South Africa Day 6: Yawn.

The next day was probably the most boring I've spent in the park so far. I drove in through Phabeni, and of course, there was only one guy on check-in, so the line was long. In addition to almost not giving me my papers back, he failed to inform me that I needed to go in the left hand queue out of the gate, which caused some confusion when the guy in the booth tried to make me pay twice. A few well-placed fucks and I was on my way.

I quickly turned south on the S3, headed towards Numbi gate and Pretoriuskop Camp, where I had my first booking. The road wasn't terribly exciting. A few impalas and zebras scattered along the way and a family of one warthog mom and three little piglets. The only glimmer of real excitement came at the Mestel Dam, where I spent more than an hour in splendid solitude, watching three hippos making an absolute ruckus (and peeing in the wild again). I don't know if it was three youngsters or a couple and their baby, but one was significantly smaller than the other two.

A family of warthogs. Note how they'll go down on their knees to dig in the dirt.


This little piggy went to market.


They were playfully diving and jumping out of the water, playfighting and just having a grand old time, making huge splashes with their massive bodies. There were some older hippos still sleeping in a circle in the middle of the little lake. Every now and then one of them would let out some loud snorts or bellows; whether it was to shut the rowdy ones up or just general boredom, I do not know. All I know is it was amusing and heartwarming to watch the three play in the water that early morning.

Most of the adults were snoring in a circle.


Wheee!


I really like this pic.


Woo hoo!


After that, it went downhill. I drove the S3 to its end, I drove several loops in the vicinity of Pretoriuskop, and I even made an attempt at the old Voortrekker Road. It was in even worse condition than I remembered it and I gave up and turned back after 15 minutes. Additionally, they were doing a controlled fire off to the west, and all manner of bugs and crickets were fleeing, most of them it seemed through my car. I had to close the windows, but not before experiencing a few near heart-stopping occasions where I had to brush the nasty little fuckers off my chest, while letting out a girl's scream at the same time.

I did a couple more loops, then went east to the unfortunately named Shitlhave Dam, which just calls out for all manner of lame language puns. It had a solitary hippo in the middle and a lizard was crawling along one bank. Yay. I drove on, past two elephants with their backs turned and countless impalas and zebras. I took the gravel road that cuts across to Napi rocks, through terrain that screamed out for a big cat or ten, but fuck all was to be seen.


Exasperated, I drove back to Pretoriuskop to check in and grab a late lunch. I made the mistake of going inside the Wimpys, a South African chain of dubious quality. Their mayo sandwich was yucky and I got fries even though I didn't order any. Ugh. In addition the waitress made it pretty clear through her body language that she'd rather be anywhere but behind a counter, talking to people.

I then tried yet another trip north to Mestel, with an additional loop around Shabeni, a hilly area that also called out for cats. Nothing was moving. At Mestel, the hippos were sleeping on the beach, but some rude Krauts had the gall to sit and look at MY hippos, and that ruined it for me, so I went south again to do Shitlhave, Napi Rocks and finally almost an hour in boredom at Shitlhave yet one more time. This is the first day that I have been largely bored with Kruger.