Notten’s Bush Camp

I wasn’t sure if I’d have a good enough internet connection to post but I’m good as long as I stay in the main areas of the camp. The connection in my lodge is too slow so now I’m in the library. The photo upload is slow, but it works.

The flight was uneventful, but after having 2 Polaris class seats, sitting in a regional jet felt terribly cramped. I’ve gotten spoiled already!

Skukuza (pronounced as it’s spelled) is unlike any airport I’ve ever been in. I almost couldn’t see it from the air as it blends into the environment, which I suppose, is the point.

The road (if you can call it that) to the airport is a one lane dirt track. We took that for about 40 minutes until we reached the lodge.

On the way I saw the first of my big 5 animals…a family of elephants. I didn’t even think to have my camera ready, and it was buried in the bottom of my backpack, so this was the best I could do with my phone.

After getting settled into my lodge (I took a video but there’s no way I have a good enough connection to upload a video so it will have to wait) I had a “light lunch”.

Then it was off on my first of 5 game drives. There are two drives every day, one from 6:30-9:30am and then again from 3:30-6:30pm. The biggest challenge on the drives is getting in and out of the big jeeps as I have to climb over the side. Getting out is trickier than getting in.

My driver for all my drives is Jeffrey and our tracker yesterday was AB (his first name was unpronounceable). AB was only with us yesterday as the staff works 20 days (live onsite) and are off for 10 days. Saturday was AB’s 20th day, so we said goodbye to him after the drive.

The first “animal” we saw was a crocodile hanging out by the pond.

Just a short distance away we found these guys taking an afternoon nap.

A short distance away we found a couple of females.

So far this is the only giraffe I’ve seen.

But we’ve seen tons of wildebeests, hedgehogs and impala. We don’t even slow down for them anymore, unless of course they’re in the middle of the track.

We had driven quite a way and had just spotted some rhinos when Jeffrey quickly turned around and went the other way. He’d heard over the radio that a leopard had been spotted and, since they’re harder to find than rhino, he made a beeline back to where we had seen the lions.

After leaving the leopard, we roamed around a little more without seeing anything new. At about 5:30 we stopped to stretch our legs and have a little snack.

By the time we headed for home, the sun was starting to set.

AB’s job on the way back was to scan the surrounding area with his searchlight. Just outside the grounds of our camp, he found the 2 cubs of the leopard we had seen earlier. Apparently, they were born outside the door of lodge #2 (I’m in #3) so they like to hang out there.

After watching these guys for a few minutes, we headed into the camp where the staff was waiting with big torches. The walkways are lit by lanterns so there’s not much light. One of the staff walked me back to my lodge as I wasn’t familiar enough yet with the layout to find it on my own in the dark.

Then it was back to the main building for dinner. There were 4 courses, but I only remembered to take a picture of the main course. Sorry foodies, I’ll do better tonight. The food has been delicious.

Then it was off to bed as I had an early call this morning.

I wanted to tell you about this morning’s drive but I can’t upload pictures anymore so I’ll close for now and catch up later. Thanks everyone and I’ll try again tomorrow.