Sabi Sabi - Selati Camp

Every holiday must come to an end, and this is our last stop for our African Safari.

But our travel agent, Belinda from Travel Insights, has kept the best till last.

Selati camp is a luxury private camp within the Sabi Sabi Reserve bordering on the Kreuger National Park.  There are no fences between Sabi Sabi Reserve and Kreuger, but the big difference is the number of tourists that roam the space - its a lot less traffic here.

Here's a pic of Ruth taking lunch overlooking the camp's waterhole to give you a sense of what I'm talking about:



You can see some elephants at the waterhole - there was a reasonably constant stream of animals of various makes, visiting us.

For instance, here's a herd of zebra visiting for a quick drink.



The program here was similar to that at Kanga Camp (Mana Pools) that I described in my first blog posts - wake up at 5:30am for a 6am start.  Here's a pic from the truck at sunrise.



Rather cool each morning, but we start with high anticipations.  The temperature might be about 10C, no problems in my long underwear!

We were here for 3 nights, but rather than describe each trip out (minimum two safaris each day), I think you'll be most interested to simply get a snapshot (excuse the pun) of our three days here by seeing the pics of the animals we saw.

But before I flood you with superb picture after superb picture, I need to tell you that we spent many hours riding along in the safari vehicles looking for the animals.  On a number of occasions I had given up thinking we weren't going to see what we were looking for.

And "looking for" consisted of Sydney, our tracker, and Kevin, our ranger/guide, working their butts off looking at animal tracks, using their experience to try to find the make and model of animal on our agenda.

I'll start by showing you "the big five" - the animals that are iconic for Africa:

1: Lion



2: Leopard



3. Rhinoceros



4: Elephant



5: Cape Buffalo



So tick that box!

But here at Selati camp, we saw so much more - and it was breathtaking how close you get to the wild animals.

Giraffe



Kudu



Hyena



Ostrich



Wilderbeest



Yellow billed hornbill (Zazu)



Serval - These kittens are very rare.  Our guide Kevin just about wet his pants at seeing this animal - it was a first for him.



Very cute I suppose.

Marsh Owl - Another first sighting for Kevin.



Blue tailed skink - This one came to join us as we enjoyed an outdoor shower experience.



Heron



Guinea fowl



Secretarybird



Impala feeding its young'un



Warthog



Zebra



Monkey - this guy watched for an opportunity to clean up when we weren't looking:



Chameleon



What about this scary spider - you just wouldn't believe how our tracker spotted this as we were driving along.  Wait till you see the video in live time.



And can you imagine driving along a road and Sydney stops Kevin, gets him to back up, and highlights this scorpion that was maybe a couple of inches from nipper to nipper.  Nothing short of amazing.



Nyala



Mongooses



Here's a beautiful scene at a waterhole with Impala, Zebra, and Wilderbeest:



Here's my attempt at some reflective photography.



And with a tree:



Here's a leopard stalking zebras:



Here's a lion lying back and kicking her legs out just for fun. 



I think she wanted me to rub her tummy, but I declined when she showed me her teeth:



And what about this leopard - he dragged up his kill (poor fat warthog) up a tree because a bunch of hyena were wanting to steal it from him.  So here he is eating his catch up on a branch:



And what about some cute hyena too.  After watching The Lion King, I didn't think I could say "oh how cute" while referring to hyenas.



Here's a herd of Cape Buffalo watering themselves.



But not every animal is healthy.  Here's a Cape Buffalo with terberculosis



Here's a buffalo who lost one of his horns:



An elephant with a wonky tusk:



Enough already hey?

I think I'll call it quits now - we'll be boarding our flight to come home very soon.

Ruth has looked up the weather forecast - Cold and wet! 

But for all the crap weather, I do like the idea of coming home back to family and friends.

I just hope my golf game hasn't deteriorated too much without touching a golf stick for nearly 3 weeks.

I really should finish up by telling you the results of the challenge Ruth and I set for each other at the beginning - Would she turn me into an animal lover, or will I turn her off her love for animals after seeing their ruthlessness?

I'm afraid Ruth takes the chocolates on this one.

Not that I'm now an animal lover, but I have learned to respect a lot of aspects about the way animals in the wild live.  The thing that hits me is the connectedness of all the living creatures – there is a natural community spirit that is there for all to see when you watch them at close hand.

Of course there are predators and murders too, but that process assists the greater community good.

There are some obvious ways we humans break the connectedness that the animal kingdom relies upon; The obvious ones are 1) Taking up land restricting animals to smaller and smaller habitats; 2) Poaching and trophy killings; and 3) Maybe man-made climate changes upsetting the balance of the natural order.  But it feels like the animals can work through most of these difficulties.

I suppose my past thoughts about pets was not really that the pets/animals themselves were bad, but rather the pet owners were often mistreating them or not controlling them in our suburban community appropriately.  And out here in the African plains, I see the same thing; It's not the animals that are a problem, but the humans in the way they control the space.

So have I become an animal lover? No.  Do I respect the animals more? Yes.

I think that we humans have improved a lot over the last few years.  We are a lot more aware, and a lot of us have changed our cultural upbringing to cease killing and maiming animals for things like furs and ivory trophies.  Our guides indicate that in the past, tourists would come in with bullets to shoot to kill animals, and now they mostly come to shoot photographic equipment at them.

So anyway, I hope you liked my photos – I’m pleased to tell you that all my animal subjects live to perform for the next bunch of tourists to visit.

Watch out for the movie - hitting your screens some time in 2019 - now that will be a lot of work!

Cheers