I think I was the last of the early risers out the gate this morning. Half the camp was already moving when I headed for the ablutions block at 5:30. By the time I got my stuff in the car, I had missed the line up at the gate for the 6 o'clock opening, but I was on the road by 6:10.
I took a dirt road that angled southeast and in the first hour I saw exactly one small herd of impala.
So much for all the best viewing being early morning. I intended to be out the Malalane Gate by noon, but it is hard to judge distances and times when you aren’t going a steady speed and keep stopping, so I constantly worried.
The best viewing today was definitely the Crocodile River Road. It follows the river with overlooks. Lots of impala. Some nyala. (The marking on the rump looks like a target from behind.)
A huge herd of buffalo in the river, but a few up close on the road.
Some close up warthogs, and a couple wildebeest (gnu), but not the large herds I remembered from years ago.
At one point I stopped for three giraffe only to realize there were two more, plus a herd of impala and some zebra in the distance.
In the end I turned a 4 1/2-hour drive back to Pretoria into an 11-hour day with my meanderings.
I wish Kruger had more places to pull over, get out and stretch. Understandably, you aren’t supposed to ever get out of your car. You never know when a predator may be lurking. Pilanesberg (where we are going tomorrow) has protected blinds overlooking watering holes where you can park inside a fence. With bathrooms! Kruger has one picnic area in the southern part of the park (at least that is all that is marked on the map), and the scattered camps where there is nothing but a bathroom, gas station and snack shop. That means hours of sitting in the car. Today I had to go all the way to Crocodile River Camp just so I could get out and stretch my legs.
Didn’t see any lions in my three days. The guides on the hike said Lower Sabe or Crocodile River is the place to see them. I tried to get into Lower Sabe when I made my reservations, but they were already fully booked. Next time…
I have to confess to Steve that, with the exception of one group of kudu, I don’t think I saw any more going slowly than I would have seen going his speed of 30-50 kph. Also, it is hard to watch both sides of the road and drive! Two in the car is twice as many eyes.
I left the gate at 12:20. When I stopped for gas and a stretch at a one-stop (gas, restaurants, gift shop, bathrooms) just east of Middleburg, I found this small game park out back, no doubt to motivate regular travelers to stop there instead of 10 miles up the road.
Made it back to the camp where Steve’s conference was a couple minutes after 5 despite being stopped by police. When he pulled me over, I was afraid I had been speeding since without cruise control it is hard to stay in line with cars whipping around you, but, no, it was a routine stop and search (something they can do here for no reason). He questioned my license. I should have just told him it was international since, as Steve reminded me later, it was all the car rental people wanted. We drove on our US licenses the whole time we lived in South Africa. I smiled sweetly and said I was a gogo (granny) and hadn’t done anything wrong. He wanted me to turn around and go back up the road 10 kms to pay a fine at the police station that he thought was about R3000 ($200). I said I didn’t have R3000, only enough for my tolls to get back to Pretoria. He said that would be a problem. All this is smiling back and forth. I have no doubt that he would have liked me to make an offer for the problem to disappear, but I wouldn’t know how to do that without getting myself in real trouble for attempted bribery. Not that I would do it if I did know how! In the end I asked for directions to the police station. He gave them, and I pulled off, but he called after me, “Go on; it’s fine.” So I did.
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