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.