Donkeys andBuffalos

Trip toPafuriRiverCampandtheNorthernKrugerNationalParkJuly -August2012

Bill Cairns

Well we have this new bakkie with its fancy canopy

and drawers and long distance tank and all , and a trip

to Mapungubwe at the end of May wasn't enough to

satisfy the travel bug: so in the middle of July Ji l l and I

decided to have another trip to the Kruger Park. We

spent two weeks away and had a great time.

We actual ly started off the trip outside the Park. For

five days we camped at the Pafuri River Camp which

is just outside the Pafuri Gate right in the north of the

Kruger Park and at the east end of Venda. We would

recommend the Pafuri River Camp for anyone who

likes a "wild" camping experience. There is no

electricity and the camp sites are beautiful ly isolated.

Each camp site has its own toilet and shower and hot

water is provided by gas or, in our case, a l ittle donkey

that needed to be lit and fed with wood.

Talking of donkeys, the four legged variety together

with cows equipped with cow bells were the only

disturbers of the peace. I had not realised how much

noise a donkey can make at twelve at night (and at

one and two …).

Pafuri River Camp is a great place for birds and we

soon had a few northern specials ticked off including

the Tropical Boubou (Tropiese Waterfiskaal), the

Bearded Scrub-Robin (Baardwipstert) and Heuglin's

Robin (who has a new name that I refuse to use but

who is sti l l a Heuglinse Janfrederik in Afrikaans) which

are common in the area. The camp borders on the

Mutal i River (a tributary of the Levuvhu) and there we

saw our first Saddle-bi l led Stork (Saalbekooievaar) of

the trip.

Donkeys andBuffalos:Trip toPafuriRiverCampandtheNorthernKrugerNationalParkJuly -August2012

There are a number of sights to see in eastern Venda.

We took an afternoon to go and see the Big Tree

which is about 50 km from the camp. The Big Tree, a

truly gigantic baobab, certainly is very big. ("How old

is it?" "3502 years old". "How do you know?" "Well two

years ago an expert came and looked at it and said

that it was 3500 years old". ) The Big Tree is known for

the spinetai ls which apparently roost there in their

thousands. We waited unti l i t was nearly dark but no

spinetai ls appeared. And we decided that we had

better drive back through the dirt roads while we could

sti l l see.

The Makuya Game Reserve is also not far from the

Pafuri River Camp and we spent a day there. I t is a

Limpopo Provincial Reserve and I would think that it

has tremendous potential : the borders with the Kruger

Park are open and so it has all the "Big Five" and the

other animals of the area; it has magnificent views of

the Levuvhu and the Mutal i Rivers; we checked out

the accommodation and it looked both very

comfortable and seemed very affordable. Having

"sold" the reserve so enthusiastical ly, I must say that I

don't think that I would stay there at the moment for

one reason only: the roads are terrible and come

close to being impassable. A 4x4 is an absolute

necessity, and the driving is certainly not pleasant.

We had been advised to take a guide into the reserve

and we asked for one at reception only to be told that

they were all occupied elsewhere. However, young

Thamu who works at reception volunteered to show

us the ropes and took us to some of the interesting

places that the reserve holds. He told us that he is an

old friend of Edwin, the bird guide at Nylsvley.

An exciting viewing in the reserve was a Brown-

headed parrot (Bruinkoppapegaai) busy in a leadwood

tree. (There were probably more than one there, but

we could only see one). Thamu took us on a short

walk to see the waterfal l on the Mutal i River and we

ran across a huge elephant spoor that was no more

than a few minutes old. Fortunately we did not meet

the elephant – Ji l l and I have had enough close

encounters with elephants lately!

To me, one of the great advantages of the Pafuri

River Camp is that it is very close to the Pafuri

Picnic site in the Kruger Park itself – it is much

closer to the picnic site than is Punda Maria. We

took a day to drive down to the picnic spot and

wandered around on the Nyala Loop and drove

along to Crook's Corner. I think that the Pafuri area

is my favourite place on earth and that there is

nothing better than just to be there. We did see the

White-crowned Lapwing (Witkopkiewiet), the

special of our northern rivers, as well as the first of

the many herds of buffalo that we saw in the park.

(A car passed us, slowed down, saw that it was

only buffalo and drove on. I t made me wonder why

some people go to the Kruger Park!) Some of the

buffalo were being cleaned by Yellow-bil led

Oxpeckers (Geelbekrenostervoël) as well as the

more common Red-bil led Oxpecker

(Rooibekrenostervoël).

There was a fl ight of vultures close to the Pafuri

bridge and we came across three guarding a

rather old leg bone of some big antelope.

From the Pafuri River Camp we drove to

Shingwedzi and camped there for four nights. The

camping was certainly a bit more civi l ised, but one

pays the penalty of being in a crowded camp site

which is a bit of a shock after having had one's

own stretch of wilderness to enjoy. The

Shingwedzi River is very dry and there are only

isolated pools of water to be seen on the drive

down to Kanniedood Dam. These pools did offer

some nice birds and animals though: we saw

many birds including Saddle-bi l led Storks

(Saalbekooievaar), Yellowbil led Storks

(Nimmersat), Maribou (Maroboe), Great Egret

(Grootwitreier).

Certainly the highl ight of our Shingwedzi stay was

seeing a Bat Hawk (Vlermuisvalk) right in the

Shingwetsi Camp site. A very special sighting

indeed. We also saw Bennett's Woodpecker

(Bennettse Speg) there – we always see Bennett's

at Shingwedzi and sometimes I wonder if they are

to be found anywhere else in South Africa.

Below the Kanniedood Dam there is a lot more

water in the river and there seemed to be

hundreds of crocodile and hippo almost pi led on

top of each other. A shortage of water must put

these animals under a lot of stress. I t was here

that we saw our obligatory l ion – well l ioness

actual ly – doing what l ions do best which is

sleeping on a rock. Occasionally she yawned to

prove to us that she was not just a plastic l ion

placed there to keep tourists happy.

From Shingwedzi we continued south and stayed

for another four nights at Tsendze. I f you have

never been to Tsendze, please don't go. We would

rather keep that lovely camp to ourselves. There is

no electricity (except for some solar powered lights

in the ablution blocks), but the facil ities are

actual ly quite luxurious and the camp sites are

wonderful. Rodger Hobyane, the caretaker, is very

keen and knowledgeable on his birds (he says

that he has four bird books including the big

Roberts) and he introduced us to his owls: Barred

Owl (Gebande Uil), Scops Owl (Skopsuil) and

Verreaux's Eagle Owl (Reuse-Ooruil). There were

Grey-headed Parrots (Savannepapegaai)

screeching at us all day from a big leadwood.

We had two rather special bird sightings in the

Mopane area:as we drove back from the Pioneer

dam we met a Double-banded Sandgrouse with a

tiny chick crossing the road. We blocked the road

in case some cowboy came rushing past and ran

them over. The baby tried to walk underneath his

mommy which is definitely an "Oh cute!"

("Ag shame!") sight. On the same drive,

on one of the Tsendze River loops, we

saw a pair of Saddle-bi l led Storks

(Saalbekooievaar) fishing in a pond.

They were very vigorous, marching up

and down in the water with their beaks

snapping. I don't know if they caught

anything, but itwas not for lack of trying if

they didn't.

The Mopane area is notorious for being

poor game watching country so natural ly we saw

more different kinds of animals there than

anywhere else: eland, tsessebe and roan in

addition to the "normal" zebra, wildebees, impala,

kudu, waterbuck, and buffalo, buffalo, buffalo. We

saw three herds of more than 300 animals and,

while we were sitting at the Shipandani hide, one

herd of more than a thousand animals came to

drink. What a sight!

We ended our time in the Kruger park with one

night spent in a hut at Letaba. Staying in a hut is

awful ly claustrophobic after spending two weeks in

a tent! I am very fond of Letaba and it was great to

be able to sit and look at the animals in the river bed.

All in al l it was a good birding trip. We were very happy to

see a lot of Ground Hornbil ls (Bromvoël) in the Park. I t does

seem that the efforts to encourage and re-establish them is

paying off. We saw 1 38 different species in al l with, natural ly,

a few birds that we could not identify. Where is Warwick

when I need him? There were some strange "dips": no Tawny

Eagle (that we could be sure of anyway), no cormorants of

any kind.

At last, the long drive back to Modimolle. What a privi lege to

l ive in a country with these wonderful areas to l ive in – and

how sorry we have to feel for those who do not l ive in Africa!