We got up at leisure …I managed to find our house keeper…a young lady with her tight curls dyed blonde answering to the name of “Wossy”….I asked her if she could do our washing she said she could but didn’t look too happy. I said we would of course pay her, she cheered up a bit, I asked if 150 rand would be ok and she beamed from ear to ear, grabbed the washing and skipped away…excellent…you’ll be pleased to know we will both now have clean undies, T-shirts, socks, trousers and hankies to see us through to the end of our holiday🤣…it was beginning to look a bit dodgy! In fact I had been considering calling at Woolies in Malalane the day after tomorrow to buy new pants and socks….now I won’t have to bother👍👍

We set off for our game drive down the tar S110 which leads from the camp to the H3 main route. We wound our way down the S25, S114, S118 …wow where has all the game gone…

John had stated he would see 10 giraffe and I had selected elephant….as it happens we only saw 6 giraffe all day and by the end of the day we had actually seen 15 elephants…sorry John, I’ll select a porcupine tomorrow then you’re bound to win🤣

We did see a steenbok, near some impala.. the contrast in size was quite clear to see.

There was also a large male kudu in the mostly dried up river bed. You can age a Kudu by the turns in its horns. Every turn is 2 years so 3 curves …which tend to be your big dominant bulls means it’s over 6 years old….the young buck which don’t quite have a turn yet are under 2.

We saw one or two elephant wandering browsing in the bush, but no big herds. We stopped lots of times to ask others what they had seen but apart from impala no one had seen much at all.

We cut back on to the H3 and headed up towards Afsaal picnic spot. A safari vehicle was looking at the rocks so I stopped and asked if they’d seen any thing interesting. The guide asked what I meant by interesting expecting me to say leopard, as they like rocky outcrops,. But I actually replied Klipspringer. He burst out laughing and I explained we had been in the park nearly 3 weeks and still hadn’t managed to see a “Klippy”….

The Klipspringer is a smallish ( 40-60 cm) sturdy antelope with short spiky ringed horns, and a yellowish grey coarse coat. They frequent rocky areas. “Klip” means rock, and “springer” means jumper in Africans which is exactly what these antelope do, they jump from rock to rock. Their thin pointy rubber-like hooves make them look like ballerinas leaping across the rocks. They can often be seen on the top of rocks, the highest lookout point, this is because they have binocular vision…but up until yesterday try as we had we had failed to see one….

The Safari guide was explaining to me where they had seen one…on an outcrop near Skakuza, when one of his clients, who was using binoculars sighted one on the rocks…wow superb….unfortunately by now lots of cars had crowded in on us, as they thought we had seen a leopard, and I was unable to manipulate the car so John had a view. Very frustrating… we said a grateful farewell to our friendly Safari guide and his guests…spending a few more minutes trying to locate where the Klipspringer had moved to…but sadly no success.

After using the toilet at Afsaal we went back down the tar towards Malalane gate.

We came across a largish troop of Chacma baboons .

Slowly we wound our way back to camp….

We went straight to the restaurant for a sandwich lunch. Although they don’t have Internet, our router worked very quickly, probably because it is the highest point in the camp…so we uploaded yesterdays blog, while eating lunch.

We went straight back out again. This time we were more successful. There was a large elephant drinking from a small pool of water at the roadside.

Due to the recent rain there are pools like this all over the place. This means animals don’t need to go to the rivers or to bigger watering holes to drink, this is why spotting has suddenly become one more difficult. It is why I always advise people to Safari between May and September, South Africa winter…because it’s dry after the hot summer and animals have to drink in the rivers and main water holes so they are much easier to find and see.

We headed along a short dirt track then back on to the tar. The South African Parks Board had put out a red weather warning stating there would be thunder, lightening, heavy wind and rain and flash flooding….i wasn’t very keen to move too far from the main road which is tar and has proper bridges , unlike the dirt roads which use pontoon bridges, fords and the roads can become impassable in the rain……not that we saw much rain a few specks on the windscreen was all we got 🤣🤣🤣

Anyway by going up the tar we went past the rocky outcrop again…this time we both got to see a pair of Klipspringers on the top rock and on another outcrop we saw yet another one…a bit like London Buses – you wait forever for one then they all come at once….however we were very joyful…they are difficult to see because of the distance…but well worth the effort.

We continued along the road and lo and behold we saw two adults rhino and a young one and a short distance further on two more. We sat for ages watching them. There was a huge elephant behind the family of three…he looked like their security guard!

On the way back we saw a twitch of an ear at the side of the road and sure enough there was a hyena den with two pups peaking out…very difficult to see.

Our Klipspringers were still standing to attention on the top of their rock as we passed by and made for the camp gate….a lovely afternoon drive.

Our count for the day was 99+ impala, 2 bushbuck, 8 warthog, 2 squirrel, 2 steenbok, 15 elephants, 1 kudu, 2 vervet monkeys, 1 wildebeest, 10 Chacma baboons, 3 Klipspringer, 2 red billed horn bill, I lilac breasted roller, 2 quail, 1 dwarf mongoose, 2 guinea fowl, 6 giraffe, 5 rhino, 2 hyena, 1 zebra, 2 white headed vultures…our lowest count to date.

We ate at the restaurant again then sat outside our rondavel playing cards…there was no hint of any rain.