Satara Rest Camp October 18 - 20

We left Oliphants and headed South for Satara.  We took a gravel road, bumpy again and saw crocodiles, steenbok, impala, and various birds along the way.  Highlight was seeing a momma warthog with 4 little babies.  We stopped at Timvabati rest area and cooked a full South African breakfast:  sausage, shoulder bacon, potatoes, eggs.  What a feast.  Talked to some locals who said that we were really blending in.  Got to Satara around checkin time of 2PM.  We are on the perimeter which means the only thing between us and the animals is a big fence. After checking in we unpacked and took a walk around the camp.  They have a nice pool, camping area, restaurant, store, gas station, amphitheater.  

On Saturday, Oct. 19, we set out early again in search of lions.  This is suppose to be big cat country.  But the day was misty rainy and cool.  Not too many animals out.  We saw zebras, giunnea fowls, giraffes, more warthogs, wildebeest, Cape buffalo, water bucks, Southern yellow billed hornbills, and the ever present impalas.  It was very cool today.  The weather here can be very warm and then turn cold over night.  We came back in for lunch and went out for an afternoon drive.  When we got back I realized that I had not locked the cabin that held our food.  We have a lot of Vervet monkeys in camp so they got into the cabinet and ate our bananas and spilled our pasta all over our patio.  I learned my lesson!

Today is Sunday and we had a good morning.  We saw three lion cubs early and waited for over an hour for the mother to come back but finally we had to move on.  Then about an hour later we had a female lion cross right in front of us.  We also saw hippos, giraffes, Cape buffalo, wildebeest, fish eagle, elephants, baboons, ostriches, and many interesting birds.  One of the elephants had a collapsed ear.

This afternoon we went out again to a water hole.  We watched impalas, rhinos, saddle billed storks, and more birds.  On the way to and from the water hole we saw a large herd of elephants, ostriches, wildebeest, baboons, and cape buffalo. Tomorrow we are driving to Skuskua Rest Camp where we hope to post all these blogs and use the Internet.