The Exodus African Safari diary Part 1

Our first walking safari

The rest of our time in Vic Falls was just as enjoyable, watching the arrival of 4 very big groups being given the hard sell on activities, going to the local brewery for a yummy dinner, photographing the mum and three baby warthogs on the way, as you do....

Easy journey back to Joburg, all bags present and correct again, hurrah, lovely lady at the hotel reception and cats. She even got the full English breakfast prepared early so we could enjoy before getting the shuttle bus to the airport at 07.00. Not that they appeared till after 08.30, but it’s not their fault. They all seem fine, though it’s hard to tell, they had flown all night!

Our tour bus for three weeks

Man up a pole for 67 days in Dullstoom

The group comprises of Alison, 55 ish, travelling on her own, two cats, and a kitchen being fitted in her absence. Ali and Andy, 60’s come up from the cricket in Cape Town. Peter and Esther, 60/70’s an English/Spanish couple, he is the keenest birder. Finally Keith and Lorraine, and Tony and Anne 60/70’s, known each other for 40 odd years.

Exodus trip: day 1
In the bus Chantel our guide (been guiding 17 years) and Steven our driver, and quite a long drive, through lovely lush green scenery,

The UNESCO listed gold mining town Pilgrims Rest

getting more and more spectacular till we reached our destination of Graskop. We stopped a couple of times, at a very touristy town for lunch (Dullstoom). Why there was a man in a barrel, up an 8 story pole trying to break his own world record of 67 days we don’t know! But he’s only got 8 days to go, so guess he’ll make it. A second stop at Pilgrims Rest an old gold mining town, saved as a museum by UNESCO. We almost wish we’d given Pilgrims Rest a miss and come straight here (Mogodi Lodge) where they have a ‘big swing’ across the gorge and a boardwalk and lift down into the gorge which we’ve had no real opportunity to investigate. A quick photo of the waterfall, and sneaky use of their WiFi in the rain, leaving just enough time for a quick shower before our ‘welcome meeting’ and dinner.

The bridge, zip wire and lift across the gorge at Mogodi Lodge in Graskop

The very picturesque Bourkes Luck Potholes

Exodus trip: day 2
Woke to mist and light drizzle, but we set off at 07.00 with our breakfast packs to God’s window to see the fantastic view dropping off the Drakensberg escarpment to the plain below. I think I’ve described it well as it’s all a figment of my imagination due to the mist! Half an hour during which we ate one breakfast pack, in its entirety, two cheese and ham sandwiches, a sausage and a hard boiled egg. Bearing in mind I probably haven’t eaten a hard boiled egg in 35 years that was my second in 4 days, I’m trying to be brave! Desert was a yoghurt, an apple and a little mars bar, all with a juice and a water! One down, one to go!

Saw this lizard at Bourkes Luck Potholes. Its a common flat apparently

That'll be a puncture then!

Half an hour on, Bourkes Luck Potholes, very scenic, a canyoning trip would be very exciting! Another half an hour to the Three Rondavelles (the name for a little round African hut). Well that’s what they call the geological feature anyway, but it was well worth looking at. Ok, that’s the end of the sightseeing, start the driving. Hmm why are we pulling over on the side of a steep, windy road? That’ll be a puncture then! We all got out to the shade of a tree while Steven got on with the dirty work. Once he’d found the jacking point it was very quick and we were back on our way.

We'll all just shelter in the shade of a tree while the hard work is being done!

Another stop on the way, Blyde River Canyon

The planned picnic lunch was scrapped as it was more important to get the tyre fixed (or actually replaced), so we were let loose in the supermarket with a budget of 40 rand to buy lunch, and a bottle of wine for the evening, though we had to fund that ourselves. Six of the guys had bought coffee, each of which had come with a free, huge, piece of cake. More than enough to share round, and donate to the tyre place!

And this lizard was posing in the above picture. He's on the very left edge of the rock Jackie's standing on

Our tent in the bush at Mtomeni Camp

We arrived at Mtomeni Camp, private reserve in good time to be shown to our tents before setting off on our game drive. Tent doesn’t quite describe it, each one had twin beds, a veranda, an en-suite bathroom and electricity!

We split up for the game drive, six per vehicle. Fortuitously the birders of the group ended up with Edwin who loved his birds, and was very proud of the fact he got 93% in his visual and ‘audiol’ bird identification exam. We saw a lot of birds, but were pleased to

Edwin with his gun. He has to protect us from wild animals

finally whiz off to catch up with the others at a herd of impala with a few zebra. Zebra often travel with impala or other deer as their senses are not quite as impressive so they just run when the impala run! Our first elephant was followed by lots more zebra and impala. I didn’t think I was going to be bothered by stripy horses, but actually, quite liked them. In few minutes we overtook the other truck we were lucky to see both a wildebeest and a couple of jackal (though apparently they had seen buffalo, one of the big 5 before we caught up with them.) Esther’s day was then made, giraffes! Back to camp after dark, we now can’t walk to our our tents unaccompanied, in case of being eaten, but as there was no water, we’ll not bother, just have a delicious dinner. By the end of dinner the ‘part’ had been replaced so a quick shower before bed. We would have loved to sit round the campfire, but we were being collected from our tents at 04.40 for coffee before our 05.00 walk!

Jackie trying out the spotters seat 

Look at this cutie baby zebra with his mum

Exodus trip: day 3
After a short, but surprisingly good nights sleep we were split into the same groups as yesterday. Many more birds, some poo, termite mounds, (who knew a termite mound could extend down 50m into the ground). The back end of a water buck, and then hippo, very close hippo, noisy, lovely hippo.

Now this second we are on the bus for a longish drive to the Kruger National Park. I’ve written so far, and repaired the strap on Peter’s birding bag. All time is valuable!

Saw this Woodland kingfisher from the balcony outside our tent

Hippos in a pool local to the camp

Exodus trip: day 3 part 2
We stopped for shopping, not for us, well not directly, for Chantel to buy food for us, for our stay in Kruger, she bought 3 lunches, 2 breakfasts and 1 dinner, for 13 people in 40 minutes, pretty good going I think. We all behaved like teenagers and sat outside Wimpy checking emails, and Facebook!

With that we entered the park, and already I’ve lost track of what we saw, the pictures will probably say it all however. What we did see, most excitingly, was a Kruger

We were being watched by giraffes! 

traffic jam, just off the tarred road, but well within sight. Our truck isn’t meant to go off road, it’s too heavy, and we are towing the trailer with all our luggage and all the cooking pots and pans etc, but Steven was undaunted so off we went to....... a pair of lions, a male and a female, just lying there together in the sun ignoring the stream of vehicles pulling up, stopping, staring, photographing, cooing and finally moving off! I don’t think I expected to get so close to animals, but equally, I didn’t expect them to just be lying on the road, one bit is a plus, the

Here's a Jackal

other a minus! They were fabulous, we were so happy! Then there were rhino, I like rhino, so they were special too. I think they were the only ‘new’ things, everything else was just more, much more.

Look at this fabulous Rhino!

And finally we saw lions!

We arrived at the camp ground we were staying at, later than expected, which was not good for Ali, who had developed a bit of travellers tummy and it’s lovely. We went to pay for the extra drives we are doing here (we mustn’t get carried away Brian said during the housesit, before signing up for every drive going at the welcome meeting!) and realised we must have an early dinner, in the restaurant here, which just happens to be Wimpy, but hey! The reason for the early night, apart from having been up since 04.25? Our sunrise drive was starting at 03.45, ouch!

These guys really know how to relax

Over a bit more...

Exodus trip: day 4
The hardy souls, us and Alison (Ali and Andy had been planning it but not with the ‘tummy’) blundered to the meeting point to 03.45 to find we were the only ones in the whole site mad enough, fab, just us and Patrick.

It was pitch black, so driving on side lights, with a light looking out to each side and Patrick wielding a spotlight off we went, couple of elephant right beside us, but what we were looking for was leopard, very rarely seen during the day. There on the road ahead, there’s a cat, but no, not a leopard but a cheetah, even rarer! He looked at us, smiled a bit, sauntered past before eventually going into the

Sorry if we've disturbed your sleep!

bush. Wow. As the sun rose, very prettily, we came upon three groups of hyena. We had seen some young yesterday (knew I’d forgotten something in the previous entry) which were very cute (never thought I’d say that about a hyena) albeit smelly, though it was probably the den rather than them, today we saw family groups including a nursing mother just lying out in the middle of the road. We left the first group after a couple of the cubs started chewing the mud guard, don’t think Patrick was impressed! Patrick still wasn’t satisfied on our behalf and was asking everyone we met “lions?” Eventually yes... turns out it was the same two as yesterday, in the same place, but this time with two more males! The view from the open vehicle were so much better than from our van, though they hadn’t been bad in the van, and perhaps the light was different, but wow, again! It’s funny, you go to the ‘Safari Park’

It all seems OK though as long as the sun shines

in the U.K. and it’s windows shut all the way, but here? Open vehicles, no sides, nothing! Just don’t get out of your vehicle! Patrick had words with a couple in the car ahead, the driver was out the window sitting on the door... the gist was “don’t care if you die at the jaws of a lion, but I’m not having you bring my park into disrepute!”

We headed back passing the ‘lesser spotted Exodus trip’, guided by Steven and only allowed out of the camp at 06.00, and a herd of elephants, one or two at a time just not being enough now, to a yummy breakfast cooked by Chantel. Back out at 09.00 with 4 down, Ali and Andy and

So pleased to see this hippo out of the water

Esther and Peter giving this one a miss, tummies and washing seemingly important! We were only out for a couple of hours and didn’t see anything new, but instead had much more, in-depth chats about the baboons, and impala that we did see.

Quick half an hour for Chantel to change hats again and prepare lunch, back to write this, and we’ve got an hour and a half before the next one (was planning a nap, but don’t know when that’ll happen), then dinner, then a night drive, as an extra but this time I think we are nearly all going..... leopard?

Here's a waterbuck taking some water

And the male waterbuck standing watching us from the other bank

There are lots and lots of Impala. They are apparently at the top of most predators menu

A crocodile hiding in the grass

Hyenas blocking the road. This is a mum feeding her two infants

And here's some others having picked up the scent of something

They can look a bit menacing in the early morning light

We set off in the dark with floodlights on the safari vehicle

And after driving round for a bit we came upon this rare sight - a cheetah - fabulous!

Caught in the searchlight, but he didn't seem fazed. He strolled right past us and when he'd had enough he slipped into the undergrowth and was immediately out of sight 

Here's a buffalo, we're getting through our Big 5 sightings

We saw elephants, quite a lot of them

Little chickletts of Egyptian Geese running very fast up behind mum and dad

Saw this very beautiful glossy starling today. We were really impressed but the twitchers amongst us weren't very impressed

This is a Lilac Breasted Roller. We've got many many photos of different birds and animals, but we've got to go, we've another game drive at 4pm and a night game drive tonight. It's all go. More photos in the next blog......