Days 33 & 34: Deeper into the wild

Days 33 & 34

Today I'm in: Klasserie Game Reserve, Hoedspruit, South Africa

When I set up this trip I wanted to stay in more than one safari camp while in South Africa.  The area around Kruger National Park is huge and has lots of different landscapes with lots of different wildlife, so it seemed smart to see it from different angles.  

What I didn't count on was the first reserve (Nkomazi) and the second reserve being so far apart.  I should have done a bit more due diligence beforehand - our driver picked us up and announced it would be a five-hour drive to the next camp, which was much longer than expected.  The good news, at least, is that we got to see a lot of Mpumalanga province while on our way up to the Hoedspruit area.  We drove through several large towns (White River, Hazyview, Bosbokrand) and a lot of smaller villages, all with an arm of the imposing Drakensberg mountains looming up to the west.  

Finally, around sunset, we arrived at our destination, nThambo Tree Camp.  nThambo is located in the central part of the Kruger area, and although it's technically inside the privately-owned Klasserie Game Reserve, the fences separating Klasserie and Kruger have been removed and the animals can roam at will between the two.  My friend Evan stayed at nThambo last year and recommended it highly, and it was really nice - a group of just five elevated thatch-roof cabins looking across the lowveld to the Drakensberg range in the distance.  The accommodations were a little bit more rustic than Komati - the beds had insect-nets (there weren't mosquitoes but there were plenty of other bugs), the bathroom was basically open to the rest of the room and the roofline was open-air, even at night.  But it was very comfortable - and COMPLETELY dark at night - and you got the sense you were completely surrounded by the animals.  This was confirmed the first night when a bat pooped on us through the insect net while we slept.  Fun! 

The landscape at nThambo was quite different than Komati - nThambo is at lower altitude so it was much warmer in the morning and the animals more active.  It was also much flatter and a bit more green (although still quite dry given the time of year.)  The open border with the Kruger means that there is more to see; however, all of the added greenery means we had to look a lot more closely to spot most of it. 

On our first game drive a neighboring camp called us to report a lioness walking down a paved road nearby, so we sped over there to have a look.  She had left the road by the time we got there, but her paws were covered in blood and it was clear she was looking for a place to lie down after her meal.  According to our guide, she must have been kicked out by the rest of her pride (they were nowhere to be seen) but these expulsions were usually temporary.  

On our second game drive we located a HUGE herd of elephants and things got a little uncomfortable.  Despite protests from me and the other eight passengers on the truck, our guide drove directly into the middle of the herd and continued positioning us such that we were completely surrounded by them.  At multiple points he drove between mothers and babies, and it was clear from all the trumpeting and shaking of heads that the elephants were getting extremely agitated.  We were in an open-topped car, off the road, and had no way to get away quickly if one of them decided to charge.  When we finally left, he gunned the motor and chased two elephants with the car, which also seemed like an incredibly stupid idea.  We were left really rattled by the encounter and almost all of us made complaints to the manager when we returned to camp - it showed a real lack of respect for both the animals and the safety of the guests.  Nobody needs to get a photo of a baby elephant that badly. 

Despite having had our fill of elephants, we returned to camp at night to find another giant herd walking through the camp.  They completely drained the swimming pool, stripped most of the trees bare, and kept us confined to the main lodge for most of the night.  At bedtime we were driven directly to our cabins and dropped off (which for us was a distance of about 300 feet) since the risk was still too high.  Unfortunately, it was nighttime so the lighting was pretty poor and my pictures of them drinking from the pool didn't come out.  Generally speaking, I'm OK if I don't see any more elephants on this trip.