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24^th May. Mbomu NP

Something chomping near the van woke us this morning; Joan had heard something similar at the last park. I looked out and here were two white rhino a couple of metres from the van happily feeding on the short grass at the camp site. Unfortunately it was too dark to take a photo. The hung around for a good 15 minutes before heading off. This is an unfenced camp site where animals wander through at will.

Our short drive to the first of the hides this morning took us through a forest of giraffes, we counted 26, majestically nibbling at the high branches. The two hides we initially went to overlooked a large pan full of birdlife and many hippos and crocodiles. We counted 16 crocs on a stretch of bank a couple of hundred metres long. It was all most impressive.

Mbomu is a small park which is nice for a change. I think there were only three vehicles in the park today. Generally attendances have been down on quite a few of the parks we have been to and in both the last two we have almost had the park to ourselves

25^th.Near Mozambique border.

We will cross over tomorrow morning. It’s only 150 kms to Maputo where we have to get a couple of things but most of it is on sand. It appears the Mozambique authorities have kept it sand to give the SA city dwellers a thrill on their 4x4 vehicles.

An interesting day today; after leaving Mbomu we dropped it to Pembe Elephant Park for a few hours. We hadn’t seen an elephant on the trip so far, it’s a small park and restricted to 4x4s due to the sand. The pachyderms here are meant to of the most purest stock and also the largest on the continent. There is also a hide here that has a 24hr web cam to show the world the goings on at the pan. Not sure on the address but if any one is interested typing in Pembe Pan View might get results (this will increase your knowledge of elephants Ewen). The animals there were very impressive but still no elephants. At the next pan we saw one big one then not long after that we ran into one on the track. Not literally but almost. There’s only one thing worse than coming on a family of them on the road and that is to come upon one, but in this case three, coming towards you and there is nowhere to go except in reverse. This we did until they finally headed off towards a pan. Not knowing how many more were coming we decided to turn around and get to a picnic area another way. On our way back what was an empty pan on the side of the road when we drove by the first time now had at least 15 elephants around it and more crossing the road both sides of us as well.

The pamphlet the people give you when entering the park has a lot of info on what to look for when one is becoming aggressive, things like: swinging the front foot, coiling & uncoiling the trunk, throwing objects towards the vehicle etc etc. None of them were displaying any of these, but still, I find these behemoths quite nerve wracking to be near.

This will be the last blog until we get the dongle sorted out for Mozambique but I believe they have good cell phone coverage.

Road Block

At the Pan. Tembe NP

Of Dung Beetles and Hides

22^nd May uMkhuze MP.

It’s a bit of hit and miss on seeing animals in some of these parks. Like in Hluhluwe, 98,000 hectares of park and the visitor is restricted to the roads that traverse it. We saw the hyena with the impala but something else may have been happening just over the next hill that we weren’t aware of.

This park though has made it a little easier by building hides at some of the water holes where the animals come down to drink usually in the early morning and late afternoons. We went to the kwaMalibila hide first thing this morning and spent an hour or so there intrigued by the number of animals that came down. The interaction was interesting and also the pecking order. There are no lions in this park but there are leopards, cheetahs and wild dogs. The plains animals are very nervous as they are at their most vulnerable with their heads down and bums up. The ones that come in numbers like the zebras and wildebeest must feel a little safer than the impalas and niyelas that approach in smaller numbers. It is so interesting. The bird life as well is more concentrated at the water with the types ranging from Egyptian geese to the tiny blue waxbills.

From there we drove around to the Nsumo Pan which has a beautiful picnic area with the grass kept short by the hippo lawnmowers. It’s a big pan with many of them in the water though at a distance. The bird life here is also varied. We relaxed here for a few hours.

Tomorrow we head to two parks on the Mozambique border before crossing over.

As we could be out of mobile coverage range the next few days this may be the last post until we sort things out in Mozambique.

23^rd May. Mbumo NP.

In East Africa you will see at many of the national parks signs saying ’Animals Have the Right of Way’ which stands to reason especially if the are an elephant. Here you will see the signs ’Dung Beetles Have the Right of Way’ These critters do such a good job of cleaning up the environment and are unfortunately slow breeders, the authorities have taken it upon themselves to give them a helping hand. We came upon one hippo dung pile with about 30 of them getting stuck in to the heap. They were very impressive. I recall hearing not long before leaving Australia that the AU authorities have imported 15 different types of dung beetle to assuage the fly problem out west. Long may they find a plentiful food supply.

Our extended stay here in Sth Africa has been enjoyable but I think we have been a little spoilt in some of our other trips that have with them a slight tinge of uncertainty and what some would call adventure. We have met some great South Africans at the various camp sites and have experienced open hospitality. An example was the bloke today who refused payment for fixing a slow leak along the rim of one of the tyres, and I am sure there are parts we could go to that do test ones mettle a bit but we haven’t experienced it yet on this trip. Some of the scenery we have passed through has been breathtaking and in the parks we have seen a good array of animals, it just seems too easy for us. We look forward to see what Mozambique brings on.

A Common Sight

Dung Beetles Doing Their Work

A Quiet Moment at the Pan. uMkhuze NP