Day 22/23

Thursday/Friday, October 9/10, 2008
Time to tell you a bit about Kruger National Park. Perhaps the best well known wildlife park in South Africa, it is about the size of Wales (but shaped like Portugal), very diverse in ecosystems, rich in game and bird species, and completely surrounded by miles of electric fence to keep the wildlife in, of course. Within the park are eleven Restcamps, also completely enclosed by electric fences – to keep the wildlife out and the campers safe. Each Restcamp has a variety of accommodations, from tent camping to fairly luxurious, a restaurant, small grocery and gift shop, laundry facilities, and petrol. Some have day parks, a small swimming pool, and evening films. All have special activities such as early morning guided walks (with an armed ranger), night rides, etc. Tonight we will go on a night ride and are looking forward to that new experience. Our accommodations have varied – from our first night in the large cabin that could sleep six with a great room and kitchen, to two smaller huts still with bathrooms and cooking facilities, to last night with private bathrooms but no cooking facilities (there are communal kitchens available), to our present camp (where we will be for our last three nights) with two bungalows, each with a sink, but communal cooking facilities and communal “ablutions” (toilets and showers). The communal facilities are very nice, however, and are nearby, so that will be just fine. Our bungalows here at Letaba Restcamp overlook the Letaba River, which is quite beautiful. We can watch impala, zebra, wildebeests, elephants, and bushbuck right from our little porch.
I keep using the word “amazing” a lot, but this whole week has been an amazing experience. We feel so fortunate to be able to be here surrounded by all these evidences of God’s incredible creativity and beauty. We also feel deeply fortunate to have Beth and Perry as our guides – so capable, knowledgeable, patient, kind-hearted, well read, always eager to learn more, enthusiastic, fun-loving, and who seem to enjoy traveling with us old coots as much as we enjoy traveling with them! We are blessed.
Yesterday held two major wildlife sightings. The first was two huge bull elephants calmly munching leaves right by the side of the road, so close it was almost scary. One of them then proceeded to march majestically right down the middle of the road behind us, obviously knowing he was king of the road. The second was a viewing from a long bridge crossing the wide expanse of the Oliphants River, long enough that it was safe to get out of the car for a leisurely look in all directions. We could see hippos, crocodiles, terrapin, a huge catfish and a variety of water birds. After a cool morning, the day became very hot, the hottest we have experienced so far in South Africa, perhaps even hotter than Zambia, although it’s difficult to tell. We were happy to get to our new camp for a rest in our cool huts, after putting our food inside to keep it safe from marauding monkeys.
Later on, going for a late afternoon drive, we were surprised by a springtime storm as the clouds moved in, the sky darkened, lightning flashed, and the wind became very blustery. It was, in fact, a quite violent spring storm which continued through the night and into the morning hours. We even had a few drops of rain, but not enough to moisten the dry ground even one iota. Instead of cooking on the braii, we had sandwiches in our bungalow – it was much too dark and windy to eat outside. A cozy picnic indeed.
After only one night in the Oliphants camp, we moved on today to our final camp at Letaba. The drive here was strangely quiet, as if the animals were still hiding out from the storm. We were surprised to see many hippo tracks by the roadside, well up into the hills above the river. Then we read that hippos leave the rivers and travel many kilometers away to graze, especially when there are storms. We kept looking for them in the bush, but couldn’t spot a single one. By late morning the sun returned, as did the animals, and everything seemed back to “normal” again.
Paula and Bruce
(Note: All blogs up to this point have been written by Bruce, with some editing and additions by Paula. This one was written by Paula, with a few additions by Bruce. Could you tell?