Wowza - last week has been a busy one. Although it has been a little manic with the camp full it has been good to see the other side of the coin and how everything operates compared to when the lodge is empty and there is so much time. My last guests have strolled out this morning and OH MY HAT I'm glad to see the back of them. I had a family of 5 people from JHB for 7 nights (the long haul). They were the snobby sort. 7 nights is a long stay at any lodge and as a guide you find yourself running out of things to say after day 3 or 4. Usually by then you've developed quite a nice little relationship with them and it becomes quite chilled, but I just couldnt connect with these dudes - so I kind of went with the silent approach after day 4. Of course the silent approach works best if everyone partakes. The problem is I had a 60 yr old lady who insisted on sitting up front with me in the landy chatting away in my ear for the entire game drive - every game drive.
Now these guys were obsessive photographers, the dad and 2 sons, not the chatterbox. He was an old bullet and the sons were late thirties. You should have seen what the landy looked like after they'd finished kitting it out on the arrival. They strapped steel bars, supports and bean bags all over the thing - every time we passed another vehicle people took photos of us in our weird looking metal cage. I felt sorry for the other 2 guest on our vehicle for having to put up with these dudes. They enter the wildlife photographer of the year awards every year i.e. they are serious photographers. For example instead of a usual style game drive they preferred to bomb it to an area likely to get them good photo opportuntities. So we spent 1 hour driving and then 2 hours sitting with them snapping away (600 frames) at a colony of white fronted bee eaters on the sand banks of the Limpopo. It was quite cool for me as I would just take my binos and go strolling around bird watching while they reached levels of ecstatic excitement after yet another fine shot.
Thank the pope, the one evening we were interrupted by a large bull elephant which popped out of nowhere 20m from us while some of them were shooting away competely oblivious. It was quite comical as the old chap was having a pee behind the bush opposite the ellie at the time, and I quickly ordered him to abort and get into the vehicle quickly! Luckily the ellie was very chilled and just stood there watching and eating while I packed up the sundowners on the other side the vehicle.
Then were was the 'orc' - an apt desciption of the one son's wife. A most unhappy individual amongst great family tension. She reminded me of an orc (the Lord of the Rings type) both in her appearance and attitude. Now you cant really blame an orc for looking like they do but atleast she could have been a friendly orc. She was not, which is really surprising considering that she is supposed to be some well known yoga guru - certainly not a yoga teacher I'd like to go to.
Anyway - the greatest thing that we have learnt about doing this job is that everything is so temporary. If there are guests around that you do not like, you know that in a couple days they will be no more and life rolls on...
Mostly the guests we have had have been really nice people and its been cool to meet many interesting people with their different stories.
We have had some cool sightings. Quite a few lions around the Luvuvhu bridge area - one evening we were having sundowners on the bridge and there were ellies drinking and splashing about to our right north of the river, 2 lions drinking opposite the ellies and a couple dagga boys to our left. This amongst the usual abundance of baboons, vervets, nyala, kudu, impala and bushbuck that frequent the riverine forrests on any given day. We saw a cool 3m African Rock Python yesterday too which was a first for me. I have only seen 3 or 4 snakes since we started almost 3 weeks ago - we have a nice stripe bellied sand snake that lives in camp and likes to hunt the lizards and skinks that abound. We also have a Giant Plated Lizard living up near one of the spaces that Andria & I have named Mr Izzaard (the lizaard........errr.....it rhymes). He is cool, just a little smaller than a leguaan and a guaranteed sighting on a walk up to the spaces. our other pets include a bunch of rock dassies. These guys enjoy climbing up tall trees and then panic and flee if you walk past by jumping off, crashing down and then scampering off as you walk towards them. In fact - theyre yellow spotted rock dassies, not the usual variety.
Otherwise we have seen leopard, plenty elephant, buffalo, eland and again an excellent sighting of the same wild dog male hunting impala on the tar road. This time we followed him for 8km as he trotted down the road at 25km/h before making a mad dash at some impala. he got right amongst them and then must have been spoilt for choice having 10 impala all around him all within grasp, but still failed to make contact as the nimble impala somehow evaded him. Not sure why he is alone as usually dogs are very social and have strong bonds with their pack - which is important for their hunting success. We thought this guys may have been part of a small pack of 5 which range up from Mopani Camp to Punda Maria - but this guy didnt match the identikit so he must be a lone ranger maybe trying to form a new pack or maybe he is a lone survivor of a decimated pack.
My favourite is definitely elephant and close encounters with them are always so great and exciting and really give you some perspective. There is a notorious road here along the Luvuvhu aptly named Ambush Alley, as its got thick buffalo thorn all the way along the road making a nice channel for elephant to cruise in, but it is also the only road so often makes for interesting drives especially at dusk when there are so many ellies in that area because of the river and the surrounding riverine forrest. Last Sunday I had 2 very nice young guests on the landy and we got trapped in there by a breeding herd. It was quite tense as it had just got dark and we had watched an angry elephant charge and trumpet loudly at a buffalo that surprised him in his path, then also just to our right behind the thick bush 3 lions were roaring, which was so sweet to listen too, but we couldnt enjoy the moment for long as there were just too many elephant around every corner. Eventually a young cow and 2 calves blocked the road and walked towards us menacingly. There was no way past and the guests were getting increasingly anxious so they suggested we turn around and go back the way we came.
The birding is hotting up, and will continue to do so as the migrants arrive back in October. Raptors sighted include Martial, Crowned, Brown Snake, Tawny, Verreaux's, Wahlberg's and Fish Eagles. Hooded, White Backed and White Headed Vultures. African Harrier Hawks. I notched up a lifer with an Eastern Nicator. Have seen a few Crested Guineafowl. We now have a gap of 3 days before the next guest roll in and so Im gonna go exploring on foot to get a better idea of the area. I really cant wait to get my trails guide sorted out as there are so many sweet a*s places along the river in front of camp.
Unfortunately, Andria's 1970's treadmill could not take the pace and has concked in. We've got the manitenance guys having a look and they reckon they can fix it. If not we will be off shopping to find Louis Trichardts finest.
Cheers for now :)
29 September 2009
19 September 2009
Andria writes…
So I thought it was about time I put some ‘pen to paper’ and wrote something on this bloggidee blog blog. Where to start, well to put into perspective what I do in the day I thought I would start with something really interesting. NOT MUCH! Yes, all I do is read a few emails, input a few numbers into a spreadsheet and count a bit of stock in the bar. Typically I am all done in about half an hour. I think I need more responsibility around here ;)
As you can tell, life in the bush has been a big adjustment for me so far. I have gone from a hundred miles per hour to about .5 miles per day. Talk about a slow down. But it is having great effects on my complexion, frown lines are not so deep and sleep is plentiful. I find myself thinking about my job back in Joburg and how stimulating and exciting it was. Weird hey? So I am beginning to think the fresh air here is affecting my better judgement.
Yesterday morning though I had the pleasure of doing something different and drove the landy! One of our staff members had to get to the Wilderness Camp which is about 20kms away and Pierre had gone off on one of his walks again so he couldn’t be found to do it. He still has two rather large ankles from his tumble but yet he still goes wandering around in da bushes, rock climbing and wading through rivers. That’s my husband, Crocodile Dundee J Who was the actor in that again? Oh yes, Chuck Norris. My husband, young Chuck… Actually it was some aussie but then let's call him a combination of the Texas Ranger and Dundee... Hmmm...
Once in the landy, I became quickly used to its bulkiness and poor alignment and we were on our way. I was secretly praying not to bump into any ellie in the road because I am not a fan of ellie in the road. Like them on the side where I can see them and still get past them. Much nicer I promise you. And luckily there were no ellie, just 2 herds of buffs were encountered down the road which was cool. I felt like a game ranger… Can you picture it? Haha! On getting back to camp, I hung up the landy keys thinking that was the last of my driving days for awhile and proceeded back to the office to work on a whiteboard.
Later on that day at about 1pm, a bus load of Wits students and Makulele locals came to the Outpost to have a look around. The Wits students were here to study the Makuleke people and the successful land claim that was made of this area. I will try and get the story of the Makulele people from Thomas (assistant manager) and get it down on the blog so everyone knows a little more about the area. Anyways, the students walked in here from about 400 metres away! The bus they came in on got a flat on the dust road so they had to walk to the lodge while the tyre was changed. Low and behold though, the spare tyre was only a little better off than the flat, so not a great replacement and the bus needed to get 34 peeps to the Pafuri Picnic site, which again was about 30km away. It was then suggested that we take the landys full of people to try and alleviate the number of peeps in the bus so that the spare doesn’t take too much strain on the gravel road. So who better to do it the landy driving….. Pierre and Andria! So yes, there I was back in the landy, driving back down the same road with Pierre in one landy and the bus in front and myself bringing up the rear. I had to drive the exact same road I had driven 5 hours earlier – fun! I did have the pleasure of watching Pierre, who had a few well sized African mammas climb on his landy, which caused it to sway from side to side while we were rambling down the road. The landy he was in also had tyres with minimal tread so it was like he was on slicks and slid around every time he drove through a patch of sand. Haha! I wished I had had a camera with me. Another day in Africa it was….
Oh and just a quick update on Comrades training… Well I have entered so I have to do it right?! Pierre did mention previously about my run on the road from the lodge and the ellie tracks that made me skrik much better, so this morning was the morning to attempt running outside the park down the road towards Tshikondeni (Coal mine town 40km away). We drove 10km out the gate and I jumped out and proceeded back down the road towards Pafuri gate with my support car going on ahead at one kilometre intervals. So first there were donkeys checking me out, then there were about six dogs giving me the hairy eyeball. They were with their owners so I just trotted quietly past them hoping like hell they wouldn’t chase me…. Then there were alive cows, then there was a dead one (poor thing looked like it had literally just keeled over) and then there were two more dogs that seemed a bit more vicious than the previous bunch. Luckily my support car picked this up and waited by the dogs so I could run next to the car until we were out of sight of them. Then there were more cows... in the road this time. I had to trot straight through the middle of the herd. I often wonder if they would charge? Anyone known of a cow to attack a human? And then after all that sightseeing, I was done, thinking the whole time if running on any sort of road in this place was a helluva good idea? I think I will stick to the treadmill for now until I pluck up the courage to hit the road again. Eish!
As you can tell, life in the bush has been a big adjustment for me so far. I have gone from a hundred miles per hour to about .5 miles per day. Talk about a slow down. But it is having great effects on my complexion, frown lines are not so deep and sleep is plentiful. I find myself thinking about my job back in Joburg and how stimulating and exciting it was. Weird hey? So I am beginning to think the fresh air here is affecting my better judgement.
Yesterday morning though I had the pleasure of doing something different and drove the landy! One of our staff members had to get to the Wilderness Camp which is about 20kms away and Pierre had gone off on one of his walks again so he couldn’t be found to do it. He still has two rather large ankles from his tumble but yet he still goes wandering around in da bushes, rock climbing and wading through rivers. That’s my husband, Crocodile Dundee J Who was the actor in that again? Oh yes, Chuck Norris. My husband, young Chuck… Actually it was some aussie but then let's call him a combination of the Texas Ranger and Dundee... Hmmm...
Once in the landy, I became quickly used to its bulkiness and poor alignment and we were on our way. I was secretly praying not to bump into any ellie in the road because I am not a fan of ellie in the road. Like them on the side where I can see them and still get past them. Much nicer I promise you. And luckily there were no ellie, just 2 herds of buffs were encountered down the road which was cool. I felt like a game ranger… Can you picture it? Haha! On getting back to camp, I hung up the landy keys thinking that was the last of my driving days for awhile and proceeded back to the office to work on a whiteboard.
Later on that day at about 1pm, a bus load of Wits students and Makulele locals came to the Outpost to have a look around. The Wits students were here to study the Makuleke people and the successful land claim that was made of this area. I will try and get the story of the Makulele people from Thomas (assistant manager) and get it down on the blog so everyone knows a little more about the area. Anyways, the students walked in here from about 400 metres away! The bus they came in on got a flat on the dust road so they had to walk to the lodge while the tyre was changed. Low and behold though, the spare tyre was only a little better off than the flat, so not a great replacement and the bus needed to get 34 peeps to the Pafuri Picnic site, which again was about 30km away. It was then suggested that we take the landys full of people to try and alleviate the number of peeps in the bus so that the spare doesn’t take too much strain on the gravel road. So who better to do it the landy driving….. Pierre and Andria! So yes, there I was back in the landy, driving back down the same road with Pierre in one landy and the bus in front and myself bringing up the rear. I had to drive the exact same road I had driven 5 hours earlier – fun! I did have the pleasure of watching Pierre, who had a few well sized African mammas climb on his landy, which caused it to sway from side to side while we were rambling down the road. The landy he was in also had tyres with minimal tread so it was like he was on slicks and slid around every time he drove through a patch of sand. Haha! I wished I had had a camera with me. Another day in Africa it was….
Oh and just a quick update on Comrades training… Well I have entered so I have to do it right?! Pierre did mention previously about my run on the road from the lodge and the ellie tracks that made me skrik much better, so this morning was the morning to attempt running outside the park down the road towards Tshikondeni (Coal mine town 40km away). We drove 10km out the gate and I jumped out and proceeded back down the road towards Pafuri gate with my support car going on ahead at one kilometre intervals. So first there were donkeys checking me out, then there were about six dogs giving me the hairy eyeball. They were with their owners so I just trotted quietly past them hoping like hell they wouldn’t chase me…. Then there were alive cows, then there was a dead one (poor thing looked like it had literally just keeled over) and then there were two more dogs that seemed a bit more vicious than the previous bunch. Luckily my support car picked this up and waited by the dogs so I could run next to the car until we were out of sight of them. Then there were more cows... in the road this time. I had to trot straight through the middle of the herd. I often wonder if they would charge? Anyone known of a cow to attack a human? And then after all that sightseeing, I was done, thinking the whole time if running on any sort of road in this place was a helluva good idea? I think I will stick to the treadmill for now until I pluck up the courage to hit the road again. Eish!
16 September 2009
The Quiet Times
So all ze germans have departed, and the lodge is quiet. It has been quite a good time for Andria and I to get used to everything here and settle in properly. Andria is quickly getting the hang of all her admin duties. The staff go into super slow mode when there are no guests –a few of them really liked scrabble, and while away the time by chilling by the bar playing match after match of scrabble. Of course anyone who plays this amount of scrabble naturally does become fairly proficient at the game. I’m sure the world champion of scrabble doesn’t have as much game time as these guys have under their belts. It is not unusual for them to play 5 or 6 games in a row. I was invited to play my ‘debut’ match yesterday afternoon.
Now, entering the match I was quietly confident – I mean, I have certainly played scrabble a few times before and I quite fancied my chances of teaching these dudes a scrabble lesson or two by putting on display my decorated vocabulary.J. Err – I underestimated them. It is quite a humbling experience indeed to be whipped, OK WHIPPPPED, by people playing an English language game when English is not their first language. Sheert! So can you imagine the massacre if I played against them in Shangaan.
Yesterday morning started with Andria going for a 10km run at 6:30am. She wanted a change from the treadmill, and so I drove slowly behind her in the landy while she trotted down the sand road from camp. At the bottom of the hill – 50m out of camp she spotted some fresh ellie tracks (from a few hours before) heading down the road in the same direction as her – not the most inspiring start for your inexperienced bush athlete. But she stuck to the plan and finished her 10km without crossing paths with anything except some impala & kudu.
I decided to go for my first solo walk yesterday (before my scrabble lesson). I’ve always wanted to explore our immediate surroundings on foot so set out by climbing straight over the mountain that separates the staff village from the guest spaces. (The rooms are called ‘Spaces’ cos they have a lot of it and do not have 4 walls so are not really rooms). I popped out at Space 6, which was good for my orientation. After that – I took a 1hr walk down the slopes to a a nice open space dominated by a big baobab that bristled with life. There were maningi plenty red billed queleas busy chowing grass seeds all over the place which burst into flight at my approach. The baobab had a large diameter – probably around 8 meters or so – indicating that its well over 1,000 years old. The general rule is that 1,000 years growth equates to a trunk diameter of 5m. Obviously this depends on the specific climatic and soil conditions that the tree has experienced. Only carbon dating can calculate an accurate age – but its still cool to think that there are trees here that have been around for more than 2,000 years. Can you imagine what has passed beneath their branches in all that time?
My walk took me down to the Mutale river – a tributary of the Luvuvhu (the only major perennial river in the area – as the Limpopo is seasonal and only flows in summer.) Apparently the elusive Pel’s Fishing Owl has been spotted at this weir in the river, and I’d seriously love to spot one of those as I’ve never seen one before. It is only a matter of time though because they reckon that there are only 30-40 breeding pairs of these owls in the whole of Kruger and 8 of these are found on the lower Luvuvhu.
There was plenty of ellie, buff and hyeana sign around (dung and tracks), but the only animals I saw were a troop of baboons other side the river and 1 smallish snake. I never got a decent look at the little chap, cos he bolted away at serious pace. The closest I got was around 10m and just saw the blur that was the snake, so I couldn’t ID it.
This morning I had the boring task of road clearing. That is, driving up and down our access road clearing it of larger stone, rocks and branches so that the guests don’t damage their cars getting here. After that tiresome work I missioned off with Ben (one of the Makuleke barman) on a bit of a road discovery mission. I know 95% of the concession roads quite well, but there are still a few that I have not been on. It was good to learn a couple more today.
I have contacted EcoTraining about going on their walks in the next few days so that I can start to tick off a few more of the 43 encounters on foot that I need to get my full trails guide qualification. Hopefully I can get that sorted, cos I’m so keen to walk more. Andria will also enjoy seeing the beauty of this place on foot.
Ok now it is time to go and grab some lunch….. and then after a short siesta maybe a few lengths in the pool ….. ahh what a plan………..
Now, entering the match I was quietly confident – I mean, I have certainly played scrabble a few times before and I quite fancied my chances of teaching these dudes a scrabble lesson or two by putting on display my decorated vocabulary.J. Err – I underestimated them. It is quite a humbling experience indeed to be whipped, OK WHIPPPPED, by people playing an English language game when English is not their first language. Sheert! So can you imagine the massacre if I played against them in Shangaan.
Yesterday morning started with Andria going for a 10km run at 6:30am. She wanted a change from the treadmill, and so I drove slowly behind her in the landy while she trotted down the sand road from camp. At the bottom of the hill – 50m out of camp she spotted some fresh ellie tracks (from a few hours before) heading down the road in the same direction as her – not the most inspiring start for your inexperienced bush athlete. But she stuck to the plan and finished her 10km without crossing paths with anything except some impala & kudu.
I decided to go for my first solo walk yesterday (before my scrabble lesson). I’ve always wanted to explore our immediate surroundings on foot so set out by climbing straight over the mountain that separates the staff village from the guest spaces. (The rooms are called ‘Spaces’ cos they have a lot of it and do not have 4 walls so are not really rooms). I popped out at Space 6, which was good for my orientation. After that – I took a 1hr walk down the slopes to a a nice open space dominated by a big baobab that bristled with life. There were maningi plenty red billed queleas busy chowing grass seeds all over the place which burst into flight at my approach. The baobab had a large diameter – probably around 8 meters or so – indicating that its well over 1,000 years old. The general rule is that 1,000 years growth equates to a trunk diameter of 5m. Obviously this depends on the specific climatic and soil conditions that the tree has experienced. Only carbon dating can calculate an accurate age – but its still cool to think that there are trees here that have been around for more than 2,000 years. Can you imagine what has passed beneath their branches in all that time?
My walk took me down to the Mutale river – a tributary of the Luvuvhu (the only major perennial river in the area – as the Limpopo is seasonal and only flows in summer.) Apparently the elusive Pel’s Fishing Owl has been spotted at this weir in the river, and I’d seriously love to spot one of those as I’ve never seen one before. It is only a matter of time though because they reckon that there are only 30-40 breeding pairs of these owls in the whole of Kruger and 8 of these are found on the lower Luvuvhu.
There was plenty of ellie, buff and hyeana sign around (dung and tracks), but the only animals I saw were a troop of baboons other side the river and 1 smallish snake. I never got a decent look at the little chap, cos he bolted away at serious pace. The closest I got was around 10m and just saw the blur that was the snake, so I couldn’t ID it.
This morning I had the boring task of road clearing. That is, driving up and down our access road clearing it of larger stone, rocks and branches so that the guests don’t damage their cars getting here. After that tiresome work I missioned off with Ben (one of the Makuleke barman) on a bit of a road discovery mission. I know 95% of the concession roads quite well, but there are still a few that I have not been on. It was good to learn a couple more today.
I have contacted EcoTraining about going on their walks in the next few days so that I can start to tick off a few more of the 43 encounters on foot that I need to get my full trails guide qualification. Hopefully I can get that sorted, cos I’m so keen to walk more. Andria will also enjoy seeing the beauty of this place on foot.
Ok now it is time to go and grab some lunch….. and then after a short siesta maybe a few lengths in the pool ….. ahh what a plan………..
12 September 2009
Waga waga... Our first days in da bushes
So we have arrived and settld in nicely at The Outpost. Our journey began with a bang on Thursday morning when we started packing bags into the microbus. I stepped out of the front door and into the early morning, which at 5am is pretty dark, and being fully laden with bags (OK – totally overladen) – missed the first step, went over my ankle and proceeded to somersault down about 10 tiled steps and ended up in a heap at the bottom of the staircase. I then let out a brave whimper to which Andria came running and found me and all our kit scattered over the stairway. I remember clearly the feeling, amazed at how I felt the fall in slow motion and didnt feel any pain at all until about 2 minutes after at which point the injury became a reality. The end result – 2 sprained ankles, a few cuts and bruises and an appreciation for the body’s ability to deal with trauma in slow motion.
Andria did a great job driving for the first 3 hours to Polokwane while I nursed my ankle, and prayed for just a sprain and not another ligament tear. I couldn’t help feeling slightly concerned about what our new manager’s think when their young, fit and healthy new employees came hobbling into camp looking slightly battered. I did manage to drive the rest of the way though….
We were met with a really warm welcome from all the staff, and quickly began unloading the bus and getting settled into our new home. Our house is simple but cool and has everything we need. A very large bed which is great (first one I’ve ever had where my feet aren’t over the edge!) Nice little kitchen and lounge with DSTV (very handy for important rugby matches) and our own little gym with Andria’s 1974 treadmill, a couple weights, gym ball, yoga mats and a well placed pull up bar on our veranda looking into the bush. Andria didn’t waste anytime getting some mileage under the belt when she hopped on the treadmill (we’ve decided to call him Tyrone) and ran for an hour on the first morning.
Kevin and Alex, the previous management couple stayed for 2 nights to welcome us and show us the ropes so that we are prepared for everything. It was cool to have a braai and meet with the guys from the other Lodges on the concession (Pafuri Camp & EcoTraining)
I took 4 germans on my first drive yesterday afternoon, which was cool and we drove east along the Limpopo floodplain, which has beautiful scenery with plenty baobabs, lala wild date palms, and a magical fever tree forrest. We enjoyed sundowners with a red sky and a big herd of buffalo beneath it in what was a great setting for a great start in Kruger…
This morning drive was a cracker – only 2 of the germans were keen on the 5:30 wake up call – so we ventured out early and stumbled upon a single male wild dog in the middle of the road. It was so cool to hear him calling every now and then – and clearly on a mission trotting at pace down the road for around 5kms. He was definitely trying to make contact with other dogs, sniffing and urine marking all over the place. For a moment he dashed behind some mopane trees and we lost visuals when all of a sudden 2 impala burst out of the bush with the dog hot on their heels! They were too quick for him so he quickly gave up and just stood in the middle of the road again at which point another impala ewe, a straggler, almost ran straight into his path – I was loving this and thought we might see a kill 20m in front of us in the road! No to be though – the fleet footed antelope did some impressive leaps and at top speed was too quick for the wild dog. Maybe if he had a few companions he may have chased for longer, but he had his mind on other things as he soon trotted off again, calling loudly and then disappeared into the mopane woodland south of the tarred Pafuri Main road. Definitely my best sighting of wild dog ever. Other notable sightings on the drive included eland, elephant, buffalo, nyala, african harrier hawk, white backed night heron, and white crowned lapwing.
There were 6 guests in camp last night, but 4 have checked out this morning, so its just me, 2 of ze germans and Andria who went on the afternoon drive to Lanner Gorge. Amazingly beautiful scenery. Will post pics as soon as I have time. The camp is empty for the next 5 or 6 days so we got a lot of chill time to come before a super busy period where its booked solid for a week.
Love
Pierre & Andria
Andria did a great job driving for the first 3 hours to Polokwane while I nursed my ankle, and prayed for just a sprain and not another ligament tear. I couldn’t help feeling slightly concerned about what our new manager’s think when their young, fit and healthy new employees came hobbling into camp looking slightly battered. I did manage to drive the rest of the way though….
We were met with a really warm welcome from all the staff, and quickly began unloading the bus and getting settled into our new home. Our house is simple but cool and has everything we need. A very large bed which is great (first one I’ve ever had where my feet aren’t over the edge!) Nice little kitchen and lounge with DSTV (very handy for important rugby matches) and our own little gym with Andria’s 1974 treadmill, a couple weights, gym ball, yoga mats and a well placed pull up bar on our veranda looking into the bush. Andria didn’t waste anytime getting some mileage under the belt when she hopped on the treadmill (we’ve decided to call him Tyrone) and ran for an hour on the first morning.
Kevin and Alex, the previous management couple stayed for 2 nights to welcome us and show us the ropes so that we are prepared for everything. It was cool to have a braai and meet with the guys from the other Lodges on the concession (Pafuri Camp & EcoTraining)
I took 4 germans on my first drive yesterday afternoon, which was cool and we drove east along the Limpopo floodplain, which has beautiful scenery with plenty baobabs, lala wild date palms, and a magical fever tree forrest. We enjoyed sundowners with a red sky and a big herd of buffalo beneath it in what was a great setting for a great start in Kruger…
This morning drive was a cracker – only 2 of the germans were keen on the 5:30 wake up call – so we ventured out early and stumbled upon a single male wild dog in the middle of the road. It was so cool to hear him calling every now and then – and clearly on a mission trotting at pace down the road for around 5kms. He was definitely trying to make contact with other dogs, sniffing and urine marking all over the place. For a moment he dashed behind some mopane trees and we lost visuals when all of a sudden 2 impala burst out of the bush with the dog hot on their heels! They were too quick for him so he quickly gave up and just stood in the middle of the road again at which point another impala ewe, a straggler, almost ran straight into his path – I was loving this and thought we might see a kill 20m in front of us in the road! No to be though – the fleet footed antelope did some impressive leaps and at top speed was too quick for the wild dog. Maybe if he had a few companions he may have chased for longer, but he had his mind on other things as he soon trotted off again, calling loudly and then disappeared into the mopane woodland south of the tarred Pafuri Main road. Definitely my best sighting of wild dog ever. Other notable sightings on the drive included eland, elephant, buffalo, nyala, african harrier hawk, white backed night heron, and white crowned lapwing.
There were 6 guests in camp last night, but 4 have checked out this morning, so its just me, 2 of ze germans and Andria who went on the afternoon drive to Lanner Gorge. Amazingly beautiful scenery. Will post pics as soon as I have time. The camp is empty for the next 5 or 6 days so we got a lot of chill time to come before a super busy period where its booked solid for a week.
Love
Pierre & Andria
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