Ngwamutsatsa

At 5am we were up with Coffee on the go and at 6:10am we were leaving Letaba Camp for the last time and heading back to Satara.
It was only a 40 mile drive and TomTom said we’d be there at 8am which was way to early so I poodled along at 20kph looking in the bushes and across the grassy plains for anything other than our usual suspects. It was a lot cooler today and as we drove the sky thickened up and turned grey, then really dark grey and then the rain started falling. On previous days it has rained but so little it just dried within minutes and hasn’t affected our viewing at all. Today wasn’t going to be like that.
We arrived at Satara camp at 9:30am. To early we thought for a cheeky early check in so I decided to just drive into the camp ground because nobody checks you in and look for a decent spot next to the fence to watch the hyena. Unfortunately all the good spots with electric by the fence had gone and we desperately needed electric now because little Simba has got such a weak battery it will only charge one thing at a time and we need that to be the fridge. Everything else including the sat nav is running off power banks which we need to charge overnight.
We found a nice spot under a big shady tree which also gave us some shelter from the rain and I parked the camper and then we headed over to the restaurant for breakfast.
We found out last time we were here that this is the slowest restaurant for service in the world and today was no exception and 2 cold coffees and a warm breakfast cost us 90 minutes of time but only £6 in cash so for killing time and saving money that was a good deal.
Back at camp we pitched the tent which was a nightmare,trying to hammer in basic tent pegs with a rubber hammer into ground like concrete. Even when we got the tent half the crappy pegs were bent and even though I kept straightening them they were now weak and useless.
I was desperate to get the whole tent pinned down as the wind was getting up and the rain was getting harder so we walked over to the shop and brought 4 decent tent pegs which did help us out but now we were soaked to the skin.
Ellie put our mattresses and sleeping bags in while I sorted out the electrics and it felt secure and cosy.
Our tent has an inner piece of canvas with 4 mesh windows which zip open and because of the heat we’ve had them open all the time and it also has a fly sheet with 4 zip open windows that we can either roll up for air flow or zip down closed or peg open on guide ropes. We pegged them open for airflow then left camp to drive the Satara to Orpen road because Ellie wanted to look for lions.
On the way out we then checked in and it was 12:45pm. We turned right out of the gate and then right again and then took the 40km drive to Orpen Camp and it rained all the way.
Orpen Camp has no tent camping, Just Chalets and we thought we’d use there restaurant for lunch when we got there but on arrival at 2:45pm we realised there isn’t a restaurant just a coffee shop that only serves coffee so we had a latte each and then started our return journey at 3:15pm.
It rained and rained and I didn’t want to find lions in this weather. The roads started to fill up and whenever there was a hill at the bottom would be a huge puddle. I stuck to just 30kph all the way home as there were lots of tortoises on the road and we played 2 of our favourite games all the way, the first one is poo or tortoise because you can’t tell if it’s elephant poo or a tortoise until your right ontop of it the second game is snake or stick.
Here you have to avoid driving over poo to protect dung beetles so everybody avoids it which is a saving grace for the tortoises.
Back at camp the rain and wind were really getting up and our tent had developed quite a few leaks due to the number of pinprick holes in the roof of the outer fly sheet and the rain had come in the flaps on the side straight on to my bed. Luckily just the sheet was wet.
We did the inner windows up and once again it felt cosy and then with nothing to do I put the tablet on our rucksack and we watched the new grand tour for 2 hours while the rain got worse.
At 7:30pm we decided to head out to get pizza at the restaurant and I took that chance to do the out zips up as my clothes were still wet. At the restaurant it was packed so we settled in for a long wait but fortunately the pizza place was dead and we had food and drinks within 20 minutes. It was at this point on the news we realised we were being hit by a tropical cyclone that had just decimated Mozambique and Malalane and there were aid adverts all over Ellie’s Facebook feed, that’s why the rain and wind were so bad. 45minuted later we were back at camp. It was now 8:45pm and our bedtime.
I stayed up watching my tablet and getting dripped on every 20 minutes and Ellie tried to get to sleep.
At 1am I was back up. I thought I was sweating because I was so clammy and sat up and checked my mattress, which being sponge had absorbed all the water coming in the bottom of the tent, and the bigger drips coming in the roof. I put my hand on the ground sheet and it felt like a water balloon with all the water that was underneath us, we were literally floating and just the pegs were keeping us here.
I did go back to sleep but woke up once an hour until 3:30am when I just gave up and to my surprise Ellie started talking to me because she hadn’t been asleep at all.Read more