Heading north

Last night we smelled a herd of elephants before we saw or heard them.  Proof our senses are getting back into bush-mode.

 

Elephants smell like a load of damp dirty washing that's been left too long in the laundry prior to washing.  A mouldy, mildewy, amonia tpe smell. 

 

The herd arrived at the waterhole, which is about 25 metres from where I'm sitting, just on the other side of the uncharacteristically (for Kruger) low perimeter fence around Punda Maria Camp, in the north of the park.  They were joined later by a buffalo.

 

We've also seen lion from the camp in the past, which is quite exciting and, given the height of the fence, a bit scary (don't panic, any of you who are coming to South Africa to see us, Punda Maria is a very old camp, and quite unlike the ones where you'll be staying.  They all have sturdy, high elephant-and-lion-proof fences).

 

Punda Maria, as Mrs Blog and I like to say, is the most 'Zimbabwean' of Kruger's camps.  It's the last in the north before you get to the border and, befitting its position, things are a little more rustic, a little run down and a little edgier here.  It's a nice transition into the wildness and mayhem beyond the northern border.

 

Not that we hope it will be too wild in Zim.  Just depressing more like it.  We heard a Zimbabwean guy in the camp restaurant this morning saying to someone else "think of everything you've heard about the country on television and in the newspapers and double it.  That's how bad it is".

 

After seeing our friends in Harare we're off on a five-day houseboat cruise on Kake Kariba, as soon as I get back from my side trip to Libya.  Blogging will be a bit of a rarity in the next few weeks, Legion of Fans, so all four of you can get back to work and/or family right now and stop wasting time here!