Bishop's blather: Kruger, Kruger and more Kruger

There's a nature reserve on top of the 1450 m Mariepskop that I had tried to get to once before but the road put me off. Running out of alternatives I tackled it once more and it took nearly an hour to cover the 15 km odd to the gate. Once there a young lady relieved me of R30 and said there were two look out points, one by the towers and another a bit further down. I'd seen some towers on the way up so ignored the huge concrete road that was marked Lookout and headed for where I thought the towers were. After half an hour of the most atrocious road imaginable I gave up and headed back to the concrete.

Naturally enough I was in completely the wrong place, the only way to the top was up the 5 m wide concrete highway built when the armed forces had money to throw around. Not only are there dozens of towers atop Mariepskop but a massive air-force radar installation and in the bad old days a huge base with no less than three, three-story barrack blocks. The base is now closed and it's debatable whether the radar works, but there was something going round and round. The view from up there was akin to the top of Sani Pass and the road just as steep in places............

........ and looking the other way - straight into the Blyde Canyon, quite something.

From the bottom it's fairly apparent why the airforce and telecommunication companies chose to set up shop.

Currently in Phalabowa, at the Forever Resort situated 200 m from the gate to Kruger. Have been going in at least every other day and twice on Sundays - wonderful thing this Wildcard as your R500 allows unlimited access. A foreign trio at the next counter had to fork out R680 for the day. Found this little Namaqua dove sitting catching forty winks, thought he was lucky that something didn't catch him.

Noticed that a number of the termite mounds have had recent extensions, perhaps another indication of rising temperatures as they are designed to act like cooling towers to keep the inside temperature constant, and generally the hotter it is, the higher they go. Perhaps the ladies of the house just wanted some remodeling done.

Always impressive but up close the Ground hornbill's eyelashes may turn the ladies a bit green.

The area around here is mostly mopane scrub and there appears to be a lot more buffalo and elephant than down Orpen way. Herds are large but difficult to see when more than 5 m from the road.

Among this lot were a couple of Red-billed hornbills foraging on the ground, though they are most often seen picking through elephant dung, obviously not fussy eaters.

This old chap didn't like the song that was playing on the radio and tried very hard to give me the 1000 yard stare - a bit difficult when you've only got one eye.

Went to check out the Hans Merensky hotel and golf course but as there are wild animals running around they won't let you walk the course. No sooner had I turned off the engine athan this minute Collared sunbird was on the wiper blade and showing off to his reflection. No aggression, he just seemed really fascinated with himself.

When you're surrounded by thousands of square kilometers of mopane, finding another species creates a lot of excitement, especially when it's as massive as this Ficus sur, the Cape or cluster fig..

Found an idyllic spot on the Letaba river near Shimuwini where I just parked for an hour and watched Africa going about it's business. Winter temperatures see the hippos out of the water and sunbathing with the crocs, while impala (inevitably), waterbuck and giraffe put in appearances.

As mentioned ellies are prolific and while they are mostly amiable, this big bull was very excited and who can blame him. Driving to Sable dam I came across another group rather unexpectedly and had to brake hard. A young female perceived the bakkie as a threat and promptly gave her younger sibling a mighty heave up the ass to get it off the road. She then turned, glared at me, trumpeted and shook her head. I expected the hands on hips and a foot stamp to follow just like any other peed off teenager but she seemed satisfied that I wouldn't dare do anything else.

Somewhere north of Letaba was a magnificent example of the world's heaviest flying bird, the Kori bustard. No it's not a spastic it was busy with some housekeeping.

A short while later I was looking right when a large bull entered stage left at a trot. There was no time to stop but fortunately as I veered right he went left and catastrophe was averted. When I glanced in the mirror he was shaking his head and I could see the speech bubble above him that said "Asshole!" He must have been on his way to an important assignment as he was sporting five legs.

Sunday is the only day I read the paper and it was a treat to park at Sable dam and watch the movies while perusing the pages. First up a gaggle of stripy geese............

..........followed by the (inevitable) impala - in this case two for the price of one.

A couple were parked right at the place that this herd preferred to drink and as they walked past they could not have been more than 2 m from the door. The big old matriarchs were unconcerned but some of the younger ones gave them hard stares - either brave or stupid. I was 20 m further back and had a hand firmly clamped around the key and reverse engaged.

These two were having a whale of a time, well an elephant of a time just sounds silly. The bigger of the two in the foreground was slamming his head into the water and splashing his pal and their wrestling took them deeper and deeper until only the tips of their trunks were visible. All ended amicably and they eventually strolled off with beautifully polished teeth.