Ghostblog Hantu dan Mitos

The next day I slept in late, then had a lazy, tasty breakfast. The drive up to the airport was a mixture of very scenic bits and very dull bits, crowded shantytowns and stretches devoid of any human habitation. I made one wrong turn and lost around 20 minutes on that, but still made it with plenty of time to spare. The airport, as previously mentioned, is not a big one. A couple of buildings, a small curio shop and a small café of sorts; little more than a hole in the wall. I had already started to practice the two Swazi words I had learned from Shirley; when you're the one doing the leaving you say salagathje and when you're staying and someone else is leaving you say hambagathje. Well, salagathje was working miracles with the locals. They brightened up something crazy when I spoke to them in their own language and I got some of the widest and most genuine smiles I've ever encountered as a tourist. This goes well with previous experiences in Eastern Europe, where the odd ...

This, my final day in Kruger, was to be perhaps the best of this trip, indeed maybe the best I have ever spent in the park. We started out from Numbi gate at 6AM; yours truly, Shirley and Andrew, who hadn't gotten to see much on his first day. I made it up to them today. Oh, how I made it up to them. Once again, I started by taking the Voortrekker. I took a couple of pics of an ellie, but otherwise nothing much happened. At Afsaal, we had breakfast but not in the restaurant part; Shirley, bless her heart had prepared a meal for us with meat and veggies and bread and whatnot. I waved hello to Victor's sister, who works there as a cook and I also had my Rissington peeps meet Debra. Nice morning all round. Ellie. I also tested the 600mm on a mountain top west of Voortrekker. Afterwards, we hit jackpot at the Ampie-se-Boorgat waterhole, roughly midway between Afsaal and the Malelane gate. Here, a family of three rhinos were holding court, crossing the road and posing for us. Especi...

This day I took it slowly. Meaning, I got up around 7 and then hurried the fuck up to get to the park. I'm telling you man, it's like a drug. However, I did take it slow. Filled up at Pretoriuskop, kept the speed limits on the Voortrekker, had a nice breakfast at Afsaal, confirmed with Samaria that her mother-in-law was doing better, chatted with Debra. Then went down to Berg en dal (which the white Afrikaaners have a horrible rrrrrrr sound on) and moseyed around there and up in the mountains for some time before ambling down to Afsaal again. At Komapiti waterhole along the Voortrekker, a flock of zebras were passing by. It had several young 'uns and foals. Awwwwwww. When grass gets boring there's always some milk available. Wewy cute. Video of my first encounter with ellies down south. She's smiling at me, isn't she? Two chilling in the shade. Video of the two. Mrs Warthog is busy, busy. My black guests tended to call these bushpig. Dunno if that's a racial...

On day 12, I brought my friend Shirley and her two sons into the park. One could make comparisons to hyenas and monkeys, but to be honest they were almost disappointingly well behaved and normal in every respect. The youngest was seven and naturally, his attention wasn't held for the long periods of time when there is nothing to see or do when you're out spotting for game. A cell phone loaded with games was his refuge. The oldest was 11 and had better English. He was a bit shy but grinned broadly every time I made jokes and hints about leaving him for the lions. He had a huge interest in the park and was probably disappointed that we didn't see a single feline the whole day. The day started, like so many others in Kruger, with a bang. We had gone from Numbi almost straight to Transport Dam but on the dusty gravel road down there, we saw several cars parked and were soon watching three (as far as I could see) hyenas eating some carcass while four (again, as far as I could ma...

Sophie also joined me on the 11th day of my trip, along with her daughter Miranda (16) and another employee named Andrew, a thoroughly decent and witty chap, although I am not sure I ever weaned him off calling me "Sir". As for Miranda, I think she set a new record for the number of selfies in Kruger. Sadly, this was to be quite a dull day with not a single cat, nor rhino. I started out on the Voortrekker again and at first, I thought it was going to be another great day, when we spotted some sable antelopes in the grass. But that turned to be just about it on the Voortrekker. We saw some ellies in the distance, but not close enough to raise much excitement and we were a bit subdued when we had brunch at Afsaal. At the very beginning, we drove a loop around the highest hilltop just west of Pretoriuskop. In addition to magnificent views of a still foggy Kruger, it also gave me this little klipspringer, who was standing on a rock up in the hillside, looking very content with hi...