Kruger Day 6 - Satara Day 2

After our night of no sleep we decided to drive to Orpen Camp 40km away to get coffee. We and the tent had survived a cyclone but it was still raining and I didn’t hold out much chance of making it to Orpen let alone see anything on the way.
The sun didn’t really rise it just went from dark to light within a few minutes and by the time we reached Orpen at 7am we had seen, Giraffe, Impala, Warthog, Wilderbeast and quite a few Saddleback Stork.
We stopped for coffee for 30 minutes and on the way back about 4km into our journey we spotted a huge male lion with a black Mayne wandering across our closest horizon line. Funnily enough he walked straight through a herd of Impala and they were just staring at him, then he roared a few times and the ran off. We sat here for 10 minutes and even though he went out of sight we could clearly hear him.
Then 20km down the road we came to 2 cars just stopped at the roadside and looked across and saw an African Wild dog just laying there. He was motionless and our first thought was someone had hit him with a car. Then 2 more stood up behind him. Then another. They were completely invisible even though we were just 10 feet away. Then a Hyena walked out from behind a bush and just stood there looking at the wild dogs.
As I photographed, more cars pulled up and blocked us in. I had a game ranger next to us who I had told about the wild dogs and nobody can ask them to move so I just clicked away getting shots for 5 minutes until a gap opened up and I moved out, letting another car take my place. The rule of the parks is 90 seconds to take your pictures then move on to let others see. Unless you’re on your own or there’s viewing space.
We arrived back at camp at 9:30am. The rain had stopped and once I’d parked I got all the wet stuff out and put it on the roof of the camper. By 10am it was already 30°c and by 10:30am everything was dry so we made cheese toasties for breakfast then went off to have a shower.
At midday we headed over to the restaurant to use there Wi-Fi and have a cold beer, it was now 35°c and there were no clouds left. It’s much better than yesterday.
At 2pm we headed back to camp and were joined by 2 agama that were beautiful colours with blue heads and a yellowy green body. As soon as they climbed the trees next to us they disappeared. They to were enjoying the sun.
At 3:30pm we headed back out and Ellie wanted to drive the same road as this morning so we turned right out of the gate and right again.
6km up we saw a couple of cars stopped at the roadside. It was exactly where we had seen the wild dogs and hyena this morning. Surely they couldn’t still be in the same place.
As I crept slowly up the wrong side of the road we saw them again. 5 wild dog just laying there. Then one got up and started moving off and making an excited puppy sound. 3 of the others got up and went to him, nuzzling his nose and wagging their tails. Then one of the three came over to the other 2 laying down and started licking their mouths and wagging their tails.
You could see 3 of them just wanted to get going, just like a dog when you say you’re going for a walk, running backwards and forwards, saying come on, I’m ready.
The other 2 got up, had a big stretch. Greeted the other 3 with lots of licking and tail wagging and then ran off. The hunt had started.
We stayed there for a few minutes saying how lucky we were and then from behind a bush a hyena took off after the wild dog like a stalker in the night.
That was the same hyena that we’d seen earlier and he’d stayed watching that pack of wild dogs all day crouched behind a bush out of sight.
We headed down the road and at 5:10pm I turned around and headed back to the gate. There was a huge queue about 1km before we got home and someone said they had seen lions but they had said that this morning on the way home and we couldn’t see them then or now.
Back at camp it was 6pm and we headed straight to the restaurant for dinner and on the way back to our tent at 7:30pm the lions were roaring outside the fence. It is an unbelievably scary sound that penetrates right to your soul and as we got into bed at 8pm it sounded like the male lions were having a proper stand off right outside the fence.
Tomorrow we will go looking for them.Read more