge was a carcase, a VERY smelly one.
An elephant lay dead, tusks still in place, so not killed by poachers. Our
guide thought it must have been old age.
Another 15 minutes went
by when, hallelujah, a giraffe was seen. From that encounter, things
started looking up as one animal after another was seen. A call on the
car radio alerted our guide to lions, so we high-tailed it up a very
windy, bumpy track to find it. And there it was, a lone juvenile lion
sheltering from the heat under a tree. Wow is all I can say. We were so
close, about 3 metres away and slightly scary considering we were in an
open vehicle! Our guide assured us all he wanted to do was sleep and was
not at all interested in us! Several other vehicles turned up, and the
lion then decided he had had enough and left, but not before he walked
within spitting distance of Ian. In fact, so close was it that if Ian
had been stupid enough, he could have touched it!
With this stop right in the open, of course no proper toilets. The
guides pointed to two trees. The larger was for the ladies and the
smaller for the men! Hmm..its all right for the men, but us ladies, having to drop our knickers, show a massive target for those nasty biting insects to aim for!
Setting
off once more, having been helped up by Ian's hand on my bottom, pushing
me up to my seat, another message came through on the radio. This time, Cheetah had been spotted. Well, our guide floored it! The ridged track
kept us bouncing about, with us hanging on for grim death. He kept
shouting sorry every time the back end of the vehicle left the ground, and it was extremely uncomfortable. But you know what...I would do it
all again to see the sight that greeted us on arrival. A mother with
three sons. We watched for ages until she got up and led her sons away.
Our guide followed across shrub and hidden dips, but he was not going to
give up the pursuit. Wow, again and how lucky were we!
Lunch was again had in the open under the shade of a large tree. By now, we were all sweltering in 30-plus temperatures. No animals joined us this time, and we were again shown which tree was the ladies and which the gents!
Plenty of animals still to be seen, some I have put at the bottom of this post, but with so many to choose from, I have put a link to my web album if you fancy a look.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CwvQWkTZe1XM24Tg8
Anyway, we
eventually headed back to Crocodile camp, along that dirt track again, but the bouncing around didn't bother us anymore. I have bruises on
bruises, but oh, the best day of our trip so far. Because we arrived back at camp so late, I couldn't be bothered to cook dinner, so scrambled eggs on toast sufficed. We also had a Roosterkoek (rolls made with flour and water and cooked on the braai) waiting for us, made by Kobus. It was filled with Jam and
Cheese, yummy!
And some of my 100's of photos
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