The Wilds of Africa

Sorry I am a bit behind on my posts but as I am in the very far north of Limpopo near the Zimbabwe border, and spending most of my time in National Parks, I do not have mobile or internet connectivity much of the time.  I am currently in Musina, on my way to Mapungobwe NP, sitting in a Spur restaurant having breakfast as an excuse to fire up my laptop.  I am assuming also that I will be offline for the next week as I will be in Mapungobwe.

I arranged my schedule to be in Musina for the Australia v New Zealand World Cup game and picked what was advertised on line as a luxury lodge in Musina, with quite reasonable rates.  Talk about false advertising!  In reality it was a truck stop motel, miles out of town.  No problem though as it was cheap, I saw the game (and the T20 cricket), and met some really interesting characters (pan Africa truck drivers, professional hunters, mercenaries, you get the picture of the type of place, I felt right at home).

Musina itself is an interesting place.  It is the major town servicing the main border crossing into Zimbabwe, and as such it seems to have thousands of long haul trucks everywhere, waiting border clearance, a very visible SA Police and Army presence, and a lot of what appear to be migrants (illegal?) crossing the border with their worldly possessions.

Anyway, I must head.  I will post again when I get a chance.  Below are a few photos taken between Kruger NP and Musina.

I know, another elephant!  But I like them!

I know, another Baobab!  But look at all the bird's nests.

Not a particularly good photo, but driving through this area reminded me a lot of the Victoria River District in Australia where I was living before coming over here.  Lots of rocky outcrops and Baobab trees.

Of course the round thatched huts are not very Australian.

Tickled!

I set up this blog when I went to South Africa as a way of updating family and friends in Australia on my work and travels, without having to resort to individual e-mails (I am essentially a lazy person).  However, I have been tickled by how many people from all different countries around the world have been viewing it, I guess I am averaging about 70 hits a week from all around the world, which I think is absolutely fantastic.  I seem to get spikes at certain times in certain countries, so obviously people are letting their friends know when they discover me! The last week’s stats on views for the blog are: USA 27, South Africa 21, Australia 20, Russia 5, Germany 3, Portugal 2, Slovenia 2, Uruguay 2, UK 1 and Japan 1.

I don’t even know people in some of these countries, although I have met people from all of them in my travels and they have been ALL very nice (the Slovenian lady who happened to see Ms Dig’s and my now defunct wedding (but we are still very good friends) in Kakadu NP and who gave us a heart shaped rock she had carried all the way around the world from Slovenia springs to mind).   The bottom line is you are all welcome, especially if you find some interest or enjoyment in my ramblings.  Please feel free to post any comments, suggestions or requests as I love hearing from people from all around this wonderful world.  The photos that I post (from my little instamatic!) are only a small percentage of the photos that I take, so if you want me to post some more on a specific subject (or animal) then please ask.  Once again this is my lazy side as it means I don’t have to think about my next post!

Once again, this South African red wine is pretty good.  I have a personal standard of not drinking by myself, so I figure if I am on the internet to 70 odd people around the world, then I am not really drinking by myself.  Any justification!  Please forgive my drunken ramblings, but they are heartfelt.

Punda Maria Day 2

Once again the fact that people are ‘sheep’ has been reinforced to me!  Now that school holidays are over in South Africa, Kruger has quietened down a bit.  However, the Punda Maria campground is relatively large (about 300 m by 200 m) with a toilet block and separate camp kitchen centrally at either end.  In my two days here I have watched people come and go, on both days everyone bar myself and one other lot of campers (different both days) have clustered around the first amenities block. About 15 caravans/campers all set up in a 50 m radius, leaving the other camp kitchen and amenities for my sole personal use.  I can’t complain about that!

Once again the Park amazed me today, I think you could spend a month here and see something new every day, although I only took 104 photos today.  It would have been more, however the main cultural heritage site in the area. Thulamela was closed for work.  It was actually a bit frustrating as there was no notice to this effect until you arrived there, which was a 50 km drive.  It didn’t really matter though as there was a lot of other stuff to see.

At one stage this morning I was totally surrounded by a herd of about 100 buffalo, but that deserves its own post, so you will have to wait.  I actually have internet connectivity here at Punda Maria, but like SanWild it is at the extreme edge of mobile phone coverage so it is very slow.  I may not be able to post these posts until I get back into a town.  By the way, I have decided that South African cask wine is pretty good, as while I am sitting here my glass seems to keep getting empty!

I have also decided that Vervet Monkeys are too smart and cheeky for their own good.  I had three incidents with them today.  I went to the toilet this morning and was away from my campsite for about 10 minutes (yes Mum and Ms Dig, only 10 minutes, as I didn’t take a book!), when I got back, a monkey had unlatched my esky, opened the lid, opened a plastic bag of apples and was happily sitting in my chair eating an apple.  He/she ran away up a tree when I approached, but then the annoying thing was it ate only half the apple and threw the rest away.  At lunch time I stopped at a designated picnic area (where you could get out of your car) and had lunch.  Once again, I had an apple in my hand and when I glanced to my left a monkey jumped on the table to my right grabbed the apple and took off up a tree.  Now, I am pretty situationally aware, and have fairly good reflexes, but there was no way I had time to react to this ‘assault’.  So far, the first three apples from this bag go to the monkeys.  About 1630 hr I arrived back at the campsite to find that the only tub I had left behind (I had taken my esky, food tub and cooking tub with me), had been opened and ‘ratted’ by the monkeys.  This tub was left behind because it contained no food!  Therefore my washing powder, pegs, plastic bags etc were all thrown out.  Even  a number of empty ‘tupperware’ type containers had been opened by the monkeys.  Nothing is safe!

A vervet monkey sitting on the back of my bakkie.  He was originally sitting on my bike but I wasn't quick enough to get a photo.

The open landscape in the northern end of the Park.

Another Baobab.

A close up of the Baobab above showing the damage that elephants do to the trunk.  Interestingly there are very few juvenile Baobabs which I attribute to the elephants.

Another Baobab.  I can't remember why I included this one?

An example of the denser vegetation and larger trees along one of the river corridors.

Baboons foraging out in the open.  The ground was basically bare but they seemed to be finding something to eat as they kept putting things in their mouths.

Crooks Corner where the borders of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique meet.  It was called Crooks Corner because it was the hangout of criminals, gun runners, ivory poachers and slavers.  If the authorities of one country approached, they would duck across the 'border' into one of the others.

I find it hard to accept how you can build huge power lines through the middle of a world heritage national park?

Just to give you an idea of how close the elephants come to the cars.

Bad Connectivity!

Hi everyone, just a quick post to let everyone know I am alive.  I am back in Kruger NP camping and actually have very limited internet connectivity (which is more than I expected).  However the connection is not strong enough to upload photos, so I can’t do a ‘proper’ post.  I will be travelling into Musina Sat and I am booked into a hotel for Sat and Sun night (so I can watch the Australia/New Zealand semi final on Sun morning), so I will catch up on my posts then.  I am actually preparing them offline each day, so I will date them when I post.  Does that make sense, I have had a few glasses of red wine?

Everybody stay safe and lots of love (yes even to those I don’t know, because I appreciate you following my blog).

Back in Kruger (Punda Maria)

I drove up from Tzaneen to Punda Maria in the northern end of Kruger NP today, which is ecologically quite different from the central section.  It is what they call Tree Mopane Savannah (pronounced mo-par-nee), and as you can see from the photos below it has a lot more grass cover on the ground, as well as taller trees.  It is the highest rainfall area in the Kruger NP, although it is very dry at the moment.  All of the waterholes I saw today (three!) were all dry or virtually dry, which doesn’t make for good game viewing.  Punda Maria is the Swahili word for ‘striped donkey’ or zebra.  Interestingly, alsothe Afrikaans word for zebra literally translated into English is also striped donkey.  The name however comes from a nickname that the locals gave the first Ranger’s wife in 1934 because she wore striped blouses.

The drive up was a bit frustrating at the Tzaneen end, as it took me 2 hours to go 26 km because of roadworks.  The last part of the drive was through tribal homelands, and once again I realised there are two very separate countries in one in South Africa.  You have the cities and major towns which are like any cities anywhere in the advanced world with all of the amenities that us Australians would expect.  Then you get to the tribal areas and it is what you imagine the stereotype of third world Africa to be.  It is a bit like venturing outside Darwin in the NT and going to a remote Aboriginal community, but with a much greater population density.  Houses however vary from wood and plastic sheet shanties (relatively rare), through traditional round huts with thatched rooves, smaller government built brick houses (probably the most common) which are reminiscent of the Apartheid era, and finally quite ‘flash’ houses obviously built by locals who have made a bit of money.

Home away from home!

The landform is very diferent in the northern end of the park, with a lot more grass cover and larger open spaces.

This tree is known as a sausage tree.

And here is one of the sausages.

Lots of sausages on the ground waiting to be collected and cooked!

Nice Elephants

One of the biggest things I noticed about the animals in Kruger NP was how used to humans and cars they were and this included the elephants, which after my earlier experiences with elephants was refreshing.  Not long after entering the park I drove over a hill and there on the road in front of me was an elephant.  After my experiences at SanWild I immediately shoved the car in reverse and was about to back off when I noticed that the elephant wasn’t even bothering to look at me, let alone give me any warnings.  As this road was the only one for many km, I slowly drove forward and the elephant totally ignored me.  I passed within about 5 m of it!  By the end of the day after seeing about 200 elephants, I was bit more blasé about them.  There are currently about 12 000 elephants in the park which they think may be too high to be sustainable but they are in the process of re-assessing this.

I am heading back into Kruger NP Thursday, and this time I will be camping in the northern end of the park and spending a couple of days exploring around there.

This was the first elephant that I saw in Kruger NP as I came over the rise.  At the time I thought it was special because I didn't realise how common they were in the Park.

The same elephant as above.  This is how close I stopped before driving past.

Another close elephant.

This herd was interesting, as they were all standing in a circle facing out.  Behaviour like this means that something is happening in tyhe middle of the herd (birth, deah etc) and the herd is protecting the individual.  Unfortunately I couldn't see what was going on but I like to imagine it was a birth!

I got very close to this old bull.  Take a look at his tusks, the left one is broken off about a foot from the tip, with the right one boken near the base.  They would be uge if they were whole.  I haven't seen any other elephants wuith two broken tusks like this, if only he could talk.

Part of a her crossing a road.  They were all covered n fresh mud.

Part of the same herd, but in this case he was covering his 'mud. with dust, then wiping himself down with clumps of grass.

Part of the same herd.  This was the only time I was warned away by a Kruger elephant (see the shaking head).

Just had to include this one as it is an elephant in the Oliphants River (Afrikaans for Elephant River).

Masorini

I am back in Tzaneen and already caught up with some friends.  I am sitting in Wimpy, drinking coffee and waiting for a phone call from the guy making my canopy.  Once I have the canopy on, my stuff will be secure in the back and I will be able to start travelling properly.  Initially I will go up into the Mapungobwe NP in the very north of Limpopo, which is a cultural site and associated with the Great Zimbabwe civilisation.  While I am in the cultural mindset I will also duck into Zimbabwe (to see Great Zimbabwe) and associated sites in Botswana.

When I was in Kruger NP the other day I visited an African Iron Age (200 CE to about 1800 CE) site which had been excavated and partially reconstructed for visitors to the Park.  It was an interesting place as it was an iron ore smelting site and not agricultural/pastoral.  However, I find it hard to fathom as it was located approximately 15 km from the nearest iron ore and 8 km from the nearest water?  When I pointed this out to the guide, he said that nobody knows why.  Anyway here are some photos:

Some of the stone artefacts found in this iron age site, including microliths and 'hand axes'.  I actually found a 'hand axe' almost the same as these on the SanWild Reserve once.

Some of the iron artefacts found at Masorini.  I initially thought they were spear points but according to the captions they are hoes and digging tools

A reconstructed iron ore smelting furnace.

An un-reconstructed iron ore smelting furnace.

One of the cooking pots recovered.

Clay air flues used in the furnaces.

One of the reconstructed huts.  Given the size of them I would say they were just used for sleeping and all other domestic activity was conducted outdoors.

Another reconstructed hut and cooking hearth.