We were excited to be going to Tsendze as we had tried to book several times over the last few years. For those who don’t know, Tsendze is a little known gem in the Kruger – a rustic camp, no electricity, no shops, no pool, no passing traffic etc. But, it is awesome, the campsites are unlike the main camps in the Kruger Park in that they are surrounded by Mopane and Apple leaf Trees and in the case of our site (site 3), extremely private. For once, in the Kruger, you feel like the only people there. They do have solar run ablutions with indoor and outdoor showers, a gas fridge for you to use etc and the cleanest braais on the planet – Elina (the camp supervisor) scrubs them to new every day. She also makes you feel so welcome by visiting every morning and evening for a chat and to see how your day was. You are also only 7kms from Mopani Camp should you need creature comforts such as a bar, restaurant, shop and most importantly a pool. Rumour has it that they also have a washing machine, so tomorrow we will take a look see. Although the camp is fenced, the animals come right past. Lions, Ellies, Waterbuck etc.
In December you have the added delight of being surrounded by Mopani Worms but more about this in a separate blog. What we are also surrounded by are Owls – Scops, Pearl Spotted, African Barred, Verreaux’s, Wood Owls – all fantastic to hear even if you have sleepless nights again. We were also so lucky to have a Scops taking a nap in a tree next to our ablutions. We took hundreds of photo’s and thought you might like to see.
Morning Nap
Afternoon Wake-up
We were also expecting Mopani to be the order of the day but whilst this is the predominant species of tree, there are areas of grassland, combretum, apple leaf, acacia etc that all give a biodiversity that we didn’t expect. So, the bird life and animal life is varied and definitely enough to keep you busy for a week or two.
Today was an exciting day, not only did we take a drive to Satara, coming across 3 of the big 5 on the way, we encountered a den of hyena not too far from Letaba. The adults were keeping a beady eye on us which made us assume that the pups were in the den. Sadly, we didn’t see the little ones.
We also had further excitement as we met Davie Jenkins and his family at Satara for brunch. Davie and I worked together for 15 years – but it was so much nicer to see him in the Kruger Park than at Investec. His wife Debbie has just passed her FGASA exams, so much of the conversation was trying to persuade David that it was time to pack up and go on a trip. Maybe Debbie will get lucky and coax him into taking a sabbatical and they will join us for a leg of our tour.
We are now back in Tsendze, writing the blogs, waiting on a thunderstorm to pass so that we can roast a leg of pork for dinner. We are quite sad to realise this is our second last night here but will definitely be back, hopefully soon.
Trollips Travels 