ENTERING the Kruger National Park from the south, one has very little chance of seeing anything interesting for the first couple of hours.
Certainly not elephant, which was what Margaret had set her heart on seeing. Maybe on the second day, when we would go much further north, I told her, but definitely not here.
The words were no sooner out of my mouth than I had to do an emergency stop for three elephants!
After that, my position as resident expert was seriously questioned and David took to paging through reference books rather than asking my opinion.
We spent the first night, as Deidre and I had done, at Lower Sabie, where the woodland kingfishers still trilled to the setting sun, until the crickets took over the evening symphony.
Satara was closed for modernisation, which was to change its character forever, so we took the long northward trek to Olifants. Animals were few -except the ubiquitous impala – and cars were many. If there wasn’t a parked car at a given spot, then there was unlikely to be an animal in sight. But somebody had to spot the animal first; some car had to be the first to park. And once, just once, we were the lucky ones.
The African wild dogs were so well camouflaged that it was a wonder that we saw them at all.
The pups were hidden among some burnt twigs which were a perfect match for their black and tan markings. There were four litters, all sleeping in separate piles, while two adults kept watch, their pointed noses sniffing the air and their rounded ears pricked for the slightest sound of danger or the returning pack.
Knowing that wild dogs always eat at the site of their kill, I was wondering what happened about those left on guard at the nursery.
What arrangements did the pack make for their sustenance? Or did they take it in turns to go hungry while defending the pups?
We had to move on in order to get through the gate of Olifants Camp before it closed, so it was another five years before I found out the answer to the question.
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