Monday, July 21, 2003

 

After St. Lucia we hopped on the bus to Nelspruit, where we met Karen, a friend of mine who is working in Maputo for the Irish embassy there (for those of you who dont know!). We headed out to a place called WitRiver where we stayed the night before heading on to Kruger the next day.

We arrived at Crocodile Gate and to our intended accommodation for the nite, and asked the guy at the gate whether there were any free rooms, only to be told much to our despair that there weren't. However, on re-phrasing the question "Is there any accommodation?", we were told yes, but obviously not free! Silly us eh? So we went for a mini game drive that afternoon in Karen's groovy 4x4 (great to have comfortable transport at last) and saw a hyena, impala and giraffe (as far as i can remember, all these game drives start to merge into each other ;-).

That evening we went to the snazzy 5 star hotel across the road from where we were staying, for sundowners. The bar was set on stilts overlooking the river, and the hippos that live there. As it got dark, it was magical to hear the sounds and noise of the bush as it came alive. Then we had our evening meal, a huge buffet, which I made full use of. Hamish went for the a la carte option and chose impala, which was very tasty. All that skipping and jumping around makes em very lean!

Next morning we were up at 5.30 for a game drive, and had only entered the park when we came across a herd of elephants munching on the trees. We were also really lucky to see 3 rhino later on that morning, making their way to a water hole and drinking, followed by wary impala, on the lookout for lions, while seemingly unfazed by the ten tonne rhino alongside them.

However the highlight of the drive was spotting a leopard. Our driver saw a hyena running down the raod and followed it as its rare to see a hyena run unless they've smelled or spotted a kill. Sure enough, Hamish spotted the leopard running away from the kill once the hyena turned up, and it ran right out onto the road in front of our landrover and off into the bush. Amazing sight! Our guide said it was really rare to see leopard out in the open bush like that so we were thrilled.

posted by kate 2:56 AM

Thursday, July 10, 2003

 

From Ballito we headed up to St Lucia, where we went on a day trip to the Hluhluwe National Park. Just missed seeing a lion dragging its kill across the road at the front gate - although we did see a (brave, or maybe, foolhardy!) hyena following the lion to try and get any leftover scraps
We did see loads of animals. We saw a family of lions (mum, dad, and two cubs), lying
in the sun on a sand bank, fantastic. Also saw a hyena, white rhinos,
hippos, crocodiles, giraffes, zebras, loads of antelope, warthogs and tons
of birdlife, including vultures and eagles - quite amazing! Most of them, apart from the lions, were really up close, Kate got some brilliant photos of most of them. Might post them, if we can get them scanned

Our guide, Simone, was great pointing out all the animals to us (all the beasts' different camouflages are amazingly effective!!!) and when there were none around, telling us what the different trees we were passing were, how they are used in traditional medicines and what animals like/don't like them and why.

We were in the park from 7am until 4pm, both of us totally wrecked, but exhiliarated, by the end of the day. It's tiring squinting into the sun, trying to spot animals.

posted by Hamish 3:34 PM