Marakele - Tlopi Camp

[Bushbuddies]

Marakele - Tlopi Tented Camp - Unit 7 Heron

[G@mespotter]

I can definitely recommend Tlopi camp, it is stunning! I used to go to Bontle often (camping) however when you can afford to go to Tlopi, book a night there. The views are like those out of a magazine but much cooler (it's real)

A few pictures as proof (July 2016)

That being said I had the most scary experience there last year, I found it more frightening then being mock-charged by three young elephants on the Mpongolo Back-pack trail..

I'd like to share our story of that particular night in July (2016) at Tlopi..
We stayed at Tlopi on night, en route to our backpack trail in Kruger (agreed, not a logical detour but what the heck). After an awesome day in the Waterberg mountains we arrived fully stocked with braaivleis and liquids as our tent. We enjoyed sundowners as this stunning camp. Here and there an impala came down for a drink. It was pure bliss. We had an awesome braai, enjoyed the stars and went to bed early, as we'd be leaving for Kruger the next day. About midnight we heard lots of elephants coming to drink, but didn't check it out as we had spotted to young bulls fighting on the opposite bank earlier that evening and wanted to get some sleep. Within 15 minutes however, we heard an ellie right next to our tent, about 1,5 meter away from our heads (he came to the side where we slept). Scary thought as only thin canvass separated us.. He stood between the tent and our bakkie as well as the emergency radio.. We heard him fart, chow and doing what an elephant does best: eating and releasing. The next moment he starts pushing against the tree right next to our tent. The tree gave it a good fight but eventually had to give in. The stem was splitted, the wood cracking at night sounds like a gunshot, outside a mini-war unfolded. Being pitch dark, we couldn’t see anything and were only relying on our ears. Not wanting to scare or dare a elephant in must, we kept as quiet as possible. Running outside was risky, the normal escape route was blocked and jumping of the veranda net to the dam was looking for trouble, crocs and leopards could be there to At one stage our tent was cracking (the bathroom section is build out of wood) it sounded like being placed under an immense weight. It sounded like the ellie was attacking our tent!! We opted for the save modus, sitting at the edge of our beds in the middle of the tent, shoes tied and ready for any action. I was thinking out an escape plans might the tent go down... The ellie constantly rumbled like thunder (2m away with only canvas between us and our grey aggressor ) and me, my wife and our cousin were quite frightened Next thing the roof dents in heavily, wood cracking and branches breaking. We could hear the elephant throwing a tree on the veranda. After a while he left, and we inspected the damage. The tent was only damaged a little, but the stairway was blocked by a tree with thorns At least we then knew he was removing a tree and not our tent.. Thinking we could curb that problem the next morning, we went back to sleep. Not very amused, we noticed he came back a hour later. The drama started again, He was doing the same the other way around by miraculously taking the tree off the veranda (initially the stem was laying on the stairs, the thorney branches on the veranda) and placing it next to our tent. All the drama again! By three o'clock he left us his smelly mess as souvenir and moved on. A story we wouldn't forget easily, scary but still a nice tale to tell

[barryels]

I fully agree that to stay at Tlopi is a wonderful experience .

You had quite a scary experience G@mespotter! .

Thanks for sharing .

[Hippotragus]

Wow, that must have been really scary! We have seen elephant dung close to the tents, but not had a visitor so close while we have been there.

Our only "bad" experience at Tlopi was a few years ago. We arrived and unpacked, had a good evening and night. The next morning we went for a drive and then came back to find our "monkey-proof" kitchen had been ransacked. We had not left any food in sight, but, thinking the new plastic wall was monkey-proof, had not turned the fridge around to face the wall (as we always do in Kruger). The little (they must have been quite small) devils had squeezed between the bottom of the plastic canvas wall and the floor and just about emptied the fridge. The kitchen was full of food, wrappers and monkey s..t. We asked one of the cleaning ladies to tidy up and made a quick trip to Thabazimbi to re-stock.

Lesson learned - what looks monkey-proof, is not necessarily really monkey-proof!!