South Africa Day 9: Return to Rissington

On Wednesday, I was up pretty early and got out of camp before 6:30AM. I dawdled for a few minutes, going north first, and I did get in some pics and videos of the jackals again, but I soon found there was nothing exciting happening, so I turned around and went south. That way, it was the usual story - zebras, wildebeest, impala. An ellie or a giraffe every now and then, but nothing to write home about.

The jackals were still hanging out at Satara.


Prolly mom and pup.


I did the loop to Orpen dam and got some pics of hippos and a croc at the dam, then I stuffed face at Tshokwane. They had a breakfast dish just called something like "old style" and it was tasty. I also had a decent honey chicken jaffle. I impressed my cook with a heartfelt "thank you" in Swazi (Niabonga!) and drove off.

Lizard at Orpen Dam.


Croc at Orpen Dam.


Hippo at Orpen Dam.


No problem, from what I've seen they're perfectly capable of feeding themselves.


Bird stealing food leftovers from the table.


The jaffle.


Kudu sausage and pap - a corn (maize) based pulp.


Just south of there, the road forked, and I took the one less traveled by, which led to Lower Sabie. I'd seen lions down there before and figured it was as good as the other one, because each that morning equally lay, etc.

The road took me high up on a hilltop, where there were two lookout points, one on each side, separated by about a kilometer and both confusingly called Nkumbe. At the last one was a small hide where I talked to a French family who informed me that they'd seen cheetahs at Sabie Camp, but that was three and a half hours previous. Cursed again. Anyways, the scenery up there and the views were marvelous.

Looking east, towards Mozambique.


Looking west, towards the Drakenberg mountains.


There were buffalo down on the plain.


Further south I drove a short distance on a dusty gravel road which shook my kidneys to the point that I just gave up and turned around. I did however stop to just gaze for a long time at a nice, big family of ellies.

One heartwarming scene came at the very end, when I had turned around and was going the other way. A big ellie came shooting out of the bushes to my left, while on the right I could see a tiny one huffing and puffing and looking like he was charging me. Young ellies do this sometimes to impress with how tough they are, so it wouldn't be out of character at all. But fortunately (for us both) the target of his emotions was the other, bigger elephant, which I can only surmise was his mother. There was much intertwining of trunks and touching of face. Wewy, wewy cute.

Reunited.


Walking off together. I lubs ellies.


Sadly, I reached Sabie without any cats or predators of any kind, so I pressed on to Skukuza for lunch. On the way I got in a couple of close ups of Mr. McGoof and a view of the Sabie in full flow. Quite the difference from my three previous wintry visits.

The Sabie in full flow. Well, fullererer than in winter at least.


The McGoofs.


At Skukuza, I got some entertainment in the form of a hippo with a baby, who was swimming in the waters below. Then I left for Numbi gate, by way of first Transport Dam (empty, except for some hippos), then Shitlhave Dam (where a herd of cape buffalos were getting out of the water, except for one straggler who seemed to absolutely refuse the very idea).

Lunch at the Cattle Baron of Skukuze seldom fails to impress. This is good, solid grub at reasonable prices.


A hippo I spotted from my table at Skukuza.


Vultures not far from Skukuza.


Video from Shitlhave Dam.


The heard leaving the water.


With one absolutely refusing to get out of the water.


I also made a little detour to Pretoriuskop, where I drove a couple of loops but to no avail. I ended my seventh lionless day by driving to my beloved Hazyview hotel, the Rissington Inn, where my bed was made wet from my many tears. Sniffle.