SKUKUZA REST CAMP, KRUGER NATIONAL PARK--Friday, March 21, 2014

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Skukuza Rest Camp, Kruger National Park. Friday, March 21st.

Started out this morning with big plans to drive a big loop staying mostly, we thought, on the H1-2, which is the paved road. As it went along the river, we stopped at each pull-off spot to look down at the sides of the river banks. At the first one, I spotted the Goliath Heron in the reeds. We then looked at a funny looking tree with small green/grey fruit hanging off the limbs and trunk.

We continued up the road, and then turned off on an open dirt road to look at some water holes noted on the park map. We kept going and spotted many animals and birds ON OUR OWN along this route. We began to get a bit uneasy at the fact we had not seen anyone along the way and we were not seeing signs back to the H1-2. Obviously, somewhere we had missed a turn. When we finally spotted a car coming from the other way, we rolled down the window and asked “where are we??” He told us we were on the S36 heading north and that if we went a bit further along this road we could shortly find the S34 that would take us back to the H1-3. He had a REALLY detailed map we would have liked to swipe!

Continued on our way until we had to cross a sandy stream. It didn’t look deep and so Valerie headed across only to have the motor die right in the middle of the stream and the RV sink down in the sand. Well, cuss word, cuss word!!! We had been instructed that under no circumstances we were to get out of the vehicle (in fact a fine, if caught) and to call the Wagonmaster or the Mechanic who would then call someone, who would come and help us, with an armed guard. Well, that is a good plan, but the cell phone only works, we learned by trying to call every number we had, in and around the rest camps.

So, there we sat–not happy campers at all. “When what to our wondering eyes should appear, but a young knight” in a butterfly research 4 X 4 van. Seeing that we were stuck, since we were obviously sitting smack dab in his way, he offered to pull us out. First, he turned around and then unloaded the rear of his van and got out a belt. We asked him about getting out of his vehicle and he said that he wasn’t worried about lions, but about elephants, and that there weren’t any around here. Then he crawled under our front bumper that was about 6 inches above the water, got on his knees, crawled under the chassis giving himself a half-bath, and hooked us up. He then slowly towed us out.

We could not thank him enough—and actually, we saw him the next day coming at us on another road. All we could do is smile and wave. We decided not to report this escapade to the group.

Finally found the junction we were looking for, actually marked (thank-you muchly), and turned right onto the Munywini Road also known as S-34. As we crossed over the Munywini River, I looked down and on a sand bank, I spotted a Saddle-Billed Stork looking through my binoculars. Unfortunately, this interesting, large stork with a yellow/red “saddle” across his beak, was really too far away for a clear photo.

Right at this junction, was the Tshokwane rest stop and café with several tour buses pulled in to the parking lot. Valerie went inside and purchased some good meat pies that we ate for our lunch, and then went on our way, back to camp. All’s well, that ends well, right???

That night, we had a guided sunset tour starting at 5:30 and then a buffet dinner in the restaurant about 8:00. The guide did drive off the main roads and made a loop around to show many animals. I think he was a little put out that the group didn’t get excited about the elephants–-but by now we had seen so many and none topped Addo’s.

However, the guide was one of the best we have had and he really explained a lot about the animals. Even though we had heard much of it before there were a lot of facts, we didn’t know. One of the things he talked about and showed us, was a bull elephant in Musth. This state is characterized by highly aggressive behavior and accompanied by a large rise in reproductive hormones. The bull discharges a thick tar-like secretion from the temporal ducts on the sides of the head, which we could easily see. They also pass a strong urine that runs down their legs during this time. When there are reports of elephants going “berserk” and killing, it is during this season of musth. He mentioned that female elephants also secrete this substance when they are under stress, for example, when a cow thinks its calf is in danger.

We had previously learned from a couple in our group about their experience with a bull elephant while touring in the iMfolozi Reserve. They were stopped on the road by a huge bull elephant standing in the road with his trunk waving. He would not let them pass no matter how quietly they tried and no matter the many times they tried. He kept coming at them. They finally had to turn around and go back the way they came, as they were afraid the bull would charge he was acting so aggressively. It is most likely the bull was experiencing musth and they were wise to retreat. It might have been a good idea if someone, during an orientation session, would have warned the group about this possible problem, as they did about monkeys and baboons.

At night on the evening drive, we did see a pride of lions walk by our safari jeep, which was exciting. Of course 6 jillion others were out to see the same things, so it was often a big time traffic jam as guides maneuvered to get their passengers the best views.

It is impossible for us to relate what animals or birds we saw where, so I will just list those that we saw in the whole of Kruger Park not counting the animals/birds already noted/listed. We saw (some of which were too far away to get clear pictures of, but got enough of a shot to ID):

Animals

Blue Wildebeest-formerly the Gnu

Eland

Kudu

Common Reedbuck

Waterbuck

Common Duiker

Hippopotamus

Giraffe

White Rhinoceros

Burchell’s Zebra

Buffalo

Birds of note, that were not previously mentioned, were the:

Green pigeon;

Hammerkop; and the

gorgeous Southern Carmine Bee-Eater.

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Comments

[Brian Elkin]

Any photo of the grey\green fruit? Continue please :-)

[RamblingRosies]

Grey/green fruit
Are you talking about the fruit in 1403-403? That is a sycamore fig--weird, eh? Do you have normal figs down under?