We left Tsendze one
day early, the cold front had come through with annoying winds blowing sand all
over the place. Four days is adequate for Tzendze there are great river drives
with great spots to sit and watch animals drink.
Tsessebe which we saw in small groups on occasions
At Tsendze we saw mainly Buffalo
and Elephant, plenty Buffalo seeing 3 to 4 huge herds every day and small groups of Dagga boys. On the second night we
heard Lion roaring close by, awesome. With no power to charge computers and
cameras and everything flat we decided to head back to Satara.
We phoned ahead to see
if we could get in at Satara, no problem as we were going onto the Private site
courtesy of Willem who organized for us.We started breaking
down camp at 09h00 we were on the way by 10h30 arriving at Satara about 14h00.
An uneventful drive until
we crossed the high water bridge over the Olifants river where we encountered an
enormous bull Elephant walking straight down the middle of the road. We stopped
about a 100M away hoping he would move off the road into the bush. Two other
cars were reversing towards us as they were in its path. I tried reversing
slowly with the caravan which is a difficult task anyway without an angry
Elephant pushing you. Both cars reversed past me and still the Elephant came. The
one person in the car advised me to turn around as the elephant had pushed him
back for a long way. How do you do a 3 point turn with a caravan in tow and an
Elephant now only 50M away? I could not
reverse as I could not see behind nor could I could I keep a straight line at
the speed required to reverse. The Elephant was almost on top of us when I
decided to stop, close all windows and see what happens, I could do nothing
else, Lettie was almost hysterical the only words coming out was “oh
Shit” Was this how our trip was
going to end? A car with a tusk through it and an overturned caravan…..
The Elephant walked
straight towards our car, stopped 5 meters away raised his trunk shook his head
and moved next to my car, passing within 2 meters of the driver’s window. I saw
the gap, foot down and before the Elephant could react I was past him caravan
and all. A close encounter, after we recovered we suddenly thought why did we
not video this, too late it is in the memory forever.
We had always spoken
about this happening many times, what would we do if we were confronted by an Elephant
while we had the caravan in tow and unable to turn around or reverse. Well let
me tell you there is nothing you can do, pull aside leave the car running,
close the windows, so he does not pick up your sent, and hope for the best.
Set up camp on the
private site with the help of Bongani, everything charged, fridge working DSTV
ready for today’s rugby.
How lucky we are to
get this site, sitting here typing this with all types of birds swimming in the
bird bath, Banded Mongoose and Squirrels scurrying around, Buffalo, Impala and
Wildebees visible from the fence.
Last night was the
coldest we have been in the Park when it dropped to about 7C daytime is about
23C clearing tomorrow.
Our rusk bin is
running low; we have 4 or 5 nights left before we start making our way home. Missing
our family, friends, golf, painting, and my own bed.
Some Visitors to our Site at Satara
 |
| Bird bath visitor |
Begging for money from VISA (my charcoal carry bag)
