Hanging out with the Locals

I was up at 7am but Ellie was up an hour earlier at 6am. She couldn’t wait for me to check the camera traps and by the time I got up she had already fed the animals and most of them had left. I was left with one lonely warthog and 4 impala.
Just as I sat down with my coffee we heard rustling in the bushes and then a family of mongoose came running through. As there were no eggs they didn’t stop this time and they all squeaked and chattered while they ran by.
At 10:30am we headed out with one of the locals and she showed us the ins and outs of Marloth park and was very informative on the rules and regulations of the place and how things are starting to change, mainly for the better. As it stands half of the houses in Marloth park are residential and half are holiday homes or rentals. In certain areas there’s lots of building work going on but there will only ever be the original 4000 stands available.
Just after lunchtime we headed back to our house for some lunch and Ellie made us new potatoes, salad and Wors sausage. Then after lunch we headed back out to the shops where we brought 20 bin bags to cover the lights in our garden tonight. Then we went back home for a dip in the pool. It is currently 41°c today and very muggy.
At 5pm we left our house to go one of the bird hides and watch the sunset and look for animals in the Kruger. We sat there in the hide with the sun directly in front of us. We felt like we were melting.
There were hippos in the river directly below us talking to each other, they all sound like Jaba the Hutt but there were no other animals.
Sunset was good with the sign disappearing on the horizon and then the sky turning a purple colour. It was only then that the temperature started to fall a little.
We got back to our place at 7pm. It was now dark and I got to work covering the lights with bin bags while Ellie sorted out food for the bushbabies. Then I set my tripod up right in front of the feeding table with a camera trap on it and situated another camera trap over looking the fence line which Ellie had lined with bananas. Then I got back in the pool for an hour.
At 9pm there was no sign of the bushbabies but we did have 2 warthog cuddled up next to each other right next to my tripod so we gave up waiting and headed indoors to peep through the blinds. At 9:30pm with no sign of the bushbabies we headed to bed. It was still 30°c outside.Read more