So, it was time to move on from Mopani Camp, on to Shingwedzi for the next three nights before the next taste of a Bushveld Camp again when we were due at Sirheni, our penultimate stop before exiting the park in the north and heading back to Johannesberg, the airport and home.
First thing it was clear up the mess again.
Yes, another visit from the Honey Badger. The freezer had remained unopened but the bin was pushed over, and the contents dragged out. There was no way I could leave that mess lying around even if my neighbours left it for the cleaner to do, I wasn't going to do so.
Once again, I went out in the car on my own. I had to find out what happened after we left the waterhole the previous evening.
Would the Lions be there?
Had they made a kill later?
Twenty minutes later all was there to see, or wasn't as it happened.
The place was deserted!
That might mean the Lions were still hiding in the grass and consequently everything else was staying away. I didn't have the time to hang around and find out and so left heading back to camp.
On the way I came across two Hyenas.
This one was perhaps following the scent of the one ahead of it.
That one was carrying the skull of what appeared to be a young Buffalo. They were both heading away from the waterhole I'd just been to.
How long ago had that kill been made? Was it the previous night?
Who knows!
I popped in to the Shipandani hide, well the dam just in front of it, for one last look. Maybe the Hippos would be there this time.
The Egyptian Geese family were still there and none of the goslings had disappeared since my first visit either. All six were getting bigger now,. I wondered how many had been in the original clutch.
The Hippo were indeed a bit closer than I had seen in several days so I manoeuvred the car in to a position where the sun would suit.
That looked nice, I just needed a bit of action.
Maybe the Oxpeckers would provide it?
The Hippo certainly wasn't going to, it submerged and that was that!
In the meantime another car had arrived and was now drawing alongside me.
She stopped, it was the girl from Australia who I'd met at Shimuwini and who had helped when she had a slow puncture in a tyre on the day she was leaving.
She brought me up to date on what happened, her dealings with the rental company and her experience at the next camps she'd stayed at. The previous night she's stayed in a chalet almost next to ours but we would never have known that, prior to that she'd been at Punda Maria and Parfuri.
At Punda Maria she had had a bad experience, her Bush Tent was in poor repair, the weather had been extremely windy and she'd been in fear of being blown away and had hardly slept. She cancelled her last night and moved on to Pafuri Camp.
Punda Maria was our last stop too. In a Safari Tent. This was depressing news indeed.
We bade our farewells and I headed back to Claire and the move northwards to our new camp.Shingwedzi.
We drove straight there, for once arriving before checking in time was officially open but it wasn't a problem, our room was ready.
The room was clean and tidy as ever.
The kitchen diner an outdoor one but with decent cover from the elements should you need it.
I don't know why but I took a dislike to the place instantly.
Maybe it was the outlook. The proximity to our neighbours, what the picture doesn't show is that we were in a semi detached chalet although noise wasn't an issue. No, we'd discover what was later on that evening!
The view across from the patio area overlooked that bare expanse of soil and leafless trees to the other chalets. I guess we'd been spoilt up to now. The chickens had come home to roost!
I hid the extent of my disappointment for the time being as we unpacked before heading out for an afternoon drive.
I'd been looking forward to exploring the S56. I had heard great things from several people over the last few days. Lions on a kill, a Leopard with cubs showing really well. Exciting stuff I thought and compensation for the camp!
We drove slowly up the gravel road without seeing a Leopard at all. A car coming the opposite direction stopped us and asked if we seen them. No we hadn't but in return they told us there were 11 Lion sleeping under a tree some distance further on.
We found them easily, not just because there were three or four cars there, they were so close to the road you couldn't miss them!
The nearest ones were very close indeed.
Did I feel threatened sitting there with the window open?
No, not at all they weren't interested in me at all.
To be honest, I wasn't interested in them either.
Sleepy Lion had nothing on my last two encounters. It was boring.
We moved on again turning back only when we got to the entrance of the private road to Sirheni.
Sirheni? Yes the next camp we were due at and we hadn't even spent a night at Shingwedzi yet!!
Retuning back we did come across the Leopards, the views were not the best. There were definitely two in the tree but I guess there might have been a third too.
They had an Impala kill up a tree and they were busy eating it.
The adult appeared to be on top, one of the cubs attacking the carcass from below.
We watched for maybe 15-20 minutes before getting too hot to want to continue. The photo opportunity wasn't up to much so I took Claire back to camp again.
We'd been on the road for three weeks now. I felt as if we'd seen most things we'd come to see, the only thing that had been a bit disappointing was the poor showing on the birding front. Maybe that would get better when we moved to Punda Maria but I had my doubts. We were not that far away and there was no signs of the drought conditions changing. We needed rain to bring the migrating birds in.
I had made a note of the distance from the Leopards up the tree and the tar road at the end of the S56. I left Claire in camp and I went back to see if I could get some better images of the cubs playing on the ground.
I watched as the trip recorder clocked up the distance.
Exactly 14.5 kms from the tar road.
But no tree, no Leopards.
Had I gone too far and missed it?
How could I make such a mistake!
I carried on, I could always turn back and look agin later.
The tree was another couple of kilometres further on. There were no cars, no leopards.
A wasted journey..again!!
On the return journey I made a decision. I was going to make a radical change to our plans.
I didn't want to stay in Shingwedzi a day longer than needed. I still wanted to try Sirheni though, the Bushveld Camps were on the whole a lot better in my opinion. Small and private a world apart from Shingwedzi which I saw as soulless.
On return to camp I went straight to reception and asked if we could bring forward the Sirheni booking. Unfortunately we couldn't, they were fully booked for the following two nights but had a free place the night after. We were booked in then anyway.
I returned to Claire and told her what I'd decided.
She was in full agreement, we needed to change our plan. We went back to reception and together decided what we would do. We'd have to stay at Shingwedzi if we wanted to go to Sirheni, the option was to cancel Punda Maria avoiding the possibility that the accommodation was sub standard.
At short notice there wasn't much of a choice, we couldn't go north to south in one day. It was too far really.
We agreed we'd have one night in Olifants and two in Skukuza.
Skukuza? That campsite hell ?! All those people?
If it meant that I got to get on the internet and could go back to Biyamiti Weir I was prepared to suffer. In fact I was looking forward to the whole trip.
Our journey time back to Johannesberg would be cut by a couple of hours at least. We knew the way as we didn't have a map. I'd get another opportunity of photographing the Bat Hawk at Olifants ( I wasn't to know it wasn't a Bat Hawk back then) and best of all we'd get another Breakfast roll at Tshokwane. It would be nostalgia all the way!
I instantly cheered up and so did Claire.
What about Pafuri, the birds and Punda Maria?
We'd travel there tomorrow. If it was good, we'd go again, next time from Sirheni.
All was settled then
TBC
First thing it was clear up the mess again.
Yes, another visit from the Honey Badger. The freezer had remained unopened but the bin was pushed over, and the contents dragged out. There was no way I could leave that mess lying around even if my neighbours left it for the cleaner to do, I wasn't going to do so.
Once again, I went out in the car on my own. I had to find out what happened after we left the waterhole the previous evening.
Would the Lions be there?
Had they made a kill later?
Twenty minutes later all was there to see, or wasn't as it happened.
The place was deserted!
That might mean the Lions were still hiding in the grass and consequently everything else was staying away. I didn't have the time to hang around and find out and so left heading back to camp.
On the way I came across two Hyenas.
This one was perhaps following the scent of the one ahead of it.
That one was carrying the skull of what appeared to be a young Buffalo. They were both heading away from the waterhole I'd just been to.
How long ago had that kill been made? Was it the previous night?
Who knows!
I popped in to the Shipandani hide, well the dam just in front of it, for one last look. Maybe the Hippos would be there this time.
The Egyptian Geese family were still there and none of the goslings had disappeared since my first visit either. All six were getting bigger now,. I wondered how many had been in the original clutch.
The Hippo were indeed a bit closer than I had seen in several days so I manoeuvred the car in to a position where the sun would suit.
That looked nice, I just needed a bit of action.
Maybe the Oxpeckers would provide it?
The Hippo certainly wasn't going to, it submerged and that was that!
In the meantime another car had arrived and was now drawing alongside me.
She stopped, it was the girl from Australia who I'd met at Shimuwini and who had helped when she had a slow puncture in a tyre on the day she was leaving.
She brought me up to date on what happened, her dealings with the rental company and her experience at the next camps she'd stayed at. The previous night she's stayed in a chalet almost next to ours but we would never have known that, prior to that she'd been at Punda Maria and Parfuri.
At Punda Maria she had had a bad experience, her Bush Tent was in poor repair, the weather had been extremely windy and she'd been in fear of being blown away and had hardly slept. She cancelled her last night and moved on to Pafuri Camp.
Punda Maria was our last stop too. In a Safari Tent. This was depressing news indeed.
We bade our farewells and I headed back to Claire and the move northwards to our new camp.Shingwedzi.
We drove straight there, for once arriving before checking in time was officially open but it wasn't a problem, our room was ready.
The room was clean and tidy as ever.
The kitchen diner an outdoor one but with decent cover from the elements should you need it.
I don't know why but I took a dislike to the place instantly.
Maybe it was the outlook. The proximity to our neighbours, what the picture doesn't show is that we were in a semi detached chalet although noise wasn't an issue. No, we'd discover what was later on that evening!
The view across from the patio area overlooked that bare expanse of soil and leafless trees to the other chalets. I guess we'd been spoilt up to now. The chickens had come home to roost!
I hid the extent of my disappointment for the time being as we unpacked before heading out for an afternoon drive.
I'd been looking forward to exploring the S56. I had heard great things from several people over the last few days. Lions on a kill, a Leopard with cubs showing really well. Exciting stuff I thought and compensation for the camp!
We drove slowly up the gravel road without seeing a Leopard at all. A car coming the opposite direction stopped us and asked if we seen them. No we hadn't but in return they told us there were 11 Lion sleeping under a tree some distance further on.
We found them easily, not just because there were three or four cars there, they were so close to the road you couldn't miss them!
The nearest ones were very close indeed.
Did I feel threatened sitting there with the window open?
No, not at all they weren't interested in me at all.
To be honest, I wasn't interested in them either.
Sleepy Lion had nothing on my last two encounters. It was boring.
We moved on again turning back only when we got to the entrance of the private road to Sirheni.
Sirheni? Yes the next camp we were due at and we hadn't even spent a night at Shingwedzi yet!!
Retuning back we did come across the Leopards, the views were not the best. There were definitely two in the tree but I guess there might have been a third too.
They had an Impala kill up a tree and they were busy eating it.
The adult appeared to be on top, one of the cubs attacking the carcass from below.
We watched for maybe 15-20 minutes before getting too hot to want to continue. The photo opportunity wasn't up to much so I took Claire back to camp again.
We'd been on the road for three weeks now. I felt as if we'd seen most things we'd come to see, the only thing that had been a bit disappointing was the poor showing on the birding front. Maybe that would get better when we moved to Punda Maria but I had my doubts. We were not that far away and there was no signs of the drought conditions changing. We needed rain to bring the migrating birds in.
I had made a note of the distance from the Leopards up the tree and the tar road at the end of the S56. I left Claire in camp and I went back to see if I could get some better images of the cubs playing on the ground.
I watched as the trip recorder clocked up the distance.
Exactly 14.5 kms from the tar road.
But no tree, no Leopards.
Had I gone too far and missed it?
How could I make such a mistake!
I carried on, I could always turn back and look agin later.
The tree was another couple of kilometres further on. There were no cars, no leopards.
A wasted journey..again!!
On the return journey I made a decision. I was going to make a radical change to our plans.
I didn't want to stay in Shingwedzi a day longer than needed. I still wanted to try Sirheni though, the Bushveld Camps were on the whole a lot better in my opinion. Small and private a world apart from Shingwedzi which I saw as soulless.
On return to camp I went straight to reception and asked if we could bring forward the Sirheni booking. Unfortunately we couldn't, they were fully booked for the following two nights but had a free place the night after. We were booked in then anyway.
I returned to Claire and told her what I'd decided.
She was in full agreement, we needed to change our plan. We went back to reception and together decided what we would do. We'd have to stay at Shingwedzi if we wanted to go to Sirheni, the option was to cancel Punda Maria avoiding the possibility that the accommodation was sub standard.
At short notice there wasn't much of a choice, we couldn't go north to south in one day. It was too far really.
We agreed we'd have one night in Olifants and two in Skukuza.
Skukuza? That campsite hell ?! All those people?
If it meant that I got to get on the internet and could go back to Biyamiti Weir I was prepared to suffer. In fact I was looking forward to the whole trip.
Our journey time back to Johannesberg would be cut by a couple of hours at least. We knew the way as we didn't have a map. I'd get another opportunity of photographing the Bat Hawk at Olifants ( I wasn't to know it wasn't a Bat Hawk back then) and best of all we'd get another Breakfast roll at Tshokwane. It would be nostalgia all the way!
I instantly cheered up and so did Claire.
What about Pafuri, the birds and Punda Maria?
We'd travel there tomorrow. If it was good, we'd go again, next time from Sirheni.
All was settled then
TBC
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