Day 70: iNgwavuma to camp beside Thembe Elephant Game Reserve.

I was awoken before sunrise and said goodbye to Sfundo and thanked him for helping me out. I had given my number to Sfundo and he would regularly check up on me with the first words always being, ’Hello my friend.’ Unfortunately I lost contact with him when I lost my phone a few weeks later. If you happen to be reading this, before calling me once more, that’s why I haven’t answered. Same goes for all the other people I left my number with. I got his family a little bag of groceries as a thank you gift before hitting the road. I had set my sights on reaching Mozambique and staying at the coastal town of Ponta do Oura but thankfully plans change. That would happen tomorrow.

Before sunrise goodbye. Cheers Sfundo and thanks for the help and sugarcane.

Saying cheers to his friends at the general dealer store.

It was almost criminal to eat this later but damn it was sweet and juicey. The standard by which all other sugar cane is judged.

After about 35kms or so of road I find myself going into the Thembe Elephant Park to fill up some water bottles and rest a little. It was there that I ended up speaking to a lady from France called Crytal (I don’t if that’s the right spelling). She was busy with her own solo 4x4 adventure through our country and the surrounding countries also. She asked if I wanted to tag along for a ride through the park in her 4x4 as she had already paid the car admission price, so all I had to do was pay my own entrance fee. Sweet I thought. R30 later we were off into the park. We were told that were loads and loads of elephants in the park so in we went expecting to see just that. But little did I know that elephants have amazing ninja skills and were pretty much out of sight till later. Plus I’m sure it has a lot to do with timing.

Another lovely day for riding. Heading towards Thembe Elephant Park.

I let you guess.

We came to the first hide out viewing point overlooking a small waterhole. There were assortments of game and birds but no elephants. We left a little while later deciding to take a circular route through the one section. Again no elephants were seen. See, ninja skills. Finally at the end of our trip at another even smaller watering hole which was virtually a mud pit, we saw some elephants. Awesome! Crystal stopped the 4x4 and we watched the elephants for a while. One was clearly bigger than the others and there were one or two smaller and younger ones who were causing some irritation with the others but they sorted it out. They kept their distance and it was cool checking them out before we headed back. Crystal dropped me off the entrance before heading off. I thanked her for the cool opportunity as I wouldn’t have been allowed to do that on my bike. After a bite to eat I headed off once again.

View from the hide out overlooking the waterhole.

Nyala. I love how these buck look. Very distinctive.

Finally.

Drink that yummy mud mush water.

Now give us a show you beauties.

See, inside a 4x4.

Me and Crystal.

I had asked this man to take a pic of me and the board but he thought I meant of him. Sometimes language barriers are awesome, so I did anyways.

It was now about 2:30 and within a few minutes I saw a sign advertising a butterfly dome. I thought I may as well check it out seeing as I’m in the area. I’ve just seen the biggest land creature, may as well see small flying insects. So in I went. It wasn’t as close as I thought. I had to go through what appeared to me a park entrance, thought there was no name. Plus the security guy knew virtually no English but he directed me in the right way. It was a bit of a mission finding the place as there were no signs really. I came across what seemed to be a parking lot but missed the pathway. There were also toilets there. I went a little further and came across a little camp site but there was no one to be found. There were also ablution blocks but their water pipes weren’t connected. So I headed back and finally found the path leading to the dome from the parking lot. There was also no one there. But I went inside and it wasn’t all that great. Very few butterflies and only about 3 species I could tell. Glad I didn’t have to pay for this.

Biodome is more fun. Thats the only time that can be said.

Saw like 2 of these.

Clearly it was a new thing as I found out later so I'm sure there are plenty more butterflies there now.

The path leading away.

It was now after 3 and I had about 50kms to get to the border so I figured I might as well just call it a day. I had decided I would like to stay at the camp site I saw earlier and I was given the okay by the security guard. I tried asking him what this place was and if there were any animals to be on the look out for, especially predators. We didn’t understand each other as I listed names such as lion, leopard etc, and he nodded his head. Mmm, great I thought as I headed back to the campsite. So I set up my tent and chilled wondering what this place was about. Shortly thereafter I met Gavin and G-Bear.

Decided to just camp here. Was a good call.

Getting ready for another win of a sunset.

They were the guys who were staying in the other tent I saw and they filled me in on what was happening. This whole place was apparently a game reserve that was still being built. So pretty much no wildlife at the moment. Aha. The thick plottens. It was cool having some company again and they were a fun bunch to be around. They had spent the whole day at Thembe elephant park at the one hide and I think the day before also. They saw an awesome sight involving some male elephants who were fighting right under the hide. They invited me to share in some supper which I did. Later we were joined by two other guys who were contracted to work in the area doing stuff with setting up electricity pylons I think. They spoke in quite techinical terms before we had to srop and say we dont really know what the hell you telling us. That did the trick and they rephrased much. After they left. the threee of us just carried on having fun around the camp fire till it was time to sleep.

Gavin and G-bear.

Gavin doing his best musical impression of that one blues guy I think with that really deep sounding and very distinctive sounding voice. Someone please help me out on this one.

Distance 40kms