Tuesday 22 October 2013

L: It was wet again this morning when I was woken up by the traffic in and out of the gate and off on game drives and a father with his little one on a push-bike at 6.30, no doubt so mom could sleep in.......pity about the rest of us. We also had quite a few trains go past during the night and early this morning. Busy place.

I went off to the bird hide and had the place to myself again. I found an adult red bishop and a sunbird and so many others making a lovely noise.

When I came back, Steve was up and sorting out the tent, to dry in the sun before packing and getting everything out for our breakfast.

S: We set off in anticipation of seeing elephants today.....

For the first hour it was the old faithfuls that we saw – red hartebees, warthogs and Burchell zebras and an ostrich or two. We were driving through a cutting and a kudu bull suddenly appeared on the embankment on Lesley's side of the car – startling her! (L: Now, bear in mind, you are in “elephant-finding” mode so your senses are heightened.....ha ha.)

S: We went up to Zuurbank lookout point which is the highest point in the park and on our way down the hill Lesley noticed a few cars parked on the bottom road and “rocks with eyes” which I tell her she sees when the shadows turn out to be – not elephants.....So, we decided to head that way which was a bit out of our way, but it was well worth it as we eventually saw freshly broken branches in the road and fresh droppings and came upon a herd of elephants!! At last. What a pleasure with a baby only hip-height. We even had one coming up behind us and strolling past the car......

We turned around and went to the safety of Jack's picnic spot for lunch and a toilet break. Just before we got there we saw another herd of elephants a few hundred metres off the road, also with 4 babies of various sizes.

We then headed for the Southern part of the park. It wasn't more than a few kilometers later that we saw another lone bull elephant at a water hole. We saw plenty of warthog, zebras etc and the terrain was very hilly and on the plain above there was plenty of zebra, hartebees, warthog and another lone bull elephant and lots of birds. We saw some more tortoises too.

L: We had only a few more kms to cover before the exit when we saw what we thought was the backside of another elephant going down an alleyway into the bush. As we drove past, a face appeared out of the thicket.......we could not believe that it was a buffalo of immense size. We discovered that one horn from the centre of the head round the curve to the tip can measure up to 100cms!! The largest recorded is 124cms. They stand 1,4m to the shoulder – Wow.

S: We had driven a little further down the road when we saw a woman with 2 children in the car. I stopped her and warned her of the buffalo in the road and just to be careful as they were the size of her little car. She looked really startled and debated whether she should turn round and run home. I said carry on and drive slowly past them as they are quite placid.

L: The previous evening we had heard this “twang” noise down at the water hole which I thought was a hyena biting the electric fence, but we discovered that it was a tiny little bird making that amazing racket. I need to find out which one it is and will consult the bird books. Ha ha.

S: Then it was on to the N2 to Port Elizabeth where we headed to Humewood and booked into the Pine Lodge campsite for 2 nights. (To visit Lesley's Aunty May).

We headed to the local Pick and Pay to stock up and on the way out bumped into Aunty May, small world.....

Had an early braai in the quiet campsite and enjoyed the mild evening. Their are no other people camping here so we each have an entire ablution block to ourselves.