Lower Sabie Rest Camp, Mpumalanga, South Africa
We were super
excited about our first self-drive safari so woke at 5 am and in the queue to
enter Kruger National Park by 6. Yesterday was 38
degrees and today was freezing with patches of heavy rain. That said, the weather was cooler for animal
watching and we spent 6 hours cruising the Lower Sabie region and ticked off lions, elephants, hyenas, hippos, giraffes and a host of other smaller game.
It was also
mildly entertaining watching the 5* brigade in their chauffeur driven open sided safari vehicles, absolutely freezing cold, wet and looking rather miserable, whilst we had the
heating on in our snug 4 x 4. No matter how many animal programmes and
documentaries you watch, it is still fabulous to be only a few metres from wild
animals in their own habitat. After a great day out, we moved in to our new
campsite and were greeted with no power (temporary glitch), water or WIFI, but
hey who cares, this is Africa.
Lower Sabie is a main rest camp in the lower part of Kruger National Park and is situated on the southern bank of a dam on the Sabie River, A typical dull day in Lower Sabie consisted of watching 3 fully
grown lionesses continually scolding (with a meaty paw swipe) 7 mischievous
cubs, who despite the heat (now back to 35) seemed to just want to play.
Eventually we moved on and found a Leopard
lazing a tree next to a half-eaten Impala and a waterhole with an estimated 100
hippo's that were equally inactive.
With each day our terrain knowledge and animal
spotting improved, K won spot of the day with a great sighting of a pride of
lions with a big male who walked our way, then sat only a few metres from
us. Later that day, M did not get any
awards for stating we would not see much wild life in a completely barren valley,
only to find two male lions around the next corner lying by the side of the
road digesting a warthog.
Kruger is about the size of Wales and the
animals are incredibly hard to spot, so that evening we went on a guided sunset
safari to learn a few tips and tricks. We did see a hyena steal the prey of two
cheetahs, got blocked in the road by lazy crocodiles sucking heat out of the tarmac and watched a pack of 8+ hyenas
skirting our perimeter fence, looking for naughty tourists who feed them.
4 hours self-drive in the morning and a 3 hour evening guided tour certainly filled our day. To finish
off a superb day, we sat by the perimeter fence with a cold beer or two amazed
at how close we are to nature.
Craig
2019-10-15
Hey, guys, it all looks amazing! Be careful with those hippo's. They attract rogue apostrophes!
Sheila
2019-10-15
Wow wow and wow, already it sounds amazing. There’s nothing quite like being close to nature, and this takes it to another level. Jodie was home at the weekend and she loved reading through your blogs. She’s off to Tel Aviv for half term. Xx
Boo
2019-10-15
Same photo of K sat by the tent different country haha. So many animals in only a few days. Be safe and keep the photos coming x
Dave S
2019-10-16
You cannot begin to understand how envious I am that you are doing my dream holiday. It looks fantastic guys and cannot wait to hear the full stories over a beer or two. Enjoy!
mktravels
2019-10-16
Dear Mr https://www.grammar-monster.com/ It's going to be a long 64 days if you spot EVERY grammar error or typo. lol Trust me the errors can get a lot worse than a missing apostrophes as you well know.
Craig
2019-10-16
Yes, that's true. As it happens, you didn't make a mistake by writing "hippo's", so it wasn't a criticism. It was meant to be a grammar-related joke. It was obviously pants. My fault. Here's a better joke: A Scotsman goes into a pub. Normally, there would be an Englishman, Irishman and a Welshman, but they're all still in Japan. [Boom, boom. I'm here all week.] The trip looks ace. Nice one.
Mac and Helen
2019-10-17
Looks fantastic, and certainly all the planning looks to have paid off.
Scroater
2019-10-18
looks brill, Det routine needs to be sharper though, camnet a bit wonky
Steve - looks like a great adven
2019-10-18
Enjoy the adventure and special memories created from being in such natural surroundings xx