Feeling rather sad to be checking out of our Royal Suite and leaving the adopted family at LB this Saturday. Final morning drive with Oeboet – Chris was given time off to come with us.
Items of interest seen on this sixth game ride included :
Duiker – small nervous beast, very aware of its place in the food chain…. and far too nippy to photograph.
And a couple of specimens who “wouldn’t vooom if you put 4 million volts through them ” –
Plus a more recently deceased Hartebeest – one we detected by spotting a host of scavenging birds :
Impala – we now know to recognise them by the Golden Arches style ‘M’ on bum, plus black spots on back of knees / ankles – see pic from day 2
*Elephant footprints – the back foot is set down right on top of front print.
Also marks of dripping urine, showing a male on musth. No insect tracks were visible over the print, so fresh. Hey, I’m practically a qualified bush tracker now !
Blesbock – recognisable by the white marked face….if it deigns to look at you
Bat eared fox , which went whizzing past a group of grazing Wildebeest , faster than the human lens can focus
A really close-up encounter with a Kalahari Lion – more grey in colour than other types we’ve seen , lounging right by the track.
He gets up & strolls straight past our vehicle, more interested in the female on far side of the fence, snuggled up to another bloke. And bellows grumpily at the pair of them
That’s a bit of a highlight – then at this point the radio chatter picks up. A pair of guests have been left behind at the lodge and we are voluteered to go back for them. In the rush, Ouboet wants to take the main road. For the first time we find out that the cruiser does actually have seatbelts, they were just tucked away safely out of harm’s way. (Wouldn’t want to stretch them in a crash) Also that it can hit 60mph and generate quite a breeze.
Turns out it’s the young couple from Belfast whom we had met last night. Nice , but understandably miffed at being abandoned. After that it’s a bit of an abbreviated tour , but we do still spot :
Plain zebra : white black and brownish stripes that go right round belly ( there are also Cape Mountain zebra that have no brown stripes, and thinner stripes). Also we learn that males have thick neck and forelegs compared to F. Viewed rather impolitely from the rear, it looks like the M has a black g-string, while the F has wide granny knickers. ( Not my terms – blame our guide).
Then there’s a few waterbok mingling sociably with Red Hartebeest and Wildebeest ( if only they Gnu..)
And finally another close up bird of cheetahs not bothering to budge – but looking majestic while they do so.
It starts to rain and we get a fashion parade of the onboard ponchos as we head home for the final time.
Addo Elephant Reserve
So that was it for Leeuwenbosch – we have felt really welcomed here and are genuinely sorry to leave. But as it’s only midday, we have chance to fit in another nearby reserve on the way to our next accomodation. It’s called Addo, and is a huge area . Compared to Amakhala game rides, we note the bigger ( 23 seater ) viewing trucks, a less personal feel, and we seem to find animals at much greater (20/50/100m+) distances from the road. It’s also more densely overgrown so harder to spot game.
Nonetheless there are a few highlights
*Striped kudu – 5 females , no horns accompanying a skulking male with impressively twisted horns, like an over-evolved Tellytubby. He was chewing the cud , showing off the extra stomach ( well, it’s ruminant to).
There were a load more Plains zebra , accompanied by cattle egret chasing up insects they disturb. Healthy manes. We were told that the brownish colour is mostly from rolling in dirt !
A Yellow tail mongoose – whizzed past and then briefly stood up photogenically for us …nice.
Black-backed jackal drinking from a watering hole it had all to itself
Huge group of elephants at much smaller watering hole. It was tiny and very muddy, so they were fighting over prime position by the inlet pipe where fresher water was to be had
By the end about 30 of them had gathered there – very impressive .
Tygerfontein Camp
Chris then dropped us off at our next accomodation and drove back to her hut at LB, delighted to have her own transport for a day or two ( we lent her our rental car for a while).
It was a beautiful “tent on legs” in the bush – we can hear lions roaring at night ( assured that this is from nearby sanctuary ) and many exotic birds . Also hear clearly the booming laughter of our Afrikaans host, John.
John turns out to be a cracking cook, produces good vegan grub for as one of us and double rations of protein for the rest. Also keeps a campfire burning for us to sit round .
Over dinner we converse with a South African couple, a chat which turns more and more bizarre and dark. He shares with us his conviction that the “mainstream media” is all lies. He gets his rock solid facts from X – samples being
the COVID vaccine conspiracy (‘ it changes your DNA, and you know what THAT means’ )
Murder tourism in the Bosnian war ( ‘ and they paid double to shoot children !’)
His wife looked very long suffering .
The party of Germans next to him kept shooting concerned glances at us….I wonder how much they made out ?
Anyway it was a lovely quiet spot to sleep
