Mahudzi

We were up at 4:45am before the monkeys and before most of the birds. It was still dark and while I made coffee for us we could hear the hyena in the distance.
We left camp at 5:30am as soon as the gate opened and unlike Satara camp the roads here were dead quiet.
The bush off the roadside was so thick we wouldn’t have seen a pride of lions further than 20foot away so we didn’t hold out much hope of spotting anything.
Our original plan was to leave the tar road and take the gravel track down to Englegurt dam and viewpoint as we turned onto the gravel we passed a huge open space with a massive watering hole and except for an elephant it was empty.
Halfway down the bush was so thick I just decided to turn around and head back to camp. We’d both felt we’d waisted our time coming to this camp because you can’t see anything unless it crosses the road.
Just as we approached the junction of the tar road we came to the watering hole we had passed just 10 minutes before and this time it was teeming with animals.
There were whole herds of Zebra and Wilderbeast and even Buffalo. As we sat and watched the Zebra tussling in the dirt with each other a Jackel came down from the bush had a drink and then ran back. Then the buffalo came.
We must have spent 90 minutes just at the watering hole watching the animals and there hierarchy. Finally some warthog turned up. These were the first warthog we’d seen since entering the park.
We left the watering hole at 9:15 and headed back to camp passing 2 tortoise in the road and we also had our first sighting of Hartebeest. All in all it was a good morning.
By 10am we were back at our camp and we made a nice breakfast of cheese and tomato Brai roll toasted with the pie iron, then we headed over to the restaurant to use there Wi-Fi and have a couple of beers.
Our original trip consisted of leaving the park for a day and travelling up the panoramic route but after speaking to the South Africans in the pool the other day who said it is a dangerous route we’ve changed our minds. We also had a day booked at another camp called Skukuza but we headed to reception and asked them to change some dates for us. Tomorrow we were already heading back to Satara, then Skukuza, then out of the park to the chubby pig and then back to Satara. We asked reception to change our bookings so we arrived at Satara tomorrow and then stayed there, Cancelling everything else and leaving Satara on the 17th giving us 5 days at Satara camp which is less messing about with the tent and moving about.
With reception sorting out the rest of our stay in the Kruger we headed back to camp where Ellie headed to the toilet and brought back a German guy who spent an hour sitting with us telling us his life story of life on the road all over the world and how to buy cars in foreign countries. He was quite fascinating especially telling us about Columbia, Peru and Patagonia.
At 3:10pm, just after we had got rid of our very chatty German friend who Ellie is now friends with on Facebook, we headed back down to the waterhole we were at this morning.
As soon as we arrived we were in luck with 10 elephants drinking from the waterhole surrounded by Zebra.
Within a few minutes a Jackal came down to drink and then moved off to the side laying down watching as herds of Zebra, Wilderbeast and Buffalo moved in and the elephants moved in.
The Jackal was waiting for the same thing as us, a predator, and he was there to take the scraps.
We waited and waited watching the herd and nothing came so at 5:20pm we left giving us 10 minutes on the road incase of a sighting. Obviously we were disappointed and I was just saying all the moving parts were there for a predator but we just couldn’t wait any longer.
Then we both caught a yellow glimpse moving on the right hand side and there it was just standing there. A Cheetah just 40 meters away coming towards us.
I stopped, backed up a car length and waited. We couldn’t believe our luck. We had the whole road to ourselves nothing behind and nothing infront and he walked out into the road just feet away from us crossing from one side to the other and then disappearing again.
Within 1 minute we had spotted him, photographed him, and he’d gone.
Then a car came down the road behind us and we told them what we had seen but they didn’t see it. It was our moment.
We arrived back at camp at 5:55pm super excited and headed straight for todays sightings board to put our cheetah on the map. Then we went into the shop to get bread and sausages for dinner and then back to our camp.
By the time we had put the fans back in the tent, plugged the fridge back into electric and got the tables and chairs out of the tent it was dark.
Ellie cooked us sausage sandwiches for dinner and as we sat down to eat them 2 bushbabies emerged from the side of tent coming towards me. I don’t know whether they bite but they do look extremely cute and then the first one got on his back legs held his hands out and walked straight up to me looking like he wanted a cuddle. We just couldn’t believe it, all this time spent trying to capture bushbabies at Marloth and here’s 2 almost on my lap.
They went into the drinking tap drain right next to me where we get our fresh water and then just sat in the tree next to us just watching. Ellie wouldn’t let me feed them any of our fruit.
After washing up we just sat outside, looking up into the trees for the bushbabies and listening to the hyena 20 meters away the other side of the fence.Read more