This morning we were up and gone by 7-00. That does not mean we were fully awake , but we were gone. We traveled along the way, saw very little but we stopped at the Mooiplaas picnic site for breakfast. We rented the skottel and we made a lovely breakfast with fried eggs and mushrooms and the last bit of or wonderful bread from the Belgium baker in Hazyview. We were so satisfied with ourselves that we had cottoned on so quickly to this "breakfast at picnic spots"in the Park.
Last night we were visited by our camping neighbour who told us about all his wild life sightings and the leopard that killed the Impala right next to his car, so close that he could not even take a picture. We listened and made all the right noises and then thought how is it that some people see all these fantastic things.Somehow it sounds like fishing stories to me and then this afternoon we sitting in a hide at Kanniedood Dam and a a family with 4 young kids arrive. 4 Kids in a hide is already a "no-no" however this family arrives with the 4 kids, all boys, ranging from just over a year to about 8 years.After about 20 minutes I knew the names, Willem, Ben, Georgie and David. The mother is Dominque and the dad is Ben. The kids were silenced, but with the best will in the world there is in no way that you can keep a young child quiet. As they walked into the hide the eldest boy came to me and compared binoculars and then pointed out the croc in the river all in a whispered tone. They all had coffee in whispered tones and proceeded to talk in that lowered tone that eventually sound louder than normal voice tones. Anyway as the afternoon progressed, like 30 minutes later, they told us of their encounter with a Cheetah. Again I thought, how the hell can it be true and then she took her camera and she showed me the photos. There on the beacon sat the Cheetah, hardly a metre away from them. So no my "fishing story" philosophy is dead already!! Fact remains, we have seen none of the great predators. We have, though seen a Spotted Pearl Owl in the middle of the day on a dead tree, 2 Adult and 1 juvenile Saddle Bill storks, 2 Tsessebe Antelope, which is very rare to see in the park .So we are comforting ourselves with the thought that we might not have seen the "big Five" but we have seen many other things, not that we are not wanting to spot a Wild dog or a Leopard or a Cheetah.
Tonight we are in the camp site in Shingwedzi. It is a huge camp site with lots of sites and nobody knows where any site begins or ends. We have learnt now that we look for a braai place and an electrics connection first. If Ablutions are close it is a bonus and we have stopped caring about who our neighbours are. Tonight I think our neighbours are not so impressed with us as we have pitched camp in what I think they thought of as their car park. Tough, we thought, it was the only electrical connection point we could find close to an ablution facility.
The night is quiet and there are stars all over the night sky. People are talking in lowered tones and many have gone to bed already. It is amazing how early the night comes in a campsite, especially in Kruger, but then again the morning comes equally early. Tomorrow we are off to spend our last night in the Park at Punda Maria. Hopefully we lucky on the way and we see some of the elusive predators.
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