Maroela Rest Camp Day 2

We were up at 4:15am and out of the gate at first light at 5am. Today we were going to take a recommended route for seeing cheetah and leopard.
We left camp and turned left again heading towards Satara and half way there we turned right onto the S36 gravel road.
Yesterday evening I let some air out of the tyres and it was a good thing I did because the gravel track was unbelievably corrugated. We hardly saw anything all the way to the picnic site where we stopped for a nature break and then turned back on ourselves for a kilometre before turning right again onto the S23.
This road now followed the river and for the first half we didn’t see anything but as we approached the waterholes more herd animals started appearing including waterbok and elephant. Still there were no leopards and we searched every tree and every rock.
By the time we reached the Tar road again it was 9am and we were done. We’d gone bushblind from searching the bush so hard and we were tired and hungry.
We went to Satara and to the Cattle Baron takeaway and ordered a wrap and a pizza to go along with 2 coffees. As today is Saturday it was already filling up with day visitors and we had 6 game vehicles parked next to us when we left.
From Satara we headed back down the H7 tar road to Orpen and our campsite spotting just a few herd animals on the way and a pregnant Hyena heading into a storm drain for the day.
We got back to camp at 11am and I was disappointed at what we had seen and really disappointed I hadn’t seen a leopard but we have had excellent sightings on this trip so I can’t complain too much.
Back at camp Ellie had a nap and then we pulled the storm tarp over the roof and pegged it down. We chilled for the rest of the afternoon and after our Braai we put the sidewalls on the awning. Bad weather is expected over night and we are now prepared.En savoir plus