Maroela Rest Camp Day 3

We were woken up at 4:30am by car doors banging and the rain pouring down. Lots of people were leaving.
I got up and made coffee and waited an hour before I finally took tea and biscuits into Ellie so she would get up.
It was helling it down with rain and this was going to be set in until Tuesday, hence our storm tarp and sidewalls going on yesterday.
At 6am we left to go on a wet game drive and made our way to Satara rest camp. It was interesting to see what was enjoying the rain and what wasn’t. The elephants seemed to love it with big herds strolling across the plains. All the wildebeest were stood with their backs to the weather and all the zebra were stood with their heads facing it. The impala were taking shelter under trees looking miserable.
At Satara camp we had toasties for breakfast and hot drinks then out of Satara we turned left and then left again towards the timbavati picnic site. It was now gravel and mud for 70km and I engaged 4 wheel drive as we ploughed into the bush. Animals on the gravel roads seem to be scarce and now like a few other drivers in their 4x4’s we thought we’d have an off-road test.
The trail rolled up and down and the further down the track we went the wetter it got and all the bottoms of the hills were flooding. Several times we ended up sliding sideways and slipping about but ghost found traction at the last minute. On we went ploughing through floods of water completely submerging us until finally we popped back out on the H7 tar road and we made our way back to camp.
The trailer was faring well with all the water being diverted off the roof and walls and we made a cup of tea and went back to bed for an hour until it rained so hard we got back up at 12:30pm.
It was damp, and it felt cold at just 19°c and it was now so wet outside the birds and squirrels were now taking shelter with us in the awning. The monkey tried but after stealing a bag of pasta from our kitchen yesterday while I popped to get something from the car that little bastard can stay outside and get wet.
We had a cup of tea outside and then went back inside to watch tv for a couple of hours until 4:30pm when I could finally light a Braai. I brought the charcoal chimney and Braai stand under the awning and lit it in the doorway and once the chimney was hot enough I tipped the charcoal into the Braai and we sat around it to keep warm until I started cooking. We had Wors and mash with vegetables and once that was done we paddled over to the washing up area where there were lots of people taking shelter from the weather and trying to dry stuff out. Lots of people had been flooded out.
After washing up we went back to camp and made a cup of tea and sat around the Braai keeping warm until bedtime.Read more