Where are all the animals?…Holiday time in Marloth Park changes everything…What’s the difference between a tourist and a traveler?…

A calf is born weighing 100 to 150 pounds and measuring in at 6 feet tall. A calf will begin to forage at about four months old.

“Sighting of the Day in the Bush”

A dove was standing on the edge of our birdfeeder.

It’s a quiet day in the bush. As of this moment, at 10:00 am, we’ve had no visitors except the bothersome Vervet monkeys who attempt to knock down our birdfeeder to eat the seeds and a few birds.

Ostriches in the bush.

Although appearing cute and inquisitive, these smaller-than-baboons monkeys can wreak havoc in a house or garden, as we’ve mentioned in prior posts. It’s been an issue only over the past few weeks, and we’re wondering why they’re hanging around our garden now instead of a month earlier.

We’ve discovered a few areas in the park where we’ll often find flocks of ostriches.

We’re patiently waiting for visitors to stop by, but our expectations are in check when there are so many tourists in the park right now, continuing through August.

We can’t wait until it makes sense to go back to Kruger sometime shortly. We’ve seen photos of cars, bumper to bumper on the tar road in Kruger, including some of our own similar experiences lately, and we prefer not to deal with the traffic.

These parents have one chick as opposed to the seven we spotted a few days ago seen here.

A car drives down our street every few minutes when weeks ago, an hour could pass before a car would. It’s an entirely different world right now, and we’ll be glad when it’s over for a while. 

We’re amazed by how often we see elephants from Marloth Park, actually more than we usually see while in Kruger National Park. Tourists driving through Kruger cannot see this area of the Crocodile River and are not allowed out of their vehicles.

Last night, while cozy and comfortable on the veranda with the gas heater on, we could hear loud voices, loud music, and yelling. The noises were so loud we couldn’t hear when visitors walked through the bush as they approached the garden. 

There’s nothing quite as exciting as close encounters with giraffes.

Even with Tom’s less-than-ideal hearing after years of working on the railroad, he could hear the loud sounds in every direction. The “school holiday” ends on July 17th, but more tourists will arrive during their summer holidays throughout the northern hemisphere. Hopefully, by mid-August, all of this will taper off.

No other wildlife eats the leaves at the treetops than the giraffes making their food sources more readily available during the dry winter months.

Yes, some may say, ‘Who are you to complain about tourists?  Aren’t you tourists as well?”

The difference between us is clear. We are travelers, not tourists

The definition of a tourist is:

A person who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure. Example: “the pyramids have drawn tourists to Egypt” 

The definition of a traveler is:

A gypsy or other nomadic person. A person who holds New Age values and leads an itinerant and unconventional lifestyle.

synonyms:

gypsy, Romany, tzigane, didicoi, nomad, migrant, wanderer, wayfarer, itinerant, drifter, tramp, vagrant, transient, vagabond,