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Published: June 17th 2017
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01 Bird Watching
The first place that we stopped to look for birds. Geo: -23.8551, 31.5776
This morning Paul, Brett, Barney and I got up at 3:30am. We all arrived in Johannesburg the night before and spent a few hours at the estate's clubhouse finalising details of our trip. Yesterday we went shopping for our food and a few other last minute items.
We packed the last few things into our car and left at about 4am. I was a good passenger and stayed awake to keep Paul company while he drove. About an hour after we left, we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise. Our first stop was at Magoebaskloof. We spent about two and a half hours in this area in the pine forest to look a specific bird – a White Stared Robin. We walked and drove through pine forests looking for birds. Brett and Paul excitedly ticked off the species as they identified them. Barney and I were not too fussed at all about birds. It was very picturesque, quiet and peaceful in the forest. In the forest there was a small section of eucalyptus trees, which reminded me of home in Australia. We also came across the tallest planted tree in the world and the Twin Giants of Magoebaskloof- the tallest trees
02 Forest
The view of the forest. in Africa when they were measured in 2008.
It was then time to get in the car and continue on. About two hours later we were just outside Phalaborwa Gate – one of the many entrances to Kruger National Park. Outside the gate there was a large petrol station with a Steers. Here we filled up the car with petrol and enjoyed a fast food lunch before entering the park. We quickly paid our entrance fees and we were in.
We spent the next two hours slowly driving to Letaba Camp. We were pretty tired due to the early start and really hot weather. It was a quiet drive to the camp. We saw impalas, a great sight of a breeding herd of elephants at the dam where they swam and drank and a trio of dagga boys.
We arrived at Letaba Camp at 4pm and choose a camp site next to the fence, in the hope of seeing animals walk past during our stay. The expected animal was the hyena. We set up our tents and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in camp instead of going for a game drive.
The shop here was very
03 Pines
The pine tree forest. well stocked and a big improvement from our last visit a few years ago. I enjoyed a yummy ice-cream as we walked towards the Elephant Museum. In this museum there is a pretty good display informing us about the 7 Great Tuskers – elephants that had the longest tusks in the park. They have all passed away now and their statistics, tusks and photos are on display. We then walked around the camp ground which is situated on the Letaba River. Walking around the camp there are many bushbuck. It was then time to cool down and we went for a swim - this was a great way for us to cool down and chill. The swimming pool was a life saver! I then had a shower which felt so nice!
That evening we enjoyed a dinner by the fence, as hyenas walked past hoping for us to throw them some bones. Trying to sleep was a nightmare- the trees around our camp site were full of cicadas. We went to sleep with toilet paper stuffed into our ears.
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