Maroela Rest Camp Day 4

It stopped raining around 4am this morning and we had no plans for the day except to head to Satara camp and get meat from there butchery so we didn’t even get up until 5:30am.
We had a couple of cofffees and around 6:45am we left for a game drive. I reckoned animals would be in the hunt because of all the rain. The hyena around camp last night looked hungry and agitated. We were first out of the gate because of the bad weather and once on the tarmac we took a slow drive to Satara avoiding all the African land snails on the road. We saw lots of waterbok on the way.
At Satara camp we got hot drinks and changed our mind on shopping in the butchery and decided to head to the town of hoodspruit about 45 minutes outside of the Orpen gate and do a proper shop as the weather was so bad.
On the return journey we spotted 4 game vehicles queued on the opposite side of the road and as I pulled up I looked out of my window to see a huge leopard laying in the grass eying up a herd of impala and we had a direct view. I parked up and grabbed my camera and started shooting just as she stood up and started stalking. One of the impala started barking a warning and they all looked and the leopard increased speed and looked like she wasn’t going to rush them but I think it was a mock charge to see if any split off and they didn’t. Then the leopard ducked down again and went behind a tree and belly crawled into the long grass and just like that she went invisible and nobody saw her again. The stealth was incredible to see.
We made our way to Orpen gate, popped into reception to add a day stay to our camp in Maroela so we could dry out and then headed out and 3km down the road in the buffer zone there was a queue of cars. Instantly I said this must be lions and sure enough it was.
A pride of 8 lions had brought down a giraffe and had already gorged themselves and were sleeping it off.
We made our way to town and went into the spar and then went to refuel where the gas attendant pointed out we had a huge thorn in our back tyre so we then went to the tyre centre and got the tyre repaired. On the return journey we stopped at the lions again and this time 2 of them were ripping bits off the giraffe and the others were sleeping next to the road.
Back at camp we had just got back and were unloading the car and as I went to close the boot a monkey ran into the awning and stole our rolls. We weren’t the only one’s in camp having monkey problems and before long there were 3 of us out with catapults trying to scare the monkeys off but having little effect. They are super clever. They know who is armed and who isn’t and they know if you go out the awning all they have to do is go under the caravan. They a total bastards.
At 5pm a ranger came to sort out the monkeys and as soon as they saw him they ran off. He didn’t have to do anything. A couple of the campers were already complaining but we’re in their territory and what can you do? When we went to bed we were dreading going out in the morning incase the monkeys damaged the awning or the caravan.Read more