THE architect of Lower Sabie had either foresight or a suffered from a weak bladder himself. Whichever, we were grateful for it. ‘Ladies’ first and ‘Reception’ afterwards!
We were assigned to our rondavel, built in the style of an African mud hut – round, thatched, cramped and cosy. As a concession to tourist standards, there was a sort of outsized cupboard containing a shower, toilet and wash basin. But this wasn’t the end of the luxury – Lower Sabie had just got electricity! So we could study wildlife books after sundowm. In the cause of education, I beggared myself at the bookshop.
But sundown was still an hour or so away, and Lower Sabie is beautifully situated on the banks of the Sabie River, so we took my new bird book down to the river bank to see what we could see.
‘Roberts – Birds of Southern Africa’ was not exactly the easiest book for a beginner, especially as it has to pack in over 800 varieties, but we identified a woodland kingfisher. Of course, with its brilliant electric-blue plumage and magnificent octave-and-a-half trill, it’s pretty easily spotted in the bush. The achievement was to find it in the book. We thought we had done pretty well for our first day.
The next day we moved northwards to Satara Camp. We knew it wouldn’t be as luxurious as Lower Sabie, but we had come to see the bush and we were going to see as much bush as possible. We took the longest route, still looking for elephant.
A dried-up river bed should, we thought, be the natural place to find game.
So we crawled along in second gear, with the clutch protesting malodourously, stopping every now and again to peer out at absolutely nothing. There was not even an impala to be seen. Eventually I got fed up and shot off down the road at the maximum permitted speed. Deidre continued to peer into the bush, quite determined that there was something interesting out there. Suddenly she let out a blood-curdling yell.
What had she spotted?
“I don’t know,” she said, “I think it’s an elephant.”
Now how can anyone only think that she has seen an elephant? One either has, or has not, seen an elephant. Elephant are quite unmistakable. I backed the car to where she had seen it, and there it was. A great, grey backside, sticking out of the bush on the other side of the river bed. It was a long way away, but it was indisputably the rear end of an elephant. We had just agreed on this point, when it turned round.
It was a buffalo.
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