Monday, 2004-06-07, 0630: 8 degrees. The hippos made a lot of noise all night long. Sun is taking it's time to come up. I need to go shopping, and I know that Thandie wants to shop too :-) We hit the Phalaborwa Pick & Pay. Which is in the same centre as a branch of the Parks Board, where Pim & Thandie get themselves a Wild Card.
Phalaborwa gate, 1315: Nothing to pay, no mess, no fuss, I love my Wild Card :-)
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The KNP was green. Extremely green. Which means that the animals were in hiding. We saw maybe three herds of impala. A few zebra, a giraffe or two. Lots of elephant, hippo and crocodiles. |
Mooiplaas picnic spot, 1500: There was this huge elephant on the other side of the river, apparently called "Bigfoot", the biggest elephant in the KNP.
Camped at Shingwedzi. Met Marianne at the reception, and Jochem, Carl and Suzi at the camp. Camp is right next to the fence, with a hyena prowling on the other side.
Tuesday, 2004-06-08, Shingwedzi, 0630: Great shower, lots of really hot water, shower head is a bit low but that's a common compliant from 6'2" me.
I get an SMS from Tanya In between explaining contraception, periods and admitting we've had sex, I have had to fish out a dead catfish. The joys of motherhood.
| Since I sleep in the Land-Rover and not in a tent, I'm packed long before anyone else. At 0810 I leave to fill the tanks. Notice that the right hand underseat tank leaks somewhere around the top, lose about five litres of fuel on the filling station tarmac. Get out of there in a hurry before the whole place goes up in flames :-) |
1210, Pafuri border: We were supposed to meet the others here at 1200 but we're a little late... sail through the SA side of the border post, Moz side also not much of a problem, one guy handling passport and one guy checking cars. Car-checking dude gets bribed with a few beers, I change R300 into Metacais at 3000/R ("real" rate was 3150 to 3300) figuring that he'd be lenient once he's made money off me... he was :-)
Of course, this is where Pim realises that they don't have visas for Mozambique... "this is going to cost you, sez passport dude"... but it didn't cost them much, and we're in.