SANParks.org Forums

THE PLANNING PHASE

Jazil says:
My SO, (who at the very last minute, due to work, was able to come too,) and I were traveling to the Kruger Park to meet up with Salva and his SO for a three day visit there. To put it mildly I was a little nervous. I had met Salva and his SO once, well twice actually, but both times in November 2005, once on the S100, where we SAW LIONS, (we had chatted there for about 20 minutes because Salva had a YR and I asked who he was,) and then again at Croc bridge two days later on their way out. That time we had chatted for no more than 5 mins, and I had seen wonderful cheetah pics they had. Besides that, we had PM’d each other, but nothing more, so were we going to get on together, all of us, for three days? Time would tell.

Salva says:
So this year Botswana was on our list! 3 weeks Botswana: WOEHOE! (Homer Simpson like) Than we got information about all sorts of rates for 3 weeks Botswana: DOH! (also Homer Simpson like)

Problem was: we had our minds hooked on Moremi and Chobe river! No way we were NOT going to go there this year. That’s where good old SA comes into the story. In order to make things affordable we decided to split things up: 10 days Bots and 10 days SA! Now where would we spend our 10 days in SA? First idea: Kwazulu-Natal! 10 days of mountains, beaches and wildlife….who would say no? Well, Jazil did once she found out about our plans! “Salva dear, only idiots visit the eastern part of SA to see wildlife without going to Kruger” was more or less what she said. Hell, she was right of course so we decided to slip in 3 nights in the south of Kruger on one condition: “Jazil you have to join us then!” And so the planning began.

Jazil says:
During our PM’s of planning our three days together, we had discussed amongst other things FOOD!!!! Salva said they had never braaied!!! Wow, I thought, how can you go to the Kruger Park and not braai? Strange, very strange….. So I said, WE WILL BRAAI!! I said I would supply all the food, and what do you eat or not eat I asked? “We eat everything,” Salva replied, “BUT NO SHEEP…… “ mmmmm I thought, NO SHEEP!!! “How about Lamb” I asked? (now to my mind lamb is just a young sheep, so whats the difference?) Thank goodness for various members of the forum from the EU who put me right……… lamb is lamb and SHEEP IS SHEEP!!! (Foncusing to say the least!) - Now I think we here, in Africa, eat Mutton……. Anyways to cut a long story short re Lamb, Sheep and Mutton, I planned to buy only few lamb loin chops, and lots of chicken breasts, and wors, and steak……… some green salad for the first night, and then tomatoes and onions and some rolls, (I like to keep it simple, just hoped these Belgian folk would not be too fussy!).

Breakfasts…….”What do you do about breakfast?” I asked. “We like to have a kinda big brunch cooked on a skottle” I said……… “Great” says Salva, “never had that before!” (Wow, what are these guys missing out on?) So I bought, LOTS OF ESCORT BACON, (in Malelane) - (we cant get Bacon in Swaziland due to some disease like pig fever, or is it swine fever(!) or something equally weird in SA) some Escort Pork Sausages, (the only kind to have), nice fresh eggs, (lets say four of us, three breakfasts, that’s 8 eggs per breakfast, that’s 2 doz eggs) a big packet of tomatoes and more potatoes…… and of course brought along all the extras, condiments etc.

Salva says:
Of course arranging a joint visit to Kruger (which camps, among other questions) when you are a few 1000 km away from each other is not all that evident.

Strangely where I was wondering about camps, itinary, avoiding elephants,…our Swazi friend had mainly one question for us! What do you want to EAT? So she found out that next to elephants, sheep was a second species to avoid on this KNP visit but just like Jazzie didn’t really mind bumping into baby elephants, we didn’t really mind finding baby sheep on our plate.

I must say it was a delight to find out Jazil was prepared to bring everything one needs for braais and skottle breakfasts as till than we never had these in KNP since, quite frankly we think it is too much of a hassle to stock up completely for these things as non SA residents and coming from Botswana made it even less evident.

So after about 87 PM’s back and forth (the last ones between Swaziland and St.Lucia) everything was settled: 2 nights in Skukuza, 1 night in Biyamiti, 2 braais, 1 Selati visit, 2 skottle breakfasts, one “bungalow breakfast”, kitties, no ellies, food from the swazi’s and drinks from the Belgians. The adventure was about to start! One question remained: would we be joined by 1 or by 2 Swazi’s?

This looks like a report not to be missed!

@Jazil, we had a similar problem with the “lamb and sheep” thing in Namibia (Spar in Mariental). We asked if they have lamb and the lady answered “Ons het net skaap en klein skaap, geen lam” {We only have sheep and small sheep, no lamb}

Unique way to start this thread
But then these two are unique

But was a bit horrified when i read that Salva never done a braai

Wonder how many kilos of meat he had to work his way through

in SA that is



you don't want to know, Bert, you don't want to know!

DAY 1 –

Jazil says

WE left home at about 11:00am in Willie (of no holes in rhino linings, spider bite on his bum fame,) double cab and traveled to Malelane where we stocked up on food and entered through Malelane gate.

What a pleasure, lovely staff there.

We traveled slowly up to Afsaal, not seeing a whole lot on the way, although we did deviate from the main road and went in at Renostepan. Thought I saw a hippo there, through the reeds, but it turned out to be a rhino, half submerged in the water. Got a very blurred pic of the rhino, did not know they stood, stock still in water!!! (It was not that hot!)
We carried on and just before Afsaal, and I mean just before, gate in site, in the bush/donga to the left was this large rhino grazing,



We carried on, saw a wonderful “flock” (is that what it is?) of Ground Horn bills. They were just wandering about on the main road.



The creepers I saw on this road in April were dead and brown, but they still worry me greatly.


Saw a couple of ellies in the distance and jerry’s, a few impala, but not much else. Arrived at Skukuza with 5 mins to spare, and stopped at reception. (I must admit I was just a little bit "butterflies in the tummy" as not having seen Salva and SO for nearly a year, was wondering how we would get on again.)


Salva says:

Finally the first Kruger day had arrived! The thing is: Ithala landscapes are so beautiful that we decided to do a morning drive before heading for KNP. As always the drive took longer than we had foreseen and that was also the case for breakfast. We said bye to lovely Ithala way too late and wondered if we would make it to Phabeni (and eventually Skukza) in time. I was told all kind of horror stories about the roads from Ithala to Nelspruit on SA territory and was consulted not to go through Swaziland because of horrendous roadworks around Pongola! One: the roadworks around pongola on the N2 are just about finished and two: apart from the last 15 or so km before nelspruit, the SA roads from Ithala (via Vryheid – Piet retief – Badplaas – nelspruit) were in very good condition and the scenery made for a relaxed drive.



One problem: we were so desperate to finally arrive at KNP again that the drive from Nelspruit to Phabeni seemed to take for AGES! But finally we arrived around 4 PM. Checking in proved to be easy going, Windhoek in the cupholders, windows open, 300mm on the camera, sun on the firmament…..short, everything ready to conclude this Africa trip in style!

We chose to take the S1 to get to Skukuza. It proved to be a good choice: elephant, white rhino, impala, kudu, zebra, wildebeest along the road and hippo and fish eagle at Nyamundwa Dam. The highlight however were a group of hyaena slam bang next to the road, a few km’s before the S65! We stopped for a dozen or so impala about 50 metres ahead of us when SO saw 1 hyaena on our left, about 3 metres away. Soon it became clear we found a den with two “dark” puppies, the mother and four still young ones. It was lovely to see the interaction between all of them. The mother was licking the dark ones and let them drink, 2 of the elder ones were also trying to drink but were “denied access” by the mother. The most striking maybe was the friendly licking between the youngest ones and the elder ones while the mother was looking. Unfortunately, they were often closer to us than the minimal focusing distance (1.5m) and even than there was always some bush between us and the object which made it difficult to take good pics.





After that we did a (very) short stretch of the S65 which delivered a Wahlberg’s eagle and a squirrel




Jazil says

Once we got to Skukuza, we parked at Reception, got out of the car, went inside and who were the first people we saw? Yes Salva and SO, they were one ahead of us in the queue at reception. It was great to see them again, and once we had both been allocated our bungalows….. (Opposite sides of the camp of course….. number 3 for them and 134 for us) we arranged that they should come over to our bungalow for the FIRST BRAAI of the holiday…..


Salva says:

Then on to Skukuza reception. Tension was building up a little bit because after months of planning and PM’ing we were finally going to meet Jazil again. We were only a few moments waiting for our turn at reception and who walked in? JAZZIE! Speak of good timing. Time to say a warm hello again and yes she brought her SO (when saying to him we were happy he made it he pointed at Jazzie and said:

“she wanted me to come AND SHE IS BIGGER THAN ME”!
Jazil

Salva says:
After receiving the key we drove in opposite direction to our bungalow. Unpacking, freshing up a bit after a long day in the car and than off to OUR FIRST KRUGER BRAAI. Jazil and her SO had immediately invited us to that.

Jazil says

(Well obviously we had invited them to a Braai, hadn’t we sent 87 PM’s back and forth confirming FOOD!)

Unpacked, and got ready, made salad, marinated the chicken breasts, 8 of them, got out the wors, about 2 meters, boiled some tatties (8 - for breakfast the next day,) and then waited! And waited, and waited……. Eventually they arrived, and what a wonderful evening we had. Borrowed the chairs from the bungalow next door and chatted late into the evening, quite a few whipskey’s drunk by us, and a bottle or so of wine by the wonderful Belgian pair…. We arranged to meet at Tshokwane the next day at 10:00 ISH for brunch, before heading up to Satara to meet with Glenda and her SO at 12:30ISH. Fell into bed about midnight, it was great to be in the Park again, and really wonderful to meet up with Salva again. (Please note the timeISH!!!)

Salva says:

Of course we arrived too late (since nobody knows my SO nobody will understand “of course” but if you would know her you would understand) and found two STARVING SWAZIS. The moment we arrived chicken and wors were thrown on the braai (enough meat to feed all kruger lions during a week in dry season), bowls with “jazil’s special kruger salad” were put on the table, bottles of wine and whipskey were opened! After the “Matsontsja’s” of the wors, we threw ourselves onto the chicken and the salads. It turned out to be a LOVELY evening which was supposed to end around ten-ish but eventually went on till around 23.30-ish. We could have easily sat, chatted and drank a “few” more glasses there till sunrise but we had kitties and Glenda waiting for us the following day! Agreed to meet for brekkies at Tshokwane the day after at 9.30ish – 10 ish (mark the ish: precise times would be out of the question for the next couple of days, one of the reasons krugering with jazzie and SO is wonderfully relaxed)! Than said goodnight, lost our way, drove past basically all Skukuza bungalows and finally found ours!

DAY 2: PART 1

Jazil says:

After the wonderful first evening with Salva and SO, which ended rather late, it was not that easy to get out of bed. The Belgium couple assured us they would be out of the gates just after they opened…… well we only woke up about 7:00, after a quick cup of coffee, we packed the breakfast things into the double cab, remembering the tatties cooked the night before, the bacon, (2 packets, about 5 pieces each,) eggs, (12) tomatoes, (6) milk, sausages, ONLY ESCORT OF COURSE, (2 packets = 16 sausages) coffee, sugar, orange juice, bread, butter…….. . We turned our fridge around on the stoep so that the monkeys could not get in and left about 7:30. (I was still half asleep!) Wow, quite a rush, but we could not be late for Salva and SO, after all, coming from Belgium, they certainly did not know anything about African time(!) (or so we thought) and we hoped to still have time to stop for any sightings.

Drove out of Skukuza, turned left on the H4-1 crossed the Sabie River and headed for Tshokwane. No more than about 3 kms after crossing the river we came round a bend, and my SO Said “Look, A Serval!” There in the middle of the road stood this magnificent animal. I hurridly wiped the sleep from the eyes, grouped for my camera, removed the lense cap, turned it on, pointed, tried to focus, and then snapped! It turned out to be a truly wonderful picture ………….!!!!!

Oh well I tried, and it was there for a few seconds.

No more than a few kms further on we came across a lonely car stopped. They told us that there was a big male lion just off the road on the river side. We peered longingly (well I was anyways) into the bushes and grass and sure enough there he was, wandering along. Suddenly he headed up towards the road and on to it….. How exciting… I never see kitties, and now, here was one big male lion, on the road, close to us, (eat your heart out Bertie) and not hundreds of cars to block our view…….. !! He wondered along the road, peered at the other car, crossed over, sniffed the bushes, marked his territory, sniffed around, marked some more, then purposefully strode up the road a while and then disappeared into the bush back down to the river…. Exciting to say the least. It was only after I had looked at the pics did I notice that the fluff on the end of his tail was missing!!! A fight? He looks rather an old male too…. I think.







About 2 kms further on, a few cars were stopped peering down into the river, apparently there were some lioness there, but we never saw them, maybe our lion was out looking for them???

We headed up to Tshokwane seeing some general game, but nothing could come close, to my mind, to that lion.

Arrived Tshokwane at 9:55 – so we were “ish” alright with the time. No Salva and SO, so hopefully they had seen something wonderful, as they were leaving as the gates opened!!!

Salva says:

So the slightly older Swazi people told us at dinner the first evening that they were not planning on leaving very early the next morning! Of course me and my SO did want to leave camp from the moment the gates were opening because we were 100% determined not to spill 1 minute in camp when we didn’t have to. Hence we agreed to do separate morning drives and meet at Tshokwane at… I don’t remember when but it ended on ISH!

So the next morning us belgian heroes leave camp at…7.30h! “Pffff why leave at rush hour?” became the suitable excuse and newborn theory. 7.30h is the perfect hour to see all the animals that were chased away from the tar by the “6.00 o’clock Skukuza moving traffic jam” and decided to come back to the tar at around 7.00h, isn’t that right folks? NOT! We don’t see one single mammal, not even an impala until we hit the Marula Loop. On that loop we do see impala along with one elephant crossing 100 metres ahead and a common duiker. Now the name of that species sort of reveals it is not really rare BUT we have never seen many of them, so we cherish the sighting.



Back on the H1 things remain calm. We see the usual however (zebra, impies, giraffe and kudu) so no time to get bored. At Leeupan we enjoy fish eagle and a pair of Steenbokkies.



On to Silolweni Dam where we see fish eagle and an elephant mother and calf coming to drink: lovely!

Jazil says:

Tshokwane was fairly full, but we found a nice table under the trees, unloaded the box and cool box with our stuff in it. SO was hanging around the table organizing a skottle so I went to the Toilet. I was no more than 10 meters away when I heard a commotion behind me, turned around and noticed everyone pointing up at the tree above our table…. A monkey! On my return to the table I walked under the monkey and was showered with what turned out to be brown sugar, its was all in my hair, over my clothes and everywhere…… silly monkey had stolen our sugar, but he enjoyed it anyways.




All the people around now went off and got sticks…… SO went to get one too, and I sat at our table with our box of food touching my leg on the chair next to me. No monkey was going to come and steal anything more from us, that was for sure. (Well so I thought!)

Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw and also felt a movement!

I reacted instinctively, with speed that was frightening! I just let fly, a real backhand, and hit the monkey square and hard on his head! “Oh dear” I thought, “I hope no one has seen that as maybe I will be held up for animal abuse!”

Salva Says:

According to witnesses Jazzie slapped the monkey at around 200 miles/hour: can you do better? Try here: http://www.suvi.org/funstuff/slapit.html (sound on)

Jazil says:

The silly darn thing now had our big packet of chips, he was gone and up the tree like a flash…….. he opened the packet, and then of course we had “chip rain” as all the chips came floating down.

The Starlings had a wonderful time.

SO started the skottle going and put the bacon on to cook….. 2 packets, 20 pieces…….. No Salva and SO yet.

We cut the tatties (8) into little squares (lots) and he browned them in the fat from the bacon…. No Salva and SO yet.

Opened the packet of sausages, all two of them, 16 sausages, Escort Pork, and cooked them.. ……. Still No Salva and SO.

The Food Channel continued………..

Cut the tomatoes (6) in halves, and put them around the skottle to start cooking……. (At this stage not sure whether SO added the sugar to sweeten them, or it had come “raining” down from above!)

Looked up, and who did we see, yipppeeeeeeeeee, Salva and SO, it was great to welcome them to Tshokwane and the Swazi Brekkie……… offered them a cup of coffee, which they accepted, and then before continuing with the brekkie, asked them what they had seen….

Salva says:

Time for breakfast so Tshokwane: here we come! Just before we turn onto the Tshokwane parking lot we see a vervet crossing the road like he is being chased by Satan himself, while rubbing his cheek heavily: what happened here? It seems that we interpreted the ISH rather broadly (we’re LATE) so by the time we arrive at our nicely prepared breakfast table Jazil is pooring us a cup of coffee and explains all about the vervet we just saw and about the kitties they did manage to see while her SO is preparing our very first hot skottle breakfast!

Jazil says:

I am very glad that Salva and SO had arrived at this stage of the “brekkie cooking” (especially as they had never had a skottle cooked brekkie before), as the bacon (20 pieces), sausages (16), tatties, (lots), tomatoes (12 pieces) looked really scrumptious, food fit for a King or Queen! Ok, now how to do the eggs………. My SO decided to put all the tatties, tomatoes and bacon (thank goodness he left the sausages out) into the middle of the skottle and proceeded to break 12 eggs onto them. Then with egg lifter in hand he niftily mixed it all up into a kinda Spanish Omlette affair…… only thing is that with the sugar on the tomatoes, (whether from SO or the monkey above), everything was full of little bits of burnt stuff…… after much mixing, it looked like a really horrendous “dogs breakfast” …… …. Oh dear…….. what are these lovely Belgians going to think!!! Luckily they are not fussy, and at least they had seen it looked alright to start with!!!

Salva says:

The food in the skottle looks delicious: yummie!!! What have we missed all these previous visits? And than it happens: the dream seems to become a nightmare! Jazil’s SO decides to add a little “Swazi Chef’s” twist to our food and majestically turns it in what looks like euh…..no not really dogfood but the stuff dogs produce a few hours AFTER they had their dogfood! Let me tell you folks: this seemed to be the most CRAPPY breakfast ever! But we have been taught manners by our parents and out of politeness we ate that what was offered to us! Surprise surprise: it tasted good what do I say fantastic! The four of us finished just about everything in that skottle! And after that we chat and chat and chat…..my god these people are superb company! A quick look at our watches tells us we have spent way too much time already and if we want to make it to Satara to meet Glenda at a decent hour without speeding it is really time to leave! And so ends our first and utterly memorable skottle breakfast.

This is a great & entertaining report. Slapping monkeys and the best photo of a serval ever!
Not quite sure but it does look like the "lesser southern roadside grasspoll serval". Very rare find indeed

Ravvie, thank you so much for identifying my seval, I knew it was a rare one too

Yip Jazzie, sevals are indeed VERY rare

DAY 2, Part 2

Jazil says:

Left about 11:30ish, it was so relaxing sitting there chatting to Salva and SO, but we had an importing meeting and not much time for it, so on up to Satara we went – no ways were we going to get there by 12:30ish, the time arranged to meet Glenda and SO, but never mind, hopefully they would wait for us. I was very much looking forward to meeting up with Glenda, and did not want to be too late, and luckily we did not see too much on the way there, the odd bits of general game, some “obscure” lionesses, (only know they were there because of traffic jam) – ellies in the distance, a couple of zebra, giraffe and quite a big herd of wildebeest just before Satara, where we arrived about 1:30ish. Salva and SO were ahead of us, but could not find their car, went onto the verandah, because at this stage I had received an sms from Glenda telling me that’s where they were waiting for us.

Salva says:

Driving north from Tshokwane, we decided to stay behind Jazil and her SO’s bakkie! Why not put the pressure of spotting leopards and servals on their shoulders: after all they are sooo much more experienced! It was a good decision: several times Jazil would put her arm out of the window to point out rare sightings such as zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, elephants 300 metres away...we are still thankful for that .

After a while however we see a traffic jam and yip…3 lionesses, VERY VISIBLE (me thinks Jazzie tried to imitate “lion ignoring Bertie” here) but a bit far for nice pics. At the most southern Baobab we loose track of the Swazi bakkie! Oh well, we’ll see them in Satara.

It remains calm between the lions and Satara, although we do see a couple of Saddle Billed storks at Nkaya Pan and some lovely waterbuck up close at the Sweni turn off!



Not too much time for pics now because Glenda is waiting…

Glenda says:

What a day in turned out to be!!!

LIT……CHEETAH…….LION…………could it get any better you ask?

Come closer and I will tell you……………

All this happened on our way to Satara for a special sighting!

We arrived in good time considering the distractions along the way BUT no sightings ….by this time we were hungry & thirsty so decided to grab a bite to eat hoping in our hearts we would get a glimpse and maybe a ‘close encounter’ of the promises made so long ago.
Then it happened…………
Whilst lunching the lesser spotted forum member (LSFM) common name: Jazil/Jazzie perched at our table causing excited chattering. The even rarer & quieter LSFM’s SO was also glimpsed.
When the LSFM common name: Salva arrived the chattering reached crescendo and it felt as if we were being mobbed by arrow marked babblers!

The close encounter was a lively affair with swopping of sightings and near sightings (in the case of Jazzie). I’m afraid moving grass does not constitute a sighting of a cerval ….sorry only a pic will do Jazzie.

It was wonderful meeting up with Bart & Karine, Liz & Derek.
What struck me most was the feeling of meeting up with ‘old friends’. It felt as if we’d known each other for years…..I guess that is what this forum of ours is all about.

We only wish the time had been longer.

Salva says:

Arriving at Satara, we saw the Swazi bakkie parked already so we knew we were going to be the last ones to arrive at our mini meet. Even knowing that my SO first wants to go in the restcamp’s shop .

It was great to meet Glenda and her SO (what lovely people they are) and the hour or so we spent together felt like being only 5 minutes! Way too short!!! Me and SO had a feeling however we were going to meet the both of them again somewhere, sometime…

Jazil says:

The meet with Glenda and SO was magic, just far too short and all to soon we had to part to be on our various ways back to our respective camps.

We slowly made our way back to Skukuza, seeing a herd of ellies in the distance with a couple of really baby ellies. Some lovely kudu’s



Some various birds of prey and red billed horn bills,



and as we crossed the Sand river a lonely ellie munching in the reeds………



a wonderful site for the end of a truly wonderful day. (despite the monkey at Tshokwane and the “dogs breakfast” we served up!!!) Meeting up with Glenda and SO and having Salva and SO for company just made it such a special day.

My SO and I decided to have an early night and left Salva and his SO to sample the delights of the Selati by themselves…….

We organized to meet at 10:30ish the next morning, (for hopefully a better looking skottle brekkie) at the picnic spot overlooking the Mlondozi Dam.

Salva says:

Driving south again we were enjoying some lovely kudu and elephant (big herd with tiny babies) sightings together with Jazil and we also spotted a slender mongoose.

Than suddenly through thick bush I spotted a giant eagle owl! Jazil and SO were too far ahead and drove on although I flashed my lamps. We immediately caused a mini traffic jam soon vanishing again however when people found out their imaginary LIT turned out to be a stupid bird! To us however, this was the sighting of the day especially since spotting this majestic raptor was not evident.

At Silolweni we see a large elephant bull disappearing in the bush heading for the main road. So I decide to get back to the road hoping to see him up close. We succeed: only a few metres ahead of us the grey giant appears like out of nowhere and crosses the road.



Once he has crossed we slowly move forward but our ellie friend doesn’t like that. Allthough I give him enough space he suddenly turns around, shakes his massive head heavily and makes a few quick steps towards us, causing me to hit the gas and nearly to give my SO a heart massage a few 100 metres further. If only Jazzie would have been here to join this moment.

Some more nice sightings, closer to Skukuza are dwarf mongoose, klipspringer…



…and a troop of baboons, among them this adorable young chap, sucking one of his four thumbs.



Arriving at Skukuza we drive immediately to Jazil’s bungalow to find out the plan for tonight. It seems the Swazi folks are a bit tired but since we want to check out Selati once more we decide to go there alone and to meet at Mlondozi picnic spot the next morning at an ish hour to enjoy another doggie breakfast together.

Selati: GREAT! The food was very good but it was the service that excelled. The place was full when we arrived and since we had to wait for our turn the duty manager offered us a glass of port although we never made a reservation . You can believe me if I say we VERY often go to restaurants (foodies as we are) but this has never happened to us before. During the course of the meal the level of service did not come down! If I was to open a restaurant I would immediately hire the duty manager that was working there that evening. Great job and a great way to finish a great day. OK: 3 times great in 1 sentence seems a lot but it’s really how we felt at that moment!

To all of you who have read our report and made such nice comments, thank you. I can assure you that Day 3 (is it???) will be following at some time soon ISH!!! (Christmas has just got in the way thats all!)

Well now that New Year and Christmas are over, and my dearest friend Salva has recovered from the festivities, the saga continues!!!

DAY 3, Part 1

Jazil Says:

Having had an earlier night the night before, we were up and packed and ready to go reasonably early for us. However we were sure the Belgian pair would have left earlier than us again!!!

Anyways, we only had to be at the picnic spot overlooking the Mlondozi Dam at 10:30ish so we had plenty of time. Left Skukuza and headed back on the same road as yesterday, after all that bit of road, the H1-2 had yielded a wonderful sighting of a Serval and that magnificent lion. We were going to be equally as lucky today, I could just feel it. After all, Salva had promised me that when his SO was around, there were always lions around, (even though it was us who saw the lion yesterday and not them!)

Had my camera at the ready this morning, I was not going to miss another picture of a Serval, that was for sure.

As we turned right to cross the Sabie, there was this great warthog, who obviously had an itch…. Gosh he scratched and scratched and scratched….. (I do hope it made him, {or is it a her?} feel better!)



We hunted and hunted for “our” serval, and “our” lion on the same bit of road, but to no avail………. Nothing, well no kitties anyways. Saw a big ellie eating sticks and twigs!!!! Not very exciting food I don’t think.



A few kudu, a big giraffe, some impies, but still no more kitties! Where on earth were Salva and SO? (“SO finds kitties anywhere”, according to Salva!)

Turned onto the Salitje Road, my most favourite road in the Park, just love the scenery there, and the big trees. Did not see really anything at all, most disappointing, but as we approached the old Tshokwane road, there was this enormous, really enormous herd of Buffs…….. I took a couple of pics, but Salva has some really wonderful pics of this herd, which I am sure is the same herd, so (whisper to Salva) please post your pics of the buffs.

Salva says:

This day we managed to leave the camp at gate opening time! From more northern camps this usually is a lovely experience since, even if you leave together with other cars most of the time after a few km’s most cars choose different directions and you have the veld to yourself. If however you leave Skukuza at opening times and your direction is east, hell breakes loose…dozens of cars head for the road along the southern bank of the Sabie river!!!

Doing 50/hr means being overtaken by EVERY car that leaves camp after you. Trying to escape this frenzy by doing some little loops overlooking the river did not help either: more cars kept on coming. Not an animal to be seen of course, they all flee from this circus.

But than the herds received what they were after: a male lion across the river walking towards Skukuza (opposite direction of the herds).

What happened than should have been witnessed with your own eyes in order to be believed.

Since we were going pretty slowly we were already quite a bit behind the herds, ourselves being pursued once again by 5 or so cars wanting to overtake us.

Suddenly we see all the cars that were in front of us (and they were MANY) not standing still BUT DRIVING BACKWARDS in our direction. They were following that lion of course but since there were so many cars there was no room to turn around hence all that driving in reverse. We now also saw the lion and pulled over to have a better look at it. A magnificent animal by the way though a bit far away.

There was however no time to enjoy him since let’s say 10 seconds after I pulled over the last car (or first as you wish) reached the place where we were parked and the driver gesticulated heavily to us that we had to reverse as well in order to follow the lion.

I think of myself as a polite human being so I obeyed and reversed a bit, not enough according to someone because ONE IDIOT STARTED BLOWING HIS HORN!!! Can you imagine?

“Screw this” we said and decided to quickly get out of that line of frenzy to drive ahead and leave the lion and the fools behind us (though male lions are my absolute faves ). Only the thing was: I was not allowed to do so because by now, cars were passing me while still all in reverse at my right hand side….So we were stuck and had to drive backwards as well in order not to be lynched.

Really you people should have seen this to believe it. It was even worse than the way I describe this...

Finally I was saved by the lion who decided to walk into the bush. About 2 seconds and 13 hundreds of a second after he disappeared so did the herds and we were alone again. We stood still on that place for quite some time now first of all to get rid of the herds and second hoping that the lion would show up again.

That didn’t happen BUT we didn’t see the herds again that morning: what a relief.

Just before the bridge over the river we encountered a large troop of baboons! Funny thing was that one of the younger monkeys seemed to be attracted by our yellow ribbon. The little chap stopped next to it, looked at it for a few seconds (you know with those big curious eyes) and STARTED PULLING IT: we didn’t stop laughing for quite a while but a good thing that our YR was made of sturdy fabrics.

The bridge itself was a delight. First of all it was calm and second, we saw 5 hyaena walking under the bridge (a bit strange when you think of it, you expect men or cars or buses to pass under a bridge but hyaena?)
Jazil Says:
(I think my dearest friend Salva means "over" or "across" not "under"!)

Salva says:

and a pied kingfisher kept us company while we were having our coffee.

Onto Salitjie Pad: a bit of a disappointment in terms of game viewing: impala, 1 waterbuck, some baboons and the grey back in long grass of what must have been a rhino on a considerable distance,…that was it! Oh I almost forgot: there was also an enormous buffalo herd that according to some we did see but according to ourselves we didn’t.

Jazil Says:
I wonder what Salva and SO were doing to miss out on that large large enormously large herd?

Salva says:

Arriving at the H10 we turned north and drove up till the start of Muntshe loop. Saw nothing special except a 12 strong giraffe herd. Large groups of these giants never fail to impress me.

The Muntshe loop was great. The landscape was completely burnt almost all the way but recent rains made fresh green grasses arise about anywhere we looked, though still very short and in “small portions”. The animals loved it: on a stretch of a few km’s we saw more game than we had seen all morning: warthog, wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, impala, waterbuck, baboon and…reedbuck.



Just before we arrived at Mlondozi dam to join the SCC (Swazi Catering Crew) we also spotted a majestic martial eagle up in a tree but quite far away.

Jazil says:

Went slowly on to picnic spot, seeing a few different birds, a lone rhino in the distance and a herd of zebras far away heading towards the dam. But nothing of any real consequence. Arrived at about 10:15ish……… in plenty of time to set up breakfast before the arrival of the Belgian pair!!!!!!!

Found a good table, and took out only
One packet of sausages this time, (6 Escort porkers).
Three tomatoes, which I cut in half.
Two packets, again, of ESCORT ONLY, sliced streaky bacon,
The potatoes I had cooked last night, about 6 of them, (cut them into thickish slices this time)
And the loaf of bread, which was on its last legs, (but don’t tell Salva and SO that!).
Got out the orange juice, or was it Mango and Litchi?, the coffee, sugar and milk, and then waited!
Meanwhile SO had again organized a skottle for us.

We waited for Salva and SO some more, but it was so great sitting there taking in the surroundings that it did not matter……. However Salva and SO arrived very promptly this time, like about 10:45ish, but who cares……

Then SO started cooking,
First the bacon, nice and crispy for some,
Then the potatoes in the bacon fat, add a bit of pepper, black only, and a smidgen of salt,
Then the tomatoes, add a little salt and black pepper and a sprinkling of sugar…….
And then four slices of bread were fried in the scrummy fat from the bacon, sausage, tomatoe, and put on one side…… Ahh, this is better today……..



Still not as good looking as Freda’s SO does, but pretty darn good for my SO. Thank goodness today he decided not to make a big mix, and just did scrambled eggs in the middle,…….. oh delight, I am sure Salva and SO were thrilled to at last eat at least a decent, well fairly decent looking breakfast off a skottle.!!!!

We had a wonderful relaxing time over looking the dam, saw the herd of zebras coming to drink, the hippos wandering in and out of the water, lots of various different birds, my most favourite of all the crested barbet was hopping around close by, and we chatted and chatted, what a wonderful pair they are, (Salva and SO I mean).

I also had a bit of fun with these two



who were helpful and jolly and full of fun.

Salva says:

Arriving at the picnic spot it seemed we were – again – a bit late-ish since the SCC was already very busy preparing everything for what was going to be a very memorable breakfast.

This time the looks did match the tastes.

The views were (as always at this place) wonderful and there was a lot of action in and around the dam. We were treated by a majestical though short sighting: 6 ground hornbills flying over the dam. Something you don’t see very often. There were warthog, a few wildebeest, waterbuck crocs, hippo’s of course, a lot of birds (jacana, geese, heron, barbet,…)



…and this unidentified reptile: some help maybe?



We sat there and ate and chatted and had coffee and chatted some more and…ach it was wonderful:

Mlondozi seemed to hide enormous magnets somewhere under the ground because we simply couldn’t pull ourselves away from this magical place and moments (not in the least because of the company).

And while sitting there a big herd of zebra decided to come for a drink after long hesitating. Something in or around the water scared them however and they started running like hell. We still don’t know what it was that scared them, probably a croc…



(When my dearest friend Salva is finished with Part 2 of Day 3, we will post!)

I love the way this trip report is done!

Bad idea about "slap the monkey"- i've been doing nothing else. I'm not sure who is was who slapped him at over 300, but I'm getting there!

Bouffie rules: over 500/h Angel power!!!

Thanks for all the nice comments, all of you. Most of you seem to like the way this trip report is done. Me and Jazzie liked the way the trip itself was done! Kruger without her and her SO would not feel right any more.

Will post Part 2 of Day 3 tomorrow, have lent my beer cans to bouffie for the night I do hope they work for her better than they are working for me at the moment