Due to a power outage on April 20th, this post wasn’t uploaded until the morning of April 21st. However, a new post describing an upcoming adventure in Africa will be posted later today, April 21, 2018. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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| The road to Malelane on the well-traveled N4 Highway. |
“Sighting of the Day in the Bush”
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| This baby warthog was nursing between her mom’s back legs. |
Yesterday morning, before completing and uploading the post, we decided to drive to Malelane. Our permanent Kruger “Wild Card” (a year-long pass) had arrived at the post office, and time was running out to collect it.
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| Talk about “rocky mountains!” |
Why the pass wasn’t sent to us baffles us since mail usually comes to the post office in the Marlothi Shopping Center. But, as everyone always says, “This is Africa,” and things aren’t always done as we’d expect in other parts of the world.
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| Giant rocks atop mountains and hills on the way to Malelane. |
We quickly found the post office in the small town and headed to the Obaro farm store to buy pellets at hopefully a better price than the recent one. We’d heard we could get a “senior discount” at that location.
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| The drive took about 40 minutes from Marloth Park. Many police cars were parked on the sides of the road, looking for offenders. Tom stayed under the speed limit in hopes we wouldn’t get stopped. |
As it turned out, the senior discount in Malelane was ZAR 5 (US $.42) per bag, and the bags were priced at ZAR 204 (US $17.03) as compared to ZAR 215 (US $17.95). In all, with the meager discount, we saved a total of ZAR 16.05 (US $1.34) on each of the four bags.
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| As darkness falls, Tom’s favorite, Ms. Bushbuck makes an appearance. |
Had we not needed to go to the post office, buying pellets in Malelane isn’t something we’ll do in the future. The 90 minutes round trip drive plus the petrol we used doesn’t make it worth a memorable trip.
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| Then we spotted three hippos near the Crocodile River. |
After Obaro, we drove to the biggest mall we’ve seen since we arrived to shop for a few items at the Malelane (also spelled Malalane) SuperSpar, which is much larger than the Spar in Komatipoort.
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| Big Daddy stopped by last night, moments before dark. |
We couldn’t find several items on our list and decided we’d continue to shop in Komatipoort, which seems to carry most of the things we use. I’ve been trying to find herbal cinnamon tea with no luck anywhere which I like to drink hot or as iced tea.
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| Two hippos and a cattle egret at the river’s edge, as seen from the fence between Marloth and Kruger Park. |
When we returned home, I ordered 12 boxes of my favorite Good Earth Sweet and Spicy herbal tea (no caffeine, no sugar), which will arrive with our upcoming shipment in several weeks. (We haven’t had it shipped to us yet since we’re awaiting the arrival of a few items to our mailing service in Nevada).
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| Last night, after dark, we had a steady stream of visitors; warthogs, kudus, bushbucks, bushbabies, and duikers came to call. It was much busier than most evenings. |
In any case, the trip to Malelane was enjoyable, visiting another small town in South Africa. The fact that only a little over 8% of the country’s population is white is evident in this small town in Komatipoort. At no point did we feel like “outsiders,” nor have we anywhere we’ve been in South Africa thus far.
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| We call him “Little Daddy.” He’s about 30% smaller than Big Daddy. There are two types of kudus in Marloth Park, the Greater Kudu and the Lesser Kudu, smaller with smaller antlers. This appears to be a Lesser Kudu. Please correct me if I’m wrong. |
Of course, Marloth Park is not a realistic representation of demographics or lifestyle in this or any country. It’s a world of its own, far removed from the reality of life in most parts of the world.
Every day we remain in awe and grateful for this experience and more experiences we’ll glean in our remaining time on the continent, another ten months, including several side trips.
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| As shown on the veranda floor, our bright lamp doesn’t seem to keep the wildlife away. |
The first of those trips is upcoming on May 11th to Zambia, another forthcoming in February, details of which we’ll be sharing in tomorrow’s post. Please check back for photos and exciting information.
May your weekend be filled with peacefulness, pleasure, and purpose.
Photo from one year ago today, April 20, 2017:
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| Christine and Colin, the fabulous friends we met on a cruise, met up with us in Manly, Australia, for lunch. For more details, please click here. |