7th October – stay at Tamboti Rest Camp
Well the morning started in a bit
of a panic as Wayne’s alarm went off at 5am but we was unable to turn it off
until the battery was taken out! I think by this point we had woken up quite a
few of our neighbours – ooops!
As we headed out of camp at
5.30am along the H7 towards the Nsemani Dam. It wasn’t long before we saw a
lone wildebeest – not sure how long he’ll last on his own! We then saw a small
herd of giraffes, and one was lying down with only his neck and head visible –
this was a first for us to see.
Further along the H7 we saw 2
hyenas walking parallel to the road and then a very large elephant bull in must
who started walking straight towards us – we drove on fairly quickly. We then
saw a further 3 hyenas crossing the road as well as lots of zebras, giraffes,
kudu, waterbuck and some dwarf mongoose. We arrived at the dam and saw a fish
eagle, saddle bill stork and lots of zebras, waterbuck, wildebeest, hippos and
of course ducks.
After eating some breakfast (coco pops) we headed on
past the dam towards Satara. Along here we saw a small herd of buffalo and a
large herd of waterbuck. We then drove along the S100 where we saw some rangers
on foot – brave people!
We also saw a large herd of
imapala, waterbuck and elephants. Near the end of the S100 we stopped to look
at 2 fish eagles siting in a tree when we noticed a lioness walk straight
underneath them.
She was on the move and we followed her for
around 1km until we lost her and so drove along the H4 before stopping at
N’vanetsi Picnic Spot briefly and then continuing along the H6. The road was
very quiet. We did see 3 giraffes at a watering hole looking very nervous but
we couldn’t see why, the only thing we saw were 3 warthogs running past them.
Other than that the only other animal we saw was a bateleur eagle.
We stopped off at Satara to
refuel before driving back to camp along the H7. It wasn’t long before we saw a
very large elephant bull eating at the side of the road. He then decided to
cross and almost walked straight into a car that was parked in its path.
We also saw 5 female ostriches
but no males in site – maybe they were on a hen weekend!
At the dam we saw 2 elephant
bulls, one looked quite young and we saw him run towards the older one, clearly
trying to scare him off, but as he got closer he seemed to realised how much
bigger the other bull was so changed direction and charged the ducks instead –
quite funny! Apart from this there was just some impala and kudu but otherwise
pretty quiet.
After a rest back at our hut, we
went out again at 3pm driving back along the H7 towards Nsemani dam. Along the
way we saw some giraffes, waterbuck and then elephants all in the riverbed
drinking. At the dam we saw an elephant
go for a swim – this is the first time we’ve seen it and it was pretty funny;
he would go under the water head first just leaving his bottom poking out above
the water! We also saw a rhino, this was the 4th out of the big five
we’d seen today; only leopard left!
At 4.30pm we left the dam and
drove leisurely back to camp – we didn’t want to have to rush back like the
night before. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see, just some impala,
elephant, kudu, a few wildebeest, zebra and a rabbit.
Back at camp we had a braai and a
few Savannah ciders as well as packing up our stuff ready to move camps
tomorrow. Whilst I was packing up I noticed that ¾ of a banana had been eaten
from the table by our bed. We guessed this must have been eaten by a squirrel
or mouse. I checked the other bananas to see if they were OK and any still
edible I put in the car for safe keeping!
The night was very windy, meaning
we could not hear any animals that came to camp and we missed the honey badgers
that had also visited – the only evidence of them being at our hut was our bin
knocked over and the contents raided.
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