A Little African Magic: December 2013

Although I have grown up in the Kruger National Park and still live less than an hours' drive away from one of the main entrance gates, I have not been to the Park in many,many years. A while ago I decided to book Cules and myself for overnight stays in two different locations in the Park for a weekend. I read the SAN Parks website and decided to make things really interesting like staying over in a Hide at Sable Dam, which my Dad, Jan Rademeyer, ( passed away 23 years ago) also worked on. Then I planned that we would go south down to Lower Sabie and Skukuza area rather than north as it is just so dry and depressing up there for my liking. I love green riverine bush,rivers,sand beds etc...very much more exciting!! On further investigation though, I discovered that you have to book Sable hide loooong in advance..so much so, in fact,that when I phoned to make our booking,the clerk said it was fully booked out a year in advance!!! She told me to hold the call while she got us a date for next year ( I thought I could just as well book it then for next year sometime while I was making the call) I heard the clerk speaking to someone in the background...lots of computer clicking noises...and just as I was getting a bit impatient...she picked up the phone again and told me,that lo and behold, there had just that minute been a cancellation for Sable hide!!! I formally informed her that since I now had done the impossible, I needed another impossible thing done for me in that I wanted a luxury chalet for two in Lower Sabie the night following our Sable Hide adventure and that said chalet should be on the perimeter fence,with river view of course as my husband would love to sit and watch the hienas at night....she replied " hmmmm,just hold on one second please madam...." and after some more frantic clicking computer noises and background voices...she came back online telling me they indeed had one such chalet available for that Saturday night!! Now,I have to say that Sable Hide was described as "very basic", no electricity,no lights...NOT A SINGLE ONE, no flushing toilets (a definite no-no to me,but it apparently had very decent eco something or other toilets....! There is no one else for miles around,it is just you and the bush and the dark of night at Sable Hide..The hide can sleep up to 9 people and I booked it for just the two of us. No friends invited,no family invited..sometimes you need a break away like that and in our case it would have to be me who takes charge and organise s such a weekend.

So as the weeks became days and days hours before our great escape,I had to constantly remind the husband not to agree to go and visit this friend or do that for a customer or go help his boss at work with something that weekend..So we managed to leave home at 3 pm instead of 12 o clock as a client insisted on wanting his motorbike delivered before the weekend...and ooooofffff we went!! Stopped by some or other Dragon or something for Sushi for me for dinner and at Steers for Cules for ribs and chips for dinner. Got organised by the Phalaborwa Gate and into the Park we went...Sable Hide was not far in at all but one has to drive so slowly in the Park that it took a little while to get there...many elephant sightings later...that's when I remembered my Sedatif PC tablets still lying on the coffee table waiting for me to pick them up and lovingly put them in my purse....! As we arrived at the Hide we liked it very much except for the flimsy little poles around the hide and the toilets were a bit to far away from the Hide for my liking,although they were situated inside the "stockade" We went inside the Hide,made the beds up first before it got dark,settled in and whipped out the cocktails and food.Night started closing in very quickly and Cules built us a nice cosy fire...we sat there waiting to hear lion,hiena,elephant and the like...instead it was eerily quiet..I was quite confident that there wasn't any lion near us as there was a whole herd of impala settling in for the night right by the entrance to the Hide. I wondered if my Dad also sat on that particular spot watching the impala all those years ago when they built this dam. We turned in quite early and slept very well except for once when I heard a loud "thump" like something jumping onto the deck of the Hide.... Cules heard lion very far away at around 1 am and woke me up...we sat staring at the water trying to see any nightlife but didn't see or hear anything nearby. Next morning we were up super early and away on the great adventure at 4:30! We stopped by Letaba,Olifants and Satara rest camps as we made our way to Lower Sabie. It was a most awesome day as we saw all of the Big 5 except for leopard. We were also blessed with lovely cool weather but no rain so the animals were really out and about.

Young Kudu bull.

Our cheese platter lunch.

This horn bill shared our lunch with us...he was so tame he took food from our hands..

The famous bridge at Skukuza...

Lovely statue at Skukuza.

White rhino

Bush buck ewe and lamb

Baboon youngsters grooming each other on the verge of the road..

Giant Kingfisher near Lower Sabie.

Seen any lion or leopard perhaps dude??

Damage done by elephants...

This old elephant bull had a special air about him..I could sit and watch him for hours just sleeping there under the trees with two askaris watching over him...

Maybe this hippo scratched his bum and fell asleep while doing so...

On this stretch of road near the river we saw many,many elephant, a lot of little groups huddled under the shade of huge Jackalberry trees.

Game ranger vehicle coming past us quite fast..maybe on a call out for poachers???

Luvely mud bath...

Hippo having a leisurely day....

A bit sad to see this huge elephant skull right next to the road.

We also saw a rhino skull..it looked like a dinosaur skull...

Lone lioness and her cub.

I could sit for hours watching these baboons feeding on sugar bush blossoms..must taste delicious as they were absolutely gorging themselves.

A refreshing drink.

Impala joining the feast.

Totally pre ocuppied by this delicacy...

This elephant just suddenly appeared out of now where but was apparently late for a pedicure appointment....

He said he would charge our car next time he sees us....

We were allowed to get out of our vehicles at this look out point in the middle of a bridge.

Egyptian geese.

My Africa....

Hello, Mr tortoise.

We saw loads of them on the Olifants/Satara road!

Deceptive, but this was still a rather fresh kill lying right under the bridge...a couple of days old maybe..

View at Olifants Camp .

Placid bull elephant behaving himself....

Placid bull elephant FARTING in Cules' face!

Look closely at the folds of skin by his hmmm,......it flabbers when he farts!!

My husband was dumbstruck...we got a fright when the bull let loose...we were already a little bit nervous of him being so near our car and then he went and did that...I am sure he snickered as he walked into the bush...

Beautiful fat zebra..I have yet to see a thin one..

Fish Eagle and Marabou stork eyeing each other just outside Letaba Restcamp.

Another placid bull elephant..

A herd of buffalo....

This little calf made a mock charge at the white car...then pretended to be frightened and squeeled and ran off....which caused his mother to mock charge the car as well.....I was glad not to be in the white car!!