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A tantalizing tale of twenty-eight tortoises


Jochen

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Also on that plains; the cheetahs. We had three sightings if I recall correctly. One ran off as soon as he/she saw us. We tried tracking him/her, but lost him/her. It was clear that he/she didn't want our company.

 

Another female was on our last drive. But she was just laying down on the grass, in the shade of a tree. So the images aren't that interesting.

 

In retrospect, our second sighting was easily the best one. Here's some images;

 

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How about some more "general game" and birds first?

 

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Same as above, but a mature specimen;

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Blacksmith plover & chicks;

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Chick close-up;

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Vervet eating a Whitebrowed Sparrow Weaver;

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That last pic is again on the plains, but near the river it was much greener. More difficult to take good landscape photographs there though. The most beautiful trees are the enormous Nyala trees, but here in Botswana they call them Mashatu trees. Hence why they named the place Mashatu. Here's one with some impala underneath, for scale;

 

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They also have quite a few baobab, but not as big as the ones we saw at Blouberg, not as big as in Mapungubwe, where we would be going to next. So I hardly photographed baobabs at Mashatu.

My best landscape pics are the ones taken at sunset while out on the plains. They stop for puza (sundowners) on one of the hills, and then you get views like this.

 

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I don't mean to get sentimental, but I'd gladly give all I have to be able to live at a place with a view like this.

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Here's another fun sighting we had;

 

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Proof that you do not need to be a big tusker to be the star of the show.

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OK, time for some pics of that lion pride. We saw them on day 2 I think (we were there for three days / four nights (so 8 drives in total, as we came in and left over noon).

 

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Flatcats. But at least they stood up for a while, when an elephant herd passed nearby.

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Some more images;

 

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My 2nd dung beetle. Yey!

 

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Spotted Thick-knee

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Jacobin Cuckoo;

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Crested Francolin;

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We found the hyena again. The male lions made a giraffe kill, near the airstrip, but everyone failed to see it. They only found it a day later, after the carcass was almost gone. And then a hyena clan came over from another reserve nearby and pulled the thing apart. Next, "our" hyena clan came over, and took care of the last bits of giraffe.

 

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Seriously; why do people say they are ugly?? :D

 

Let's end this batch of pics with a few taken at dusk.

 

Giant eagle owl (or Verreaux Eagle Owl now);

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Cowboys riding off into the setting sun;

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I'll end with another leopard sighting. Make that too. In total we had four sightings, one at night. One day, we did not get to see a leopard, although the guides did their best. Actually, after three gamedrives without leopard, they seemed relieved to finally find one again, saying "they gave us quite a bit of work to find them, this time".

 

Our guides were KC (driver) and Gums (spotter, at the back), by the way.

 

Bruce (Mashatu's best customer) had this fun thing going between him and Gums; always asking Gums whether he ate his carrots or not ("carrots are good for your eyes - ever seen a rabbit with glasses?"). But honestly: Gums had eagle eyes. Just crazy what he could spot (far away, in thick bush ,... anything!).

 

One other thing Bruce does is ask the driver "what are our chances of seeing a polar bear here?" ...and then hand out sweets called Polar Bears. But the next day I asked "what are our chances of eating elephant?" ...and then I whipped out some Belgian chocolate of "Cote d'Or" (the brand with the elephant logo). Two can play at that game, Bruce! :P

 

Anyway, here's some pics of our other leopard sightings. The first in the riverbed, in thick bush;

 

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(Last pic is a close up. I was too close for my lens so I ended up stitching two images together.)

 

And the last images; another leopard, stepping off into the setting sun.

 

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We really liked Mashatu, and we will certainly be back one day.

 

Compliments to Bobson (camp manager) for running such a well-oiled machine, and thanks as well to Jane (owner) for letting us have the Main Camp rooms at Tented Camp rates.

 

And Jane, if you're reading this; sorry for all the questions on "adding another camp", but I was just testing you. Mira and I wouldn't mind running that camp, you see. But unfortunately you didn't "bite". :lol: Can't blame us for trying though. ;)

 

 

Next part; Mapungubwe!

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lovely pix of the cheetah. and the ele looks so happy wallowing in the mud.

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super report @@Jochen

Mashatu looks superb, although the rooms are a bit too plush for my taste.

I don't mind missingout on rhino and buffalo if you get such wonderful eland herds.

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Peter Connan

@@Jochen

 

Next time you are looking for chockolate spread in SA, look for Nutella. It is generally quite freely available.

 

Still reading the rest of the TR, and will comment more later...

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Peter Connan

Excellent report with magnificent photography. Looking forward to more!

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@@Jochen

 

Next time you are looking for chockolate spread in SA, look for Nutella. It is generally quite freely available.

 

Still reading the rest of the TR, and will comment more later...

 

Believe me; we looked! Couldn't find it.

 

Will continue writing, most probably over the WE.

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One fun sighting we also had was a hyena den

 

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The newest family member came out to suckle;

 

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Now who said hyena are ugly??

 

We'll be seeing these guys & girls later on too, but not at their den.

 

 

Awwww,they're cute.

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Nice to read you're enjoyed the area so well, it's a gem.

About parking your car in no-mans-land: strange what you mentioned about paying 500Rand for crossing the border to park it. Have done it twice and never did it, as far as I remembered it was not necesarry to pay the fee for parking your car just after the border post.

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Peter Connan

 

@@Jochen

 

Next time you are looking for chockolate spread in SA, look for Nutella. It is generally quite freely available.

 

Still reading the rest of the TR, and will comment more later...

 

Believe me; we looked! Couldn't find it.

 

Will continue writing, most probably over the WE.

 

Next time you come, let me know and I will get you some? I am just 10 minutes drive from OR Tambo...

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Nice to read you're enjoyed the area so well, it's a gem.

About parking your car in no-mans-land: strange what you mentioned about paying 500Rand for crossing the border to park it. Have done it twice and never did it, as far as I remembered it was not necesarry to pay the fee for parking your car just after the border post.

That's weird.

 

Then why did the woman behind the counter ask for that paper?

Surely she knew that we weren't going to cross 2m deep water.

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Next time you come, let me know and I will get you some? I am just 10 minutes drive from OR Tambo...

 

Well I'm sure it can be found but the thing is we didn't have time to look for it at different supermarkets. We went to the supermarket at the end of the road near the 4x4 rental company, got all we needed, and then sped off towards Vivo, trying to get into Blouberg before nightfall.

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Something I forgot to mention about Mashatu; we saw a couple of snakes there. No pics though. They moved way too fast.

 

One will forever remain unidentified. We just saw the tail on the road as it crawled into the grass. Another was a Snouted Cobra. And in the garden of the lodge we saw a Common Egg Eater. It crawled over the path going between the rooms and the swimming pool.

 

Bit of advice; wear closed shoes while on the lodge grounds. Even though it may not look that wild, there' still some little creatures that may ruin your vacation if you do not pay attention. One night, we walked to our room, and I did not take a flashlight. All of a sudden I saw a darker spot in front of my foot, so I stopped and asked my wife to shine her light on it. It was a scorpion. And not a scorpionidae (big pincers compared to small tail - they kill their prey mostly with the pincers) but a buthidae (small pincers vs wide & big tail - they kill their prey with venom from their huge sting)! Buthids have a very nasty sting, and if a thing like that stings you, your vacation is pretty much over. So my advice; wear closed shoes always. And bring a flashlight.

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Part three; Mapungubwe NP.

 

After having crossed the Limpopo river with the cable car, we hopped into our car and drove to the entrance of Mapungubwe park. Now, before I go on, I need to clarify how this par looks. Here's a map;

 

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Map © SANparks.

 

 

 

As you can see, Pont Drift border crossing (where we came from) is top left of the map. And the entrance to the park is on the road to Musina, in the eastern section of the park. However, we had booked a tent at Limpopo Forest tented camp in the western section.

 

In other words; we had quite a bit of driving to do; first to the entrance of the park to get our keys & park entrance permit. Then all the way back to our room. To make matters worse; there's a shortcut you can normally use ("Den Staat Gravel Road" on the map), but the floods washed away a bridge, so we had to stick to the tar roads. Quite a detour. Now, of course we do not blame the park for that bridge that was washed away. But surely they could have instructed the guard at the western section of the park how to deal with new arrivals at Limpopo Forest Tented Camp, for as long as that bridge was out.

 

The above issue was not the only issue we had with the park though. Let's say that after our visit we had "mixed feelings" about Mapungubwe. But before I go on about that, let me show you something we were very pleased with; our accommodation.

 

This was our "house";

 

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It was very big. Raised on a wooden platform, with half-canvas, half-wooden walls, it had an open kitchen with a dinner table (rights side) and a bedroom and bathroom (left side of the image). Here's a few more images;

 

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At the back (not visible in any image), there was a stone terrace with braai facilities, a circle about 10m in diameter, with a wooden fence all around.

 

All units were placed two-by-two, but the fence and vegetation gave plenty of privacy. Yes, you can see the neighbor's house, but you can barely see the other units . The whole camp was under very big trees, so a lot of shade too.

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So what was bad, and what was good about Mapungubwe.

Well, let me summarize things a bit.

 

When we checked in at the main gate, they gave us a paper saying the bird hide at Maloutswa (west section of the park) was out. Damaged by the floods. But the paper stated that the rest was repaired (like; their famous treetop walk in the eastern section of the park). No biggie. Still plenty of things to see and do. Since we were there for two nights we decided to see both sides of the park on two separate days. On our day of arrival, in the afternoon; the smaller western section of the park. And the full day after that; the eastern section.

 

Let me start with the western section. We found out that the parts of the park that lay between the tar road and the Den Staat road (where Tshugulu and Little Muck Lodge are in) require an additional "4x4 permit". So we decided to skip that. You have to keep in mind the car was not ours; and we did not want any risks ruining the car on some tough 4x4 track. We still had to get to Kruger! So why would we pay for that permit, without knowing if it was worth the money. Even though it's just R100, it's still R100 lost if you decide to turn around after 50m. Our problem was; we were at the park gates, on one end of the park, where you have to decide to buy that special permit, without even knowing whether or not you can use it.

 

Still, even without that rocky section, and without the Maloutswa hide, there's plenty of stuff to see in the western section. Or so we thought. We did the game drive along the river, and soon found out that the western section near the river was split in two parts;

- One part (where our Limpopo Forest Tented Camp was in) was completely fenced to keep out elephants. I can understand they want to protect the huge trees in the forest from being marauded by elephants, but clearly they hadn't thought much about where to put the fence. Or rather; where to put the roads. The fence was placed along the river but of course at a safe distance from that river, to avoid damage when the river floods. All cool, were it not that they kept the game drive road within the fence. The result is that you're driving along the river, but you can hardly see it and enjoy the view of any animals drinking/bathing. Sometimes you can catch a glimpse of an elephant, but the ugly fence is between you and him.

- The other part is "open to elephants, and we did see herds moving in to graze on the plains, and then go back to the river. But what really annoyed us... No, let me rephrase that; what really pissed us off, was the fact that an old corrugated fence was still present between that section and the river. The elephants had pushed that fence down, inwards from the river, to get on to that section of the reserve. And a bit further on they had flattened the fence, outwards toward the river, to get back out again. It's not only that it was ugly, we could also easily imagine some elephants - especially calves - getting hurt on that rusty fence. Seriously; if you can spend so much money setting up a beautiful tented camp there, surely there's money too to remove that old fence. One day of work with a couple of guys, and the fence would be gone.

 

Bottom line; without that hide, without the rocky section, and with just that one section of the park with the ugly old fence in it, you're done with the western section in an hour or two. We decided to have an early dinner and hoped to enjoy the next day (the eastern section) more.

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So the next day we drove to the eastern section. But again a few disappointments awaited us. Being;

- Even though our papers stated that the tree walk was repaired and open; it was not. And no one could give us any explanation why.

- Shroda Dam, a pretty spot that - when we looked at it on the map - promised to be worth a visit, could not be reached. All maps show that one road towards the dam is "no entry". But the other road towards the lake was closed as well. All that we were offered was a glimpse of it, from very far away.

 

So in the end, what's left is one game drive route, leaving west from the main gate, going towards the river (where you can enjoy the confluence of the two rivers and where you can see Botswana as well as Zimbabwe), then doing that Khongoni loop in the far east of the park, and then making your way back to the entrance. Sure, the view at the confluence is amazing. and the little stretch along the river (without fence obstructing the view!) is great as well. As are some other little spots along the way (having huge baobabs or a little swamp etc). But still; we were back at the entrance way too soon.

 

At only 4PM, we decided to order dinner at the restaurant, and to head back to our house at the other end of the reserve, taking our dinner with us (we had read you could do that). But another disappointment awaited us. The woman at the restaurant was very rude, barking at us like a dog. We are always extremely polite, so we don't know why she gave us this treatment. It's not that she had a bad day. While being very rude to us, she smiled and made small talk with some of the local staff.

 

"It will be cold by the time you get to your camp!"

"No problem, we'll heat it up again. It's just some chicken and fries"

 

"No fries because we have no potatoes! We can give you (forgot name, but a vegetable giving similar results)!"

"That's OK too" (note; there was a big bag labelled "potatoes" laying on one of the tables in the kitchen. But we just assumed they needed to use those other vegetables more urgently)

 

"Also no salad!"

"Oh, we can do a day without salad"

 

"You need to bring back the plates!"

"No problem, we will bring them in the morning. But you could just use tin foil paper if that makes it easier for you" (there was an industrial and very wide roll of foil in the kitchen as well)

 

"No! It must be on plates!"

"OK then"

 

We paid, and got our plates and the rest of our money back. She placed it all on the table without saying a further word. We smiled and thanked her anyway.

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Right, let me throw some Mapungubwe pics into the mix.

 

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(our best view of that dam/lake)

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One cool sighting; finally saw a black egret use his special fishing technique.

 

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Would we do Mapungubwe again? Certainly. It's a very beautiful park, the landscapes with the rock walls and baobabs are very nice.

 

But maybe next time we'd only stay one night, then do half a day in the eastern side of the park, and get to Kruger in the afternoon. Instead of spending two nights. It all depends on how you organize things. If you decide to do it this way, then you need to make sure you book a night at Pafuri in Kruger, because you cannot get to Shingwedzi etc in half a day.

 

IMHO the western section of Mapungubwe park is not worth a game drive at this point. Despite the fact that we loved Limpopo Forest tented camp a lot, we're not even sure if it's worth staying there, given that it's so far from the eastern section of the park. Perhaps it's better to stay at Leokwe Camp.

 

Next part; Kruger NP, all the way from north to south, in 7 days.

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The landscapes are beautiful. That pix of the egret's back with its wings spread out looks so sinister! Enjoyed those shots though.

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