The Fourth Leg - Birding Days (1-10 Nov)

Tony and I were in a rush to get away from Nwanedi Game Reserve, and left early on 31st Oct, to travel in to Musina for some shopping - the usual stuff, fresh fruit, veges, wine, beer ........I think we ended up in the wrong end of Musina, we are not part of the demographic the Super Spar supermarket caters to.  So we got our stuff done in a big hurry (it was month end) and set course for our next destination - Pafuri River Camp which is 2 kms from the Pafuri gate to Kruger National Park.  

We turned up without a reservation on a very hot Friday afternoon, and were

accommodated by Koos and Hannetjie without a problem.  Most of their guests use the tented tree houses, and not camping, so space was not an issue.  What a spot this turned out to be - almost completely off the grid - no electricity, no cell phone signal unless you climbed up to Signal Hill.  And what a difference to our previous experience.  

For guests, there is a lapa available - and the bar and shaded swimming pool - temperatures peaked here in January at over 50 degrees C, so you really need a shaded pool and bar !

We got our camping spot in a secluded part of the property, with very own shower (gas) and loo (flush), set up camp and were ready to relax in this very rustic but perfect venue.

The Bathroom

The Bedroom

And the kitchen

Blue Waxbill

Violet-backed Starling

And now I have to admit that we did nothing very much in this beautiful spot - it was too damn hot.  We sat in our camp chairs and looked at birds. When it was very, very hot, we went to the bar, and looked at birds.  And when it got a bit cooler, we walked around the property and looked at birds. 

Collared Sunbird

Just in case you are wondering, I have not become an expert bird photographer overnight - I have lifted most (not all, but most) of the bird pictures from the internet  

After a couple of lazy days at Pafuri River Camp, it was time to move on to the meat of our trip - Kruger National Park !  We entered KNP in the northern end, at the Pafuri Gate and travelled to the Pafuri Picnic site - a magnet for birders. The picnic site is located on the banks of the Luvhuvhu River, and there are loads of enormous old trees which are home to a huge variety of birds.  This is also where we were greeted by a family of ellies having a little paddle in the river while chewing on an obviously tasty dead tree - the mud adds that extra relish !


At the picnic site, there were also a LOT of birders breakfasting heartily, with all their bird watching gear - the value of which could easily have paid for the upgrades to JZ's Inkandla home, and with money to spare for a couple of extra wives.  (Did you know that one of JZ's recent a matrimonial acquisitions is an ex-IBM employee ? )


But I digress - back to the animals and birds - how lovely is this mommy Nyala and her baby ?  This is when I knew we were in for an awesome journey through the park - lots of animals and beautiful birds. 








Eventually we managed to tear ourselves away from the picnic site, to travel to our first rest camp, Punda Maria - the name of his camp has an interesting provenance and is also one of the older and more traditional rest camps in Kruger.  

A recent addition to this rest camp is a hide with a flood-lit waterhole, which is a favourite sundowner spot for campers.  One evening Tony and I spent a LONG time in the hide, without seeing anything, and Tony was definitely getting restless.  Finally we were the only people left - when an African Civet sped past in front of us !  Wow - we left feeling very lucky to have seen this shy nocturnal animal !  As we started walking back to our tent, we heard some very BIG splashing noises and rushed back - to find 100's of Cape (African) Buffalo going for a floodlit skinny dip.  Don't you think that they look like cows with questionable hair dos ?  

Too soon it was time for a change of scenery, and we headed south to Shingwedzi Rest Camp, still firmly on the birding scene.  This rest camp was flooded in January 2013 when the Shingwedzi river burst its banks, and major rebuilding and renovations have taken place, so the camp was looking spick and span when we got there.  The camp site sported a resident Yellow-billed Kite which glided overhead all day, looking for scavenging opportunities.  On the less mundane side, we had sightings of a number of firsts for me - the highlight being the gorily named Cut-throat Finch. 

  
The Broad-billed Roller and Grey-headed Bushshrike also featured - again, so many birds that I had never seen!

Shingwedzi was also the scene of our first lion sighting of the trip.  The first few nights after we arrived, we could hear the roar of the lions as we went to sleep.  One morning, we realised that the lions had had a successful hunt. Two male lions had killed an adult buffalo on the sandy banks of the Shingwedzi river, and having breakfast by the time we arrived. 

The lions ate their fill, and left to sleep the rest of the day in the shade.  Then the next lot moved in - the crocodiles and vultures.  Have a look at the picture where one of the crocs has crawled right inside the carcass of the unfortunate buffalo !  Two days later, driving past the same spot, there was no trace at all of the buffalo - not a bone in sight.





 
And to end this birding episode, with our final bird identification challenge.  We found this bird and were unable to identify it - this time of the year there are lots of red herrings (mixing my metaphors now) - there are migrant birds, birds in the breeding feathers, and also a lot of immature or juvenile birds around.  So I pondered on this picture for some time before identifying it as a Western Osprey - an uncommon migrant, it says in the gospel according to Roberts.  



I am going to publish this post now, and return soon with the animal episode.  There has been a long break since the last post - I will refer you to the marvellous service provider who decided that I had used enough data for the month of November, and unless I coughed up exhorbitant amounts of cash, I would have to wait until December to continue the story of our travels.  (More details on request - I need to VENT !)

The Third Leg - Our Botanical Experience (26-31 October)

On a very still and warm Sunday 26th October, Tony and I leave Waterberg Wilderness Reserve, setting the Garmin for Haenertsburg near the Magoesbaskloof area of Limpopo.  We have heard so much about this village from friends, so, when a recent issue of  House and Leisure magazine contained an article on Haenertsburg celebrating spring, that sealed the deal for us.  

Anyone who has camped reasonably often will tell you that the success of any trip is in the planning.  So when we pulled into Haenertsburg village on an overcast Sunday afternoon, asking the locals if there were any campsites around, we got some fairly strange looks, and a lot of encouragement to take a chalet somewhere. Unperturbed by this guidance, we continued with the spontaneous theme and made our way to Zwakala Campsite which is located on a river, on a private farm about 11 kms outside Haenertsburg, belonging to a lovely couple, Robbie and Denise Tooley.  Two things we had not researched - the general climate of the area (cold) and the weather forecast (rain). By the time we reached the campsite it was drizzling, and once our tent was up, it was raining (and very COLD !!!!).  The average temperate in the Haenertsburg area is apparently a good 10 degrees lower than elsewhere in the vicinity.

Luckily for us, the campsite offered the use of an indoor room with fireplace (no glazing in the windows though !) and we proceeded to make our dinner of jaffles right in the fireplace.  

> Still life with Jaffle (and a bottle of wine) !

  

< Zwakala campsite fireplace, stove and oven.


The next morning it is still raining, so we make our way from the farm along the Cheerio Road into Haenertsburg for breakfast at The Village Cafe (I think) and once the weather clears, we take a drive through the timber plantations of the scenic, George's Valley.  We drive to Ebenezer Dam built on the Groot Letaba River which boasts the Mountain Yacht Club (sounds strange, doesn't it ?) and their very own northern suburb of Clearwater Cove, see below.

Then it is off to visit Cheerio Gardens, which is the chief reason we have come to the village of Haenertsburg.  Don't you love the name Cheerio ?  In mid- to late September, the area is ablaze with Azalea, crab apple, flowering cherry blossoms, and the village celebrates with their Spring Festival and even though we are a good few weeks late, the riot of colour is still very much in evidence.

Cheerio Gardens has an amazing, haphazard appearance, with very few formal garden structures, giving it a very special appeal.  Tony and I wander around the farm for some time before we realise that it is actually not open to the public on Mondays !  Next door to Cheerio is Sequoia Gardens which we learn is every bit as beautiful as Cheerio, and will have to be included on our next trip to Haenertsburg.

The following morning (Tony's  birthday) we head into Tzaneen, on the George's Valley road, to get a new tyre (side wall of one tyre developed a tear) from Supaquick - their service was excellent both super and quick!  Maybe it is different in smaller towns.  After the mandatory whizz through the supermarket at Tzaneen Lifestyle Centre (!), and lunch at The Foodlovers Market, we set course for Modjadjiskloof (was Duiwelskloof before) to visit the Sunland Baobab which claims to be the largest baobab in the world (and it has a pub inside !!).  

Sunland is a nursery, and it came with the baobab, so the owners  rent out Jungalows (I kid you not!) so Tony has his birthday present - a proper bed with outside shower, and a slap up birthday dinner under this enormous baobab. We are the only people staying over, so we feel we own the place - particularly when we are paid a visit by the real owners dogs.

An added bonus is the birds we see - special mention for the African Paradise Flycatcher and the beautiful sunbirds, Malachite, Scarlet-Chested and White-Bellied.

The next morning we set off for the next spot on our botanical adventure - Modjadji Nature Reserve nearby.  Garmin wasn't 100% sure where this reserve was, so took us on an interesting tour of the villages in the region, but we did eventually find the entrance. Sadly, the historical and botanical information on display has been neglected (some even pre-dates 1994), but the facilities of the reserve itself are quite good - picnic areas, a small shop selling cooldrinks and moth-eaten souvenirs, and even overnight accommodation, it would seem.

The reserve boasts the largest concentration of the cycad, Encephalartos transvenosus, in the world, some of them up to 800 years old, and there are huge numbers of these cycads in the 530 hectare reserve. Cones (the pineapple-like bit) can weigh up to 34kg - that is a massive weight !

We took a walk around the cycad forest, and the cycads are impressive - for their size, the gnarled features, and the texture of the leaves, trunk and the cones. There is an illegal trade in the cycads, and to combat it, the nature reserve has set up a small nursery in a nearby village where plants may be bought legally. 

The reserve is named after Modjadji, the Rain Queen, of the Bolobedu tribe, which is one of the few with a matriacharchal dynasty, and the history and structure of this tribe makes for interesting reading.  Apparently the second Rain Queen was the inspiration for Ryder Haggard's novel, She (who must be obeyed!).

Our next destination is Nwanedi Game Reserve, managed by Limpopo Wildlife Resorts,  in the north of the Limpopo province - again I had read an article praising this little reserve and we were keen to explore it.  We travelled from Modjadjiskloof, through Thohoyandou, where we needed some assistance with directions,  as Garmin insisted that we double back and travel on the N1 toll road.  One of the points of our trip was to include some lesser travelled byways, so this is what we did - and we travelled through towns and villages I hadn't heard of, and found one little village offering the services of a Penal (panel) Beater (maybe our Dept of Correctional Services could use them ?).  We sign in at the gate of the reserve, and travel to reception, where I am very excited - there are emerald green lush lawns, with sprinklers going full blast on a very hot day, there are very large shady trees, and the receptionist tells me that they have an a la carte restaurant, and that they sell ice - what more could you want !  Imagine our horror when we arrived at the camping site to find it almost derelict - the only things growing here were troops of baboons, millions of vervet monkeys and a fine crop of thorns.  

Camp site is in the foreground, the emerald green lawns in the distance at the back.  Despite the neglect of the campsite (and its ablutions - only 1 in 10 ladies' loos was in working order), there was a glorious swimming pool which came in handy when the temperatures headed for 40 degrees C.

 

Tony and I set up our camp in the remotest part of the campsite with a small stream running behind us, and occasional visits from water buck.  We are truly all on our own - even the monkeys and baboons didn't come to our end of the campsite.




So lets accentuate the positive - it was very scenic, lots of baobabs, some nice birds, and a (very) few animals. 

The Nwanedi Dam in the distance, which was created by damming the Nwanetsi River, which eventually feeds into the Limpopo River further north.  It, and the Luphephe Dam in the same reserve, were created primarily for irrigation of fruit and vegetable farms in the north of the Limpopo province.  The ads for the reserve also suggest that boating, fishing and canoeing are activities available to visitors, but we saw little evidence of this.

 

This was the view we enjoyed from our campsite - almost enough to forgive all the other shortcomings.  And I must admit that the receptionist was extremely pleasant and helpful, and even got a man to come and connect our electricity - with a very, very long extension cable directly from the distribution board.  So the beers and wine were cold - small things mean a lot :-)

We stayed our two days and then on Friday 31st October, headed out to begin the next leg of our adventure - the Birding Leg when we prove that even amateurs can fake it !

The new adventure should be posted in the next few days, so please check it out.  There is so much else to do, finding down time to edit photos and post these blogs is not easy!

Bird Count: Not too sure, but around 50, I would guess

Best bit:  The fireplace at Zwakala

 



 

The Second Leg - we travel to Marakele National Park and the Waterberg

Early on 20th October, Tony and I pack up our camping belongings, and after a healthy breakfast of muesli, fruit and yoghurt, we hitch up the trailer for the next installment of our Trek.  

During the course of packing up, Tony does the daily check on the health of his two deep cycle batteries, and finds that one of them is dead, dead, dead - and unfortunately, this is the one that keeps our fridge going. We are headed to Marakele National Park via Thabazimbi, so a new battery is on our shopping list, along with gin and other vital groceries.

When we checked in at Marakele National Park, I was very keen to exercise my first pensioner discounts from SANParks - 40% off, so 4 nights camping cost us the princely sum of R496 in total.  There are some advantages to old age !  The best part was arriving at the campsite and finding that both sites 5 and 6 were available.  (For those in the know, these sites overlook a small waterhole situated about 300 metres from the site). 

To put it into perspective, here is a picture of a Crested Barbet perched on the braai, with the waterhole in the distance to the left.  In the background are the Ysterberg (Iron Mountains).  The fence post is protection for us from the wild animals - they know that they may not come any further than that point.  Apparently.  Going to the ablutions in the dead of night, I walked into a herd of nervous impala, and a bunch of zebras grazing on the campsite lawn.  These animals clearly did not know the rules.

We had frequent personal visits in our campsite from these chaps, Southern Rock Agama.  He is very pretty, she, not so much.  (The very bright blue is a breeding coloration - what a showoff!) 

And what is a trip to the bush without visits from the comical hornbills and entertaining warthogs ?  (Remember Zazu and Pumbaa from the Lion King ?)

After a very relaxing 4 days at Marakele, Tony and I are off to explore the Waterberg area, which is well known for the big gorilla , Welgevonden Game Reserve with its high-end luxury lodges and the privately owned game and nature reserves.  With our camping budget (!) in mind, we opt for Waterberg Wilderness Reserve which sounds very private and peaceful, having just 3 camp sites and 2 tented chalets in total.

The journey from Marakele takes us through Vaalwater and Modimolle (Naboomspruit) where there is a quick shopping stop for  groceries (and beers).  As we are leaving Modimolle for WWR, we notice a wonderfully named caravan and camping site - Modimolle Funky Stay - this will have to wait for another occasion unfortunately.  The 262 kms takes the best part of 5 hours, even though the road was all tar except for the last 10 kms, but we finally arrive at the gates of our destination.

Once we arrived at WWR, and were shown to camp site 3, our home for the next 2 nights, the sky darkened and looked a bit ominous.  We decide to put up our tent as soon as possible, in case we are blessed with rain.  With our tent fully erected, just not pegged down yet, we decide the exact orientation for sunrise, sunset etc, and that is when an enormous gust of wind blows straight into the tent, inflating it.  I wish I had had my camera at the ready to show you the sight of Tony hanging on to the tent pole with a fully inflated tent dancing about in mid-air.  Go, Mr Mary Poppins !  Needless to say, the elastic in the tent pole snapped, the wind died down, and we had to retrieve our tent from the veldt.  Using our spare tent pole (always be prepared), we erected the tent pretty damn quickly this time, with little debate on orientation, in case of another attack by the wind. 

After all our frenzied activity, we finally sat down to celebrate our victory over nature with a chilled Fino sherry and cashew nuts, before preparing our dinner, with some good red wine.  Our nerves needed some steadying - and this must have worked as the night passed without any further drama.

On Saturday morning, we woke up to a lovely clear day, blue skies, no wind, and spent the time exploring this small reserve which is perched on top of small mountain, with deep river gorges either side.  This is the view across the Waterberg from the highest point at WWR.  The reserve itself was a cattle farm some time ago, and the new owner (Alan Munro) has a big job on his hands to remove the remaining evidence of this farming activity.

 

Our battles with the weather however, were still not over - Saturday night turned out to be a dark and stormy night to quote Snoopy, so we turned in quite early.  While it didn't actually rain much, the wind became a veritable tornado, blowing at the tent so hard that, at times, the tent was pressing on me, in my bed.  Tony and I began to make escape plans, making sure we knew where the Landcruiser's keys were, in case of an emergency evacuation.  The wind buffeted our tent in every direction, with the tent canvas snapping at each turn - the most vicious wind I have experienced camping.  Mercifully, we all (Tony, the tent and I) survived the night without any mishaps, and I have a newfound deep and abiding respect for our tent. 

After packing up and having a quick breakfast, we set the Landcruiser off on the next leg of our journey - and this leg turns out to be our botanical experience.  Who would have guessed  !

Special sights:  Views of the Waterberg with ANGRY weather

Bird count: 39

PS Apologies for the long delay in publishing this episode, 3G signal has not been plentiful, and I have had a few technical challenges with this blogging (!) software.