South Africa - Day 4 - Into the bush
Sunday started with our flight to Houdspruit (Hode-sprite) – an airport that has a very long runway and a small building. We will be spending the next four days at the Nthambo Tree Camp in a private game reserve called Klaserie. The camp has 5 square houses up on high stilts and can, therefore, handle only 10 people at a time. It has a lodge with a living area, bar, poolside, dining room, buffet/coffee area.
The standard schedule includes:
- A morning ride into the veldt starting at 6AM followed by breakfast around 9AM
- An hour walk near the camp from about 11 to 12 followed by lunch around 2:30PM
- A evening ride from 3:30PM until about 7 followed by dinner around 7:30
- Then pretty early to bed since they wake us at 5:30
The food was good and plentiful, but not too much. We had well-balanced meals, but definitely lots more meat than we normally eat. Breakfast was cold cereal and fruit buffet, followed by eggs, sides, and fresh bread. Lunch was a variety — pizza, chicken wrap, rotini with chicken and veggies, fish and chips, etc., sometimes buffet, sometimes served. Dinner was soup (mushroom, broccoli, etc), main course by buffet -- meat and sides and a green salad, and a dessert. Our guides and tracker did double duty, acting as our waiters, making us sit and relax. By the way, 2 people were gluten free — and the kitchen was very good about alternative foods, including dessert!
On Sunday, we arrived in time for lunch and then the evening ride. The weather continues to be nice. Sunday was a little overcast (they had a little rain in the morning) but the temperature was in the 70s during the day and comfortable, but quite a bit cooler in the evening.
We saw buffalo, giraffe, and a boomslang snake just getting to the camp.
For our first trip out we were incredibly lucky. We came across a pair of African Buffalo sitting near the road and watched them for a while.
Then several small groups of giraffes.
As we were driving around we would periodically see small herds of impala and the occasional steenbok.
Also birds: gray lourie and hornbill.
The big hit of the day was the elephant family. There was a mother elephant, several adolescent elephants of various ages and one baby of a year or so. We drove up to them and just observed for a while.
Matt, our driver, mentioned that as long as we were quiet, didn’t stand up, didn’t block them with the vehicle that elephants usually leave us alone. But that sometimes a very young elephant would puff up his ears to look big, and start charging the jeep, not knowing any better, and that the rest of the herd would then shoo him back. And almost as if on cue, that exactly happened!
We had a similar young elephant think about charging us a few days later.
As it got dark we started looking for some nocturnal animals. There was a submerged hippo that we saw in a pond while it was light. We came back after dark and waited awhile to see if it came out, but it didn’t. It was pretty chilly by then.
We also kept our eyes open for some big cats but we didn’t see any, but we did come across a bull kudu which was an amazing sight (this is actually a kudu from another day, as the light was so poor).
Back for a dinner of lamb and vegetables, and a custard/gelatin for dessert.
Also here are Elizabeth, H(ugh) and Clare, Christine from Australia, although Christine, a friend of H and Clare, lives in Singapore (corporate real estate for Microsoft).
— Eileen and Larry 17-Aug-2014