Jungle Drums...

Sunday, March 06, 2016
Marloth Park, Mpumalanga, South Africa
The journey from Ladysmith to Marloth Park takes about seven hours and so we decided on an overnight stop at Waterval Boven, a copper and chrome mining town high up in the Drakensberg Mountains. Fairly close to the Swaziland border, the Acra-Retreat Mountain View Lodge is a truly beautiful spot. Perched high on the side of a mountain, it has amazing views across the valley to the mountains beyond and is popular with climbers and walkers. We arrived early afternoon so had time to enjoy exploring the grounds after a very welcome Castle beer on the deck. Run by a German and his South African partner, these two guys have gone out of their way to make the Acra-Retreat really special.


The first leg of the journey was across the top of the mountains - rolling grassland as far the eye could see, mainly used for cattle farming . It was rather like Salisbury Plain in the UK - but a thousand times bigger!! It’s also rich in coal and we passed a few mines and power stations, especially around the Newcastle area (surprise, surprise!). As we left KwaZulu-Natal and dropped down into Mpumalanga the farming became more sophisticated - mainly sugar cane and bananas.


Marloth Park is north of Swaziland and is a vast game park dotted with expensive holiday homes linked by dirt tracks, deep in the bush. The Crocodile River separates Marloth Park from the famous Kruger National Game Park and is fenced on our side of the river, keeping out dangerous game. We have had Impala, Kudu, giraffe, warthog and zebra strolling passed the veranda of our new home and we have even fed the zebra apples through the bedroom window! We are basically living in the bush and sharing our lives with the animals around us. It’s very special but sometimes a bit frightening . The house is large, comfortable and thankfully air-conditioned which is vital for a night’s sleep. It is extremely hot, day and night, with virtually no breeze.


Talking of being frightened, I have to admit to a very scary moment. Whenever I arrive at a new house-exchange, I always read the book of instructions and on this occasion, I had been somewhat alarmed to read that we should take care when opening the curtains because it is not unusual to find snakes lurking in the fabric. We were having lunch on our first day when we saw a bird battering itself against the window of one of the bedrooms. Going to investigate, I saw it was trying to attack a nasty-looking snake on the windowsill inside the house. Screaming hysterically I forbad Michael to go near it - but we had to do something. After many agonising minutes and a lot of courage on Mike’s behalf, he approached the snake with the braai tongs and grabbed it by its head . We fled outside, the snake twisting and weaving in his grasp. It was only then that we realised that some joker had fooled us with a perfectly harmless but very realistic rubber snake! Not only had it totally fooled us, it had also convincingly juped the bird.


On Wednesday we took a self-drive through a tiny part of Kruger, covering some 70km. We spotted many types of buck, giraffe, hippos, wildebeest, buffalo, rhino, horrid hyena (Anabel, tell Charlie!), warthog, zebra, baboons and - great excitement - a leopard! The leopard was asleep in a tree overhanging one of the main park roads and of course brought the passing traffic to a standstill. If you can spot our leopard in the photo below, then you will see how camouflaged they are! It was the only one of the ‘Big Five’ we had not seen last year, so it was very exciting. Self-drive with a non-4x4 means that you have to stick to the main roads so we weren’t able to get as close to the animals as we had in Madikwe last year but it was still an exciting day . There is an excellent restaurant in the Lower Sabie area and we had lunch overlooking the Crocodile River, watching the hippos wallow and the giraffe coming down to drink. A lovely day out.


Our interaction with the animals has continued. They tend to come round to the house at about 8 in the morning and the zebra are always on the look out for apples. We have also had several visitations from three beautiful giraffe who will come very close to the veranda but are too nervous to take the apples I lay out on the veranda wall for them. They circle and stand motionless above them for up to half an hour at a time but just can’t pluck up the courage to eat them. Not so the Kudu; these very large and pretty buck will even mount the steps of the veranda to take apples from my hand! All the game are very gentle and their soft mouths are not in the least worrying.


In between game watching, we have been visiting the numerous game lodges in the park where we have lunch and a swim in their pool afterwards . All very pleasant. Today is mother’s day so we are going out for dinner at a nearby lodge.


On Monday we move on - this time to Chrissiesmeer (several hours west of here) where we have been offered full board at the Florence Guest Farm in exchange for a visit from the family to St Cyran in July this year. They have also offered us five nights at their tented game safari, way up in the north where we fear it will be even hotter than it is here. Having seen so much game here, we are hesitating about the six hour drive up there. I will let you know in my next blog what we decide to do…


Happy times! Love to you all and especially to Jenny Thexton, whose birthday it is on Monday. Have a good one, Jen!
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Comments

Mike Garside
2016-03-06

Very impressive travels, Gillie. Keep going!

Nicola
2016-03-06

How wonderful to be living side by side with the animals, very envious of this one, but not the snakes (real or not!). xx

Vicki Nott
2016-03-07

Love following your travel blog. Looks like you are having a great time.
I spent many happy hours as a child along the Chrissiemeer banks. My grandfather owned a piece of land and a piece of the lake there.
Our current Homeswap guest found a snake on the lower deck. Thank goodness it was a harmless Spotted Bush Snake.

Victoria
2016-03-08

Loving the animal pics xxx

2025-02-14

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