We arrived at the airport, got our rental car, and Tom drove over to Skukuza Reception.
Skukuza Arrival - June 10
After checking into our cabins, we went to the camp store for beer, water & chips and then took a nap. I called home to see how the pay phone worked. We went touring on a small loop in the car, and Tom set the record by returning through the rest camp gate at 5:28, with two minutes to spare. That afternoon we saw lots of deer-like creatures we later determined were most probably Impala. We also saw a couple of giraffe. Tom drove the first night, so I got to look and take these snapshots. We drove west out of Skukuza, stopped at a bird hide off H11, then turned south on S65 and crossed the N’waswitshaka river, then back east and north on H1-1 back to Skukuza. We saw lots of impala, zebra, giraffe and a couple of Chacma Baboons.
After we got back in the camp, we sat on the porch of my cabin and drank some beer, ate some chips, and then went to dinner at the Selati train station. The regular restaurant was closed due to the damage caused by flooding in the spring. There were several cabins closest to the river that were also destroyed and being re-built. We drank our nightcap on the porch, after watching the end of a movie being shown in the amphitheater. I woke at 3 and was cold & stuffed up. So I put on my knit hat and an extra blanket and went back to sleep. Tom woke me up at 8 and I felt great and well rested.
This evening I decided I was pretty ignorant. I had been waited on by indigenous and indigent, but happy, people, who spoke English, Afrikaans and Zulu. They were so more educated than me.
Then, we drove to Satara and spent a couple days there before coming back to Skukuza to spend the night before flying to Durban for the race.
Skukuza to Satara via Tshokwane - June 11
We went for a leisurely buffet breakfast at the train station, then stopped by the store for hard candy, PowerAde and water. We packed up, checked out (by leaving our keys in the drop box) and headed for the road to Satara, which was by way of as many gravel roads as possible. Tom thought to buy a box of black plastic garbage bags, which we wrapped our backpacks and rucksacks in to keep the road dust out of them. Shortly after leaving Skukuza everyone in the road stopped because there was a python crossing the road.
We headed out across the Sabie river and then the Sand river. The damage done by the floods from the rainy season were evident everywhere. We were heading mostly northeasterly on H1-2, but took a side trip on the gravel Maroela Loop, then on by Mantimahle, N’watindlopfu on S84, then back onto H1-2 for a stop to get out of the car and see the Kruger tablets up close and take some photos.
We stopped at the rest area at Tshokwane for lunch and had a nice snack at one of the tables. Here we saw our first batch of Glossy starling, which were begging for food everywhere. Other people were having their "bush braai" but we settled for a toasted ham and cheese. At this rest area I saw a sausage tree, and there was also a small–bed pick up truck with two rear axles. In addition, there was a large touring vehicle with a raised, windowed body that looked a little like a recycling vehicle, but was for rich tourists. It had it’s own stoves mounted on the side, and was many-wheel drive. After lunch I tried my hand at driving a stick on the right hand side of the car and didn’t do too badly. We took our time, but didn’t really see a lot.
From Tshokwane we drove north on the paved H1-3 and then turned right (east) on the gravel S37, which headed through the Knob Thorn / Marula Savannah ecozone almost to the eastern border of the Park, which is also the eastern border of the country. We believe the top of the ridge we saw to the east was actually Mozambique. S37 headed northeast for 13 kilometers and turned into the Trichardt Road, which paralleled the Makangolweni river, all the way to the Sweni river.
After taking our time on the way, we crossed the low water bridge at Sweni. We saw what looked like a lodge up river. Around the corner there was a marked driveway for a bird hide. We decided at the last moment to try it, and we parked, went into the fenced walkway and found ourselves alone in a fairly new bird hide donated by proceeds from a marathon in the park. There were at least 14 hippos playing in the water, and it was a wonderful, peaceful sight. Every once in a while they would bellow.
We took a lot of photos and lingered at this spot, so peaceful, with the hippos playing in the river. After a while, we got back in the car and continued north toward the tarred H6 road which would lead east to N'Wanetsi or west to Satara. Since it was getting late in the afternoon, and the gates closed at 5:30, we turned west toward Satara. Going up a hill toward the west, there was a giraffe about half mile ahead at the crest of the hill, in the middle of the road, so that it’s profile was above the horizon. The sun was below the horizon, so it looked really neat. I maneuvered the car so Tom could get some good photos of the giraffe. We crept closer, and it was a giraffe family crossing the road for some better leaves. We watched for a while, but they didn’t mind us.
Further on up the road we tracked a hyena off in the bush. We arrived at Satara and got our lodges, showered and checked into a night drive, which was available for R70. We decided at dinner, a buffet, to get up early and try to go out at sunrise to see what we’d see. We decided that the food at Skukuza was better, but there was more solitude at Satara, probably because Skukuza, being farther south, has more tourist accessibility. We had a few beers before supper, then wine. We were definitely feeling good.
