On the second night in Oliphants a tiny, wizened old fellow appeared in hot persuit of a baboon which are a real problem. His weapon of choice was a catapault which was unfortunately broken but it appeared that just waving it in their general direction was enough to deter the critters. The last night was at Letaba and the drive from Oliphants produced a group of these stately creatures, unhurredly working their way through the grassland. Kruger is one of their last bastions but even there the numbers are dropping. Ground Hornbills normally lay two eggs but they desert the second one as soon as the first hatches. There was a group that collected the abandoned eggs and captive-reared the second chick, not sure if they are still active though.
And enter leopard number three stage left, straight across the road in front of me and this was the best I could do - butt shot.
The Letaba River is usually host to numbers of elephants but they were very scarce on this visit - there must still have been standing water elsewhere. Caught this old chap in the afternoon while on the way to the famous "leopard tree".
Jo and I were here with Nicholas, Richard and his friend Ryan and on an early drive we saw 4 leopards - mom and two cubs crossing right in front of us and then a big male lounging on a branch very close to the road. As the 3 guys were in another vehicle we only managed to raise them when back near the camp. They went roaring off to find the animal and what ensued could only be described as "Keystone cops". Suffice to say they all had a good look, then Ryan decided he needed a leak and got out of the car. The leopard took fright but the trunk of the tree sloped towards him and he thought it was coming after him which caused total hysterics. So though I doubt the leopard will ever return, I always have to check and this time........
..........Verreaux's Eagle-owl perched on the same branch catching some zzz's. The road from Letaba to Phalaborwa is home to some of the biggest termite mounds in Africa but this effort - going on 4 m - must have been inspired by some ants from Dubai.
The trip back to Boksburg was uneventful even though the trafic was hectic but the Abel Erasmus pass with lime green and orange lichen-covered rocks is always impressive. Right in the centre is a waterfall dwarfed by distance, but still running after a drought stricken summer.
I welcomed the Beast back with a wallet some R12 500 lighter but was really impressed with the work, as there were a number of things that they had done without charge. Most impressive of all was that there was not a single thing missing which really restored my faith in humankind. And so to Leentjiesklip in Langebaan and this view plus the en-suite or rather on-site facilities led to my deciding to stay for a month.
Here's a sample of how that view changes.
On the other side of the bay is Saldana and even though it is very industrialised there are still some very picturesque spots. OK the ore terminal is not one of them but what intrigued was all those things bobbing in the bay. Discovered that there's a huge local quaculture industry, mainly mussels and oysters, and though there's gold in them thar waters there's also the problem of knee-deep mollusc manure in that part of the bay. As usual money wins the day.
There's a suburb rapidly developing on a ridge overlooking the lagoon and while they have stunning views, most of these palatial places are empty holiday "cottages".
Between Saldana and Langebaan is what looks like an old mine dump but there's a 10 m high wall around a section at it's base and the sign outside claims it's the SFF Terminal. Google revealed that this is the Strategic Fuel Fund terminal and consists of six concrete tanks capable of storing 45 million barrels of crude. It's connected, via a 107 km pipeline, to a refinery in Milnerton, Cape Town. There has recently been a kerfuffle about the minister of energy selling off vast quantities of stock at way below market price. No comment.
Had interesting visitors the other day in the form of a pair of Spotted Thick-knees. What an idiotic name as the joint referred to is it's ankle, ever seen a knee that bends forward..........other than on the rugby field.. Much prefer the Afrikaans name that they used to known as - Dikkop.
A scouting trip to Velddrift revealed the most extraordinary sight of 10's of thousands of Cape Cormorants loafing around on the banks of the Berg River..........
..........then someone fired the starting gun and in very orderly fashion.........
.......they started streaming out to sea. It took just under half an hour for all of them to leave and what was even weirder was that every zig and zag set by the leaders was faithfully replicated by the followers.
The Cape Columbine Nature Reserve was fairly close and offers one of the most isolated camp sites I've come across at the endearingly named Tietties Baai - no, it has nothing to do with anatomy and got the name from a fisherman who drowned there.
It's also home to the Cape Columbine lighthouse named after a ship that sank nearby.. One thing I've noticed about our lighthouses is that no two are alike.
Also in the area is Paternoster that used to be a quaint fishing village until they ran out of fish, now it's filled with quaint restaurants that attract hordes of Capetonians over the weekends.
And I'll leave you with the West Coast really showing off.
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