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KNP May 2019

May 2019
  • Jill Cairns
Time to go to the Gamerezoo again! Read more
  • Jill Cairns

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  • South Africa South Africa
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  • Jill CairnsTravelerKNP May 2019
    1
    11111

    Letaba Day 2

    May 21, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Because POps wasn't feeling so good yesterday, we made no plans for this morning. Started out by sleeping until 7! Decided we didn't want to do very much, so after breakfast we drove to Engelhard dam. It was mostly mopani but there were some loops to the river which yielded a few waterbirds, mostly Egyptian geese. The loop roads are in a bad state - we did some serious 4x4-ing. Even the major gravel road was badly corrugated. And the dam was a great diappointment - no water that we could see and no access either. So we had to be content with a few herds of elephant and/or buffalo and waterbuck and impala. Did see some warthogs which we haven't seen in the last couple of days...
    POps made us lamb curry for lunch (feels his stomach can always handle curry), and after the compulsory sleep he wrote his diary while I came to the laundromat so that we don't go home in 3-day old clothes.
    Birding was not bad today: on the way back from the dam we checked out Letaba's Day Visitors' area and found crested barbet and collared sunbird! The Day Visitors' area is lovely (see pic below) - even has it's own pool. Only drawback is that is does not look on to the river.
    Tomorrow we may be more adventurous...    Read more

  • Jill CairnsTravelerKNP May 2019
    1
    11111

    Letaba Day 3

    May 22, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    So we woke at 6 with cars going out to see what they could see. We thought to drive to Olifants and have lunch there, so we did.
    Drove the gravel road past Engelhard dam. This time we saw water in the dam, so yesterday's picture is OF the dam - we were above not below the wall!
    Special today was spotting a Sharpe's grysbok. No leopard and no kori bustards :-(
    We did get saddle-billed stork and spur-wing goose. We sat for about half an hour watching hundreds of vultures soaring around and coming in to land in the bush about 50 m from us. They were coming in from miles around - there was either a big convention or a carcass but we couldn't see, hear or smell anything. Most frustrating.
    Lunch at Olifants on the deck was nice (but VERY expensive!).
    We drove by Balule just to say Hi - but there was nothing at the Causeway. Nothing much the rest of the way back to Letaba either. Got back about 4.
    We went for a walk in the camp, the river is very pretty but didn't have anything new. Nevertheless it was a nice walk. Came home to supper and early bed on account of we hadn't had our middagslapie.    Read more

  • Jill CairnsTravelerKNP May 2019
    1
    211

    Change of plan: Letaba to Kokanje

    May 23, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Yesterday I started with a sore throat and the big meal we had at Olifants set POps' tummy off, so we were in bed before 8. That meant we woke about 5 and couldn't go back to sleep. We both felt under the weather so decided to pack up and go home. We were out of there by 06h13!
    It was foggy and miserable all the way to Phalaborwa, so we saw nothing - EXCEPT just outside Letaba a pack of hyena with little dark pups and about 10 km from the Phalaborwa gate a pack of wild dogs! What a way to end a trip!
    We were concerned that a female hyena was injured by the way she was lying so we called the emergency number and a sleepy voice said "I'll call the ranger." Whether he ever did we'll never know. She seemed to be the apha female as the pups were all bouncing around her.
    And seriously we saw not another animal in all 48 kms 'cos of the mist.
    Left Phalaborwa about 08h30 and headed for Tzaneen. Since we weren' t going to stay there we decided to check out Magoebaskloof Hotel. Of course we got lost a few times trying to find the R71; it's a much better road than the R528 but it seemed longer. The hotel looked nice - it will have to wait for another day.
    We got home about 13h30, so it was a long day's drive. A sleep was definitely called for!
    It's always nice to be home - I will see the doc tomorrow morning...    Read more

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