Saturday, Sept 8th, Shaun Murphy& Nikki Hare’s Wedding Day

(Posted in Sedgefield on Sept. 24th - Our 41st Anniversary).

On Saturday morning, having not yet had a chance to post anything about our trip to Kruger, we asked Barry to drop us at a local internet “shop” where I could hook up my laptop and get going on a post. There are no places here like Panera Bread or Starbucks where you can get a cup of coffee and then be wireless on the internet for as long as you like at no charge. Although they may call them internet cafés, there is no coffee and there is an hourly rate for using the internet. As I am writing this now at a lovely guest house in the mountains, there is only a “land line” and they have to use “dial up” to pick up their emails (during which their phone line for bookings is “busy”). I won’t be posting here! We were at the “café” until 1.30 and the wedding was at 3pm.

The wedding went off perfectly at 3pm and I am not going to attempt to go into great detail as most of you won’t know the people involved. This is a post that needs pictures rather than words. I can say that the bride giggled her way though her vows, which the priest took all in his stride. It was a nice service.

The reception was held on the beachfront at a swank restaurant, and undoubtedly, the bride’s father will be in debt for the rest of his life! Shaun’s groomsmen (there were three of them – his old school mates) made excellent speeches, with lines like “No one has ever questioned Shaun’s intelligence --- in fact, no one has ever mentioned it!” There were stories told of Shaun’s schoolboy escapades that had remained unknown to his parents, one of which involved Shaun returning and reinstalling street signs under police supervision! Other stories told where somewhat risqué and cannot be repeated here as this blog can be read by young children.

The reception was first class. It was early Sunday morning before we retired to bed.

Friday, Sept 7th (Posted Sept.20th!)

Our time in the Kruger National Park had come to an end, it was time to move on. As planned, the two groups split up and Vic, Carol, Chris & Linda left in the hired SUV to begin their journey to PE via a little town called Clarens in the (what used to be called) Free State. They had a 600K journey to make and would be skirting the Lesotho Mountains on their way.
Alison and I traveled in Ted Turner’s car with Diane and we drove back to Joburg, about a five hour journey arriving at Ted’s home at about 1.30 PM. There’s all sorts of construction going on around Joburg in preparation for the 2010 World Cup Soccer which SA is hosting. They are even building an underground “Metro” or “T” from Joburg to Pretoria and there is lots of blasting going on and they close sections of the freeways while they blast. It is a mess and nobody we met thought they would be ready!
I mention this because we had been held up on our journey into Joburg and there were big traffic jams around the airport. Consequently, we left the Turners in very good time to get back to the airport (where there is more construction going on). That evening we flew from Joburg to East London (150 miles east of Port Elizabeth) and were met by our long time friend Barry Murphy whose son Shaun (see earlier post) was getting married the next day. Barry took us straight to Miranda’s (his daughter) house where a “pre wedding braai” was in full swing and where we met the rest of the Murphy family, including the groom, whose first question was “Did I bring the fishing reels?” I should mention that that the World Cup Rugby championships are in process in Paris and the SA team (Springboks) are currently unbeaten and gave England (who won the championship four years ago) a real hiding. This Friday night was the opening game of the championship, so there was a crowd of guys gathered around the TV at 9PM. We retired to Barry & Anne’s house, joined by his other daughter Belinda who came in from Cape Town for the wedding. It was a lovely reunion with our very long time SA friends.

Wednesday, Sept 5th - Thursday Sept. 6th

When we arrived at Berg-en-Dal at 9am, we knew we would only be able to check into our lodge at 1pm so we got into the two SUVs and went for a drive. For those with a Kruger Park map, we took the H3 tarred road towards Skukuza and went up to the Renoster Pan where we had a great viewing of zebra and warthog. Also on the drive we saw wildebeast and yet more rhino. We stopped for drinks at the Afsaal picnic stop and then made our way back to Berg-en-Dal via dirt roads and the Gardenia Bird Hide. Unfortunately the pan/marsh that the hide overlooks was totally dry so there were no birds to see. As we came back along the Crocodile River, we saw hippos, but they were a long way away. We got back to the rest camp and moved into the Rhino Lodge where our accommodation was somewhat more luxurious than what we experienced at the Bushman Wilderness camp.

After lunch, three of the ladies went into Malelane to shop for groceries while Vic, Ted and I turned on the TV and watched cricket. Alison and Chris went to the camp laundromat to wash and dry clothes and peacefully read during the process. A couple of hours later, when the ladies had not returned, we called them and found out they had missed the Berg-en-Dal turn and had carried on merrily up the H3, past the Renoster Pan and Afsaal Picnic spot where we had been that morning, only realizing they were “lost” after a further 10K. Of course, being gentlemen, we made no comment when they finally found there way back to the lodge. The lodge had an expansive courtyard with a built in braai and so that evening, that’s what we did. It was a nice relaxing day.

There is a dam at Berg-en-Dal and the end of the lodge yard overlooked the dam, but dammit, it was completly dry! However, we did see a big elephant chasing baboons down the dry dam floor! The Park was so dry, only big rivers had flowing water in them, but all the tributaries that flow into them were dry, consequently, we decided we would have a better chance of seeing more game if we followed a big river and decided to go up to Skukuza and follow the Sabie River down to the Lower Sabie Rest Camp where we would have lunch. Due to time constraints, we agreed that the 80K from Berg- en-Dal to Skukuza would be a “non stop” journey unless we had a “cat” sighting. So we made good time and had a pit stop at Skukuza. Just outside Skukuza, as we were following the Sabie River, a wild dog came running across the road towards the river. I got him on video and Alison and Chris got photos. A few miles later, we saw a crowd of vehicles on one side of the road and the driver of a vehicle coming toward us stopped to tell us that there were six lions on the side of the road! This turned out to be true, but Chris who was in the other vehicle only saw the four females and didn’t see or was at the wrong angle to see the male and the additional female. They all just lay there and paid no mind to all the fuss and moving of cars, etc. that was going on all around them.

We went on to Lower Sabie and before we went into the camp we stopped off at the "Sunset Dam" that some of you will remember. As usual, there was a large pod of hippos (all submerged, with only their backs showing), crocodiles, maribu storks and more.

We finally tore ourselves away and went for lunch at Lower Sabie--what a lovely restaurant in such a great setting overlooking the dam--plenty of water in there and plenty of action, including an elephant crossing the Sabie River. Chris & Linda missed the elephant as they were in the gift shop buying two wooden giraffes. I will say no more about this for the rest of the blog as Chris is paying a sizeable sum to keep this story from being published on the WWW!

We have to be back to our home rest camp by 6pm and as we were going back the shortest route, but all dirt roads, we had to get going. We hadn't gone far when we saw another bunch of cars stopped on the road and this time there were at least four lioness right next to the road feeding on a big male kudu bull (note the horns).

We continued on our way and saw cars on a bridge going over the Sabie. We took a look and in the dry bed of the river in the distance we could see (with binoculars) two lioness. Apparently, the other vehicle also spotted the male resting near the bank. We continued on and remembered that we hadn't seen any Cape Buffalo herds. We went on to see three herds on our way home.

Just after we had left the dirt road and turned onto the tar, we saw another crowd of cars and this time we had a male lion who had obviously eaten himself absolutely full as his belly looked as though it was ready to burst. He was passed out and not worrying about all the people who were watching him. It was our fourth lion sighting of the day!

I also forgot to mention that we had a nice sighting of a Saddle billed stork on the Sabie river.

We were back in time to visit a water hole near the camp just to see what might be there and there was a rhino and calf. What an end to a fantastic day of viewing.

Thursday August 30 to Tuesday Sept 4.

Posted on Saturday Sept 8th (Shaun's wedding day) at an Internet cafe in East London (first time connectivity available to us) and on Friday Sept 14th in Somerset West near Cape Town.

I expect everyone is wondering whenever we’re going to post. Sorry to have kept you waiting so long but to some extent it has been beyond our control. As I start writing (MondaySept.3rd), we are in the Bushman Wilderness Trail camp having just returned from an evening drive and walk and we are having pre-dinner drinks. We have had a most unbelievable day today and even the resident South Africans who have been here on wilderness trails before are amazed at how much we have seen. But before I start on that, I must summarize the events since we left the Crown Club in Atlanta and got on our flight to Joburg..

After a long flight, we arrived in Joburg late at about 5.15 PM on Thursday. We were met by Ted & Marilyn Turner, who had graciously driven out to meet us and to guide us back to our hotel (Marilyn traveled in our rental car). As our rental car is a “manual” and of course SA drives on the left, the transition to driving in SA is not easy, especially on the busy roads of SA’s largest city. We slept well.
On Friday morning we did a little bit of shopping, after which Ted & Marilyn came and met us and once again Marilyn drove with me and this time Alison drove with Ted., back to the airport where we first picked up Vic & Carol from their flight from Port Elizabeth, and then later (their flight was late) all six of us met Chris & Linda from their flight from Washington. There was much excitement!

Back to the hotel again for a short while, then off to T&M’s home for a curry evening. We had a grand time and the food was great. We ate outside on the patio. Pictures were taken, but not enough.

I had to drive home so I was very conscious of that and restrained myself admirably. I was very nervous driving a stick shift on the “wrong” side of the road in Joburg , particularly at night!

Saturday morning we drove over to T&M’s and the “boys” left in one car to go shopping for beer, wine, etc. for Kruger, while the “girls” went to Sandton City to shop. Marilyn dropped A&L back at the hotel and Chris & I drove back from T&M’s house to meet them. By 5.30 we were back at T&M’s and en route to Montecasino, a giant casino and theatre complex in the style of Caesar’s Palace (where you are “outside”, inside). We had a great meal and then went to see the stage production of “The Lion King”. It was wonderful. It was 11.30 by the time we got home and then we finished re-packing for the trip to Kruger. Although the hotel had Wi-Fi, it did not reach the third floor and I had to go down to the lobby to pickup or send email. There was no time to sort out a blog posting.

On Sunday morning, we loaded up the SUV and drove once more to Ted and Marilyn’s and by 8.45 AM we were on our way to Kruger Park. Very unfortunately Marilyn had an accident while on vacation in Morocco about a month ago, and ended up having to have knee surgery after she and Ted got back to Joburg. Consequently she had to forego the Kruger Park trip, and Ted’s younger sister, Dianne, joined our party instead. We were at the Malalane Gate by 1PM. We had told Chris and Linda not to expect to see much on the short 10Km drive to the “Berg en Dal” main camp – but we saw quite a lot including ground hornbills, a poor lion sighting (low in the grass and not a good enough picture to post) a very good giraffe sighting – very close proximity, female kudus (still haven’t seen a male kudu), two warthogs and a couple of different elephants.

We checked in at the main camp (during which, the gentlemen checking us in told Vic: “Your wilderness walk was cancelled” – his idea a joke! – you should have seen the look on all of our faces!). As detailed in our second blog, we were picked up by the ranger & tracker in the bush wagon (photo) and were on our way to the Bushman Wilderness Camp. The ensuing experience has been fantastic and I don’t really know how to start to put it all into words, or if I have enough time to do so.
Our ranger (Kenneth) and tracker (Bentu) are from Shangaan Tribe, mainly from Mozambique or Eastern African Region and they converse with each other in the Shangaan language. Bentu can spot game really well, and Vic formed the opinion that Kenneth is one of the most knowledgeable rangers/guides he has had. (This is Vic’s sixth wilderness trail).

On the way to the camp we saw a rhino in the distance and then it came running down the hill at the sound of our vehicle. It was a long way away and stopped after a short burst of speed and looked in our direction (they have very poor eyesight, but very good hearing (just like me! – not). It was an inkling of the good sightings to come. We arrived at the camp and sorted ourselves out into the four huts available. They are all the same and the word “rustic” is apt! (pictures). We then adjourned to the lapa had a few sundowners before supper was served (a delicious stew).

On Monday morning we were awoken at 5.30 by the sound of water being poured into our enamel wash basin on a stand outside our hut (picture), followed by a knock on the door (and we’re supposed to be on vacation!). We dressed quickly and got to the lapa for coffee and rusks. For this particular walk we started from the camp at just after six, with the eight of us in single file behind Kenneth and Bentu. Within minutes we saw our first rhino and went on to have two separate rhino encounters and multiple rhino sightings. I say encounters rather than sightings because in each case, we were walking directly into the path of a rhino and Kenneth signaled urgently for us to move sideways as quickly and silently as possible. On one occasion we actually climbed an outcrop of rocks on a small hill to be in a safe position. Despite the close proximity of the rhino, we never felt in any danger.

We also had a terrific giraffe sighting, which thrilled Linda as she has a passion for giraffes. We saw three of them at quite a distance and took pictures before walking toward them. However, they didn’t move so we stopped and took more pictures because we were sure they would move if we got any closer. We walked even closer and took more pictures and then they just moved a few yards off our path and we went by them. It was a great sighting.

We returned from the walk by 11.30 and had a late brunch of scrambled eggs, bacon, etc. (we also had a snack while walking on the trail).. Our camp has a “man made” waterhole just outside the perimeter fence (which was only about 4 foot high and not particularly substantial – Kenneth suggested it was to keep us in, not the animals out). We heard loud sounds of drinking at the waterhole and there at the waterhole was a female rhino with her calf (picture).

After a siesta in the afternoon, we gathered together again for coffee/tea and then packed drinks into a cool box, loaded it and ourselves into the bush wagon and off we went for an evening drive/walk. This trip was less eventful in terms of sightings, but we ended on the banks of a river where we carried the cool box down to a large outcrop of rocks and we sat and watched the sun go down. It is extremely dry here at the moment, and the river is not flowing, there are only pools of water in various sections of the river bed. Although Sept 1st was the first day of spring, we are encountering temperatures in the 90’s F at midday. We did see another rhino and calf at the river at a long distance and we also had other rhino sightings on the drive. We returned to camp in the dark, had another lovely evening in the lapa and then to bed.
On Tuesday morning at 5.30 we started the process all over again!

Tuesday Sept 4th (posted Sept.14th!)

We left camp in the bush wagon at 6.00 AM and drove to the spot where we began our walk. We had another great rhino sighting on the drive. We saw san bushman paintings that were in the region of 15,000 years old! The walk was not as eventful as the Monday walk in terms of game seen, but was enjoyable.

We returned to the camp at late morning and while we were waiting for lunch I walked over to see if anything was happening at the water hole. There was nothing there, but I saw a rhino in the distance making his way through the bush towards the waterhole and began videoing. The rhino got to the hole and began to drink. I was not aware of any issues with the rhino and after a few minutes, I stopped videoing and returned to the lapa for coffee. Later, Diane who was also watching the rhino came to tell us that the rhino was now IN the waterhole! We went back and I began videoing again. We thought the rhino was just cooling off, but then when it tried to leave the waterhole it fell sideways and screamed in what we assumed was pain. The rhino then lay there on his side with it’s two legs pawing at the air and was unable to get up. It was awful to see. Kenneth came to look and said that the rhino was badly burned on his back legs and rump from a recent fire and he thought the rhino was dying. He said that they might have to shoot it and he would have to call the section ranger to discuss the situation. Kenneth was concerned that the rhino would die in the waterhole, which would make things very difficult. Meanwhile, the rhino was “moaning” so woefully that I could not continue to video. We heard that the section ranger was on his way. Meanwhile, the rhino had managed to right himself, and, after resting for a while, made a determined rush to get out of the waterhole. Unfortunately, he was facing the deep end and was unable to make it and ended up with his head resting on the side of the waterhole and his front legs
folded under him. He was exhausted and unable to move. We could hear his breathing quite clearly. We continued to watch and wait for the section ranger when suddenly, out the bush appeared two elephants approaching the waterhole to drink, one of which was massive. The massive elephant looked at the rhino in the waterhole but started to drink and spray himself down from the other end to where the rhino was resting his head. The rhino then managed to turn himself around and now stood in the deep end of the waterhole facing the elephant drinking from the other end. He was snorting weakly, but was obviously very wary. The elephants drank from the waterhole one at a time and we surmised that they couldn’t understand why the rhino was in the water. In the distance we saw the section ranger’s pickup truck racing down the road towards our camp. He duly arrived and introduced himself to us (Rob). After examining the rhino with binoculars he confirmed that rhino was suffering from burns and that they may have to shoot it. He asked us not to photograph or video if that turned out to be the case. We were wondering how they were going to go out and look at the rhino while the elephants were there, but Rob and Kenneth just walked out of the back gate and started waving their arms (at the two elephants, they turned and faced them momentarily, but then turned away and started to walk back into the bush. The two rangers followed them for a few meters to ensure they were well out of the way so that they could turn their attention to the rhino. We were all watching the rangers and the elephants and I was videoing this phase of the operation and when the rangers turned back to the waterhole and I swung back my video camera, the rhino was emerging from the shallow end of the waterhole! The rangers then started to walk toward the rhino and we all switched off our cameras fearing the worst. The rhino turned and looked at the two rangers as they walked toward him. Rob raised his big gun and lined up his shot when suddenly the rhino turned and actually started to trot back into the bush. The rangers followed and went out of sight, however, we heard no shots and 15 minutes later, Rob got into his pickup truck and left and Kenneth told us that as the rhino seemed mobile, they would see how things went over the next couple of weeks. Although it would normally be difficult to find a particular rhino, they expect him to return to the waterhole again as it is an easy source of water for him while he is injured. We all hope and like to think he will survive. It was a dramatic experience for us all.

As on Monday, we went out again at 4pm for an evening walk followed by “sundowners”. We were looking for the big cats but had no luck. We saw vultures in a tree and went to check if there was a kill nearby but didn’t find anything. We did disturb three elephants with three “baby” elephants with the bush wagon and the one elephant “trumpeted” at us, but that was all. Back to camp for another delicious “camp fire” cooked meal and then off to bed. On Wednesday morning we were once again up early, but this time our time in the bush camp came to an end and we were off back to the main camp of Berg en Dal.