8 January 2018

The past three day have been particularly HOT.  Today the mercury reached 43 degrees C.   Even the evenings are hot and we remain scantily dressed even outdoors.  This is a huge contrast to the cold and wet December we had in Kokstad!

Simon, still wet from a swim,  helping Grandpa with dinner last night

It is a 92 km drive from Skukuza to Satara.  We were packed up and ready to leave at 6:30 am and it was already hot.

Meet Roger – he travels everywhere with his friend Simon and keeps us all amused when the outdoor wildlife are hiding from view.

Roger dislikes confined spaces so holds on tightly to the roof and peaks at us through the window. He loves to let the wind blow through his fur.

His baboon cousins enjoy eating the fruit of the sausage tree

This guy has a huge appetite for them

We arrived at Satara around 10 ish and set up as quickly as we could in the heat of the day.  The only thing to do on a day like this is to find aircon or swim!  I took the kids to the pool while Grandpa napped then did the laundry.

We set off for a game drive just after three.  Hooray for modern motorcars with effective climate control.   The S100 is famous in The Kruger Park and usually produces excellent sightings.  We did see lots of plains animals but today the predators evaded us.

The highlight of the day was finding the rare and endangered Painted Snipe.   I spotted him with some other waders while watching bee eaters and kingfishers flying and dipping into the river.

Our camp is right next to the fence and this evening the kids were thrilled to spot a hyena walking past.   We hoped to get sites next to the fence in each camp but at this time of the year that is not easy as the best sites get snapped up very quickly.  We were lucky to get this spot and I’m glad that the kids will experience being closer to the wildlife at night.

Tomorrow, we’re hoping it will be a little cooler – even a thunderstorm to cool things down would be welcome.