Day 87 (Jan 26th)Saturdays are always busy in the park, as it is full of day visitors, so we spent the day at home.
Day 88 (Jan 27th)
Another busy day in the park, so another day at home and a lekker lunch at the pub. We both had fillet steaks which were juicy and tender. I had intended to do some laundry, but it was looking a bit like rain, so we left it.
Day 89 (Jan 28th)After two days off, we were eager to get back into the park, so after doing the load of laundry that I had intended to do yesterday, and having a quick breakfast and shower, we were ready to see what today would bring.
We wanted to try one of the dirt roads, as they had been closed for a while, and apart from the S131, the S69 and some of the low maintenance roads, all the others are now open in the Phala/Letaba/Mopani area.
We didn't want to risk getting stuck, in case some of the roads hadn't dried out properly, so we chose the Shilawuri loop, and headed down the H9. The sign at the H9/H14 junction warning of the Causeway closure was gone, so presumably that is now open.
We saw absolutley nothing until we arrived at Erfplaas, but oh what a sweet sighting that was................Desi was back, sitting in his crevice and surveying the scene below him!!
He cannot possibly know how worried we've been, and how glad we were to see him, but there he was, after weeks of being AWOL!!! There was no sign today of the Klippies, but we have seen them a few times recently, so no worries there, and an added bonus was that we saw the resident Klippies near the bridge on the H9, about 5kms from Letaba on our way home later on!!
Again we saw very little all the way to the Shilawuri turning, just one Ellie, munching happily on a tree, and two Zebra.
We turned onto the loop, and after about 300 metres, we saw a little Buff calf, who appeared to be on his own!! Poor little chap was mooing, and looked pleadingly at us, as much as to say "Can you find my Mom please?"
We looked around to see if we could see her, but he really did seem to be on his own. We stayed with him for quite a while, and he came right up to the car. I'm sure if we'd opened the back door, he would have hopped it!!
Eventually we had to leave him, with heavy hearts, and wondered how long he would survive on his own. Maybe Mom was not far way, as there are a lot of rocks nearby, but she didn't appear while we were there.
Also about 3 kms on we found a lone female, wo had an udder full of milk, so wondered if it was our little chap's missing parent. She did not seem too concerned, and was busily munching on the green grass that has sprung up since the rains!!
Then we saw very little on the way to Letaba, just a few Impala, and a nice Tawny.
We arrived at Letaba, and made straight for the restaurant, firstly to check the river level, and then to feed Dungy his breakfast!!
The water has gone down again from our last visit on Thursday, and soon there will be no reminder of the raging torrent that was flowing through there just a week ago!!
After a lekker hot chicken mayo toastie for his Lordship, we slowly made our way back to Phala, only seeing the Klippies I mentioned earlier, a colourful European Roller at Nhlanganini, and a cute little Steenbok, who was hiding in the bushes, but popped his head up for me to take a quick photo.
We arrived home just in time to get the dry washing in, before the heavens opened!!
That night we had roast chicken with all the trimmings, followed of course by a large Amarula each!!
To be continued................
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) and I was beginning to wonder if the Cheetah population is on the increase in KNP. That would be wonderful. In any event, they are sure to make an appearance here 
