It’s been hot. Did I already say that? Friday, our last night in Marakele, was at least 96. Late that night we finally got some relief as a storm blew in. First the wind came with tremendous gusts around midnight. For a while I thought the whole tent was going to just blow away. It was too loud to sleep, so I laid and listened. After the wind came the thunder about 4am, followed in minutes by the most dramatic lightning show you could. As the storm centered above us, the lightning bolts lit up everything. They were blinding and struck with bone-rattling booms. Then came the downpour. It rained throughout the morning. We got soaked as we packed up the rig, but we got everything loaded, scraped off our muddy feet and sandals, and hopped in and headed out to our next destination.
We really enjoyed Marakele, which is not surprising. It is beautiful and quiet.
The animals were mostly hidden away with the heat, but we did spot some rhino a couple of times. The second time they were finally out of the thicket and I could get a decent picture.
On Thursday morning, Richard had me do some practice driving. I’m actually quite the master of left-side manual shifting. Avoiding rocks and crevices, though, without too much top-heavy swaying back and forth is another matter. I’m also a bit challenged in knowing where my tires are as I drive. (I might have scraped a few thorn trees.) Richard coached. He came up with an exercise to help me gauge the position of my tires, having me try to stop directly in front of a specific rock. Hmm. I’ll let you decide how that turned out. The good news is that we’re still married after a morning of driving instruction.
In addition to our rhino sighting, I saw the back of a leopard during one of our morning dro. No pictures, though, as the cat was gone into the bush too fast.
One afternoon we drove back down to the lower camp and headed toward the bird hide. This is the area outside the electric fence and in the camping area where we started. Driving along, we turned the corner and ran straight into this giraffe walking toward us.
We also saw some beautiful kudu with their magnificent spiraling horns. Unfortunately, the bush was too dense for a good picture. It was the same for most of my rhino photos.
Late afternoon Thursday we had baboons. I spent time watching them and taking pictures. They seemed very busy at the tent next door (not a good sign!). They thudded on our neighbor’s stairs, slid down their canvas tent roof, barked at each other and ran back and forth to the trees, only to repeat the scene again. In total there were about fifteen. Each time they saw me with the camera, they ran to the other side of the tent and watched me from under the stilts. Good thing. I’m sure they wanted to explore our deck, too, but no luck for them! We were diligent about locking our sliding door to the kitchen area, so no baboon or monkey break ins!
I’m making a video/slideshow that should be done soon. Our internet connection is not the best, so you might see no posts and then a whole bunch at the same time.
Here are a few other visitors to our first campsite at Marakele in Bontle rest camp.
Up next: Morukuru—wild dogs, elephants and rhino