An adventure...sort of

Michael - Thursday 

Those of you who follow this blog know that probably my favorite place in the world is the Olifants River Game Reserve - a private game reserve that is part of the iconic Kruger National Park. I go there whenever I can, and the one downside of now living in Knysna is that it takes at least two days to get there now instead of the single day's travel from Johannesburg. We spent four weeks there in June and saw a variety of wonderful things. Here's a whistle-stop tour.

Thirsty fellow at Nkonkoni dam

This lookout was built for primates. The other primates!

A klipspringer balanced on a rock
is as Bushveld as it gets.

Leader of the resident pride.
Old, yes, but full!

A group of Kubu relaxing in front of the bungalow.
No pressing cases to solve today.

How many giraffe?
Hint: Count the heads

A spectacular kudu bull

Red-billed hornbills also like the waterholes

After Olifants we came home via another favorite - the Karoo National Park. The Karoo is a semi-arid area, and the wildlife and ecology is quite different. Even better, I'd managed to book a house all by itself in the middle of nowhere - the Afsaal cottage, which had originally been a sheep herders cottage. It had been renovated delightfully and was completely self-contained. I felt very lucky that it was available.

But I missed a few not entirely trivial points.

Springbok in the Karoo

Mountain zebra

First of all, it is midwinter here and the temperatures drop below freezing in the Karoo at night. (Not very impressive by north American standards, but then you have heating in north America.) I wasn't too concerned. The cottage had a lovely big fireplace, gas for heating water, and solar electricity.

Looks lovely, doesn't it? We were very excited to be staying there. 

However, there was a problem. I'd booked the wrong cottage...

This is the Afsaal cottage. One room. No fireplace. An outside toilet a short distance behind the house. Okay, but at freezing temperatures in the middle of the night? An outside shower... There was some disappointment, but I pointed out that it would be an adventure.

On the way there we had a rare sighting of bat-eared foxes hunting. They are usually too nocturnal to be seen during the day, so our luck seemed to be running.

We had a most enjoyable sundown glass of wine from the observation deck overlooking a small waterhole a short distance away. The walls turned out to be eighteen inches thick, and so the temperature inside was comfortable. Things were looking up.

Later, a delicious braai around an outdoor fire. All was well.

Then I went to wash up. 

That was the point when the water stopped running. 

Permanently.