Day 36

Day thirty six
Friday - 21st February 2020

Current position
Unnamed Road
South Africa
S 24°29.9628'
E 31°4.8522'

In spite of the humid heat I slept well but Ros not so. There was a fan to keep us cool but at some unearthly hour we were shedded again and I woke up drenched in sweat. I fell asleep once more and I'm glad to say that when our alarms rang out at six fifteen the power was on with the melodic knock knock of the spinning fan.
We were surprised that it was so quiet during the evening and early  morning we thought that we would be sung to sleep by crickets or chirping frogs but there was just and an eery silence.
Our little bamboo hut with thatched roof of reeds stood on stout wooden stilts and seemed more fitting to Thailand than Africa. Inside it was spacious with a bedroom with double bed and another room with two singles. Three large steps took us down to the bathroom. This description conjures up an image of a pleasant country cottage but the realty was it was dark and dingy with little electric light. We could not open the screwed down blinds and every room smelt dank from damp.
It was a great escape when we threw back the door and were hit by the light and warmth of the hazy sun as we headed for breakfast. With a last briefing from our ranger we were seated in the back of the pickup shielded from the sun by a khaki canopy.
Our room or should I say shed was not in Kruger Park so our first hours drive was in the back of the truck being blown about on normal roads.
There were three tiers with three seats in each. Ros and I sat one behind another whilst I sat next to a young Dutch girl who in turn sat next to her brother. We soon struck up a conversation and they turned out to be great fun as we joked and laughed throughout the day. Ros' companions were from Denmark and were not quite as boisterous.
An hour later we entered the Park made the usual loo stop and took to the well maintained tarmac road through the bush. Immediately we saw antilope and zebra then it quietened down until we spotted an elephant in the distance. Half an haour went by and we saw another elephant again in the distance followed some time later by a solitary giraffe. The long and short of it was that we were disappointed that we saw very few of the big five and those we saw were from a distance none of them were just metres away as they were on our previous safari two or so weeks ago. Overall we spent eight and a half hours bouncing around in the back of a truck for very little reward.  The only consolation at least for me was the laughing and joking with the Dutch siblings. They were great fun. I came to the conclusion that if the Government can't run the power stations then what hope have they at running a game reserve. The earlier reserve where we'd seen all the animals at very close quarters was privately owned as was clearly shown. It was a long day but we survived and the saving grace was chatting to the other guests over a good evening meal.
We were in bed before ten as we had an early morning bush walk at five thirty. As I fell asleep I wondered how many other sweaty bodies had lain on this sweat filled smelly old bed?