temperature in the game reserve rises with the sun, and by 10/11 o’clock it usually starts to get hot. Now is a good time to stop by a watering hole, dam or river to see what’s going on. It’s astounding how much life there is at that time of the morning. It’s very pleasant to have breakfast at one of the picnic spots – almost all of which are situated next to a drinking spot – as I explain in more detail later.
If it’s a deep water hole or river, there will almost certainly be hippos and crocodiles. Watch carefully, because both camouflage themselves remarkably well. Crocodiles look like dry logs, and hippos like the reddish brown rocks one finds in almost every river around here. Use your binoculars.
Many animals come to drink between, say, 10 o’clock and one o’clock. Elephants like to bathe, play in the mud or spray water at each other with their trunks – it’s enough to entertain you for hours.
If you’re lucky, you may also, sooner or later, see a herd of a few hundred buffalo drinking. Or giraffe, comically clumsy with their legs spread wide to reach the water, or impala, zebra and blue wildebeest that line up patiently in rows while keeping a wary eye on the edge of the bush where predators often lie in wait for just such an opportunity.
Such a watering hole is also a good place to hear animal sounds: a fish eagle’s proclamation cry, Egyptian geese, starlings, warblers, hornbills and blue waxbills, Cape white-eyes, francolins and guinea fowl. Also listen for zebras calling (a high-pitched whee-whee-whee sound), hippos snorting, baboons barking, and of course, elephants trumpeting.
In the middle of the day the bush goes quiet. Predators mostly sleep; antelope and other herbivores seek out shade and move as little as possible in the heat. This may be a good time to sit peacefully under a tree in a camp, slowly patrol the fence with binoculars, or to have a siesta. If you’re on the road, it’s not a bad idea to be on the grass savannahs between Tshokwane, Satara and Orpen, or near Malelane or Shingwedzi. Even during the heat of the day you could get lucky and see cheetahs or wild dogs hunting, or lions sleeping in the sun – and later on in the shade when it gets even hotter.
1 First evening
2 and 3 Second evening
LATE AFTERNOON
Notwithstanding my praise-singing about the wonders of the morning hours, there’s something special about the last hour-and-a-half before closing time. There’s a magic to the sun beginning to set in the bushveld and the colours of the trees starting to change – or “becoming black”, as my brother-in-law always says.
The dust of the day which, while the sun shone, made a dirty brown band above the horizon, now starts to turn red. The shadows are longer, and birds that have been quiet start making a racket – especially bushveld francolins and guinea fowl on their way to water.
Impala, kudu, giraffe and waterbuck move across the road to their sleeping places. Baboons that have until now been playing on the edges of the tarred roads, become restless.
Some of my most exciting game sightings have been in the late afternoon on the way back to camp after a long drive, especially if I’m a little late for the gate and don’t really have time to stop. It’s as if the animals fall over each other to interrupt your drive.
It’s normally at this time of day that elephants take up position in the middle of the road, or stand right next to the roadside and graze in a way that makes you uneasy to drive past them. Very often one of them will, as you approach, turn around and flap its ears with great fanfare.
Or a herd of buffalo will return from the water and, like participants in a mass road race, simply block the traffic in both directions.
I wonder how many leopards I’ve seen in late afternoon or early evening along the Sabie river or on the Orpen/Satara road, while hurrying to get to the gate on time.
A year or so ago, I stayed over at Satara for a few nights. In the late afternoon I drove along the S36 from the direction of Muzandzeni, and turned right onto the H7 towards Satara. At that point there’s some 20 kilometres left before Satara, and I had little more than half an hour to reach the camp. Still all well and good, one would think, were it not for the fact that when I made the turn – it becomes quite dusky by five o’clock in July – there were a number of beige-yellow objects like grain bags across the road: several adult lions were enjoying the late afternoon warmth of the tar.
They had probably walked up from the Timbavati after drinking, and stopped to have a team talk about the night’s hunt. They lay in such a way that they blocked the road completely. Eventually I had to push the nose of my vehicle between them until they lazily made way.
By sheer coincidence the next night I drove the same road – with exactly the same result.
If on any given day you don’t feel like driving, still consider doing a decent distance in the late afternoon. Plan it in such a way that you’re on the road in the magical hour before closing time. I promise you won’t regret it.
Cars have the nasty habit of breaking down… 1950s
… and in 2013
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