It is a long drive from Toti to Sabie Park. With a quick stop in Swaziland it takes almost thirteen hours.
On entry into Kruger we were greeted by three of the big Five.....Rhinos, buffalo and elephants. This is a great start ....long may it last.
It was good to arrive at the house. The first thing Warren does is undo all the damage the baboons do whilst we are away! As he surveys the destruction his vocab tends to deteriorate somewhat!
The bush is dry, dry dry. The rains were late. In addition to that, Kruger has done some burning, so talk about scorched earth!! I always worry about the animals who get injured during the burns. Poor Torty!
Despite the lack of rain, the picnic spot is as lovely as ever. For the first time in a while we were fortunate in that we could watch lion across the river! The newer hide is perfect for this viewing.
The best part of being here is connecting with our local friends. They are all so good about coming to spend time with us despite their busy lives. None of them have really retired as we have! Thanks Neil and Lois, Mary and Gav, Ed and Liz. It is always so good to catch up with you guys! We also had visits from family, Colleen and Jim, and the Kochs who were staying at Sabie River bungalows.
The best visitor was Oscar.....he stayed with us for a week then his Mom, Sarah and Nicole arrived and stayed a few days too!
We had loads of fun at the house as little boys and girls dont really like spending hours in the car looking for illusive animals! Gangan loved this special time and we did lots of fun things together.
The wonderful thing about Mother Nature that in her own time she will always deliver. Eventually the rains came....in fact we had huge huge electrical storms. The skies lit up with amazing streaks of lightening, the thunder rolled by and the rain poured and poured. The poor roof was tested to its limits and we had to move furniture out of the way of the leaks, put buckets in line to catch the drips.
The night the Harris's spent with us, plans to enjoy liqueurs around the fire had to be changed due to the storm and while watching the lightening Ed commented how beautiful the sky looked streaked and all lit up with the lightening. I argued that it made me feel rather nervous and uncomfortable. Apparently at approximately the same time 11:15 p.m. a neighbour' s house was burnt to the ground. We were totally unaware and only found out the following day!! Fortunately the owners were not present so no one was injured.
The magic started and every day one would wake up to a greener day. Watching the grass turn green is absolutely wondorous. A special time indeed. The animal population around the house increased enjoying the new lush, green grass. Mother Nature never fails to deliver! Zebras galore, giraffe, wildebeest, kudu, impala and even the baboons tried to join in the party!
With the lack of rain the river was low and there was no sign of the happy hippo. However on our last day at the picnic spot we witnessed the The Return of the Hippo....we watched Mom, Dad amd hippolet pop out of the river just in front of the hide run down the bank and pop back into the deeper water in front of the lower look out point! A short cut or just avoiding the stony bumps I am not sure but how wonderful to have them back!
The hyaena are becoming a threat to the residents. They are becoming more and more daring as they encroach on the bomas. We had an incident one night while enjoying our stew around the fire. I made the mistake of throwing the chewed bones into the fire and Buster our friendly hyaena could not resist the smell of our dinner and came sniffing by and then was tempted to chew on our left over bones and came closer and closer and .....closer. Warren had to chase him off and in my haste to escape to the safety of our home I knocked over a wine glass! The following morning early Warren went outside to pick up the pieces and who was IN the boma and virtually in the ashes of our fire!! Cheeky bugger! The age old debate raises its head again.....who is the interloper!! Man or beast.
It was soon time to pack up and set off for home. A couple of weeks in the bush is always such a tonic!
