Kruger Park Safari with Dr and Mrs Dube, Ted and Jan and Celine Coco and Friends Day 3 and 4

Guests left at 17h00 on there night drive aboard a vehicle from the National Parks together with there guide. While out on the drive they got to see rhino, elephant and buffalo as well as lots of owls etc. Guests arrived back a little before 20h00 as it had started to rain and had become very cold.

Next morning, it was up early again and after packing all the luggage and enjoying tea and coffee, it was out on the road again for the final game drive. The morning was bitterly cold with lots of rain, so few animals were seen. However good sightings of elephant, hyena and side stripped jackal were found. Guests returned to the camp at 09h00 to enjoy breakfast.

After breakfast, it was time to leave the park, and after a transfer aboard the open vehicle to Nelspruit, we changed over into our warm transfer vehicle and made our way back to Johannesburg.

Feedback from the guests was that they had a wonderful time, and would like to return for a longer safari. Some of the guests will be returning next year with there whole family, in order for them to experience a safari such as they have just done.

Kruger Park Safari with Dr and Mrs Dube, Ted and Jan and Celine Coco and Friends Day 2 and 3

We left camp yesterday at 15h30 for an afternoon game drive, we turned onto the "Napi Road" and made our way down to the "Napi Boulders Road", were was enjoyed, we went looking for some good rhino. it was not long before we found a male and female white rhino close to the road. After a good sighting we made our way on also getting some good sightings of giraffe. We made our wayback to the Napi Road were we turned in the direction of the camp, only to find two more rhino's. After a good long sighting with these guys, we continued on our way, coming up on another four rhino's next to the these road. After all these rhino sightings, we made our way down to Shithave dam and spent some time there. After a good rest next to the dam, we made our way onto the  Albesini Road, making a turn at Mentsel Dam  to see the hippos. We continued our drive onto the Shabeni Kopies, as we wanted to do it as late as possible to see if we could see the lions that had been seen earlier in the day. We managed to find the lions at about 17h45, which was fifteen minutes before the camps gates closed. We made it back with one minute to spare. Guests enjoyed a good dinner at the camp restaurant, before retireing for a good nights rest.

It was up enjoying early again this morning, and after enjoying tea and coffee, it was back on the road to see what we  could find. We made our way back to Shabeni Kopies looking for the lions from last night. But unfortunetly they could not be found. We made our way down the Shabeni link and turned onto the Albesini Road, at 3,8 km's down, we came upon a male cheetah lying next to the road marker. After a while, he got up and walked to an Apple Leaf tree, where he proceeded to mark territory. We drove on getting good sightings of buffalo, zebra and more rhino. As we got to the Watergat junction, we received a call of lions on the "paul Kruger Gate" road, so we hurried in that direction. We managed to get a good sighting of two young males walking in the road. We managed to spend some good time on the sighting with thelions sometimes walking as close as one meter from our open safari vehicle. After this good sighting, we decided tomake our way to breakfast at the "Skukuza Golf Club", on route getting more sightings of rhino and elephant. After a nice breakfast was enjoyed, we made our way down to the river to see what we could find. A great sighting of hippos, crocodiles and another lion, this time a female with her two cubs walking accross the road.

We made our way back to Skukuza, were the group had a break, and then it was back Pretoriuskop camp for an afternoons rest, bfore going out on there night drive.

Final days update with photos to follow in the next post...... 

Kruger Park Safari with Dr and Mrs Dube, Ted and Jan and Celine Coco and Friends Day 1 and 2

We picked up Dr and mrs Dube at the "Plum Pudding Guest House", Ted and Jan were picked up from the airport and Celine and friends from a guest house in Bonearo Park. We made our way through to the city of Nelspruit, were we changed from our closed vehicle into one of our open safari vehicles for the last portion of the trip to the Kruger National Park. We entered through the "numbi gate, and made our way to the camp of Pretoriuskop. After check in proceedures, guests were given a chance to enjoy lunch, before leaving the camp on there first game drive. After a safety briefing, it was out onto the road to see wcould what we could find. It was not long before we encountered some buffalo feeding next to the road, and then we got to see some good rhino that had just crossed over the Napi Road. We drove on and after a bit of a drive came accross "Stompie" the elephant feeding close to Transport Dam. We managed to get some good photos, before having to turn around and make for the camp due to it getting late and having to be in the camp before six o clock. After a good meal in the restuarant, it was off to bed to get a good nights rest before gettng up early in the morning to get back on the road.

We all came together at 05h45, and after enjoying tea and coffee, it was out on the road to see what we could find. Great sightings of buffalo, rhino, elephant and hyena were seen. We made our way down to the picnic spot of Nkhulu for breakfast. After enjoying a good breakfast, it was time tocarry on looking for animals as we made our way back in the direction of "Numbi Gate" in order for Dr and Mrs Dube to get there transfer back to Johannesburg. After dropping off the guests, we made our way back to the camp in order for everybody to have a rest before leaving on another game drive.

To find out what is seen on the rest of the safari, keep watching the next post.......

Jock Of The Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick ( Chapter 12 )( Page 2 ) Jim Makokel

His real name was Makokela, but in accordance with a common Zulu habit, it was usually abbreviated to Makokel'!  Among a certain number of the white men--of the sort who never can get any name right--he was oddly enough known as McCorkindale.  I called him Jim as a rule--Makokel', when relations were strained.  The waggon-boys found it safer to use his proper name.  When anything had upset him it was not considered wise to take the liberty of shouting "Jim": the answer sometimes came in the shape of a hammering. Many men had employed Jim before he came to me, and all had `sacked' him for fighting, drinking, and the unbearable worry he caused.  They told me this, and said that he gave more trouble than his work was worth.  It may have been true: he certainly was a living test of patience, purpose, and management; but, for something learnt in that way, I am glad now that Jim never `got the sack' from me.  Why he did not, is not easy to say; perhaps the circumstances under which he came to me and the hard knocks of an unkind fate pleaded for him.  But it was not that alone: there was something in Jim himself--something good and fine, something that shone out from time to time through his black skin and battered face as the soul of a real man. It was in the first season in the Bushveld that we were outspanned one night on the sand-hills overlooking Delagoa Bay among scores of other waggons dotted about in little camps--all loading or waiting for loads to transport to the Transvaal.  Delagoa was not a good place to stay in, in those days: liquor was cheap and bad; there was very little in the way of law and order; and every one took care of himself as well as he could.  The Kaffir kraals were close about the town, and the natives of the place were as rascally a lot of thieves and vagabonds as you could find anywhere.  The result was everlasting trouble with the waggon-boys and a chronic state of war between them and the natives and the banyans or Arab traders of the place.  The boys, with pockets full of wages, haggled and were cheated in the stores, and by the hawkers, and in the canteens; and they often ended up the night with beer-drinking at the kraals or reprisals on their enemies.  Every night there were fights and robberies: the natives or Indians would rob and half-kill a waggon-boy; then he in turn would rally his friends, and raid and clear out the kraal or the store.  Most of the waggon-boys were Zulus or of Zulu descent, and they were always ready for a fight and would tackle any odds when their blood was up. It was the third night of our stay, and the usual row was on.  Shouts and cries, the beating of tomtoms, and shrill ear-piercing whistles, came from all sides; and through it all the dull hum of hundreds of human voices, all gabbling together.  Near to us there was another camp of four waggons drawn up in close order, and as we sat talking and wondering at the strange babel in the beautiful calm moonlight night, one sound was ever recurring, coming away out of all the rest with something in it that fixed our attention.  It was the sound of two voices from the next waggons.  One voice was a kaffir's--a great, deep, bull-throated voice; it was not raised--it was monotonously steady and low; but it carried far, with the ring and the lingering vibration of a big gong. "Funa 'nyama, Inkos; funa 'nyama!"  ("I want meat, Chief; I want meat!") was what the kaffir's voice kept repeating at intervals of a minute or two with deadly monotony and persistency. The white man's voice grew more impatient, louder, and angrier, with each refusal; but the boy paid no heed.  A few minutes later the same request would be made, supplemented now and then with, "I am hungry, Baas, I can't sleep.  Meat!  Meat!  Meat!" or, "Porridge and bread are for women and piccaninnies.  I am a man: I want meat, Baas, meat."  From the white man it was, "Go to sleep, I tell you!" "Be quiet, will you?" "Shut up that row!" "Be still, you drunken brute, or I'll tie you up!" and "You'll get twenty-five in a minute!" It may have lasted half an hour when one of our party said, "That's Bob's old driver, the big Zulu.  There'll be a row to-night; he's with a foreigner chap from Natal now.  New chums are always roughest on the niggers." In a flash I remembered Bob Saunderson's story of the boy who had caught the lion alive, and Bob's own words, "a real fine nigger, but a terror to drink, and always in trouble.  He fairly wore me right out." A few minutes later there was a short scuffle, and the boy's voice could be heard protesting in the same deep low tone: they were tying him up to th e waggon-wheel for a flogging.  Others were helping the white man, but the boy was not resisting.