Makutsi

Day 1

After saying our goodbyes in Perth we drove out to Perth International airport at 11:50pm to take a late flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.  The flight was over 11 hours long and we celebrated my mum’s birthday on the plane too!  Happy Birthday Mum!  We arrived feeling surprisingly good and had a neat breakfast while we waited to take another flight to a town called Heodspruit.

Heodspruit is actually a large air force base and on arrival some warthogs warmly greeted us. This was an interesting start to our safari adventure.  A guide named Derek took us to Makutsi Game Park. Derek turned out to be a very experienced tracker and as we neared the game park he suddenly pulled to the side of the road and pointed out two Cheetahs who wandered close to the fence line so that we could get some photos.  At Makutsi, we were greeted again by warthogs and some people this time, a lady came and met us and told us the rules about the camp and what we should do if we saw a lion, tiger, leopard or any other creature like that.  You have to stand perfectly still and do not panic.  But the first thing we did when we were shown our “hut” was get on our togs and go for a swim in their pool, which was very nice after a long flight and a hard days travelling.  Dinner was Warthog, which was an experience but was still very yummy.  We hit the hay at around 8:00pm and we were tired, I almost collapsed into my plate at dinner!

Day 2

Game Safari

I was woken by the sound of calling birds and the streaks of light coming through the curtain in the cool hours of Monday morning at 6:30am and I was ready to go on my first ever Safari in Makutsi’s privately owned land of 8000 hectares.  We left the room at and went for a walk around the camp once again, then at eight we went for breakfast and it was a pretty good breakfast for being out in the middle of “Safari Land”.

At 10:00am we took a 4-minute drive to a place called Hippo Hide, which is where they leave you for an hour in a hut overlooking a small lake where Hippo’s hang out usually.  We got really lucky and a Hippo stayed just above the water for the whole hour and when the truck pulled up to collect us the hippo stood up and got out of the lake - there you have it the first ever Hippopotamus I had seen fully out of the water in the wild!

When we arrived back we went and played tennis for a while, went to the pool (did some math’s for Mr. Green) and finally at 3:00pm we set out on our first Safari drive ever!  It was one of the coolest things I had ever done in my life; we saw all types of animals, spotted ones, striped ones and other things too!  The Safari lasted for 3 hours and we returned in the dark.

The vehicle we went in was a modified Land Rover with 3 rows of seats like a small rugby stadium so everybody could see everything.

For dinner was a lovely fish that was served with rice and vegetables, which was pretty good.  The safari was so great I can’t explain it with words so here are some pictures that we took of the animals. 

I was excited because tomorrow I knew we were going to the Blyde River Canyon, which should be very beautiful.

Day 3

Blyde River Canyon

The early morning of Makutsi Game Park was full of wildlife, when I opened the curtain and looked out the window I saw a Kudu, an antelope that I had all seen on the Safari the day before.  We were out of the room by 7:50am and we ventured down to have some breakfast and I was hungry!  There was corn flakes, yogurt, sugar, milk and bananas, a perfect combination (boarders you know what I mean). 

We went back to the room got our gear and we were picked up outside the bar near the office and we were off on the Blyde River Canyon, which is the third largest canyon in the world!  The drive there was beautiful but at the same time long and time wasting but after 2 hours of driving we arrived at the first lookout at the beginning of the canyon and as I opened the van door I didn’t know what to expect.  We were led down to a path that led into a river called The River of Tears and further along the gully a river called The River of Happiness

Some Info on The River of Tears and The River of Happiness

The story behind how the River of Tears got the name The River of Tears is about gold.  Some gold diggers in the 1890’s found a huge gold deposit near a town called Pilgrims Rest and had to deliver the gold down to a market in a place called Durbin to sell the gold for money.  But the problem was that they were hundreds of kilometers away from Durbin and there was no transport to get across there, so they had no choice but to set out on foot with the gold across to Durbin.  They never returned…

Another lot of men found gold in the same place some time later and decided to go to Durbin too.  They arranged an approximate meeting time and place to be back with their wives and children, which was as is called now The River of Tears but was not called anything back in those days.  They too did not come back at the specific time so the lady’s decided to call the river they were meeting at the River of Tears to represent sadness. 

They ventured out back to their homes, which was a long way away sad that their husbands had not returned with the money for the gold.  Then when all seemed lost they found them on the way back home at another river.  They got mixed up where they were meeting each other and when they reunited they ladies called the river where they met the River of Happiness. J

(Back to the Summary)

We stayed at the River for an hour and then left again for the second lookout point, which looked over some of the canyon.  The depth of the valley astounded me and the way the rocks had eroded and layered up which as my dad told me took thousands of years to occur. 

We left the river at 11:00am and kept on driving towards our next stop which I was sure was going to be amazing.  When the van pulled up I started walking down a path that went past a sign that read “Danger! High Drop! Sheer Cliffs! Stay On Path!” and there was a picture of a man falling off a cliff.  Not frightening one bit L.  The view was spectacular and what I thought looked sort of like the Grand Canyon (which I will visit too). 

Then we left for lunch, it was delicious, a buffet, and it only cost $7.00 and you could eat as much as you wanted.  The problem was I wasn’t hungry at that exact moment so I only had 6 plates of food.  After a wonderful lunch we were driven to our last lookout point which was the scariest of them all.  There was a small path that led down towards a rock, suspended by 2 other rocks and a sheer drop that went down and down and down.  I was freaked out.  My brother wasn’t though; he had the nerve to look over the edge at the depths of the canyon when my mum shouted “MOVE AWAY FROM THE EDGE!” and so he did.

 

We arrived back at Makutsi at around 5:30pm and we had had heaps of fun.  Dinner was lasagna and Tiramisu (coffee ice cream) and went to bed at around 8:30pm.  What a day and just to think tomorrow we were going to a tribal village which should be interesting.   

Day 4

Tribal Village and Extra Safari

I woke up at 6:00am with the rest of the birds and my brother.  We lay in bed thinking about the things we were doing that day and then my mum and dad finally woke up and we all got ready for some breakfast.  We went down at around 8:00am and ordered an omelet with some bacon and an orange juice.  A few warthogs were nearby and were obviously hungry as well, along with the 2 guard dogs that were out on their morning patrol. 

We left for the tribal village at around 9:00am with a man named Ralf who was kind and knew a lot about the area being a South African, who informed us on the wildlife and his travels.  We arrived at the village at 11:00am and were shown into a family house, which was half made in places and was definitely different to the houses we all live in.  A man named Zake showed us around his little outdoor patio area and the showed us his pottery that his mother makes (your dad’s still better Kieran) and demonstrated how he made the pots and the craftsmanship and skill you needed to have.  They collected the clay that they use from the hill a few hours away and everyone could help bring the clay back to the house to be made into pots.  He mixed water with the clay to make it soft so he could shape it more easily into anything he wanted. 

The finished product I thought was great but all he did was throw it back into the pile and said “I could do better” I would have just said can I have it for free but we then moved on to the patio area again and he put on some music and his whole family and friends started dancing to what I thought was some pretty cool music (I bought a CD to listen too) and I was almost dragged into the dancing but I managed to hold back unlike my mum and brother who were up there dancing all the way (I’m sure you would have done the same Humphrey). 

We returned back to Makutsi and had some lunch and then one of the staff came up to us and asked us if we wanted to go on a 3:00pm safari, so we said yes.  It was the best safari yet and I saw my first wild Rhinos, Cheetahs, Lions, Zebras and Elephants ever, which was completely amazing.  I took some really cool shots, which will make me never forget that amazing experience.  For dinner we had Kudu and that was delicious (just like venison) and for dessert we had chocolate cake with custard!  We hit the hay at 9:00pm that night ready to get up at 4:30am the next morning to go on an adventure into the 2 Million-Hectare Kruger National Park!

Day 5

Kruger National Park

We were up and in the van by 4:50am on Thursday morning tired but ready to make the 1 and a half hour drive to Kruger National Park.  We arrived there and ran straight into our first elephant that crossed the road right in front of us.  A great start is what I thought.  We came across Zebras, Giraffes, Impalas (a type of deer), Kudu, Warthogs, we saw our first Wildebeest and then we finally stopped for breakfast at 9:30am. 

The breakfast was filling and by the time we had gulfed down 3 sandwiches we were on the road again and we found even more wildlife (most we had already seen and taken photos of though).  Our guide Wessel (pronounced Vessel who’s dad is the Dentist at Havelock North) told us about most of the wildlife for example the Zebra.  I found out that a baby Zebra (a fowl) gets concealed by her mother from the rest of the heard to make the baby learn his/her mothers stripes so he/she doesn’t get mixed up.  A fowl also has long legs to merge its body with the herd to make it look like an adult to become hidden from predators.   

I also learnt that vultures only lay eggs every 7 years so if and elephant knocks over a tree (which they usually do) or we do something to the nest or whatever is supporting it, it can endanger that species of vulture further.  Another threat is that poachers killed vultures for their brains and intestines so they could smoke them thinking they could predict the future.  So many vultures were killed during the world cup so South African people could predict the score.

We were lucky enough to find a male Hyena lying in the shade near the road.  I found out that a male Hyena is not allowed to venture with the females and their cub (if they have one) during the day because a female Hyena is the dominant gender, so they only join the pack at night.

I also learnt that Giraffe males fight each other to see who is the strongest, the fights could last up to 2 hours and take a lot of energy for both Giraffes.  We watched as they swing their heads at each other and if the blow is strong enough and in the right part of the Giraffe (the ribs for example) it could injure that Giraffe making it vulnerable to predators to get an easy feed. 

We also went past some huge rock mounds near the road and we met an animal called a Klipspringer.  Klipspringers hang out and live on rocks and on cliffs (Klip in Afrikaans meaning cliff) and are very small, almost miniature deer that have small horns, and look quite cute. 

I also learnt about a rare and endangered species of birds (that don’t like to fly) called Southern Ground Horn Bills.  They are huge birds that look like over sized roosters with lovely eyelashes.  That’s right their eyelashes were extremely long and I think they would have been on New Zealand’s next bird model if they tried hard enough! 

On the way home we stopped by a man made dam that had several Hippos in it and 1 Crocodile.  It was an interesting sight since 2 of the Hippos started having a play fight with each other and the Croc started moving closer to them but was scared off by the 2000 kg creatures.  We went for a spectacular drive along the Olifant river where we saw many groups of Hippos bathing in the sunshine.

We drove back to Makutsi at 2:30pm and got back there at 5:20pm and were picked up by a truck to go to dinner in.  For dinner we had burgers (I had 2) that were absolutely delicious but the cheesecake for dessert wasn’t very appetising. L.   By the end of the night we were worn out and went to bed early only to get up at 5:30am the next day for an early morning safari, which I’m sure will be heaps of fun.

Day 6

Morning and Afternoon Safari

Beep!  Beep!  Beep!  I was woken early in the morning by the dreaded alarm clock that was set next to my bed.  We all got ready and dressed into the warmest gear we could find and then a knock came at our door at 6:00am.  It was time to go on our first and last morning safari.  Several other people greeted us on the truck that looked like they were ready to go as well.  We were in the game park within 2 minutes and were all determined that we were going to see several animals.  None came and when it reached 7:00am the only animals we saw were birds, not even the common Impala that we see regularly.  Wessel finally found some teenage male lion tracks that were headed west.  We followed the tracks all throughout the safari and when it was time to go back to camp we had still only seen birds and one or two animals.  Then all of a sudden on the way back to camp we witnessed a male Nyala showing a threatening display which involved lowering his head all the way to the ground and walking in exaggerated movements around a younger Nyala male.  It was obvious that the younger male had gotten too close to the older male’s females.  They prepared to fight when the younger male obviously thought that it would be a bad idea so he backed off and left the area.  What a sight that was and the intensity of the older male Nyala was very astounding.  We continued down the road excited that we had seen something that morning when dad and I saw a golden animal sitting near the road on a rock.  It was a lion!  Our second sighting of lions, but an exceptionally better view than the other lot we had found on the safari before, this one bring 2 meters from the front of the vehicle.  We were taking heaps and heaps of pictures when all of a sudden something stood up right next to the car.  It was the other young male lion that we hadn’t even noticed sitting right next to us in the tall grass, which was stalking something.  More photos!  We arrived back at Makutsi with an exceptional story to tell.