Our annual trip to the game reserve in Sabi Sands took us through the beautiful mountainous country between Eshowe, Piet Retief and Barberton.
It was the first time we had been on the particular stretch of road and it was a treat.
The land is wide and green, the mountains range from friendly, rounded tops to cloud-shrouded, forbidding crags.
It is so important to get away, isn’t it?
Away from the noise of politics and the endless prattle about Covid.
Our ears needed a break.
Though we did follow closely on the car radio the unfolding saga of Digital Vibes.
At the root of this scandal is former Stanger journalist Tahera Mather, who is accused of being behind a highly suspect R150 million contract with health minister Zweli Mkhize.
She used to boast about her close relationship with Mkhize when he was premier of KZN.
I long suspected it would come to no good.
But I trust justice will be served if corruption is proven.
Back to getting away from it all.
Within hours of arriving at the bush camp, we were treated to a female leopard dragging a full-grown impala up a tree to save her kill from hyenas.
Her name was Ntsele, which may be known to regular viewers of the Wild Earth TV channel, as the Djuma reserve is where they operate from.
What I most enjoy about the bush is observing the ever-changing landscape.
What at first sight is an endless and boring jumble of bush and grass, on closer examination becomes a fascinating variety of individual trees and bushes, each with its own name and ‘behaviour’.
With the aid of books, apps and a good guide, identifying bush and birds becomes a fascinating study of a huge number of varieties of both.
Our guide, Lex Hes, is a 50-year veteran of the bush and has an endless well of stories and facts to keep us interested for 8 hours a day of our annual 6-day visits to Djuma.
When we encountered a pack of 14 wild dogs, he explained how the junior dogs would bow down to their elders, asking them to regurgitate meat from a kill, should they have any.
African Wild Dogs are very social creatures, relying on their group effort and very fast running to bring down quite large prey.
We’ve all heard lions roaring before, even if only the MGM version, but we came across a pride of 12 lions one evening.
They were roaring communally, the females all roaring together in harmony with the big male. The ground literally shook!
We saw lots during our stay – all the Big 5 and plenty more – but one fascinating moment was when, driving back to camp as the sun set, we disturbed a Dikkop (a long-legged bird about the size of a small dove) in the road.
It flew up high, as they do, and in that moment a Giant Eagle Owl swooped silently out of the sky and sank its talons into the hapless bird.
It was dead in an instant.
The owl took its supper into a nearby tree for a satisfying feast.
We felt awful at having driven the Dikkop to its death, but that’s the bush for you.
No place for sissies.
The areas of Mpumalanga alongside the Sabie Sands are Bushbuckridge and Hazyview, areas that feature frequently on the news for service delivery protests.
There are some curious place names for little villages in that part of the world – Croquet Lawn A, Croquet Lawn B, Xanthia, Agincort and Marijane – but the one that caught our imagination is Thulamahashe. That literally means ‘Keep quiet, my horse!’.
Why? Was it a place where smugglers operated – either dagga smugglers or perhaps horse smugglers? Or perhaps a praise name of a dead leader.
Avoca, I discovered, a place name up there and in Durban, is from the Irish meaning ‘place where waters meet’ or ‘sweet waters’. The Zulus would have named it Amanzimtoti.
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Some annoying cold caller was trying to sell me a luxury coffin. I could only say, “My friend, that is the last thing I’ll need.”
