Despite our meal experience the previous evening I like Olifants. We were lucky to have been allocated a room with one of the best views possible.
The restaurant might not be that good but the view from the Braii is something else! Mind you, it would be dark so views don't count for too much unless you stay around when it's light. There was plenty of water in the river below and it was alive with game albeit you need a telescope or binoculars to view.
Our room was once again nicely presented.
There might be a neighbouring chalet but it's still very private, and for us very handy as we were almost next to the shop and restaurant.
Internally it's a little bit cramped for space but you are not going to spend too much time in there anyway. The kitchen wasn't the best equipped, there wasn't a microwave ( which we wouldn't be using anyway) but the let down was the poor electric hob. I resorted to putting the cast iron cooking pot directly on the BBQ coals and that brought the water up to the boil in double quick time and the dish suffered no ill effects as a result either.
The bird life around the camp is pretty good too. I got up early for a wander and soon added some new species to my trip list.
The Pearl Spotted Owlet didn't hang around for long though once it saw me, the delightful African Paradise Flycatcher is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult birds to capture in camera.
They are constantly on the move, usually in fairly dense thickets and then there's that tail to contend with! Well, on the male anyway.
We were lucky to have two different Woodpeckers in the trees by our chalet.
Both Bearded and Golden-tailed.
We also had a fleeting visit from a White-bellied Sunbird too.
On the ground a noisy pair of Crested Barbet were not too far away either.
With Claire ready to go we set off to explore the local roads...the S44, the S93, the S46 then the tar road south before taking the S39.
It proved to be disappointing to be honest.
A pair of Kori Bustard
The best views yet of a African Pipit...I think. Pipits, Larks and all those other "Little Brown Jobbies" just confuse me.
and here's a different one
One the mammal side of things it was very poor indeed with hardly anything seen at all until we arrived at the Ratelpan waterhole where there was a constant procession of Zebra arriving for a drink.
Everywhere was so dry and dusty, no doubt most creatures had headed to the Olifants river where there was a ready supply of water and greenery to eat too.
We stopped off at the Timbavati Picnic site hoping they might sell food but alas we were disappointed to find they only have cold drinks on offer. There were quite a few birds hanging around though, expecting a few morsels from those who had brought their own picnics.
We decided to head back towards Olifants and I was delighted to spot a Secretary Bird fairly close to the road.
We sat and watched it for some time hoping it might get even closer, it was already only 30m away but the heat haze was such all my images were distorted. After standing around for an age, doing a bit of grooming occasionally, it started to move in the direction I was hoping for but having disappeared behind a bush it emerged in flight. Another disappointment as by the time I was on to it it was a long way off. What did surprise me was that there had been two others on the opposite side of the road and I hadn't noticed them. I'm not sure how close they had been but all three were now little specs in the distance as they circled high above us.
The one good thing to come out of it was that while I had been waiting for the Secretary Bird to move, out of the corner of my eye another movement had me focussing on what was there.
A Common Buttonquail and an excellent addition as they are definitely not an easy bird to see.
Our only other stop was to have another go at capturing Little Swift in action. A few minutes of that was enough! Madness would follow if you stick with it too long.
It was back to camp then and get ready for the Bat Hawk!
I was ready and waiting when the hawk made it's appearance which was fairly brief.
Click!
Click!
Click!
and it was gone having already caught dinner.
To my disappointment I was later to discover this isn't a Bat Hawk which is something of a rarity. No, this is an imposter, but an extremely good one. It has the speed of movement to change direction and pluck a small, fast moving bat out of the air. It's been suggested it's an Ovambo Sparrowhawk which is a good guess, if anyone has any other opinion let me know!
Anyway, fortunately we still had enough provisions to make a meal ourselves for our last night. Tomorrow we would be heading across the park to exit briefly to stock up in Phalaborwa before heading to Shimuwini Bushveld Camp.
I was really looking forward to that too! Maybe some downtime with less driving for a change?
TBC
The restaurant might not be that good but the view from the Braii is something else! Mind you, it would be dark so views don't count for too much unless you stay around when it's light. There was plenty of water in the river below and it was alive with game albeit you need a telescope or binoculars to view.
Our room was once again nicely presented.
There might be a neighbouring chalet but it's still very private, and for us very handy as we were almost next to the shop and restaurant.
Internally it's a little bit cramped for space but you are not going to spend too much time in there anyway. The kitchen wasn't the best equipped, there wasn't a microwave ( which we wouldn't be using anyway) but the let down was the poor electric hob. I resorted to putting the cast iron cooking pot directly on the BBQ coals and that brought the water up to the boil in double quick time and the dish suffered no ill effects as a result either.
The bird life around the camp is pretty good too. I got up early for a wander and soon added some new species to my trip list.
The Pearl Spotted Owlet didn't hang around for long though once it saw me, the delightful African Paradise Flycatcher is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult birds to capture in camera.
They are constantly on the move, usually in fairly dense thickets and then there's that tail to contend with! Well, on the male anyway.
We were lucky to have two different Woodpeckers in the trees by our chalet.
Both Bearded and Golden-tailed.
We also had a fleeting visit from a White-bellied Sunbird too.
On the ground a noisy pair of Crested Barbet were not too far away either.
With Claire ready to go we set off to explore the local roads...the S44, the S93, the S46 then the tar road south before taking the S39.
It proved to be disappointing to be honest.
A pair of Kori Bustard
The best views yet of a African Pipit...I think. Pipits, Larks and all those other "Little Brown Jobbies" just confuse me.
and here's a different one
One the mammal side of things it was very poor indeed with hardly anything seen at all until we arrived at the Ratelpan waterhole where there was a constant procession of Zebra arriving for a drink.
Everywhere was so dry and dusty, no doubt most creatures had headed to the Olifants river where there was a ready supply of water and greenery to eat too.
We stopped off at the Timbavati Picnic site hoping they might sell food but alas we were disappointed to find they only have cold drinks on offer. There were quite a few birds hanging around though, expecting a few morsels from those who had brought their own picnics.
We decided to head back towards Olifants and I was delighted to spot a Secretary Bird fairly close to the road.
We sat and watched it for some time hoping it might get even closer, it was already only 30m away but the heat haze was such all my images were distorted. After standing around for an age, doing a bit of grooming occasionally, it started to move in the direction I was hoping for but having disappeared behind a bush it emerged in flight. Another disappointment as by the time I was on to it it was a long way off. What did surprise me was that there had been two others on the opposite side of the road and I hadn't noticed them. I'm not sure how close they had been but all three were now little specs in the distance as they circled high above us.
The one good thing to come out of it was that while I had been waiting for the Secretary Bird to move, out of the corner of my eye another movement had me focussing on what was there.
A Common Buttonquail and an excellent addition as they are definitely not an easy bird to see.
Our only other stop was to have another go at capturing Little Swift in action. A few minutes of that was enough! Madness would follow if you stick with it too long.
It was back to camp then and get ready for the Bat Hawk!
I was ready and waiting when the hawk made it's appearance which was fairly brief.
Click!
Click!
Click!
and it was gone having already caught dinner.
To my disappointment I was later to discover this isn't a Bat Hawk which is something of a rarity. No, this is an imposter, but an extremely good one. It has the speed of movement to change direction and pluck a small, fast moving bat out of the air. It's been suggested it's an Ovambo Sparrowhawk which is a good guess, if anyone has any other opinion let me know!
Anyway, fortunately we still had enough provisions to make a meal ourselves for our last night. Tomorrow we would be heading across the park to exit briefly to stock up in Phalaborwa before heading to Shimuwini Bushveld Camp.
I was really looking forward to that too! Maybe some downtime with less driving for a change?
TBC
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