Travel

Will the great food, great weather and great animal sightings ever end? After a fairly relaxed morning we managed to borrow a spare 4WD and headed off for another couple of game drives in the afternoon and evening. Elephants, giraffe and rhino were the order of the day, though not in the same volumes as Kruger and Ngala (Phinda is only one percent the size of Kruger, after all), and we were extremely fortunate to see both lions and cheetah, adults and cubs alike.

So we decided to stay an extra day with Flippie’s parent’s, for a variety of reasons that I’m sure were important at the time but elude me right now. I finally managed to get out for my first run of this trip – well, it felt more like a waddle, but it was some sort of forward motion in any case. May well be the only time in my life where I can count the wild animals while jogging – for the record there were 14 impala and six warthog. Thankfully nothing bigger than that – the big cats can hit 80-110km/h, and I’m fairly certain I couldn’t quite manage those sort of speeds even with a hungry lion after me…

Finally had some time to relax over the last couple of days, which was bloody fantastic – I think half the secret of travelling for any length of time is knowing when to stop for a bit. Not that there’s been any time for sleeping in, mind you – Africa certainly seems to be one of those places that you go to bed early and get up early. Not a bad thing really, tho trying to convince my body of that fact is a different story at times. Or maybe I’m just lazy and don’t like getting out of bed. One or the other.

Stumbled out of bed at 5.30 for much needed coffee and out on the trail at 6. Pretty cold in the mornings and nights this time of year in South Africa, even when not at altitude – then again, it is winter … and given it was 4 degrees when I flew out of Christchurch, I’m really not complaining. It’s still mid-20’s during the day after all! The wind blowing through me plus the sheer variety of game certainly woke me up pretty quickly – the highlight definitely being a very large herd of elephant gathered around a waterhole, including one old bull with huge tusks. Even Vic said she’d never seen an elephant with tusks that size, and she’s been working on game parks in Africa for a few years now.

Up at 5am (see, this trip isn’t all beer and skittles you know…) to be out of the camp when the gates opened at 6. Early morning and late afternoon are the best time to see the animals in Africa – they tend to be sleeping in the shade during the heat of the day (wouldn’t you if you had the choice?).