We met them at Letaba Camp, which is a rather large camp located in the north-central part of Kruger along the Letaba riverbed. One wonderful aspect of Letaba is its huge lawns and tall, shady trees...Sycamore Fig, Natal Mahogany, Sausage Tree, and Apple Leaf. Just look at this place! It's magnificent! (No, that's not a live elephant. But that is the entry to Letaba Camp.)
It's quite nice to camp in Kruger because you can choose from several different types of accommodation. You can get:(1) a tent/caravan site where you bring your own tent/caravan
(2) a rustic hut that has beds, but nothing else
(3) a safari tent with beds, a mini-fan, a hot plate, refrigerator, and table and chairs
(4) a fully-equipped bungalow with air conditioning
(5) a decked-out guest cottage that houses that sleeps about 10-15 people
Our friends opted to bring their own tent. Despite much begging, pleading, and puppy-dog eyes on their part (non-stop from the kids for the preceding 4 weeks) for us to join them in their tent, we held strong and opted for a separate bungalow. Honestly, can we really be expected to pass up air conditioning when it was a blistering 45 degrees Celsius everyday that week? Answer: No, we can't. So, while the family was on the other side of the campground unpacking the car, setting up the tent, and trying to make the most of their grass-less campsite, we were kicking up our heels on the porch of our sweet, sweet bungalow.
In between reading snippets from engrossing (and non-work-related) books we took in some of the scenery and wildlife. It was quite peaceful. Around the camp, many of the animals are so tame that they will eat right out of your hand. Not very sanitary, perhaps, but incredibly endearing. Aaahhhh. A person could get used to this. Of course, monkeys are all very fun and lovable until they steal your food out from under your nose. True story: As Neil was unpacking our cooler and loading the fridge he set a bunch of grapes on the table, turned to open the fridge, then turned back to get the grapes. Too slow, Joe. By then the monkey was halfway across the lawn with grapes in its hand and glee in its heart. Turns out monkeys don't even have to wait until you leave something out. They'll just open your fridge while your out walking around. So, the campground officials "strongly recommend" that people turn around their refrigerators to face the wall (as shown below).
Apparently, monkeys haven't quite yet figured out how to work as a team and scoot the fridge away from the wall. Just give them a couple more generations.Eventually we joined our friends and walked around exploring the camp together.
We spotted some fun things along the way...
Ohhh, what's that?
That is a big lizard... What Neil was saying before he was so rudely cut off by the person filming (this is the same person who has figured out that videos longer than about 20 seconds take way too long to upload on a blog) was basically this: Snakes, like lizards, love to eat eggs. They enter chicken coops at night and gorge themselves...swallowing eggs whole and crushing them inside their bodies. (Yum!) Now, the people to whom the chickens and eggs belong do not like this. But, it's difficult to catch snakes in the act, especially if they are up to all this mischief in the middle of the night and may bite you if you disrupt their feast. But people are clever. They set out hard-boiled eggs in the chicken coops. The snakes then swallow these eggs. But since the snake cannot crush a hard-boiled egg once its been swallowed, they are immobilized. The next morning people find the frozen snake and kill it...often with shovels or rocks.
There are also less slithery animals about like this little bushbuck who was quite interested in what we were up to.
The kids especially liked watching the monkeys. (We kept a tight eye on our food.)
They were even more fascinated with squirrels...which are apparently incredibly rare up in Tzaneen. We let the kids borrow our camera for a little while and it came back to us with about 2GBs worth of squirrel documentaries. Can't really blame them though...I remember going camping with my family when I was a kid and being filling with glee whenever I'd see a chipmunk or squirrel scamper across the road and up a tree. (The only thing that lessens my excitement for them now is that I've spent the last 10 years trying to keep them out of our apartment. Trust me, a up-close encounter with a squirrel on your bed is much less fun than seeing them romp around in the wild.)
Unfortunately, the not-so-short film "The Life and Times of an Unnamed Squirrel" had to be deleted. We needed that 2GBs for all the elephant we saw along the way:
After such a long walk, it was nice to put our feet up.
Later that evening we moseyed over to their camp for some festivities. We had a braai (wherein I successfully managed to eat zero meat without having to defend such odd behavior and Neil managed to eat a lot of meat with the constant declaration of its gloriousness).
We played Uno (Neil and I actually won several games without cheating...too much).
By that time we were plum tuckered out, so we headed back to our cozy, air-conditioned digs and settled down to a cool, mozzie-free night. I don't remember much after that which I interpret as some good sleep.
The next day was a scorcher. So, we didn't do too much other than just enjoy eachother's company...
Looks like somebody could have used a little A/C last night!
Don't we all look just swell? These candid shots are great. Give your camera to a five-year-old boy and you're sure to get the real story. Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun!
Eventually we had to part ways and Neil and I headed home through the park towards Orpen gate.
Along the way we had two great elephant encounters:
Along the way we had two great elephant encounters:
Whew! They don't get closer than that!
We learned a few things from this experience:
(1) Always opt for air conditioning in Kruger. Always.
(2) Do not...I repeat: DO NOT...come between a Mama elephant and her baby or cut off an elephant bull when he is trying to cross the street.
(3) Know where reverse is on your car.
