Tag Archives: Mapungubwe national park

Mapungubwe & Kaoxa

Planning ahead as always (not), we drove into Kaoxa Bush Camp hoping to find Virginia there to welcome us. She was nowhere to be found and her phone was on voicemail. So we booked into the SA Parks camp inside Mapungubwe, the first time I have stayed inside the park. Jess was pleased – the chalet had aircon! And it was hot. Even the eles sought shade:

I drove around Mapungubwe east, the more famous half of the park, and walked the boardwalk to overlook the Limpopo and into Botswana and Zimbabwe. Jess mainly stayed in the chalet. The day we left I drove the long way round to the gate, so she did see some of this interesting Eastern section of the park.

Then we moved on to Kaoxa. We drove down to Virginia’s home and found her. She asked us to bring cash, so we drove the 70km to Musina and drew cash as we needed to do some food shopping anyway. The tar road is in very good nick except for two patches near Mapungubwe with bad potholes. So 110km/h is easy, but when you see potholes, slow down drastically! Each patch is just a couple hundred metres, but bad.

Good ceiling fans and great showers, a cool shady pool and lots of shade under thatch. As we arrived there was a squirrel in the chalet. It jumped onto Jess and scratched her arm, then fled. We ate and swam and birded and stared at the view. For wifi we drove to Duncan’s homestead and sat on the back veranda. Good birding there, too. A very special place is Kaoxa Bush Camp. Do support it so it can stay wild forever! Best to book online.

– African Hawk Eagle – Gymnogene –

~~oo0oo~~

Birds seen in the area:
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Black Eagle (Verreaux’s)
Familiar Chat
Jamesons Firefinch
Mocking Cliff Chat
Kori Bustard
Grey-headed Sparrow
Lanner Falcon
Woodland Kingfisher
Dusky Flycatcher
White-browed Sparrow-Weaver
Rufous-naped Lark
Arrow-marked Babbler
Violet-backed & Redwing Starlings
Wood Sandpiper
Acacia Pied Barbet
Black-collared Barbet

Go West!

I started off going west to find cellphone signal. In the Pafuri area Vodacom (wrongly) told me, ‘You have left your area, you are now on Movitel Mocambique; calls will cost you more;’ So I had to drive 40km west of Pafuri gate to be “in SA” from a Vodacom point of view. Local people all shook their heads dolefully when I asked where I could catch Vodacom signal around Pafuri. ‘You have to be MTN here,’ they all said.

The day I left Pafuri River Camp I just kept going west. When I hit the N1 highway I realised I was halfway to the Botswana border, so I decided to keep heading towards the setting sun. I’d find room at my friend Dave Hill’s friend Duncan MacWhirter’s Kaoxa Camp. National Parks are mostly full because of school holidays. When I got past Musina, guess what? Vodacom (wrongly) told me, ‘You have left your area, you are now on Orange Botswana; calls will cost you more;’ Get your act together, Vodacom! Refund me, dammit!

Kaoxa Camp is everything I remember from a stay here in 2013 – and better. There are now safari tents, a swimming pool, and the campsite (no longer a Drifters) looks even better. I had the whole place to myself, and wonderful hosts Virginia and David to look after me!

The farm is now open to the western section of Mapungubwe National Park – the fences between them have been dropped. It was amazing to drive west on the property and just keep going as the only vehicle around, all the way to the Limpopo river and the National Park camps there. I felt like the owner of the full 28 000ha.

To get to Mapungubwe east you have to drive out of Kaoxa gate on the main road and then into Mapungubwe main gate. It’s an amazing park – the more famous of the ‘two halves,’ east and west.

One morning I took a flask of coffee and drove to Duncan’s Lookout on Kaoxa. I sat on the comfy bench and scanned the mopane woodland below, looking north towards the Limpopo. Nothing to see, but plenty of birds to keep me there. A loud squeal told me there was an elephant nearby and I walked to the edge of the hill to see if I could see him. Nothing. Then he squealed again and I saw he was a distance from the hill, not as near as he’d sounded. Then I saw a second ele – they’d been right in front of me and I hadn’t seen them! Then I saw a whole herd of big and small – about twenty five of them. And then – how blind can you be!? A herd of seventy or more! There was a dry stream bed which hid them whenever they went into it, so that’s my excuse. It was a Hundred Helephunt Hideout!

Here’s the Lekker Lookout:

– nothing to see, right? –
– look closer –

One night a Danish couple with two kids arrived after dark and asked where the campsite was. They had arrived at the JHB airport, picked up a 4X4 with two rooftop tents and headed for Africa. Learning about the vehicle and buying supplies had taken longer than they’d planned, hence the late arrival. They asked where the campsite was – about 2km away in the dark. I said, ‘If I Were You, I would raise your rooftop tents right here where you are, use ‘my’ kitchen and dining room with lights and wifi; cook with ‘my’ pots and use ‘my’ plates which will get washed in the morning. That way you’ll feed the kids quicker and get to bed way earlier for your long drive tomorrow.’ They were Danish and law-abiding, so they said, But we booked for the campsite. I said, ‘Sure, but I’m the laird of the manor tonight, Virginia is not here, so you could almost call me Duncan; So that’s what I would do if I were you.’ They relaxed and did the naughty – not really – African thing. Next morning they spent an hour or so exploring round the lovely site with its amazing views and left in fine fettle, I think way more relaxed than they would have been had they roughed it that night.

~~oo0oo~~

Lion on the Loose

Lions have been running wild this year.

Sad that we think that’s a bad thing? Lions escaped from Kruger twice this year, one lot was recaptured, one lot shot. Then three lionesses and five cubs ran free in KwaZulu and were captured. Today there’s talk of a lion meandering around Mtonjaneni near Ulundi, munching on cows – which I suppose is the reason we won’t tolerate them running free: their manners.

I saw a lion on the loose outside Mapungubwe in 2013. (note: I see I duplicated this story – more or less – here). I had left the reserve, heading west for Botswana when an old grey-haired codger in short pants hopped out of his bakkie and flagged me down, hopping up and down with excitement. “Oom, Oom!” he shouted. “Hier’s n leeu, ek sweer. ‘n Leeumannetjie, Oom!”

I thought “Who’s Your Fokkin ‘Oom’, you Old Goat? You look Sixty in the Shade and Rather Weather-beaten and Ancient to me”, but I’m polite so I just said “Waar?” and he said “Volg my, sommer hier naby” and he got back into his bakkie to show me. Just then a big male lion sprinted across the road toward the Mapungubwe side. On both sides of the road high ‘game-proof’ fences keep animals in, inside the Oppenheimers’ private reserve on the southern side and Mapungubwe National Park on the northern side, so he was trapped in an unfriendly corridor and he was not happy.

The poor lion was a lovely specimen but he looked anxious as hell and panicky and ran as though he was trying to make himself invisible. When he saw us he dived under a little green bush in the dry grass, laughably small, but Hey! He disappeared under it! He lay motionless and nothing would entice him out.

This bush. Look carefully, he’s in there!

There's a handsome escaped male lion hiding in that bush, poor bugger!!

Then he finally did dart out, running eastwards, to the right in picture along this fence and I left him. A gate to the De Beers Venetia Limpopo reserve said Duncan MacFadyen gate and had a phone number, so I phoned to let them know one of their lions was running free.

Then on a sudden hunch I turned the rearview mirror to look at myself. OMG! I saw now what the old codger had seen. No wonder he ‘Oom’d’ me.

~~~oo0oo~~~

It’s a beautiful area:

Mapungubwe.jpg

~~~oo0oo~~~

“Oom! Hier’s n leeu, ek sweer. ‘n Leeumannetjie, Oom!” – Uncle! A male lion, I swear, Uncle!

“Volg my, sommer hier naby” – Follow me; it’s close-by

~~~oo0oo~~~

Once a tiger ran loose.