Leg 1 Day 4)
The Rush rush day.
The morning started with a water top up to ensure we had all 5 litres on us as this was the last standing water we’d see for two more days. This meant uncapping the hole (which prevented Hyenas and Elephants from drinking and contaminating the water - and spooning out another 20l before dawn.
Our First sighting being a disturbing one, having come across an unusual drag mark some 500m 60cm wide and covering any tracks from our camp it was described as being a drag snare laid down for larger animals by poachers, who would return to the site a few days later and follow the obvious drag to where the animal would have died.
Odd though as the drag mark wasn’t particularly deep and lightly dragging a hiking pole made a deeper indent there were also no visible prints - a Buffalo would have made deep hoof prints that would be seen below the drag marks, there was no fur scratchings to indicate an animal dragged by a leopard and we didn’t follow it more than 12 m and couldn’t see it going much further as the bushes were too dense. - A head scratcher for us to ponder the remainder of the day.
Below; the shoes captured off poachers a week after our trip - to the trained eye and field guides it would be an odd one to see: Firstly those are domestic cattle hooves and the pattern would be regularly unusual, drawing more attention to the prints than not but thought to have a better chance of going unnoticed by the poaching community.
Following and criss-crossing the Matsingwe river we marched relentlessly towards distant hills…
…and moving past contrasting dry river beds
Rarely stopping for breaks and when we did only to allow the Elephants to move along or appreciate the small shade of magnificent Baobabs there was definitely an air of needing to speed things up today.
Moving into the lower Mopane thickets…
…there was an abundance of game, all keeping a very wary eye on us and startling off into the bushes once they’d recognised us as individuals rather than a moving mass.
Hilltops and valleys covered in hundreds of Baobabs flashed by us, birds squawked their disapproval and the ever present Go-away bird was in full force – warning absolutely everything with their Kwaayyyyy to “go away” as we continued in a South Easterly curve following the Intermittent stream that drains into the Shikuwa river.
The more massive and outstanding Baobabs providing waypoints for us to aim for- however unfortunately owning to the dense vegetation these were rarely visible thankful for GPS it was easy going.
We had a great sighting of a Buffalo “Dagga Boy” sleeping peacefully standing up as we circuited him some 30m off him remaining unaware of our presence and the oxpecker (tic birds) not giving us away, in all we spent some 10 minutes getting glimpses of him through the undergrowth without his knowledge.
Toilet arrangements:
You need a strong light spade appropriate, an amount of toilet paper (combustible) and a lighter All ablutions are taken towards where we’ve walked from as we have no idea whats ahead of us. the remainder of the group taking the opportunity to relax and ease the load off their feet
Guys, every tree is a lavatree (excuse the pun) Ladies find a bush behind us
With no standing water on route and the excitement of our unknown destination we reached a cache of 150 litres of water in 15L drums stashed for us replenishing the water 5L each and quenching our thirst, drinking as much as we could not, and taking a further 20 litres to the camp (and return the following day) we basked in the luxury of the potable water.
Its now been 5 days “bathing” in unheated water and Im getting used to it.
We found a nice stopping point at the foothills of the Granit Shantangalani poppies and took our packs off to enjoy the surroundings. Its amusing to see likeminded people intrigued by these kopjies and the desire to explore further.
Chris enrolled us into the ESSA Stootdrolitjies club (Ill be doing a write up at some stage about knowing your shit…) but as entry members its restricted to the dry baobab seed sized balls. (some people won’t know what the hell Im jabbering away about, and those that do, know Ive probably spelt it wrong.)
But then it became clear the rush was to get to a suitable camping spot (S22° 38’ 29.8" E31° 08’ 03.3") in the Shantangalani Koppies where we made our base, relaxed for an hour and then set out without packs to explore the explore the San Rock art paintings.
Unprotected and virtually unknown to a willing public, these are real hidden cultural gems in the Region. Elephant, Rhino & Giraffe are all depicted perhaps also some of people, but these are of a different variety to those seen further South and to the West.
The excitement to be standing in the same spot as the Artist stood some 5000+ years ago for me is a truly palpable moment
We took the opportunity to walk to the top of a Koppie…
and appreciated the setting sun…
…to enjoy the dying embers of the day sun before walking back to the tents in the dusk.
Whilst it was good to enjoy freedom and unrestricted access to this wilderness zone, one is reminded constantly reminded that we’ve got two large bore rifles that need to be maintained and ready at all times. Its been a long time since Ive had a rifle by my bed to stay by my side at all times, made me smile seeing these guys cycling the rounds in the mornings and pouring on the TLC in the evenings.
Today was the toughest day, owing to the speed we walked with minimal breaks and by 18:30 it showed. Everyone was in bed by 19:30, deeply satisfied after a really unique day
Distance:- 17.1km