Living, In & Out of Kruger...

Transfrontiers -> the return

2010-05-04T15:59:00.005+02:00

For the last few days I have been backing-up for Brian in the Klaserie at Transfrontiers. A short 4 day trail on which I was hoping to rack up a few more encounters and hours on foot all with a view to notching up the big 50 encounters needed to get the full trails guide qualification.

To begin - there are two critical aspects that must be in place when arranging a meeting point for the road transfer from point A to point B. One is the agreed time and the other is the location. My early morning departure from JHB to Hoedspruit on Friday began on a rather poor note, as tends to happen when you meet your transfer driver at the wrong hotel. It's all very well that both parties arrive punctually at 5:15am, but unless you're at the same place, well it's gonna be a bit of a balls up. So I got a call at 5:16 AM, saying 'Where are you?'. I found myself at the Garden Court Sandton, instead of the Garden Court Sandton City. Eeek. Thankfully though they're only a 5 minute drive from eachother so I escaped any serious punishment from the ex-policeman 120kg bus driver, and got away lightly with only being called a 'clot'.

Anyway we got to Hoedspruit swiftly and safely in the end. Considering that Brian had told me a day before the trail that they hadn't had an encounter for 30 hours or so of walking, I wasn't expecting fireworks, but it turned out to be a pretty productive weekend.

The trail had a fairly low key kind of vibe to it with just the one aussie guest booked on it, so it was pretty quiet one indeed. This is not a bad thing at all, because it means that you're able to move through the bush much more quietly and swiftly than with 10 people stomping through the veld, meaning that there's a better chance of you noticing animals before they notice you.

Anyway we got 5 encounters on foot that we could log. 1 each of buffalo, elephant, rhino, lion and hippo (out of the water). So a nice mix.

It started with the buff, which was a old tired dagga boy, just lazing about near the dam close to the reeds and ended on the last morning with 3 white rhinos, a bull, cow and calf whichwe viewed from across the Klaserie River without them being aware of our presence. But it was a weekend of lions. We saw and heard them on nearly every activity. On foot we saw (first heard) a lion & lioness mating, and so didnt approach but rather moved into a good position a long way off from which to have a safe viewing. Luckliy they were on the airstrip so we could watch them from a good distance without alerting them to our presence. It is never wise to approach mating lions or a lioness with cubs, as its aking for trouble.

From the vehicle though we saw them mating from close up, and also saw 3 other males lions who make up a powerful coalition of 4. The 3 other poor chaps seemed to be very patient in hanging around their buddy while he was mating for 4 or 5 days, which was great for lion sightings co they didnt move out of the airstrip area for the 4 days that we were there. At one stage we saw one of the non-maters trying to hunt some impala, which he didn't get. Its probably a good time to try though, cos during the rut the rams are so busy chasing eachother around and herding up females that they're often not paying attention to potential dangers.

It was also the first time I had been back to Transrontiers since the elephant incident in November. Almost 6 months to that day, Brian and I set out after brunch to go back to the site. The aussie chose a siesta instead, which is welcome relief after a few hours out walking from sunrise and then a massive brunch. I was glad that Brian & I could go out alone to revisit a significant place for both of us.

It was quite astonishing that after walking for nearly 10 hours without seeing much fresh sign of elephant activity, we encountered a breeding herd barely 2 minutes into out walk. They were a good distance off to our left, so we watched briefly and then carried on. 10 minuntes later and Brian spots a big hippo grazing in the midday sun 30m in front of us on the same game path. Weird, animals dont read the books about how theyre supposed to behave. ie avoid midday sun and graze at night.

Anyway, it eventually moved off towards the river and allowed us to pass and finally make it to the elephant site. It is still very familiar, only everything is greener and the grass a little taller. We stayed there a while reflecting on that hectic day. My predominant feeling was and still is one of gratitude. Amazingly at the spot where the carcass lay, where all that remains are a few vertebrae bones and a big circular path of dirt amongst the grass where nothing is growing, Brian peered down and spotted a piece of metal. No ways - it was one the bullets from my 375 which had been inside the elephant, and had now appeared, long after the body had vanished. The big rain shower from the night before must have unearthed the bullet allowing us to find it. wow. Brian had been back there many times since November, but only found it when we were there now. Amazing.

Im glad that I made the trip back to Transfrontiers and will definitely be back again, when the opportunity arises. Thanks Brian.

I only wonder how long it'll take for our hearts to stop beating so loudly when we encounter elephants. I hope it is soon... :)

The end of a chapter

2010-03-03T08:44:00.002+02:00

And so for now, it is over.

But this is not the end,

Just a new beginning.

Another twist in the path,

Of a long and winding road.

Although our hearts remain in the bush,

for the time being - we are out of it.

The next chapter --> Living in -and out- of Kruger

Bush Walk

2010-03-02T18:50:00.004+02:00

Yesterday morning Andria & I got invited to go along and join on one of Eco-Trainings morning walks. We of course gladly accepted as Andria hadn't really gone on a proper bush walk in the Makuleke concession, and so we just had had to do this before we ducked. Not going on a walk in one of the most beautiful wildernesses in southern africa would have been sacrelige indeed.

So we awoke at 4:45 AM and cruised at pace over to the Eco-Training camp. Enroute we came across 2 cheeky hyaenas on their last patrol of middle road before first light. One youngster was particularly inquisitive walking right up to Andria's door to have a sniff around.

Anyway after skillfully dodging numerous night jars (without flattening any I must add) we made it to their camp by 6am just in time for the departure of the walk, led by Bruce. A walking guru. We proceeded to stroll around the Limpopo floodplain, walking in and out of the most amazing fever tree forests for a beautiful 3 hours. Quite early on we encountered a herd of 20 or so Eland which stared at us from a distance. We stared back, and then moved off in the direction of some vervet monkeys alarm calling like crazy a little further east. Bruce thought it may be because they had spotted a leopard, and right he was as a few minutes later we heard the unmistakeable sawing grunt of a leopard coming from a few hundred meters away. Exitement? Yes! We headed off in the direction of the sound, but it must have been moving quicker than us because all we found was tracks and the path it had taken through the long grass noticeable by the lack of due on that section of grass.

The birding was phenomenal. We must have seen and heard around 80 to 90 species during the walk. Because of the good rainfall we've had there are many seasonal pans which attract loads of water birds. Notable sightings included african openbill, hamerkop, brubru, verreauxs eagle owl, african goshawk, lemon breasted canary, and a whole heap of bee-eaters, rollers and kingfishers. We also saw plenty baboons, impala, nyala, a couple of hippos and 2 herds of buffalo. Not to mention loads of hyaena, lion and leopard tracks. All in all a very enjoyable walk.

There is no doubt that walking is the best and most in-depth way to experience the bush. A total sensual experience rather than the visual one you get from a vehicle.

Can you give us a push please?

2010-02-22T16:14:00.003+02:00

A couple days ago whilst out on the early morning drive, my trusty landy did what all good landies do from time to time and broke down while we were out in the bush, miles away from camp.

There's a certain type of horrible feeling that you get in the bottom of your stomach when you turn the ignition key of a landy, (that is packed with 4 guests paying 3 grand a night each) and all you hear is ....... click-click...............

Errr - so, quick as a flash you try to pretend that it never happened, by doing the exact same thing a few more times, only to get the same result over and over. I think it was Einstein that said 'The definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result'. Anyway by this time you realise that it must be a flat battery, cos nothing is turning. Then with a somewhat sheepish smile on your face, you turn around to the guests and politely inform that that yes the car wont start, and that you think it is the battery and that would they mind hopping out the landy onto the muddy road (100+ mm of rain in a couple days will do this to a sand road running next to a floodplain) to give us a little push start??? Please??

I would have done it all myself but I just do not have the power to push a 2 ton truck, so luckily the 4 guests accepted my proposal and hopped out to push. Quite a comical scene as you can imagine. Anyway they managed to get enough momentum and a push start was achieved which soon had us heading back for breakfast. Happy days :)

Elephants. Sometimes they are aggressive.

2010-02-21T12:28:00.005+02:00

Well it's happened again. Nowhere near as bad as last time, but definitely enough to shake you up a little.

Yesterday, on a routine afternoon game drive heading eastward along a road called Lanner Drive I had another elephant encounter that I won’t forget in a hurry. Myself and 4 guests (2 Germans and 2 South Africans) were happily taking a slow cruise to Lanner Gorge, when at about 5pm three elephants (a cow and 2 calves) moved quickly across the road ahead of us. So I turned off the engine to watch. 'Oh look a breeding herd of elephants...'

Now the road we were on is very sandy with many twists and turns, and at this time of year is surrounded by pretty thick bush. Not the kind of area conducive to quick getaways. This info didn’t cross my mind at all until - out of the blue, a previously unseen deranged elephant comes charging straight out of the thick stuff towards the side of our landy from our right with no warning whatsoever! It was the kind of charge filled with serious intent, one you just had a feeling that it was no mock. My immediate reaction was to shout loudly and hit the side of my door repeatedly in an effort to stop the charge. Stop, it did not, but instead it changed course slightly heading to the back of the landy and proceeded to ram the rear of the vehicle a couple of times, and at one point actually lifted the 2 back wheels off the ground.

Madness.

Looking back I saw terror in the guests' eyes and fury in the elephant's (its head was close and seemingly intent on ramming the landy to pieces). I thought now its time to get outta heee. So I started the engine whilst being smashed from behind, and luckily the standard large puff of diesel smoke that a landy emits upon ignition seemed to deter the ellie from its attack and gave me enough time to get on down the road as fast as I could which was probably 25km/h considering the nature of the escape route........deep thick sand.

The ellie didn’t follow up its charge much to our relief, and we made our way further down the road, not stopping to look at the other elephants surrounding us on the way out. Once some distance was achieved, I checked that everyone was OK and uninjured physically - which they thankfully were. We then made our way to Lanner Gorge which was just another 1.5km or so down the track where we sat together and relived the experience. A timely heavy shower of rain definitely gave us a nice opportunity to chat and reflect on what had just happened.

Understandably everyone was a little shaken, but OK and happy with the way it turned out in the end. This is certainly not the first time that an ellie has pushed a vehicle on the concession - its probably the fourth time in the 6 months that we've been here (and the 2nd in two weeks), but definitely the first for me. I'm not really sure whether it was a bull or cow, but definitely did notice a temporal secretion which means that its was either a stressed/excited cow or a young bull in musth, but I suspect the former.

I'm starting to wonder whether these creatures have it in for me, or if it's just the presence of German guests that they don’t enjoy :) The only common denominator in both my traumatic ellie encounters.

Experiences like this get you thinking. One thing for sure is that we're starting to hear and experience more and more of these elephant incidents - which must be a sign of an elephant population that is simply too big for the area supporting it. Looking at it from another angle one could say that the space problem is ultimately a result of the root issue facing the earth today - there are simply too many people on the planet. If we want to conserve the bio-diversity of the earth we need to control our own population so that there can be space for nature to be nature. Unfortunately history shows that when it’s a matter of the struggle to survive (which it is for millions of people) - humans will do so at the expense of the natural world. The sad thing is that we wouldn’t really have to worry about controlling animal populations if we could control our own.

Out on trail in Pafuri

2010-02-09T18:31:00.004+02:00

Early morning along the Luvuvhu....

Nwambi Pan, the Fever Tree Forest and a twitcher or two......

Elephant bull, at a dry Nwambi Pan.

Stopping to pause along a magical old baobab lined elephant path that descends the highest point in Pafuri (Sentinel Hill 390m) down to some lower ground though some tall mopane woodland.

Rain

2010-01-27T16:50:00.003+02:00

'24 mills of rain today - doo dah - doo dah
24 mills of rain today, doo dah - doo dah day
The bush is gonna be nice and green,
All over again - hey'

40 degree temperatures a couple of days ago was bound to result in some cloud build up. And yes I have chicken brains...

big brown one

2010-01-24T20:34:00.002+02:00

O yes please!

I have conquered my nemesis. Nearly 5 months of relentless searching, without much luck, has finally paid off.

1 x Pel's Fishing Owl. What a beauty. Broad daylight - 6pm on the banks of the Luvuvhu. Sweet, sweet success.

At last...........................

Stuck in da bush

2010-01-20T20:11:00.003+02:00

Last night - we were stranded in the bush at midnight. After a pretty fun pool party at Pafuri Camp, where much Waboba was thrown about, and a lot of liquid succumbing to gravitational forces made its way down peoples gullets in a hurry, we thought we were in for a routine drive home back to camp. It's not often that the two lodges are both guest free at the same time, so us and 20 odd people from Eco Training had a good time. Pool cricket with this many fielders is cool - what is not cool however is searching for the ball every time someone whacks it overboard into the thick bush alongside the Luvuvhu. Why lodge architects do not take into account the pace at which a Waboba comes off the water when designing luxury lodge swimming pool areas is beyond me. There are just too many gaps, too many open spaces for the luminous orange ball to disappear into what is a very large garden. Searching for a ball in any suburban garden is hard enough, try finding one in the big garden that is the Kruger National Park. It requires patience and a good search party.

Anyway we eventually left and began our 23km drive home, which usually takes an hour or so because you stop to admire the various animalia on the way. Just 4km or so before reaching our destination, a mighty metallic crash, led us to believe that the engine had fallen out of the vehicle, which brought us to an immediate stop. Sheert! what was that?? So Andria, Karin and I climbed out to inspect the damage trying not to think too far into the future, cos then we'd have to start thinking of our options...

Turns out the front prop shaft had simply fallen out of its position under the landy, making a terrible banging/scraping noise as it banged about against various other parts under the landy. This meant that nothing happens when you put the car in gear. ie we could not drive any further. Ok, now it was time to make a plan and force yourself to think through the options.

Number 1: Radio for help - this we tried a few times......'errrrrr, All Stations, aaanyyboowdy come in for The Outpost..........', but .....silence.....was the only response we got. I mean who listens to their radio at midnight anyway?

Number 2: Karin was feeling courageous (more so than me anyway) and suggested we just walk back to camp. Hmmmmmm - I definitely was not keen to walk 4km back to camp on a moonless night, with who knows what lurking around in the shadows.

Number 3: Andria wanted to push the landy 4km back to camp. So Karin & I hopped out and were gonna push while Andria steered. I think we moved it 1.7m or so before we gave up. That Landy, she's a heavy one. We would never be able to push it up the slightest of slopes.

Number 4: Get comfortable and spend the night in the Landy and then radio, or walk back at first light. A reasonable option. We would only have to spend another 5 hours there then till sunrise, and the stars were a particularly magnificent distraction anyway. We still had a half full cooler box of refreshment on board too.

Number 5: Panic - no never do that - a poor option!

So we sat for a while - shining the spot light around every now and then. No sign of life.

Tried the radio again despondently. No sign of life. So we sat around for a bit longer, and then tried the radio again......'EcoTraining come in for Pierre' ....... Then thank the pope - someone answered back!! It was Callum from Pafuri - by some sheer stroke of luck he happened to walk past a radio and heard our pitiful pleas for help. HaHaa - we were saved!

An hour or so later, Callum, Willem, Danni and Steve-O and their coolerbox came cruising at good pace to our rescue. They arrived in what some call a 'Toyota', others 'a Land Rover recovery vehicle', and others 'a lie'. They kindly gave us a lift back to our camp, accepted their rescue fees, had a quick swim and then dashed back off into the night. The next morning when I returned with our mechanics to retrieve our landy, the Pafuri guys had hi-jacked our cooler box which we had left on the landy. School boy error I know :)

All in all - another exciting bush adventure.

Please stop patting me on my head

2010-01-05T20:21:00.007+02:00

It is a mildly to moderately, but certainly disconcerting sensation to be repeatedly patted on the head by an Irishman every time he spots an impala.

I understand his excitement - first time in Africa and all, but bladdy fak man, leave my head alone man! What ever happened to a polite statement that gently gets your attention, something like..... 'Ooh look, an impala on the left'. The problem was the force of his slapping was directly proportional to his level of excitement. A tap on the head eventually progresses to a kLAP op die kop, when he spotted creatures more exciting than impala. Thank goodness I spotted that wild dog before him, and then had the presence of mind to use my mongoose like agility to project my neck foward at great pace, managing to propel my head out of reach just in time to avoid a mighty slap from behind. :)

The bush has been looking fairly scorched of late with no rain since mid November, and most days have been very hot at around 35-40 degrees. A couple days ago we experienced our first bush thunderstorm, and wow, it was a biggie. 47mm of rain in about 30 mins left me and a couple Irishmen sopping wet whilst out on an evening game drive. By the time we got back to camp we looked like we had been swimming up and down the Limpopo fully clad. Seriously, I have been drier after getting out of the swimming pool.

We've had a pretty busy time since arriving back on Christmas day. It was really nice to spend Christmas eve with the family in Nelspruit, before starting up early on the 25th to make it back to Pafuri in time to guide 4 Honkeys (apparently this is the name people from Hong Kong choose to refer to themselves). You may now know my attitude towards Asians on safari, and the next 3 days proceeded in a similar fashion to the 7 chinamen we had just before we went on leave. Talk about a flurry of chinamen eh?!

New years was quite nice. We had a bustling camp, with a good vibe, and we all celebrated the arrival of 2010 at ..... errrr......GMT +1.... yes thats 11pm SA time. In the bush it is customary in some places (ok very few), to celebrate the new year at 10 or 11 o clock in the evening instead of the usual midnight, because as there are so few of you - what's really the point of staying up an extra hour when you can all just cheer and toast new beginnings at a more convenient hour? So that we did, and welcomed in the new year at the same time as our brothers in .... errrr... Istanbul ... and other places on GMT+1. There were no big bright lights, no countdowns, no loud music - just 20 people wishing eachother 'All the best mate'

I have not had much chance to walk lately, but didnt really write about an awesome week we had at the start of December where we had 6 Canadians who loved doing bush walks, and so we ended up doing a 4 hr morning walk every day and then just game driving in the afternoon. A perfect safari format in my opinion. You really do get the best of both worlds. We had some great experiences. One morning we crept up to a large sleeping bull white rhino in the sandveld area just east of Palm Springs. Oh my hat - it was close. We got to 20m max. We stared at him for 5 minutes. Completely oblivious to our presence it was, until an almost inaudible metallic click made by someones rifle (ok mine), caused the sleeping giant to rise up to his feet in an explosion of dust and lightning quick action. There he stood staring in the direction of the noise, but not seeing us just 20m away. Wow - these chaps have seriously poor eyesight, but amazingly acute hearing. Anyway, there we had this face-off for what felt like ages, tension palpable, until the rhino trotted forward straight at us! Eek now what? I was certainly not even considering shooting this rhino (one of only 8 in the concession), and would have rather taken my chances diving for cover (behind the scrawny twig of a bush we were crouched behind), when Andrew (the lead guide) simply clapped his hands, which sent the great beast charging off at 100mph in the opposite direction. What happened next I could nevert have predicted - loud snorting noises began to be emitted from Andrew's mouth, which he later told us was the sound a territorial bull rhino makes, which he was now attempting to mimic in the hope that the fleeing rhino might stop and turn, so that the Canadians might get another photo. Amongst the adrenaline pumping through my veins, I almost burst into bouts of uncontrollable laughter, but luckily managed, somehow, to contain myself.

Anyway it's a ridiculous thought - a 2 and a half ton beast terrified by the clap of ones hands. Over the millenia us human beings have certainly done a good job of installing an overwhelming fear in almost every creaure on the planet, through our hunting, habitat destruction, and general annihilation of all things wild. Wow - we have a bad reputation.

The next morning I had my first encounter with an elephant on foot, exactly 1 month after 'the elephant story'. We got to within 60m from a lone big bull, who watched us from across a dried up pan. I must say I probably wouldnt have approached that close, considering we had a fine view from 100m back, but I realise I'm probably over cautious now when it comes to ellies. Anyway it turned out to be a very lekker encounter, with us watching him scratch himself all over against a well placed tree, before making a safe retreat without him following us, although at one stage it looked like he may have done so. A good experience, and I need many more of those, before I start believing that most ellies are not gonna try to flatten you.

On the last morning we did a very pleasant walk to Mashisiti Spring. A bizarre thing happened as we drove into the quarry to park the landy. A big, old dagga boy was loitering around the area and must have been in a terribly grumpy state of mind, because as we drove along side him, he spun around from 25m and charged at the vehicle! What-die-f0k? A buffalo charging at us in a car?? Man my brain took a while to register that. I must have driven past thousands of buffs in the past - not one has even looked like remotely considering running into a 2 ton piece of metal. But this bull came. Andrew whose side of the landy it was running towards, yelled loudly and banged the door, which did the trick and stopped & turned the buff. He then did not make any snorting noises, which I was half expecting. All in all, not a very auspicious start to a morning out on foot, when the buff would not be very far from where we parked the landy. Thank the pope, we didnt see him again.

Andria's Comrades training is going pretty well. She's up to about 60km a week. Mostly on the treadmill in our room, but we occasionaly go out and she does a long one on the tar road from Pafuri gate outside the park. I follow along in the Microbus, ready to let her in, when dogs, cows, donkeys or goats decide to chase her. I'm alos quite handy in that I carry cold water and good supplies of energy bars and raisins.

My folks bought us a very practical and excellent Christmas present - an AIR-CONDITIONER. Yesssss pleasse! Imagine our excitement as we set off on Christmas day with a brand new Air-con loaded into the back of our car. No more hot muggy nights and no more wet sarongs draped over our bodies at night. Then imagine our despair, as after setting up the air-con and putting it on full blast in 39 degree heat, it managed to get our room down to 36, before having a ........ errrr......... MALFUNCTION

oh noooooooooooooooo!!!!! Please dont let it be, it cannot be true! Serious panic and disappointment set in. I really thought the heat had claimed yet another victim. None of the buttons were working, just a red flashing light saying ' ALARM'. Eeeek

And then ......... it came to life. Sweet bejesus, the lights came back on! From the dead! And since then, good ol aircon seems to have adapted and is now pumping vast columns of cool, oh so cool precious air all over our bedroom. A mighty relief. Seems the little guy, had just a temporary malfunction. Although its no arctic wind, it definitely makes a massive difference. His record low so far is a very cool 23 degrees. What a beauty.

Andria & I will be back on 4 Feb 2010.

happy Happy, and merry Merry to all - may it be a cracker of a year!

Chopper Rescue Video

2009-12-21T18:07:00.001+02:00

One hot day in early December 2009, a young Mozambiquan was lifted out of the Luvuvhu....

Things like this usually happen in Hollywood, not Pafuri :)

Bush Proverbs

2009-12-14T16:03:00.005+02:00

Proverb Number 1:

When your forehead, travelling at 40km/h because you're at the helm of an open air landy, meets up with a large dung beetle flying at around 20km/h in the exact opposite direction - the result is a mighty collision.

This is what happended to me a couple of nights ago when I was cruising back to camp at pace to make it in time for supper. Now, you must understand that there is this long and mostly boring (in comparison to the magnificence of the rest of the concession) tarred road called Pafuri Main, upon which one must travel to get places in good time. The concession is 27,000 hectares (ie large) and so you end up using the tar as a bit of a highway. 40km/h is the absolute maximun we are allowed to drive, and for good reason. At night my right hand is armed with a serious spot light. Serious in brightness and after 1 hour of holding it up, seriously heavy too. My talented left hand then steers, changes gears and mans the radio. So allowing anyone to travel faster than 40km/h whilst doing all this would probably be down right dangerous.

So this tar road is long and fairly straight, which means that all insects for miles around the landy are attracted to the head lights and spot light. Since the rains, night drives have become more challenging for me and unpleasant for guests as we are bombarded by swarms of all sorts of insect life. Christmas beetles and little miggies are the least of our worries - it's the dung beetles that you have to watch out for. Some of these chaps grow to considerable sizes, which may be hard to appreciate until you've been smacked on the noggin by a golf ball sized one travelling at pace.

I was shining around all enthusiastically when all or a sardine - SMACK!?! - you're knocked in the head by a powerful unidentified force, you swerve violently losing control of the vehicle and your spotlight arm gets tossed high in the air, as if your scanning the moon for signs of life. What has got me?, you think as your mind searches for answers...... have I been shot in the head by a german sniper tucked away in the mopanes? No, it cant be, surely. Has Mike Tyson climbed out of the bonnet and punched me on the nose? Unlikely. Then as the pain and shock subsides and you manage to correct the course of the vehicle and stay on the road, you realise, Oh just another dung beetle.

Proverb Number 2:

When the sufficient amount of weight is placed upon a small amphibian - it shall pop like a balloon.

Unfortunately I must admit, and I'm certainly not proud of it, that I now know exactly what sound a frog makes when you drive over it on a tar road. The answer is a resounding -POP-. More than insects come to life after the rains and on this one evening last week, I heard a couple of loud popping noises whilst driving back to camp along the tar road. After ruling out the idea that my tyres might have popped it slowly dawned on me that I had flattened a few of what must have been hundreds of small frogs crossing the road - which I was trying to dodge - that evening after the rain. Someone else told me it only happens if you drive over them from head to rear, causing the air to rush backwards and finally burst them with a pop louder than you'd expect.

Proverb Number 3:

A chinaman in the bush, is like a bushman in China - it doesn't occur naturally.

I have recently had the interesting experience of having to guide 7 non-english speaking chinamen on safari. They don't quite get the standard bush routine. You wake up, have coffee and rusks and then depart on game drive until late morning when you come back for a large and tasty brunch. NOT, wake up and start devouring your 2kg barrel of noodles that you've brought along for just such an occasion before drive!?

Then after your big brunch, lunch at 2:30 is light. Salad and small dessert. It is generally not polite to ask your host 'is that it, or is there another course coming?' Well when told that no further course was coming, they each whip out another 2kg barrel of noodles. Ok so these guys enjoy noodles. I get it.

So I took them on a great evening drive to Crooks Corner, showing plenty of nice big ellies, crocs, hippos and an abundance of antelope. At sunset on the way back, one of them cracks out their cell phone and puts on Alicia Keys at full volume. Hmmmm, this is strange, I thought. Then she (her name was Cindarella) sings along dramatically, causing all the others to whip out there phones too, each with their own song blaring at the same time. Oh well, I've never seen this before, so I'll just kind of enjoy the weird experience.

At the end of their trip, I just couldn't help feeling that maybe the bush just isn't the place for them. Ahh, Chinamen - they just don't get it.

Photo Session

2009-12-10T10:57:00.007+02:00

Daring Chopper Rescue: Mozambicuan dude stuck on an island in the Luvuvhu is lifted out by some coppers in their chopper.

Help at last - 19 hours stranded, surrounded by crocs and hippos is almost over.

Isolation. He knows the feeling.

The new green grass through the Fever Tree Forrest

Landscape - chopper and Mozam dude.

One tired guy. After the rescue ordeal, only allowed 3 hours of sleep...

Impala Lamb. There are now plenty all over the shop. Theyre loving the new green growth.

Andria and I by Big Baobab.

The still dry Limpopo Riv.

Landy landscape.

Big Baobab and trusty Landy No.1, instead of 50c piece, shows perspective.

P in tree.

Muzza in tree.

P about to be in tree....

Juvenile bateleur.

Herd of buff in fever tree forrest.

Pierre at Lanner Gorge - admiring the view.

Bobcat and some Italian guy. Lanner Gorge

Wiling away the hot hours, 15m up in a baobab is a fun thing to do. One day Im gonna wait up there until an ellie walks underneath.

Bob in the rain.

A lonely ellie....

Man Overboard

2009-12-09T13:30:00.005+02:00

Sheeepizzz - we have had a really busy time over the last 2 weeks, so here is some long over due news.

So, it was great to have Murray come down and spend a few nights with us a short while back. He arrived looking fairly hot and flustered which is a common symptom of spending a 7 hour no-aircon-journey on a 40 degree day. It was a well timed visit as there was a three day NGG (no guest gap). Or in other words - plenty of time to run amok. We spent a good amount of time having some good old fun. Notably we made a point of climbing every decent looking baobab tree on offer. There is a nice biggie just 500m from the lodge which we managed to scale and then we lazed about in its massive branches admiring the view, enjoying the shade and wondering how many ellies had walked beneath this guy over the many years its been standing there. (probably around 1,000 plus).

Then the real action began.....

At 7pm last Wednesday evening as we were returning from a pleasant afternoon staff game drive, we got some startling news. Eishh - there was a man in the river. Pardon what? Yes thats right, a man stuck on a tiny reed island in the middle of the crocodile infested Luvuvhu River. Some young Mozambiquan had attempted a river crossing at 6pm, after he had seen the lodge lights and was hoping to see if he could get some food. Luckily for him one of our staff, had been perched high up on the mountain in our furthermost room staring into space when she'd spotted the dude wading in to cross the river. When he was waist deep, the current became too powerful and he was swept many meters downstream before clutching onto some reeds and pulled himself onto a tiny, and I mean TINY, reed island smack bang in the middle of the Luvuvhu. And to top it all off, the dude couldnt swim, so he was definitely not keen on hopping back into the raging current.

We all drove down there in pitch blackness and walked down to get a better look at the guy's predicament. There was very little we could do, pitch blackness, a steep drop off from the river bank into the river, a raging current of 40 odd meters between the shore and his island, and to top it all off - the horrible reflection of many a crocodiles eyes shining back at our spot lights, scattrered all about on the other little sandbanks around the Mozambiquan. The nearest not 20m away. The only thing probably saving him was the fact the the current was simply raging too quickly past his present position.

So we did what we could, which was radio the section ranger, radio the anti poaching unit, and phoned the police. No one could help. The Anti-poaching dudes rocked up and said theres nothing they could do. The police were way less than helpful to be polite. They were fokn useless actually. After our first attemepts at contacting them in the evening, they eventually showed up at the lodge at 6am the next morning. In the end with all of our staff extremely anxious, and no help on the way by 2am we decided that there was simply no helping the dude until first light so we told him to hang in there until morning. A terrifying task. And a most unsettling sleep for all of us.

Murray woke us all up before sunrise and we raced back down there to see if the guy had made it through the night. Thank goodness - he was there. Tired, but there. A small figure stood up from his crouching position amongst his reed island probably glad to see us. He could speak no english, only Tsonga, so our staff translated his sad story, which stated that he and 3 friends had begun their journey from the Mozam border 6 days earlier and had been trying to cross the park on their way to Gauteng ever since. Tragically he told us that his 2 companions had been attacked and trampled by an elephant. He was half starved and having seen the lodge lights, tried to cross the river to look for a meal, when the river took him prisoner. The sad desperation that makes these poor people have to attempt journeys like this are difficult for us to comprehend. We simply cannot imagine the motivating factors that make these guys feel the need to take the risks that they do to make the crossing through the wild lands of Kruger.

So we tried to make a plan. The gap was too big so we couldnt throw across a rope, of course we didnt have a 40m rope anyway, but it wouldn't have worked if he had had one. Expecting a starved and tired guy on his last legs to hold onto a rope anwyay while we pulled him across the raging torrent of brown water would have been a tall ask, even if there weren't crocs and hippos all over the show. What the lodge bizarely did have though was a canoe. Murray and I loaded it onto the landy and for the umpteenth time set out to drive down to the river pretty set on paddling down the river to rescue the chap. As we were pulling out of the drive way, the cops rocked up. Just the 10 hours after initially contacting them. So what tools or apparatus do you think they arrived with? Errrrrrr.... nothing. Just 4 policemen with their pistols. So we took them down to the scene and they agreed that, ya, this oke was in trouble. The cop in charge said he'd have to call in a chopper. He also said Murray and I must not paddle in to attempt a rescue, as if the guy pulled us both into the water and out of the canoe with no life jackets and clung onto one of us - we would have a serious problem.

So 2 hours later or so, 2 more specialised search and resue cops arrived, with you guessed it. A large white fluffy german shepard. A beautiful pooch yes - a crocodile evading, rapid rafting super dog - errr, no. Amazing these guys had arrived with no ropes at all, just them and their pooch, all the way from Thoyandou. Only one option left now, get the chopper. If the river level were to rise as little as half a meter the Mozambiquan boy would be swept away again. the head copper made the call and a police chopper would be sent from Pretoria, because the closer one at Polokwane was presently on an armed robbery mission. The Mozambiquan who, we now knew by the name of Thomas Sithole would have to sit it out a little longer. One of our staff miraculously threw a bottle of ice water over to Thomas with accuracy under pressure like Ive never seen before. It landed at his feet and gave the guy atleast some fresh water to drink. The sun now was staring to bake and we were worried the poor guy might pass out from heat stroke exposure, also because the island he was on was 30cm or so underwater so his feet and bum had been in the water all night.

Eventually, eventually after 19 hours of being stranded on the island and Murray & I constantly having internal struggles whether to paddle in or not, we heard the chopper arrive on the horizon. Just like a movie with leaves and dust and water and grass being blown all over the shop the pilot lowered the chopper down over the waters, whilst a rescue copper clung out and lifted Thomas to saftey. A pretty impressive sight indeed. YahooO, he was saved! 19 hours stranded on his island, after 6 days walking through the park, and losing two of his mates, Thomas had understandably been through a rough few days. Remarkably he looked quite well considering his ordeal. Shortly after the rescue the coppers in their chopper flew off to look for the bodies of his mates, and Thomas was taken away by the police on the ground, to be escorted - back to Mozambique.

Andria & I will be back in JHB on the 13th December.

The Rain she has come

2009-11-20T15:10:00.002+02:00

Wow. The first proper summer rains have arrived at Pafuri. 100mm has fallen out of the sky in the last 24 hours, which is plenty considering that the usual annual rainfall is only around 350mm. Receiving almost one third of your annual rain in just one day means one of two things: either you live in a seriously dry place or you have had a shedload of rain coming down in a very short space of time.

For us it's both actually. Pafuri is the driest region of Kruger and it has been raining non-stop for 2 days solid now, and it certainly doesnt look like easing up any time soon. It is great though, soon soon, very soon everything will be green green green. The trees and their leaves and the grass........and the insects and the birds and the animalia. Ahh the place will come alive!

Just a couple of days ago, we spotted the first impala lambs of the season. Two tiny little youngsters bouncing around after their mothers. I'm sure that after these rains a flood of new impalas will enter the world. Some will be welcomingly snaffled by the predators, but many more will grow up and join the other 130,000 odd impalas in what is the largest herbivore population in the park.

On a birding note - it is starting to kick off madly! The Woodland Kingfishers arrived back and were first noticed on the 12 November, and are now everywhere and their calls are ever present. A real charateristic sound of summer, you know the, TRPPPPPPPP TRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr.....
The cuckoos are becomingly more vocal, with Red-chested, Diederik, Levaillants, Jacobin & Klaas's all been seen so far. I notched up a good lifer with the addition of a Bohm's Spinetail to my list with the help of 1 Frank Mabasa - the local Pafuri Picnic Site birding guru. This dude is quite famous in birding circles - he's based permanently at the picnic site and has an impressive collection of something like 250 species just seen around the picnic area. I was actually after a Black-throated Wattle Eye, but will settle for the Spinetail instead. The best news is I think Andria has been converted to a 'serious' twitcher! We'll be needing to get her some binos asap.

It's been pretty quiet around the lodge since we have been back, with only 4 guests staying here over the last week. A young Swiss couple, who we got on nicely with kindly offered us an invitation to go snowboarding near Geneva with them. Other than that, 2 ol Germans just rocked up without a reservation and lingered about for 2 nights. The lady was clearly enjoying the luxury after her unpleasant Mozambiquan journey stating that 'she vill never go baack zehr'

Sightings have been decent in the few drives done since our return from leave. Watched a beautiful big male leopard run across the road right in front of us on a night drive, saw 3 white rhinos chilling near Lanner Gorge and as usual have seen plenty of buff all over the place. The most special for me have been the elephants. They are my favourite animal, and always stir up some sort of emotion amongst people when viewed at short distances from the vehicle. The first encounter I had since the charging ellie episode 2 weeks ago, took place on my second drive back at Pafuri. I had wondered how I would feel about getting up close to one again and how I would deal with it. Anyway it went well. The 2 Swiss guests and I were parked next to a pan focused on some yellow billed storks when I noticed 2 big bull elephants standing 30m away drinking from a water trough. I drove forward to get a better look and turned off. The one chap closest to us was drinking away happily, but seemed to take objection to my interpretation of elephant feeding behaviour when he spun around wildly and unexpectedly ran a few meters towards us displaying his massive bulk to us. I reprimanded him by saying ' OK BOY' in my sternest voice which seemed to stop him in his tracks, to my relief and very much so to the two Swissies relief.

I love elephants. The only animal that can get your pulse racing even when you're in a car. Every elephant I've seen since the 'incident' has seemed to look at me funny. I think they know.... Could that be possible??

Andria's dedication to her comrades training is amazing. Every day she continues to pound away on that treadmill totally focused on being ready for the big day. She is definitely doing it now, as her application was successful. 6 months to go....

Will write again when I have some more interesting news. That may be a while if the rain she keeps on fallin....

Cheers for now.

Pierre

Some more pics from the Makuleke Concession...

2009-11-14T11:07:00.008+02:00

A breeding herd of ellies crossing the Limpopo Floodplain at dusk.

Andria & I at Lanner Gorge. Where the Luvuvhu River has been cutting its path through the sandstone for a very, very long time.

A lone wild dog male. The same chap that I saw hunting impala twice. He never was successful and seemingly missed the efficiency of the pack when hunting.

6am one morning....

Me, 2 germans and 1 wild dog.

This boy is part of the Punda Maria pack of 5. Ive never seen the other 4. They fear that the rest of the dogs may no longer be around.

Ben & I. The 2 swiftest barmen this side of the equator. (he taught me everything I know......I mean, I can now make an espresso :)

Andria & I on our 1 year anniversary.

Andria posing on the Luvuvhu floodplain at an awesome spot called Mangala.

Andria chillin at emergency plan B site. My first secret spot for our anniversary picnic got disrupted by a trumpeting breeding herd of ellies.

Mangala and some kudu cows.

The driver - rushing to find another nice spot for our picnic....

Twin Baobabs. And the road that passes between them.

Andria in relaxed mode, cruising alongside the Luvuvhu in the shade of the tall riverine trees.

Anniversary picnic site A. (Shortly before we made our hasty retreat after the elephant alarm went off)

A very nice shady spot under a big old Natal Mahogany looking out onto the Luvuvhu.

The 'other' guineafowl. (Crested Guineafowl.)

Also known as the bob marley bird, thanks to it's hairstyle and reggae like call.

The Fine Line

2009-11-10T10:40:00.008+02:00

The last week has been a life changing one.

On Monday the 2nd November I arrived at Transfrontiers Walking Safaris looking forward to spending a week walking as a back-up guide in the Klaserie with the hope of notching up a few hours & encounters towards my full trails guide qualification. Never could have I imagined the experiences Brian, myself and the seven first time safari going guests were destined to walk away with.

Thursday the 5th of November was a strikingly beautiful day. The kind you really take notice of when the 3 days before have been grey and overcast in contrast. The morning started off as usual with the 4:30 am wake up call. This time it was easy to rouse the seven European guests, as a large troop of baboons had occupied the tall Jackalberry trees above our tents that night. The combination of barks, grunts and screaming infants, together with the regular showers of baboon droppings smashing against the roof of your tent is enough to ensure that even the deepest sleeper isn’t allowed their full quota of overnight rest.

After coffee and rusks, and a short unsuccessful drive aimed at locating the lions that had been roaring close by all night we started our morning walk from camp at 5:30 am. We headed South from camp walking parallel to the Klaserie river. I clearly remember thinking on more than one occasion what a magnificent morning it was. So clear and crisp, with out a breath of wind – a perfect day for a nice walk in the bush. How quickly that was all to change...

After about 30 minutes or so Brian spotted an elephant down in the river bed to our right. It was a good spot, as although the elephant was very close it was below our level and just the head could be seen sticking out amongst some bushes alongside the river. Before the guests had even seen it Brian instructed me to lead the guests out as we were too close at approximately 25m. So I walked around the back of the seven guests and began to lead them back down the path we’d come. This is the normal walking formation when getting out of a sighting on foot. Lead guide closest to the animal, guests in the middle and then back-up guide leading guests away to a safe distance. As we were walking away the elephant became more visible as it began climbing up the river bank. There was very little cover between us and her.

Now we were about 50m away when the elephant had climbed fully out of the river onto the same level as us. Brian again instructed us to retreat further which we did at a very brisk pace. I remember seeing the elephant cow standing there looking at us with her head held high and her ears spread out. She took a few steps forward towards us and then picked up her pace to a full charge. No trumpeting, no head shaking, no kicking up dust, no warnings at all – just a clean, quiet and full on charge.

At this point with all of us still on the retreat Brian stood his ground and began shouting loudly at the elephant in the hope that it would stop and turn. Most often a charging elephant will stop and turn metres in front of you trumpeting and displaying wildly, or so I've been told. I saw that it was covering the ground fast and getting too close, so I ran back around in front of the guests whilst chambering a round just in case. Now the elephant was almost on top of Brian and seemingly not planning to stop. Most definitely a committed charge. I saw Brian lift his rifle to his shoulder and put in the first shot at just 3m. I clearly remember the bullet making a little round, red hole as it entered the top of the trunk but the elephant didn’t go down. Immediately after his shot I began firing and in that same instant the elephant hit Brian who hadn’t had time to reload and his rifle, cap and water bottles went flying. As I fired off 3 head shots I remember being aware of Brian being somewhere in a cloud of dust amongst the elephants trunk and tusks. Thank God, after my 1st or 2nd shot the elephant’s front legs buckled and it toppled over onto its side. One of the shots must have hit the brain. Unbelievable relief is how I’d describe the feeling after seeing those front legs buckle. Brian miraculously then got up and moved clear as I put a fourth shot in to make sure.

He had survived. He could walk. Gratitude. Massive GRATITUDE.

The guests behaved really well considering the circumstances and had remained in a tight group a little further back down the path. Understandably shaken, we all marched the 1 or 2kms straight back to camp, leaving the scene just as it was with Brian’s rifle, cap and bottles scattered around the dead elephant’s feet. None of us could believe that Brian had escaped pretty much unhurt and I just noticed him being particularly dusty as I walked back behind him to camp. As we got back to camp at around 6:20 am Brian radio'ed the authorities who arrived really quickly as they’d heard the 5 shots and come to investigate.

Later on that day an official from the Mpumalanga Parks Board came out to look at the scene, so we had to go back and re-live the scenario and explain the whole story. While we were away the field ranger who was charged with staying at the site to make sure that no one changed the scene, told us that the whole herd had come up to sniff and stand around the dead elephant for a while. As we got back there the elephants were still in the river bed not far away, and I was just praying that nothing else would go wrong. We certainly were in no frame of mind to deal with another dangerous encounter that day.

Anyway, the inspector guy and the Klaserie Warden checked the whole scene out and listened to our story, and were satisfied that we had acted correctly and that it really was a last resort that couldn’t unfortunately be avoided. They also took statements from us under oath as he’d need to file a formal report on the incident. It was a little bit kak being questioned by some dude seemingly looking for reasons to say that it could have been negligence. Especially when he asked us where this one termite mound was in relation to the whole event. At first I honestly couldn’t remember and felt like telling him that when you’re being charged by an enraged elephant that is about to flatten your mate the last thing you do is look around and notice the scenery. I do understand though that he was just doing his job.

I picked up my empty cartridges at around 12-15 metres from the elephant carcass which I shot at about a 45 degree angle to the side of his frontal charge on Brian. Brian’s 1 empty cartridge was still inside his rifle, showing that he didn’t even have time to chamber a second round before he was hit. I’ll never forget going back there and seeing Brian’s cap totally dusted up lying at the feet of the elephant together with his scratched rifle and scattered water bottles. Indeed a miraculous escape. It could have so easily ended so differently. In the end Brian walked away with the best possible elephant injury one could hope for, a sprained ankle and a few bruises – truly amazing when you consider how much damage an enraged 4 ton animal is capable of.

For the rest of the day Brian, myself and the seven guests recounted our experience over and over, whilst drinking many cokes and allowing our adrenaline levels to slowly subside. It was really interesting to hear everyone’s version of how they saw the whole thing unfolding. Amazing how one truth can lead to 9 different stories after it has been passed through nine different peoples ‘filters’. Although the critical facts are the same, the minute details that people remember are varied and different. At the end of the day what we did have were nine people believing that the way things unfolded was the absolute best scenario and everyone understood that it could have been a whole lot worse. Understandably the guests weren’t keen on an afternoon walk that day, so we agreed on a short drive to a dam for sundowners to reflect some more. Here the Germans got properly stuck into the Amarula supplies.

Interestingly Brian said that after he put in his shot and was hit by the elephant all he remembers was making his body into a small ball, trying to protect his head and that he clearly remembered the feeling of elephant skin on him. He said that he felt the elephant trying to put its crushing weight on him and then heard my shots at which point he felt the easing up of the crushing pressure. I was completely unaware of what was happening to him besides knowing that it had hit him and a large ball of brown dust was being thrown up in front of the elephant. I find it quite remarkable at how when you’re faced with a really traumatic and intense moment your brain (may be the wrong word) only allows in information that is absolutely critical. For example I didn’t remember how many shots I had fired, and was completely oblivious to the usually deafening noise of 4 shots being fired right next to your ear. I just knew that I absolutely had to shoot it in the brain. I am really grateful that in the moment I could rely on the great training received at EcoTraining with Bruce Lawson kicking in, together with what I’m sure was a large dose of divine guidance :)

Coincidently or fatefully (you choose), it had been Brian who had also helped teach me how to handle a rifle before our shooting assessment on the EcoTraining trails guide course. Talk about coming full circle. Good teacher? Good karma? Who knows.

It all seems surreal now, much like a dream, and even though it happened in the blink of an eye, the events seemed to be all in slow motion. There really was no time to think, not even time to feel fear. There was only action. Action based on past training, instinctual knowledge of knowing that you have to do only what is necessary to survive in the moment and of course – divine guidance. At one point when we were walking back to camp in absolute silence and shock Brian turned around to me and calmly said ‘You saved my life’, which together with the whole experience seemed so unreal, and very much like a dream or a movie. Without doubt this elephant encounter and more specifically the exact moment when I knew I had to shoot accurately to kill and to save has been the most testing moment of my life to date. I do not like to think what would have happened had I missed.

Later the Warden told us that they’d been having quite a few aggressive elephant encounters recently, mostly with vehicles. He reckons it’s a combination of factors that’s causing this: the elephant population is too large, the increase in tourism is meaning that there are more elephant/human encounters than there were in past years, and at this time of year the elephant are most stressed because of the poor condition of the bush before the rains and the extra strain of there being more elephants that need to eat and drink.

On the last morning of the trail we took the guests back to the site, which was great for everyone to see and understand exactly what had happened. It became clearer and clearer for Brian and I each time we visited as each time you remember something else. In the end we were both clear where the elephant had come up and we could eventually even place ‘that termite mound’. I paced out the distances and it turns out that it was about 85 metres from where elephant came out of the river bed to where she eventually died. Certainly enough time and space for her to stop, turn or move off. Brian did everything possible to give this ellie the benefit of the doubt. No one can argue that when you see that he only shot it at 3m, which must have taken unbelievable courage in itself. This ellie definitely had it in for us that day, as there was no wind, or if anything a slight wind into our faces - the ellie charged purely on sight.

After that we all went on a short half an hour walk. It apparently is a good idea to get straight back up onto the horse, so that you don’t allow fear to take a grip in future. It was great being out there again, and as you can imagine the seven tourists had a new respect and militant like appreciation for the rules when walking. ie single file, silence, etc….

A couple of the guests did manage to take a few photos before and after the charge, which I will post in due course. I have tried to recount this story as objectively as possible, but I do realise that my perspective on events may differ slightly from others. Which ever way you look at it, it certainly was an unbelievable, life changing experience for everyone. Thankfully we are all able to walk away from this experience with a real appreciation for just how fine the line can be between life and death.

A few more pics...

2009-10-25T10:32:00.008+02:00

Ah yes please! Another mild day of 36 degrees.

The view from Space 12 looking westwards. That is the Luvuvhu River with all the green trees on its banks.

More view from Space 12 looking eastwards.

This is our pet dog. His name is Jorge (pronounced 'Ghor-gaey' in a thick spanish accent). Please note that he is not a real dog. He, or she, for that matter is actually a Yellow Spotted Rock Dassie. Its getting tamer and is pictured here lying outside our front door. Sit Jorge, Good Jorge.

In the words of Rudyard Kipling -'The great, grey, green, greasy Limpopo River'

Totally bone dry like a desert.

Same river. Nice beach. In a few months after the rains this thing will be pumping with a shed load of water.

Limpopo again. Looking east. Oh wait there is one puddle in the far right.....

The Limpopo Floodplain, and Makwadzi Pan. Nice road over some open ground before heading into some riverine forrest.

Trusty Landy No.1 in the 'Load the Guests onto vehicle area'

Jorge in a tree eating a leaf. Yes this is a ROCK dassie, not a tree dassie. Gorge must be ahead of his time. He is a nocturnal tree climbing rock dassie....

Sundowners with a Honeymoon couple at another Limpopo Lookout

Some Northern Lala Palms.

Some buffs kicking up dust in the late afternoon light. They love this long grass in the floodplain and can almost be seen daily in this area.

A view from the landy into a fever tree forrest.

Fever Tree forrests across the floodplain.

Bob on balcony of Space 12, admiring the view.

Dutch Mayhem

2009-10-24T11:19:00.003+02:00

Hectic. A good description of what the general vibe in camp has been like for the last 3 days while 20 crazy Dutchmen have been 'letting their hair down' after a rough overland trip through the Mozambiquan side of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. These 40 year old buddies rocked up on Thursday in 5 landys covered from head to toe in a thick coating of the finest dust Mozambique has to offer. A week or so without a shower - and dust sticks to a sweaty human being like a dead fly does to syrup on toast. So what were once pale caucasian males arrived with a darker than normal hue. Their stay at The Outpost was kind of like a luxury end of tour celebration after a pretty rough camping trip. And rough they did look.

When I say 'Dutchmen' I mean 20 Hollandse jongers - old chaps from Amsterdam that have been friends since varisty and every decade or so mission off on some sort of African adventure. Last time they did Zim, and now it was South Africa's turn. As you can imagine Hollanders are not used to the heat, and they're also not impartial to some chilled white wine, which is why after their 2 night stay their bar bill reached a considerable 12 grand. Not so much in Euros I know but the picture Im trying to paint is that the atmosphere was rather jolly indeed.

Yesterday morning started off with a bang for me, as after their 5am wake up call (which takes me 10 mins to do as the furtherest room away is 600m roundtrip walk up a wooden boardwalk) all the dudes rushed out of their rooms in a way-to-over-zealous fashion only 2 mins after I knocked?! Normally guests kind of saunter down to the bar area 30 mins after wake up. This then lead to a coffee drinking frenzy as 20 hung over dutchmanne attempted to gulp down substantial amounts of caffeine before the morning activities. Poor planning on our behalf meant that only 1 barmen had been assigned to make 20 peoples coffees, so I was having to learn very quickly how to make double espressos el pronto. Once we had them loaded 14 of them on to the 2 vehicles (6 went for a bush walk) things went relatively smoothly........ until the afternoon drive.

Yesterday's afternoon game drive was ..... errr ....... manic, challenging and bloody hard work to say the least. It should have been easy, a leisurely routine game drive to Lanner Gorge for sundowners. We had Vikki, a friend from Eco-Training, helping us out as a 3rd guide on a freelance basis who was doing her first stint at The Outpost. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end. Trying to make things easier for her I suggested she use Land Rover no.1, which is definitely the best landy of the 3 we have. 4km down the road a get a call from Vikki on the radio saying that her landy is buggered, and that she heard a loud metallic snap and then lost 4 wheel drive and was now stuck at the bottom of a challenging little incline, in which we always go up in low range. EEEK.

So I rushed back to see if I could help. You may snigger here if you've ever seen me trying to do anything mechanical. Trues bob, I got there looked under the landy, tried to drive it up the slope once, failed miserably as the wheels just spun like crazy and only 2 had power. I then said 'Ya, it's stuffed.' and quickly radio'd the camp for some more capable help. In the meantime I suggested that Vikki take my landy with as many dutchies as she could fit, and get on over to the gorge in time to see the sun go down. She squeezed on 10, so I was left stranded with 4 okes and 1 buggered land rover over. What else to do but prematurely delve into the cooler box in an attempt to ease the stranded dutchies frustration. 4 ice cold zamaleks did the trick.Thank the Pope, Ralson & Abby (our 2 amazing bush mechanics) arrived with great haste and also declared that the landy was knackered. The problem was that they couldnt take it back the way they came due to an even nastier incline so they needed to get it up the slope in front to be able to take an easier road back to camp. Many would have thought it impossible but after 3 attempts, and after a mighty long 'run up' Abby bombed up and over the rocky incline with wheels spinning, rocks flying, exhaust bellowing black diesel fumes, and exitable dutchmanne shouting applause!

So, at last we were now free to continue on our way to the Gorge, only me and 4 dudes crammed into a Ford bakkie, with 6km to go, a treacherously rocky road to negotiate and min time remaining to get their before sunset. I know you cant call this real stress, but as far as the bush goes it was quite stressfull for me. The Ford, and the brand in general is an inferior offroad vehicle to a mighty landy that is for sure, but nevertheless I bombed it down a very rocky road and made it to the Gorge just in time to see the big orange Super C fall over the horizon. Ford has no clearance and I seriously feared that me scraping the bottom of the car all over the rocks would do nothing for my future career ambitions at The Outpost. Its a touchy subject - as the chef recently seized the engine on a trip to Louis Trichardt so everyone watches that bakkie with eagle eyes.

And so, yay, we made it, everyone was happy, the dutchies drank some more white wine and loved the view from the top. I thought my worries were over for the day, when someone hollered my name, 'Pieeeerrre, Koos has dropped his cell phone.' One plump chap had let his cell phone slip out of his hand and fall down into a crack between some large rocks into the depths of the mountain. He tried his best to get his round little figure down into and between the rocks but was about one meter short of the target, his anguish clearly visible. I definitely was not looking forward to it but I sheepishly proceeded to squeeze myself down down down into cracks too small for a starving ethiopian into the bloody mountain side. By some miracle of yoga, I managed to lower myself a full 2 meters or so down into the depths, feeling more than a little claustrophobic, and less than a little enthusiastic to experience death by mamba bite, whilst being stuck in a rock crack atop some remote mountain top 100 of miles from any medical attention. Luckily I came out unscathed and had a dutchman's cellphone clutched in my paw. The less than well known saying 'Good deeds like this do deserve good tips from dutchmanne' did lurk in the back of my mind.

Anyway the great thing about this place is that everything is temporary and passes fairly swiftly in the end, and now the dutchies have checked out and life returns to normal after a whirlwind of activity. I did have a nice sighting this morning of 3 rhino in the road. 1 huge bull, a cow and young calf. Considering that there are only 7 in 27,000 hectares, to see almost half the population is always pleasant and a lucky encounter. I've also being seeing some nice leopards quite near to camp, and as usual a shedload of buff and ellies. Lions are probably the toughest of the groot vyf animalia to locate as there is a resident pride of 12 at the moment that hang around in the thick riverine bush near the Luvuvhu bridge area which is not always the easiest place to spot them. I had a streak of African Wild Cats last week - 3 in 3 nights which was pretty cool. No aardvarks or pangolins yet, but there is sign of them being out there so its surely just a matter of time. My greatest nemesis is definitely the Pels Fishing Owl, which continues to allude me. I will have his number in the end though - that is for sure.

As our first stint draws to a close, Andria and I will return home next weekend. ie Sat 31 Oct and will be in Joburg until the 14th November or so. Will be so great to catch up with all friends and family. Oh ya, I will be off in the Klaserie from the 2-6 Nov, doing a walking trail for Transfrontiers which Brian has so kindly offered me. I cant wait to get some encounters so that I can start walking at The Outpost. Which is really where the true beauty lies in this pozzi, as it is best accessed on foot. 43 more is the number I need.

Take it easy...........

Love

P & A

a monotone weekly guide's report anyone?

2009-10-18T13:14:00.000+02:00

It’s been another hot and dry week at The Outpost. The first proper summer rains have not yet arrived although the skies have threatened once or twice. The daily maximum temperatures have consistently been between 35-40 degrees. A large veld fire, visible from the lodge at night has been burning for the past couple of days, but SANPARKS has it under control.

Even though no rain has fallen it is great to see many of the trees beginning to come into leaf. Most noticeably – the Baobabs. Tiny green shoots are visible on many of the trees, the first one I noticed was a large one down in Lanner Gorge. Another first this week was the call of the Piet-my-vrou (Red Chested Cuckoo) heard from the lodge at sunrise while having coffee before the morning game drive. Definitely one of the first arrivals of this intra-africa migrant species.

Sightings have been good this week. Last night we spotted another young female leopard on Lanner Drive at dusk whilst returning from Lanner Gorge. This morning a white rhino cow and calf were encountered on the Outpost Home Run road only 3km from camp. Buffalo and elephant are all over the place, and herds of buffalo are regularly seen drinking from the Luvuvhu in front of camp from the guest spaces. 3 elephant bulls have also been hanging around at the confluence for the past few days, together with th resident nyala, impala, kudu and troops of baboons that frequent the beautiful area around the confluence.

Although we haven’t had a decent lion sighting for a while, last night they were reported to have moved north of the Pafuri Main tar road, so hopefully this will increase our likelihood of sightings, as they can be quite difficult to spot when they are around the Luvuvhu West road. It seems as though the pride size is now 12. There are 4 young cubs of a few months old. African wild cat have been seen twice along Pafuri Main.

Birding is always good, and it was very enjoyable to have 2 enthusiastic birding guests in camp for 3 nights recently. It makes a nice change to spend the 3hr drives only covering 15km, instead of the usual 50km or so. Yellow Billed, Marabou, Woolly Necked and Black storks have been seen along with all the usual raptors. Dark Chanting and Gabar Goshawks and Crowned Eagle sightings have been good to see. blah blah blah :P

A few pics...

2009-10-15T10:42:00.004+02:00

1.65m - the length of my nthondo. Joke. The depth of the swimming pool. The one that tries to lure you in on a hot summer's day. 43 degrees last week = eeeish

The Main lodge area. Very open, a lot of space, all concrete screed and steel. Good for the hot weather.

The pool

The Pool again. We like the pool :)

A good cushion bed for afternoon snooze after cooling off in the pool...

The Luvuvhu River at Sunrise from the Bridge. Pafuri Main Road. 2 dagga boys, centre left. Usually plenty crocs, nyala, bushbuck, baboons and monkeys about too. Supposedly a renowned spot for catching a glimpse of the elusive Pels Fishing Owl........ hasnt happened for me yet.

Bob & Pee. Sundowners at the Luvuvhu - Mutale confluence, before it was ended prematurely by 2 ellie bulls. Maybe Andria's camo pants aren't working??

Andria in the Luvuvhu....errrr..... yes - this river has one of the highest densities of crocs in Kruger.

Andria, Brian and Karin on a sand bar in the Mutale River. (A tributary of the Luvuvhu)

Some nice big fresh Ellie tracks down at the confluence.

One of a brazilian baobabs on the concession. Loose, sandy soil, hot, dry climate = perfect for Baobabs.

A Giant Kingfisher. No, I do not have a giant zoom. This chap was 1m from the landy, perched on the bridge at dusk.

The breakfast & lunch area. Just 2 guests in camp. + Andria & I. Map of the concession on the wall.

The view from Lanner Gorge, as the Luvuvhu winds its way eastwards to meet the Limpopo at Crooks' Corner. Approx 15km away.

the weather - 'she's hot'

2009-10-12T13:06:00.003+02:00

It's been another busy week for us at the lodge. I've been guiding solid for the past 7 days and so definitely looking forward to the 2 day gap we have starting on Wednesday. Gap days rock. There are so many appealing things to do when there are no guests around. Like last Tuesday morning for example, when Andria and Karin woke up with Brian and I at 5am and drove us out to Lanner Gorge to drop us off there so we could do a long walk back to camp along the river with the sun behind us. Lanner Gorge is one of the hidden gems of Kruger - quiet a few people would have heard about the place but very few get to visit it because there are no public roads anywhere near it - just one dry, rocky path that the 2 lodges on the concession are allowed to use to ferry the privileged few up to the lookout point. Its basically an ancient gorge that the Luvuvhu River has cut through the sandstone rock dating back brazilians of years.

After wishing Andria and Karin farewell (they had to negotiate the 10km back to camp alone in the landy) we began the descent. It was hard work, and took us about an hour and a half just to get down to the river level from the lookout. I got a bit worried at how long this stroll was going to take considering I had to leave for the airstrip by 11am to pick up my next guests. Anyway - it all worked out well as we crawled back into camp at 10:30 after a tiring but awesome 5 hour walk. It's impossible to get lost as you just follow the river upstream as it winds its way through the sandveld and eventually end up right in front of the lodge. Having descended the steep slope we had a great sighting of a breeding herd of ellies drinking in the river - we watched them from the large boulders jutting out of the river. When we were around 150m from them they must have picked up our scent and then bolted at a steady pace away from us also following the river cos its too steep on either side of the gorge to exit at that point. We never did catch up to them again but was cool following in the footsteps for alot of the way upstream.

We also came across 2 large herds of buff enroute who seemed pretty skittish and went crashing off as soon as they saw and/or smelled us. It's quite awesome to listen to the pounding hooves of 100 plus large bovines shaking the earth as they flee. Later on we viewed a few hippos in one oif the deeper pools aswell as a schneaky croc trying to stalk some fish to no avail, as the water was too shallow and they could sense him coming from far away. Other than that we saw some another big bull ellie, some nyala, kudu, impala, warthog, baboons and quite a few birds including an African Finfoot (only the 2nd Ive ever seen). It was a great walk in the end.....errr.... excluding the time when we encountered the 2nd bull ellie only 30m away and as we were making our retreat I got completely snared by some long white thorns which didnt make for the most efficient getaway.

Andria has been putting her treadmill to good use. She's started running at sunrise (5 30am) as its the only time of day when its cool enough to do anything strenuous. She also likes to do hill training on our steep driveway into camp while we are out on morning drive. She also gets to enjoy the pool after running while there are no guests in camp.

And now for the weather report. What a surprise - it's gonna be HOT, HOT, HOT. Wednesday last week was the hottest day I have ever experienced. 43 degrees in the shade according to our thermometer by the bar. On game drive it felt like there was a permanent hair dryer blowing in my face, and I seriously wondered at what point a person's eyes simply shrivel up and fall out?! I have never had the moisture sucked out of me like on that day. No matter how much you drink - your thirst is unquenchable. Even in the shade anything metal gets too hot to touch. That night we shnuck down and had a dip in the pool after the guests had gone to bed, which alleviated the pain momentarily. Andria has resorted to sleeping with a wet sarong over her with the fan blowing all night. Luckily that heat didn't last too long and its now down to a moderate 35 odd degrees.

On Friday I had more American guests - the guy looked like a cross between George Bush and George Clooney. He was a really cool though. very chilled out Californian. On arrival he said that he'd seen most animals on his previous safari to Tanzania except the leopard. I told him ya ya, leopards are awesome but theyre a pretty rare sighting and tough to find in these parts with the limited road network and massive area, even though there must be plenty leopards around as you see their tracks everywhere. For example - I may see tracks every day but in the month that Ive been here so far Ive just had the one leopard sighting.

So we go out on afternoon drive and see cool things, like a breeding herd of 35 ellies crossing through the long grass in the Limpopo floodplain and with big herd of buff nearby too. 3km out from the lodge on the way home I've got the spot light out and I'm shining all over the show expecting the usual bushbaby or maybe an owl, when all of a sardine there's a beautiful female leopard lying 2m off the road very close to the landy. Now being a landy, as I hit the brakes it squeaks like crazy - but by some miracle the leopard doesnt run off but just stands up next to us. I was mighty surprised as I've driven this road a million times and just by the power of repitition reinforcement you start to expect not to see such great things. I know this is silly as the bush is completely unpredictable. The leopard then walks parallel to the road for a while giving us a great view and then later dashes off behind the landy and disappears. It's amazing at how when you're looking at something so beautiful your eyes are greedy. You just cannot get enough of looking at the thing. I think we all felt that.

My next off-the-wall theory (and this is based on what I'm beginning to experience) ( errr - more conservative scientist like readers should skip this section) is that it seems that what is happening is that guests are creating their own game viewing reality. I know it sounds funny, but its uncanny how often people will think and say 'ah I really want to see a leopard' or some other unlikely rare creature, and then trues bob -whamo you end up seeing the thing in the flesh. Its happened quite a few times already. I reckon your expectations and beliefs about the bush more often become reality than not. So - Im definitely enjoying being with the different groups of guests who all arrive with their own ideas on what a safari experience is -> which keeps on giving me totally unique & different experiences each time. It's quite amazing indeed.......

To all you birders out there - the birding is kicking off nicely, the migrants are rolling into town.European bee eaters arrived on 1 Oct and can be heard overhead increasingly now. Broad billed Rollers have rocked up too, adding a bit of colour to the scene. Cuckoos are becoming more vocal and the other bee eaters and kingfishers should be back soon soon soon. Raptor sightings are schweet here. Black, Tawny, Martial, Wahlbergs, Fish, Bateleur & African Hawk eagles are all over the show. We've also seen saddle billed, marabou, woolly necked and black storks all in on pozzie at the same time too in the dry Limpopo. And yesterday my first 2 exclusive birder guests arrived - theyre only interested in birds and couldnt give a sheert about any mammals or big 5 bollocks. It makes a really nice change and Im loving driving just 15km in 3 hrs instead of the usual 50.

okdoki - Im due for some lunch, and then its afternoon drive time - Today I'll be heading East with the sun behind me along the Limpopo floodplain....... looking for some voeltjies

Sundowners....

2009-10-07T08:10:00.004+02:00

Two nights ago Pierre, Karin, Brian and I went down to the confluence of the Mutale and Levuvhu rivers for a bit of a sundowner. I will try put some photos up soon. We parked the landy and made our way down the well-trodden path, which had elephant tracks EVERYWHERE! But we figured if there are tracks then we dont have to worry too much because then the ellies are gone already. Besides we had seen them down there 2 days earlier so we were pretty confident that they were not going to pop along for a visit right this very minute. So we walked down, Savanna in hand, and proceeded to walk in the river, sit on the logs, take photos and just have an alround chill session whilst taking in the beautiful scenery. Brian had decided to wander off across the river and have a look around up the other side, which in hindsight, I'm pretty happy that he did. While walking around up there, Brian came across an old buffalo skull which was pretty cool and something I wanted to see up close. So what did Andria do? She waddled across the river and up the bank too so I could also investigate this find....

Once up the other side I saw Brian peering off into the distance. I approached the buffalo skull to have a closer look. This was about the time when Brian indicates to me by putting his hands by his ears and flapping them. I mouthed 'Are you joking?' He was like, 'No'. I was then like, 'Where?' This was all in silent language by the way so not to disturb the animal. He points, I look. Eish! An elephant! And not too far away either. So I asked what side of the river it was on, and he was like it's fine because they are on that side of the river. The side where Pierre and Karin, and the Landy I might add, is. Alrighty, that's enough information for me.... Bye! So I turned around, made my way down the bank, plopped back into the shin high water and let Pierre and Karin know there was an elephant not too far away and that I would like very much to get back to the car. Pierre and Karin too didnt waste any time and we were making our way up the opposite bank, keeping our eye on the ellie which was now viewable to them as well. Looking back Brian was slowly making his way back to the other side of the river. He is too chilled!

We walked to the landy quickly-ish and stood by the car and watched the ellie more calmly now. On a closer look, one ellie soon became two ellies! Brian then eventually made it back up the hill and we decided to drive closer to have a better look at these guys. One was a monster! He was seriously big, and his buddy was smaller, looked more like the runt of the litter as he had a left tusk that veered off to the left rather than inwards towards his trunk. They checked us out as the one rubbed himself on a handy baobab while the other one scrapped the ground. They moved into the road and walked away from us but not before giving us the routine elephant-stand-in-the-road-ears-wide-and-look-ominous-for-10-seconds-at-the-landy-and-then-turn-and-walk-off-pose. I mean every ellie you come across does this, and if it's their attempt to put some authority on the situation and make us feel as big as a pee, it seriously works. Respect. We then turned around and made our way back to the lodge, happy with our close enough call with elephant/s in the river. Yeeha!

My elephant encounter

2009-10-05T15:04:00.003+02:00

So last night I was merrily enjoying my night off and watching Carte Blanche when I heard the serious sound of rustling leaves. I chose to ignore it at first but when it happened again I decided to take a look through the window. Now you must understand that these windows are covered in gauze (to prevent mosquitos from coming in) so it makes for peering through, especially in the dark, a tad bit difficult. So I took Pierre's super LED torch and pushed it up against the gauze and through the window to light up what I could. I didn't see anything and the noise had stopped. So I sat back down and carried on listening to old Derrick. Noise went again. Now I was convinced there MUST be something rolling around in the leaves out there.... my first thought was a jackal or hyena or something to that effect. So I decided to turn on the outside light that lights up the stoep to see if that would provide any help to my noise investigation. It didnt really, so I picked up the torch and scanned again this time passing the light over something flapping. Wait a minute, I thought. And so I looked a little harder. Another thing you need to understand are that my eyes are not the best, especially at night, so straining my eyes was necessary to make out that the flapping vision I was seeing was indeed attached to a rather large male elephant. Confirmed by one times male business hanging out! Eeekkk, he is in musth. I fumbled to turn off the torch because I thought he would then know that there was something where the light came from and approach. I ran to the intercom phone in our house and called reception. I knew Pierre had just got back from a drive and would want to know about this. That and I was also pooping myself with this elephant outside. Forget the fact that there were brick walls all around me and I was pretty safe, my legs and hands were still shacking. Fight or flight had definitely kicked in.

So I called and Brian picked up, so I told him. He was like 'Cool'. I asked where Pierre was, and he said that he had just walked in. So I told Pierre who rather nonchalantly also said 'Cool'. Silently I was like WTF? There is a flippin elephant outside, like 4 metres from our doorstep and I am inside pooping myself and all anyone can say is cooooooll! I asked Pierre if he was going to come up to see it and he was like in a little while. Again, WTF moment. I was like, you don't want to come see this for yourself? You see, we have doors on both sides of our little house so Pierre could still get in safely without disturbing the big guy. He was like I have to see what the guests are doing. Alrighty then... It was just going to be me and Jumbo. Awesome.

So I ran back to the window and put the torch on and shone it at the elephant which had moved closer and was busy scrapping the ground with his foot. Very cool! I then realised he was looking straight at me so I turned off the torch. He was still looking (because he had moved closer, the light on the stoep was illuminating him just fine)and swaying closer if you know what I mean. So I thought, I wander if he is attracted to the light? Haha! When I told this to Pierre later, he was like, Andria, its an elephant not a moth. Anyways, I made a silly decision to close the curtain by the window and try and peek through the side of the curtain at him. So I did that and when I got around the side to peek, he was gone!!!! Where did he go? And so silent and so nimble? At that moment I heard him to the left of the house so I ran into our bedroom to see if I could see him through there. I couldnt, but what I could see was a torch light shining where I had heard the noise and it wasn't my torch. It was Pierre! He was on his way to look at the elephant, which I had now stupidly chased away. Pierre and Brian burst into the door on the other side of the house and I was like, he's gone :( I just closed the curtain and he disappeared! So Pierre (gun-ho Dundee), just unlocks the door and swings it open. Now the door makes a leettle bit of a BIG noise when you open it, which can frighten the smallest of God's creatures. We then heard the ellie still on the left of us but now it sounded like he was moving away fast because we heard rocks moving so we thought he must be going up the hill. Hectic! Rock climbin olifante! Nice one. Just as he was moving off, Pierre did manage to get a glimpse of his bum moving between the trees but then he was gone. The night's animal action had come to an end! What a night. What a sight! Loved it! I was visited by an elephant and all the staff at the lodge were quite excited by the fact. Hope he comes again, I will definitely try not to chase him away next time, maybe he will let me even sit on his knee..... Bye for now!

There's an ellie on my stoep

2009-10-04T19:51:00.002+02:00

It's 7:50pm on Sunday night and Ive just got back from another routine game drive down along the Luvuvhu floodplains. We've decided to give our 2 American guests a private dinner tonight out by the pool, which is cool cos then I can chill (we sit most other meals with guests). Its full moon tonight - so bright that you do not need a torch really when walking from the staff village to the lodge. Half an hour ago Andria phoned the office from our house on the intercom to report that there was an elephant on our stoep, and that she was quite nervous. You see a certain complacency builds up when after 3 weeks in the bush the only wildlife youve seen around your house includes the likes of impala, kudu, genets and a brazilian yellow spotted rock dassies. So when you see a large 5 ton bull elephant cruising 5m outside your back door it can be surprising.

Brian and I took a walk up there to check it out, but by the time we got there and opened the back door onto the stoep armed with my powerful LED maglite - the poor ellie must have got a fright and bolted up the rocky mountain outside our house. Many a rock seemed to tumble down - not sure why the chap didnt take the easy route down the hill - so now we have a big ellie up there with our dassie colony. Did you know that elephants and rock dassies are more closely related than you'd guess? They have certain anatomical similarities ie both have enlarged incisors (tusks), both are near ungulates in their foot structure and both have ridiculously long gestation periods (22 months and 8.5 months respectively)

Anyway its cool to have some wildlife just outside your door step. Before these 2 Americans arrived Brian and I went for an awesome walk up the Mutale River (a small tributary of the Luvuvhu). Brian is a friend I met on the Eco Training Trails guide course I did in earlier this year, who also happened to work at The Outpost a while back. He is on leave from his current job as a walking guide at Transfrontiers in the Klaserie so has popped in for a visit. So a couple days ago we set out at 7am on a 4hr walk NW up the Mutale gorge. The water level is at its lowest being the beginning of summer and no rains have fallen yet, so its easiest to walk in the river for a lot of the way. Luckily its crystal clear and for the most part only ankle deep - so it would be easy to spot any schneaky crocs. A kilometre or so into the walk we spotted some fresh leopard tracks (prob from the night before) in the sand on the river bank heading in the same direction as us. Always exciting to know that a creature as magnificent as a leopard has been down the same path you're on. We didnt end up catching a glimpse of the cat which was probably a good thing as the gorge has fairly steep sides for a lot of the way in that section and you dont really want to be in a situation where you accidently corner a leopard.

Further upstream we came across 1 shy hippo in one of the deeper pools who didnt hang around long and probably doesnt see humans very often as there are no roads near the gorge. We also saw baboons, impala and a couple old waterbuck skulls & horns. Birding wise we saw Crested Guineafowl, Fish eagles, Gymnogenes (African Harrier Hawk) and my first sighting of the European Bee eaters which are one of the early migrant arrivals. Carmine and Blue-cheeked should be following soon. It is great being on foot getting to know the area. I really cannot wait until Im properly qualified to lead bush walks as driving in the vehicle every day is limiting in some ways.

On that same day Andria went with Karen (the chef) on a shopping trip to Louis Trichardt (or Makhado - you choose). There she managed to get a cracker of a deal on a new treadmill from the Game store. So happy days - atleast she can continue training, as her 1974 treadmill just couldnt take the pace. We have donated it to the other staff who seem to enjoy walking and jogging on it. You know Andria is happy when you walk into the house and hear the pounding of feet on the treadmill and her singing at the top of her lungs to Avril Lavigne - which sounds peculiar when completely out of breath. But atleast I knew she was happy!

She is getting stuck into all the lodge admin and is making great progress. It's cool though when she can come with on drives to see a bit of this beautiful area and not the Lodge for days at a time. The weather has been really mild for the last week. 18-27 degrees and overcast- today we had a whopping 1mm of rain. But thats it for now - the next 4 days are forecast to be 35,36,37 and 40 degrees. ouch!

26 more bush days until we head home for our first 2 week break. 31 October it is. Look forward to cathcing up with friends and family.....

The Busy Times...

2009-09-29T07:47:00.003+02:00

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 :)

Andria writes…

2009-09-19T16:45:00.002+02:00

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!

The Quiet Times

2009-09-16T12:52:00.001+02:00

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………..

Waga waga... Our first days in da bushes

2009-09-12T19:39:00.000+02:00

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

The BIG Decision

2009-08-26T10:18:00.002+02:00

Andria & I have taken the plunge.

We are abandoning rational thinking. Abandoning commonly accepted & expected career progression. We are trading in the city life to follow our dreams.

We have accepted a couple position at a luxury lodge in the far north of Kruger. The northern most point in South Africa actually. A beautiful area, 25,000 hectares of pure natural wilderness between the Limpopo and Luvuvhu Rivers - this is the Makuleke Concession, Kruger National Park. And our new home is The Outpost.

Join us on this journey as we journal our experiences of life in the bush.

2 weeks to go before we head on up....... watch this space

Cheers
Pierre & Andria