5^th July  Travel to Garonga

The morning was nice and uneventful with a 60 minute flight to Hoedsprit  (Hoodie (as in shirt) – sprit (as in fairy). After landing we walked across the apron to be met by a family of Warthogs on the airstrip.

Only to find that one bag of clothes was AWOL. Sarah’s of course. So onto the tiny plane for a flight to Garonga Safari’s in the Malikali Conservium next to Kruger. We landed on the dirt strip, were met by our safari vehicle and drove off with four giraffe at the end of the strip.

We flew into Hoedsprit on a commercial flight and were to then connect with a four seater plane. But the small plane was late so we had a 70 minute wait. Luckily it was the nicest departure lounge we had ever seen. A nice big room with lounges – not hard chairs.

Garonga is a Private Reserve. It is a group of people who have bought farmland and rehabilitated it to a natural state, and added some lodges. It then runs as a privately owned national park. The benefit of a private Conservancy is that the number of vehicles on the area is controlled and the vehicles can go off road. We were very much back in the Bushvelt. Flat, heavily timbered and scrubbed land. Very similar to Ant’s Hill but flat.

After settling in we headed off on Safari One. An afternoon safari starting at 3.30 after tea and finished at about 6.30.

First stop was to a group of bachelor bull Elephants. We spent a long while with them, watching them eat and consequently destroy the bush. If they want the branches at the top of a big tree – they just push it down. Snapping trunks as big as ones with a 400mm diameter.  Some areas looked like a mini cyclone had been through. Stacks of mature trees snapped off at about 1.4cm high. And the trees not snapped by the elephants, were destroyed by the safari vehicles. If a small tree (ie 2meters high ) is in the way – we just drive over it.

The Elephants snapped off large branches and chew the bark off, then spit the bare stick out. They would rip off great bunches of Acacias, complete with six centimeter thorns and chew on them. They also eat leaves in great quantities.  Bark is a favorite, so many of the trees that were standing were ringbarked and long dead.

Next stop was to a recently discovered Hyena den.  So exciting. This was one of the animals we really wanted to see and had not yet encountered. And there they were. Two massive girls basking in the sun with their giant fat bellies poking out. The trackers had discovered the den by following the drag marks of their latest kill. 

Seeing the Hyenas allowed us to tick off the ‘Ugly Five’ –Maribu Stork, Vulture, Warthog, Baboon and Hyena.  Yahh!!!  

Sundowners was spent indulging in the great South African tradition of spitting poo. Giraffe poo was the choice of the day, it is in pellets just a bit bigger then the size of Kangaroo poo.  The aim is to spit it the furthest.  We were legends. Though Sarah struggled to overcome the difficulty that arose when the poo exited her mouth and would snag on her teeth, disrupting the trajectory and thus hindering her distance.

This was washed down with the traditional sundowner booze. After sundowners we got to have a night drive. We saw an Owl thing a bit like a tawny frog mouth. Then went back, somehow Sarah prevented Raina from falling asleep in her dinner and crashed out.