has considerable and impressive elephant herds. Sometimes the relative absence of food and water also determines what you can expect. Animals that are hardier and can survive under more difficult circumstances, such as eland, tsessebe, roan antelope and blue wildebeest, are often found here. North of Letaba, up to Pafuri, there is a strip of dry savannah with scant mopani growth. In the most northern part – especially in dry years – this transmutes into a desert-like sandy veld which stretches up to the Pafuri against the border.
This is a region for the game reserve-goer who is similar to these animals: a bit hardier and a little more patient than the ordinary game watcher. Here you must be prepared to sometimes drive 30 or 40 kilometres before seeing a large mammal, and then it might only be two eland in the distance, or a lone tsessebe against a rocky ridge.
Thorn veld/marula savannah
The green grass at Pafuri
1 Ask this guide at Hippo Pools for tips.
2 Lions in the 1930s
3 In the 1950s
4 “I think we’re gonna score, Bro.”
5 Elephants in the 1950s
Principle Four: You are not alone
“It is 5.30 in the morning. Two guys – both with bare hairy stomachs and towels around their middles – run into each other at the shaving mirror in the bathroom. They don’t know each other from a bar of soap.
“Morning…”
“Morning…”
“Looks like a nice day, don’t you think?”
Number two pulls his upper lip tight as the blade rasps over it. The men’s voices echo in the open area.
His companion scratches his grey chest hair. “Ja, it will probably be hot as hell this afternoon.”
Water falls in the shower stall next door, steam billowing until it’s blocked by the high thatched roof.
“Are you on your way, or are you staying over?”
The first guy rinses his shaving brush. The soap smells sweet, and mixes with the odour of carbolic acid and tar.
“No, we’re on our way to Satara. And you?”
“Yes, we’re also on our way – to Letaba… Have you been up north this year?”
“Ja, we came through Shingwedzi way. We haven’t seen such large herds of buffalo for ages.”
“And lions?”
“No, not there. But if you’re on your way to Letaba, you may be lucky. About 10 kilometres on the other side of Tshokwane there was a pride of 15 lions feeding on a giraffe yesterday. It looked like they’d be there for a while…”
And with that he says goodbye.”
Howard, shipshape for the new day (N’wanetsi, 1970)
Visitors to the game reserve have a common purpose: to see as much game as possible. Thousands of people want to see lions and leopards just as much as you do. And there are definitely people who can provide you with information that may help. But you need to maintain a fine balance. Don’t run after every titbit.
Remember the animal kingdom is a dynamic business. The lions that lay feeding on the Tshokwane road this morning could have headed off long ago. The prey of the leopard along the Sabie River may still be hanging in the tree since yesterday – but the leopard has long gone. Use your common sense. Don’t deviate from a well thought-out plan to travel a specific route just because the old guy by the hot water kettle said he saw a cheetah crossing the Satara road the day before. Cheetahs cross that road every day – and many other roads too. It normally takes only a minute or two. Stick to your plan.
The same applies to the sightings map where tourists insert coloured pins to indicate where they’ve seen certain species during the day. Don’t change your daily plan simply because wild dogs were seen on this or that road. Wild dogs easily move 30 kilometres in a single day.
On the other hand, it might well be possible that if a pride of 15 lions caught a giraffe earlier that day, they will still be there later and perhaps even the following day.
And another thing: enjoy the road you’re on. Don’t think of what might possibly be happening on another road where other tourists are – they’ll be thinking the same thing. Focus on your plan for the day.
There’s nothing as exciting as cresting a hill or rounding a bend and seeing a large number of cars glimmering in the sun, some parked at weird angles and in seemingly impossible positions. Then you can know, almost for certain: cats.
Nothing excites tourists as much as predators, especially if there is prey involved. And rightfully so. One of the dividends of the do-the-miles principle is that people often simply point the game out to you. Don’t hesitate to ask people what it is they’ve seen. In that respect the game reserve gets the best out of people. Most tourists will go out of their way to help you see what they’ve seen – and will explain it to you in the finest detail: “See that dry tree running down at an angle? Well, right at the base are two bright green shrubs. And between them is a brown rock. Except it isn’t a brown rock….”
One of the dilemmas you will face is what to do when you see a single parked car. To ask or not to ask? I suggest you first observe what they’re doing.
One year my dad and I travelled between Satara and Tshokwane. Along the way we saw small blue waxbills playing in a thorny bush next to the road, and we stopped to watch. A car with a middle-aged woman at the wheel pulled up.
“What are you looking at?” she asked.
“Sysie …” my dad hissed through his teeth, using the Afrikaans word for a waxbill.
“Sy’s hier?” she replied (“She’s here?”). “What? A lioness?” she asked hopefully.
“Sysie …” my father hissed again. This time he pointed at it.
With a roar of her engine and a screech of tyres she pulled away. We were still laughing 10 minutes later when we spotted a real lioness at the side of the road.
Some game reserve-goers are really interested in birds. Others simply sit and listen to the bush. Some consult the road map or have some coffee from their thermos flasks. Nowadays people make cellphone calls. Then again, visitors can barely contain themselves when they really see something exciting, especially predators. They sit with binoculars glued to their eyes, gesticulate
