I proceeded on H7, one of the paved main roads of Kruger. At first, I thought I was coming up on a lake or a river, but instead it was just early morning fog rising up off the ground. Very atmospheric! A few hundred meters inside the park, I discovered in rapid succession kudu, hawk, elephant, baboon and African Stoopid Bird (a name we came up with last year for some winged creature for whom "birdbrain" would be a compliment) and felt my general spirits rise. I then saw giraffes, wildebeest and zebras and felt as if I was really back in the bush again, where anything can wait for you behind the next bend in the road.
Foggy, foggy dew.
Kudu.
Hawk.
Ellie.
Baboon.
African stoopid bird.
Giraffes. The natural doofus of the bush.
Wildebeest, aka gnu.
Zebra.
I then came upon my first "new" animal for the year; four Southern ground hornbills came waddling through the trees, looking very much like elderly, distinguished gentlemen out on a Sunday walk. Shortly thereafter, I made a left turn onto a gravel road, going north. This was the S12, and it afforded me a very close encounter with two elephants.
Southern ground hornbills.
The first one I saw was quite small, possibly a female. Then I saw the other one, which was a big old bull with only one tusk. They were slowly dismantling a tree, stuffing branches into their giant mouths. I parked for a while, observing these two giants, and in my mind, I thought up a story that he was a cranky old survivor, with oncoming Alzheimer's, who insisted on eating the toughest, least edible tree around, while the missus sighed and pretended to play along while secretly just eating grass. Well, you have to amuse yourself on these long drives.
The long-suffering missus.
Ole' one-tusk.
I had them all to myself, not a car came in either direction, And that was just as well, because by now my eyes were watering from the pressure that was building in my bladder. You see, the last two months before leaving, my doctor had put me on some tiny pills whose sole function was to make me need to go when it really, really wasn't convenient. I drove around a bend (I couldn't very well expose myself to the elephants; they'd fall over laughing at my tiny trunk), looked left and right for signs of danger and got out of the car.
It was a very liberating experience, urinating in the free. Breaking all the rules, knowing that at any moment a leopard lurking in the grass may be about to heighten its cholesterol dangerously. Of course, nothing happened and I drove on to a small concrete watering hole put up by park authorities; these are scattered around the park and can sometimes provide for entertainment, but at this one, only a single, solitary elephant was drinking. He gave me a guilty look, much like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
He does look like he's caught with one hand in the cookie jar, doesn't he?
Back on the H7 again, I drove a little bit back towards where I'd come from, as there was a dam right next to the road, and water draws animals like few other things. The dam itself only held impalas at that time, so I drove up a small sandy road just west of it. I immediately encountered a line of cars jockeying for the best position to film a single, male lion. He was strolling calmly through the bush while the drivers miraculously avoided colliding with each other, desperate to get a picture of him. Instead of waiting patiently at the end of a long line of morons, I drove the car off the road and onto the side, a nice and even patch of grassy soil. I sped past them, got in a couple of decent shots, then went back again. I don't think anyone even registered what I'd done.
The King.
I moved on to Satara Camp, where I was to spend the night. Now, at this point I was only registering, but as I was cleaning out the car before entering reception, I managed to throw the reservation papers out with the thrash. I had to go in and explain my predicament and showed them the electronic booking, which I had thankfully downloaded to my hard drive. The lady behind the counter was neither amused nor impressed, and I guessed from her chatter in her native language with her colleagues that she was badmouthing the stupid white devil or something to that effect.
I had a quick lunch, which consisted of a half-eaten egg, bacon and cheese sandwich (what's with the food this time?), then went back on the road again, this time taking the H1-3 south towards Skukuza. I quickly encountered a solitary giraffe very close to the road. He was very picturesque, so I spent some time clicking away at him. Then I made a turn due east along H-7 to N'wanetsi. Along this road, I encountered yet another new animal - an ostrich. A single bird was standing almost by the side of the road. He gave me a curious look, then went back to grazing. The only other thing on that road was a small family of giraffes.
A shiny, new animal!
At the end of the paved road, I turned north on S41. At the very beginning of it, I encountered a friendly, elderly English lady, who told me that she'd seen no fewer than five lions some way north, apparently sleeping off a good meal in the grass. So I sped off at a speed possibly a bit on the high side for that kind of road. A little ways off I just had to stop to take pics of baby zebras. They had ginger hair, and after I'd photographed them, they went and hid behind their mothers to hide their shame. I also discovered that zebras would often stand facing each other, with their heads on the other's back. Not sure if this is to protect each other from the sun or whatever but it's a strange sight.
Much redder in tone than the parents.
Hiding behind mom. In the back, you can see two zebras practicing the neck protection thing.
After the zebras followed what was maybe the most awe-inspiring event so far in Kruger. A large group of elephants, upwards of 30 was walking along the side of the road and in the grass and among the trees on either side. It had cute little babies, and big ole' veterans, one of whom made it clear she was crossing the road and that it was my choice whether to be in her way or not. No aggression, just a quiet, no-nonsense determination. I stayed a few more minutes to get some pics of one of the babies with parents, then I sped on toward the lions.
Crossing, regardless of my plans.
Family idyll.
Sadly, by the time I made it up there, only one lion was to be seen and I'm not even sure he was in the original cast of five. He had just gone down behind a bush, but fortunately this was in a place where the ground was very even and easy to drive on, so I went off road for a couple of meters and got him from another angle; a few other cars followed suit. After a minute or two, he decided that this wasn't a good place after all and went to sleep in the tall grass instead. Only the occasional ridiculous flicker of a long tail up in the air revealed that one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet was napping there.
Now I lay me down to sleep.
Back on paved road again, I still had some time before sundown, so I went back to the dam. This time there was more action, with giraffes, elephants and some baboons frolicking in the afternoon sun. The giraffes were quenching their thirst when a small elephant decided to show who was boss. He stomped the ground and gave some loud trumpeting noises and baboons and giraffes started scattering, then he went down to the water to fill up.
Note the water spray when the giraffes drink.
Small, but feisty.
However, the noises had awoken the attention of a much larger elephant on the other side of the little lake. He was hastily strolling towards the other elephant, while baboons and other animals fled out of his way. He managed to sort of bully the smaller one into moving quite some way towards the edge of the water, but it ended up with both drinking together.
Muddy giant on his way to check out the commotion.
Baboons scattering.
Waterbuck scattering.
I then took the S12 for the second time, out of sheer desperation for something to do. The two elephants that had been harvesting the tree were long gone, but there was more life over at the manmade waterhole; ellies, giraffes, zebras and a solitary gnu were all hanging out. A little farther down the road, a small herd of giraffes was hanging out. I stopped to take pictures of the young 'uns, and had a laugh when one made a rejected attempt at hanky panky.
Ellies at the waterhole.
A #metoo moment.
A last swing by the dam showed some more baboons, and I got in some pics of 'em, especially the babies were cute. I had to wind my side window shut, since a huge male was walking down the side of the road, not giving a fuck about the cars, but otherwise it was uneventful. A little further on, an ellie was crossing the road while a giraffe looked on; for some reason I got the idea that I was seeing a rendezvous I wasn't supposed to.
All aboard the mommy train.
"We can't go on meeting like this".
Finally, I drove north and onto yet another gravel road, S90. Here, the zebras were having a convention; hundreds of them, I kid you not, spread out across several square miles of land. One of them stood stock still while I took pictures, I could swear the fucker was posing. By now, it was getting close to sunset and I had to turn around to make it back to camp. After a highly forgetful dinner, I tucked in.
Fucker's posing, isn't he?
No comments:
Post a Comment