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Before going to the main camp we went to check out Domkrag and did the Gorah loop towards Carol’s Rest. Just before that Ronnie showed me my first and only meerkat for the trip. Alas, the critter was a bit far away and the pic turned out to be one big blur. Even closer to Carol’s Rest we found a battie, but it didn’t look all too healthy anymore the way it was lying there next to the road.

The elands however did look rather alive:

And kudus that were jumpy as usual:

On our way back towards the camp, I finally got a jackal quite close, but I manage to mess up the photo:



Can you imagine staying in Addo for 5 nights and not to come out with at least one decent jackal shot? Well, I managed…

At the camp Ronnie and SO waited in the car park at reception while I scampered off to check in. The counter was taken by two other guests. Just before the visitor on the right was almost finished, I heard the receptionist say that she would stay in unit one. Oh - my - word!!!, my head shouted in excitement, this must be Mel standing there doing the check in. And as she turned around after she had got her keys, I approached her and said: 'Wait, don’t go anywhere just yet.' What a stupid thing to say as an introductory line… And then hell broke loose in reception. Words cannot describe the feelings that overwhelmed us at that moment. Mel and I had become very close friends on this forum. Our respective trips had been carefully planned around this meeting – and there we were, finally meeting each other in flesh, live and in colour. It was a very special moment. Even the people around us were infected by our enthusiasm, joy, elation, you name it.

After coming back down to earth again, well, at least behaving close to civilized again , we went outside to meet Mel’s dad and Ronnie respectively. We all clicked instantly and celebrated the fact with a first cold one right there and then in the parking lot.

At some point we got around to dump our stuff at our rondavels. Mel and Dad and SO and I would be neighbours for the next three days.


We all started to plan the afternoon. It was quickly decided that we would return to find the lions for Mel and her dad, as they hadn’t been exactly blessed with the big cats in Kruger, or so they claimed... Having seen only the very frist few days of her TR, I'm not so sure if they told the truth back then. With SO wearing his lucky shirt nothing could go wrong we thought...

But before we left a Karoo Scrub-Robin allowed me another tick:

Well, it didn’t go wrong and we experienced a beaming Mel and Dad! Having seen lions before we let our friends have the pole position to get a better look and were happy to watch from the backrow.

What I hadn’t realized back then was, that they were different lions to those we had seen before. Well, actually they were the same as in the morning, but not the same as the previous day. At least the guys were different ones. The lady was Josie who we had seen when we had spotted the lions the second time on our first full day. The boys however weren’t Gina’s youngsters. They were Norman and Zwaai. Although, to this day it still passes up on me who is who. Am in contact with Megan to try to find out.

One of them came walking towards the road and was roaring a welcome tune:

He had Josie in tow as well:

Greets, mate!


Norman or Zwaai was definitely in a mood for posing

And a different perspective!




Great shot, Ronnie!!!

As I had a lot of lens to cover a very short distance I started to build my own lion puzzle.







With that we had seen 7 out of the 9 Addo lions!!!

Despite some pushy enquiry whether Ronnie wanted to stay for dinner with us that night, he decided that he was going home. Fair enough, as he was meant to be back the next day to meet up with us again and guide us around through Addo once more. We said our goodbyes for the day and got back on our way home at then past five, thinking that we would be able to make it to the main camp just about in time. But as we were approaching the public road that leads through Addo, I got doubts and we decided to leave the park on the Addo side, to re-enter at the main gate which is possible even after gate closing time regarding the game area. Thanks for that incredibly helpful tip, Ronnie! I’m sure you saved us some embarrassment and a fine.

Arriving back at the camp a slight drizzle had taken over. Spots and Dad reckoned it would still be okay to do a braai, but after sitting at least for an hour, chatting, laughing and just enjoying the fact that people from two continents were together on a third continent, it became obvious that no fire would last in the rain. So, Mel and I saw to the kitchen. But with all the talk we had to to, the work didn’t go exactly smoothly and we were in for a very late dinner. (No, Mel, don't even think about mentioning the cooker incidence! )

It got late that night… It must have been somewhere close to midnight – or a case of beer - when we finally decided that bed would be the thing to do as we were going to meet up with Ronnie again early next morning and another forumite – koedoe!

Addo
28/03/2012

Koedoe had offered to bring a safari vehicle in order for us all to be on one car. For some reason it wasn’t meant to happen, but at the end of the day we all were not too sad about it as it was raining cats and dogs in the morning of the 28th.

Sightings were few and far between accordingly, but we still enjoyed ourselves tremendously with Spots and melphs dad getting their private guiding from Ronnie and the two Mels sharing the car with koedoe.

Koedoe, it was great having you around that day. Another very special meeting to me after all the fun and serious things we both had shared on the forums for quite a while! I’ll never forget your happy face when we got to that special sighting!

Sooo, off the six of us went. We did see the one or the other critter, but as the light was hideous in the rain I never bothered to get my camera wet by holding it out of the car. At Zurkoop lookout point we go out of the car and watched the stuff around us. Among others – by now know birds as the speckled mousebird, helmeted guineafowls, the fiscal shrikes and / or flycatchers – we saw a female greater double-coloured sunbird which sat long enough to allow a halfway acceptable shot.


(Tick!)

Later we found a jackal buzzard quite close to the road:

One of the most memorable sightings was a roadblock on the Gorah loop. At least I think, it was Gorah. With Ronnie driving the other car and leading our little convoy of two cars, I didn’t really pay attention to where we going as that car in front of us – being Mel’s and Dad’s light blue Terios as in difference to our bright red Terios – had stopped displaying the brake lights and I definitely didn’t feel like bumping into them in case of a sudden halt. And sudden halt it was! A huge boy was standing in the middle of the road… Snoozing… Kind of. Every now and then he would move and all around us ellies, ellies and some more ellies. It was definitely a case of lens overkill so close were they.

As with the lions yesterday, I started an ellie puzzle this time around:

As we were caught in the middle there was no chance of maneuvering the car in a way that all of us could take photos, so I just held my camera out and shot away until I had what I wanted: