Tuli / Pafuri / Timbavati may 2012

[Jochen]

More more more!

[Game Warden]

Bushfire, I know Jo liked the sunset photo

[twaffle]

Beautiful scenery.

[Bushfire]

More more more!

 

Hehe :-) glad you're enjoying it Jochen

 

Bushfire, I know Jo liked the sunset photo

;-) She does!

 

Beautiful scenery.

 

Indeed, once again very scenic area, big plus for the trail

[Atravelynn]

Your night shots are outstanding. The nearly night shot of the moon over the baobab is too. Nice job on the porcupine! When you get to Timbavati (no hurry but finishing the report could still count as your New Years resolution) I'll be tuning in.

Edited January 16, 2013 by Atravelynn

[Bushfire]

Pafuri Walking Trail Day 2

 

The last 800 m are always the hardest

 

A Solifuge, who’d mistaken our tent as its house, the sound of trumpeting elephants at night and a nightly visit to the bucket flush toilet behind our tent, made sure we didn’t forget we slept in the bush.

After a quick wash with lovely warm water, a firm breakfast and after packing our backpacks, we took the car and drove in south-western direction from camp. After a short drive, we were dropped of and set out on foot. The area we crossed was more hilly and much more densely vegetated than the open floodplain of the first day.

They led us through thick patches of Miombo Woodland and rocky outcrops towards the top of a hill. Although the bush was thick in most places we came up a few nice vista’s, one thing I appreciated on this walk was all the things we learned about plants and other little things we came up: Lebombo Ironwood, Wooden Banana Tree, Love Grass, a weird round red kind of sedimentary rock on top of the hill, once again a Baobab-in-Bloom, …

 

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The unusual looking seed pods of the Wooden Banana Tree

 

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Where the %¨*; did this rock came from ?

 

On several occasions, we crossed paths with a herd of buffalo.

On one occasion, we were evenly surprised by each other. The appearance of a big bull in thick bush about 10 m away from us were enough for Brian to make the “Freeze” signal. Tension was high, I didn’t even dare to press the shutter button as I was worried the smallest sound could turn quickly turn the situation into the wrong direction. Luckily, the experience of our guides made sure we left the scene safely.

 

Also, on the way towards the hill, our guides picked up the trail of rhinoceros. In this area of Northern Kruger, rhino are rare and sightings of them even rarer. We decided to follow the trail. Gradually as we came up more and more spoor: prints of their hind and front legs, drag marks of its mouth, Brian learned us how to read the tracks and more info about them came clear. As I remembered correctly it was a young calf of white rhino with its mother. Sometimes we could only see in which direction they went by the direction in which the grass was bent. After tracking them for an hour, we lost track and had to let them go.

 

The walk back from the hill turned out to be a bit further then thought, surely longer then 800m hey Brian ;-) but a short detour and the refreshing water of the Luvuvhu river made up for it.

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Luvuvhu River

 

Because the morning walk was quite strenuous, we took enough time to replenish our energy levels at noon: brunch, a hot water shower and spending some more time on the banks of the Luvuvhu river were on the menu.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Bushfire

[Bushfire]

The elephants of Hutwini

 

I told you about the gorge we came up on the first day. They call it Hutwini Gorge.

 

For aeons, large herds of elephant and buffalo had been using this route as a shortcut between the northern drier part of the area and the perennial Luvuvhu river where a sandstone range called Hutwini separates the two. The gorge is also known as ‘the bush highway’ or ‘the elephant highway’. The dung scattered bottom of the gorge, can hardly keep its reputation hidden. This 'bush highway' was then used by Portuguese traders, which sailed up the Limpopo to trade with the Venda people from the 1550s at and around Thulamela.

 

On the first day, we ventured into the gorge to check whether the elephant highway lives up to its reputation. Sadly, we had to turn back quickly as the combination of a steep flanked gorge with a narrow base and a shortage of escape routes, darkness setting in and possible encounters with buffalo, elephant or… was best to avoid.

The reputation and stories about the ancient elephant highway kept on buzzing in my head, the sight of a passing must be matchless.

So we decided to give it another try the next day.

 

We left the tented camp by car in late afternoon. After a short drive and dito walk, we arrived at the entrance of the gorge. The plan was to install ourselves on a high lookout point on the flanks of the gorge in order to get a good view on the passing and be safe in case the “gorgeous” visitors would take notice of us. Only to achieve this, was quite a challenge…

We climbed up a large boulder at the entrance of the gorge, sat down and waited silently.

We soaked up the almost surreal setting we’re in: the constant sound of birds echoed between the walls of the gorge, the dung scattered ground, tall trees formed a closed canopy and little sunlight was able to reach the bottom of the gorge,…

It made me think of scene from Jurassic Parc.

 

…we waited…

 

After an hour, just when we were about to give up, our patience was rewarded when we heard a low rumble in the distance. What followed, could well be the best sighting of my life.

In a time span of +- 1 hour we witnessed 4 or 5 passings of elephant’s, just above eye level, not more than 10 meters away from us. A herd of 30 animals, mothers with calves, bull’s in must, grey - dusty brown and algae green coloured animals, in total 50 animals passed in front of our eyes, most of them unaware of our presence. With light fading fast and bats sweeping above our head, we watched, listened and smelled. We felt very privileged and deeply touched by the beauty of the spectacle.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Bushfire

[Super LEEDS]

Hey @@Bushfire, hope to hear more of this. Particularly when you get to Shindzela as I'll be there next month.

 

Cheers.

[Bushfire]

Hey @@Bushfire, hope to hear more of this. Particularly when you get to Shindzela as I'll be there next month.

 

Cheers.

Well what can I say about Shindzela: our stay was quite short so I can't really give you a good view.

For us, after visiting Tuli and Pafuri, the stay was a bit disappointing in term of sightings and the "wildness" of the place.

The camp itself was ok although there were problems with our hot water boiler and food was a bit to 'easy'. Staff was really friendly though.

In terms of game viewing: I think it's hit or miss at Shindzela because of the relative small plot they are operating in. Area in terms of landscape, habitat... is quite uniform.

When we were there, weather conditions weren't on our side, quite cold and cloudy so not that much active animals as a result. But hey, that's safari...

We kept on driving on tracks on the edges of their plot in hope of picking up tracks of big cat's. As a result we were passing by some spots multiple times and had the feeling we'd seen the reserve after 2 gamedrives. During our stay (we missed jochen with a few days) there was a couple from the UK, who visited the camp for 8 or 10 days and it was their second time over there. Hard to imagine one can stay interested this long when staying this long at one place.

 

Nevertheless, we did had a few good sightings: white rhino in particular, and we did see a glimpse of caracal and u repeat our experience was only based on a 2 night stay.

[Super LEEDS]

Thanks @@Bushfire

 

We fly out tomorrow morning. I can see your point of view as it does seem a little rough round the edges compared to some places, combined with a small traverse might mean your luck would have to be in! I've found safari is all about luck

 

Their FB page is updated daily and they've been having good sightings recently. I'm sure all that will change in a few days time