Or was it sooo… empty as we thought? Come with us along this deserted road and see what we found there.

 

Leaving Oliphants Camp:

Packing up early in the morning, we sadly left the lovely romantic cottage we had slept in the night before. Moving out of the Oliphants camp, we first drove northwards.  

And then turning somewhat back and then eastwards, we followed the dust road that would take us past the Oliphants River for a little way. See the inserted map of the area:

 

We stopped for a while:

Because, we couldn’t see much of the Oliphants River, the night before as twilight had descended over the river.  We now wanted to see what it really looked like in the brightness of the morning light. 

First the view of the river looking west, back up the river where it had passed our night-before cottage: 

And then looking east along the river, where the river turns away from us: 

All looked so calm and quiet, considering how noisy the hippos had been the night before. 

One lazy crocodile:

So I zoomed in with my camera and found this crocodile lying out on the river bank, sun tanning peacefully as he pleased! 

You wonder if these creatures ever caught anything with them lying around dosing and doing absolutely nothing at all! 

It didn’t look like he would move any time soon, so we moved on, continuing down the dust road as it turned northwards again. 

The dryness and emptiness:

This part of the Kruger Park seemed deserted of animals. And I have wondered why? 

Our daughter has told me that previous to us going to the Kruger Park, there had been some sort of epidemic that had wiped out most of the wildebeest. 

So that must have been the reason. Why we hadn’t see much, for most of that morning.  

And of cause there wasn’t much grazing grass for the herds of animals either. Maybe due to the fact spring hadn’t yet touched this dry side of the park. But even so, I thought it looked very beautiful in its autumn leaf colours. 

The feeling of been lost!

Because of the loss of animals, we began to feel desponded and somewhat lost, as the dusty road wound this way and that way. What seemed so endlessly to us without wild dangerous animals. 

No animals, so we decided, perhaps we should try looking out more keenly for birds… 

Aaah then suddenly we came across… 

This baobab tree:

First a photo from one side and then moving passed it, another photo of it: 

These trees always seem majestic in their weirdness, with their branches looking like roots! Driving on again, we came across an open river scene to our right… 

The Letaba River:

If you don’t see it at first!

Look again carefully. Do you see the hippos in the photo? 

See where the Letaba River is in the map:

Driving along:

We followed the Letaba River for some time, as you can see in the map above, before stopping for lunch at a lovely spot called Elephant Hall. 

But what we saw there, will be for our next travel blog...