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This is my first trip report so I am hoping it goes well. I guess this must seem like a strange title for a trip report so let me explain…The only time I drink beer is when I am in the bush and then they are Shandies. Christie’s shandies to be precise. Meatballs is the English translation for Afrikaans “Frikkadels”….This is a staple for “padkos” (Food for the road) on our trips…..more on this later on.

Only 4 more sleeps and Lynnb and I will be heading off to Kruger for a blissful 5 nights. For the last decade once a year my mom and I go to Kruger together on our own. It is a special Mom and daughter bonding time and some of the best times that I have ever had. We have laughed and cried together…mostly though we have laughed until we cried. Often this involves grasshoppers, but that’s another story….

This year we are leaving JHB sometime on Thursday depending on how soon we can get work wrapped up. We will be hitting the highway and heading to my farm. Our first night will be in Crocodile Bridge and we are both looking forward to it as we have never stayed in the camp before. From there we will make our way to Orpen for 3 nights and our last night will be spent at the famous Tambotie, another first for us.

So this will be a trip of many firsts and I am hoping the start of some new Kruger favourites for us….but in the meantime there is still work to be done, shopping to get finished and packing to endure and let’s not forget the LONG wish list or good heavens the Christies and maybe some Frikkadels….

The Blue Bulls

So the “chance” of meatballs is now a definite. After much cajoling, bullying and flat out bribery Lynnb has consented to make them Thanks Mom! Now if we can just sort out the “blue bulls”. Because nothing goes along with “frikkadels” as well as plain sandwiches, Christie’s and….hard boiled eggs which somehow always ends up blue. So much so that I do not consider them “padkos” until they are

I have made almost no progress with my to do list, but the Christie’s are safely ensconced in the Landie and ready for transportation into cooler box.

I have a methodology when I pack…which is to say…I faff. I am the world’s worst faffer when it comes to packing. This generally ends with no sleep for Shi (in the last 5 yrs) the night before we leave. This sadly results in more blue…the circles under my eyes…the colour of the Red Bull cans. This is why the only time I support the Blue bulls is on the drive down to my farm
Two more sleeps….and Blue bulls here we come!!!

The Last minutes

Almost, almost time to leave.

Typically though with a faffer there are a dozen or so little things still to be sorted out… But I am confident that we will leave on time (ish)

I am so excited I can’t wait. Already had three cups of coffee this morning and most of my work is done barring two mails which I’ll sort out shortly.

I have already called Jacob, my chief farm manager, to check that he has pruned so that we can see properly and made sure that he has herded the animals into the right paddocks for us. Jacob tells me it is all good to go and that I should not worry…he has never disappointed me before! If he delivers again he definitely gets a raise!

So all that’s left to do after that is stop faffing and get going!


Kruger are you ready???................Here we come!!!

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to say that we are back safely thank you! Lynnb and I had a wonderful trip.
We met up with a mite or two, did some inadvertent flashing, potentially some accidental voyeurism and a grasshopper or two

TR to continue soon

On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese.
I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table, it rolled on the floor,
And then my poor meatball rolled out of the door.

It rolled down the steps and under a bush,
And then my poor meatball was nothing but mush.

The mush was as tasty as tasty could be,
And early next summer in the Park it grew to a tree.

The tree was all covered with beautiful moss.
It grew great big meatballs and tomato sauce.

So if you eat spaghetti all covered with cheese,
Hold on to your meatball and don't ever sneeze.

The first evening

We left JHB much later than anticipated due to last minute work “things” that needed to be sorted out. After a mad rush I managed to get to my mom’s house to pic her up. Needless to say she was chomping at the bit and ready to go….almost managed to cruise to a standstill whilst she hopped aboard, meatballs and all.

On our way we hit some SERIAASS traffic near the airport. Turned on Queenie (our SAT NAV) Queenie is terribly British and very proper, for a detour…Pretoria according to Queenie was the best detour….Queenie’s sense of direction appears to be cooked.

We called ahead to say that we would need to check in late as we were not going to make it on time. Arrived at Crocodile Bridge at 6:30pm and the first thing we “saw” in the near dark was a nightjar.


This pic of a nightjar was taken on a sunset drive in Dec 07 when it accidentally flew into the Vehicle

As we were checking in there was a centipede in the reception…Another couple from Switzerland were also checking in and it took a while for the girl to realize that there was this “thing’ in the reception area…near her feet…too near apparently as she hopscotched into her SO’s arms with a muffled yelp.


Pic of similar size centipede taken on the S28 next day

We were booked into number 15 which was great and was on the perimeter. A quick dinner of meatballs and Christies outside and we were attempting to use our night vision monocular to “see” into the bush. I say attempting as typically one should RTM (read the manual). Oh no that would be too easy for us… much better to sukkel (battle) for an hour and figure it out our technically superior selves.

Needing another Christies after all the hard work of figuring out the new toy we peered eagerly into the bush…….

It takes a while to get used to the new toy but eventually Lynnb says “ Lovey I see eyes”…Me very excited “Where mom?”
Mom: “Follow my finger”…”In the direction that I am pointing”
Me: “But mom it’s dark”
Mom: “But I’m right next to you”
Me: “But the eyes aren’t”

We finally figure out the location and by now have seen the full outline of what we are seeing…staring back at us from the depths of a tree is

A Bushbaby

After peering into the bush for more “sightings” I tell my mom that I am feeling a bit dizzy from the new toy. Mom instantly replies: ”Are you sure it’s not the Christies babe?”
After having arranged to meet up with two mites at Nkhulu the next day for a buff pastie we took our selves off to bed for a great night’s sleep.

Friday Morning

A mom, a juvenile and a day at the Spa

After my mom kicked me out of bed with a cup of coffee and a hot cross bun

I was in a better state to greet the day! Making sure that we had easy access to the Christies and meatballs and taking a quick look around the camp we were ready to see what our farm had in store for us.

As we left the gate we saw our first

Warthog family

One of the guys was badly injured and we wondered if he would make it through the day, as he was limping too much to keep up with the family.

It was an overcast morning and many of the animals were sleeping in I think. Maybe their coffee hadn’t been served yet.

We turned right onto the S28 excited to see what this gorgeous road would reveal to us. Within 2km’s we had seen the following:

Vervet Monkey


Crested Barbet

Not too interested in having it’s picture taken

Blue Wildebeest


Wildebeest Crossing


We watched these guys for quite some time and had to have a good laugh at their “facial hair” and hair styles. The middle parting with the bad bleach job and the too long goatee…reminded us of fashion in the eighties. We were just missing the shoulder pads.

A little further on we saw a dedicated……

Hi Chich,

I just love the tree. Each time I read someone`s trip report I think that we have been there ,seen that, and yet everyone experiences it in a different manner. Its just lovely. I suppose it also depends on the quantity of Christies absorbed by all able bodied mites. I know it makes you see grasshoppers the size of pteradactyls. But thats another story.

Ramaruti I have never kicked Shi out of any bed. I beg, then I plead then I bribe her with coffee and hot x buns and then I offer to be her personal chauffeur so that she can take pics for all to enjoy.

To BM and Terryc I wish you a fantastic holiday and a safe trip.

…………………Mom taking care of her chicks. We could not see the “littlies” but mom was not thrilled by our presence

Mom on nest


Sussing me out none too happy


Food for the littlies



And down the road we saw the Kruger staples…some of them even had delusions of grandeur…

Ruler of the universe


While others were happy to be subservient…

The kingdom


And then in the distance we saw the strangest tree… we looked through all our books and couldn’t figure it out!!! We finally realized that we had to combine our fauna and flora knowledge…Instantly it became obvious that it was a

Giraffe tree


And just across from them was a family of warthogs with the leader having it’s monthly spa day

Warthog mud pack



(My first video...did not read the manual and a kind of shaky but hey....)


We had just said goodbye to the spa warthog when suddenly we heard a low menacing growling………………

Hi Shi,

Great episode. The White-crowned Shrike (Kremetartlarksman) is a stunner, great birds to watch. Did she steal the Ants' food?

Looking forward to see what was growling. Or was it your stomach asking for more Christies & meatball's?

Cheers,

Hiya Rums, I think the song is something to the effect of...


Rub a dub dub,
I'm having a mud bath in a tub,
And who do you think those two girls be?
The butcher, the baker,
The candlestick maker.
Turn them out, hogs are we...

……………………..Me: “ Mom did you hear that?”
Mom: “Yes”
Me: “What is it? A lion? Sounds like a cub…too soft to be a fully grown one”
And there it was again…this slightly higher pitched whining sound followed by a low rumble……
Me: “Where is that coming from”
Mom: “South”
Me: “How do you know?”
Mom: “ Cause that’s where your stomach is!”
And so as Barcud predicted my tummy was demanding some meatballs. We stopped and watched the Giraffe tree for a while and had some meatballs and coffee.
We were just finishing up when to our absolute delight we had a stunning visitor….
This Juvenile Martial Eagle spent a few minutes posing for us

A bit like a flight attendant…. Front

Sides…..

And back…..

And after gracing us with his presence off he flew…what a wonderful sighting that was for us!

A bit further on feeling very pleased with ourselves and our tummies full we saw a few

African Wattled Lapwings

They seemed to be ethereal earth angels as they glided in the grass and it is not a bird that we see often


We enjoyed watching them for a while and then we saw our first of the big 5…… Two square lipped Rhino’s that were not very interested in having their pic’s taken
Hide and seek


It always amazes us how quickly these beasts can just disappear into the bush within a matter of minutes as if they were never there.
Shortly after the rhino we saw another of the big 5 also being elusive were three buffalo


And some Yellow billed hornbills


And then we were entertained for quite some time by the strangest little………………..

Friday afternoon:

Foraging, Frolicking and Forumites

……………………….Dung beetle. I did not know that there were more than one kind or that most of them can fly. It sure doesn’t make sense that there would be so many willing job applicants for this particular job….and yet there are! And they seem to get real job satisfaction too!

This one is called Kheper nigroaeneus and was very productive whilst we were watching.

Further on we saw some more

Zebra


And then near Duke’s we saw this little guy. He seemed unsure as to whether he wanted to pose for us or bolt. Bolting being relative in the life of a Terrapin. We named him Flash

Flash the Terrapin


By now we needed to make up a bit of ground as we were meeting two mites at Nkhulu for a Buff pastie but we couldn’t help stopping for this gorgeous creature very close to Lower Sabie

Fish Eagle


At Lower Sabie we quickly got out to grab an ice cream and headed on back out. We saw no other yellow ribbons, but as we were leaving the car in front of us stops and out hops…………………

Before you shoot me I will post another episode later today (maybe 2) but right now have to run and wanted to post SOMETHING before M3 threw the book at me

………………..a guy and heads to our car with purpose.
Me: “I’m sure it’s a forum member, probably just forgot his ribbon.”
Mom: “ I think he wants to tell us we have good taste in cars.” (Drove the same Landy)
Both of us wrong….
He had seen plenty yellow ribbons and had decided we were the ones to tell him what they meant. He had also clearly seen more ribbons than we had…other than ours (which occasionally gave me a fright, but that’s another story ) we had seen a grand total of none!!
Using our masterful powers of deduction we concluded that he had to have seen so many ribbons during the week and weekend prior to our visit when of course it was the cricket weekend!
And with another great mystery solved we toasted our detective prowess with a Christies and hit the road in search of our two mites.

Along the way we spotted a big herd of
Buffalo


On the opposite side of the Sabie river and coming down for a drink


Not lingering for too long we moved on up to Nkhulu but had to stop when we this breeding herd of

Ellie’s


Who were out having a bit of a mud bath….These Kruger animals sure do love their Spa days


A very shaky video to start with but as a novice what can I say

We made it to Nkhulu but definitely a bit after the scheduled time. To our disappointment there was only one other car there and no yellow ribbon…..

Feeling bad and disappointed we were walking across the parking area when this car comes straight at me!!!

After my nerves have calmed down We are very happy to see our fellow mites…none other than the anniversary couple Holigan and Mellory! We sadly did not get to spend too much time with them as we had to get a move on in order to check in at Orpen that evening. We did however get glowing reports of their romantic accommodation at Lower Sabie. They were so in love with life, the farm and each other that it was a pleasure being in their company. Thanks to both of you for spending some time with us it was great to see you again and we know we have made some great new friends! Mel, hope you are feeling better & Holigan hope Fritz is feeling better too.

After leaving Nkhulu we headed on the H1-2 towards Tshokwane and came across our first
Tortoise of the trip


After that things were pretty quiet for a while except for the occasional sound of a Christies can being opened. It was that dead time in the afternoon when all the animals seek shelter and were mostly content to let them. However after about an hour of no visible signs of life we were starting to wonder If Jacob had let all the animals out of the farm gates. Where were all the impies?? Not even a centipede for a while. And then just as we were wondering if we were the last living beings on this road, there it was….Our very first…………………………………..