Balule - Kruger National Park Cont

Balule was proving to be the best camp so far in Kruger. It only holds about 20 tents which is small by Kruger standards and there are few spots where you can get a caravan in so add in the had hot showers, kitchen etc and this is as good as it gets camping wise in Kruger.

Most nights we had Hyena a few feet away while we ate, they have learnt to patrol the fence at night in the hope someone will throw them a tit bit. There are plenty of signs at each camp warning against feeding the animals as it usually leads to them  losing their fear of man and then they have to be destroyed but there are always some selfish, stupid people who ignore the warnings just to get a better photo.

Usually the Hyena came around either singly or in pairs but one night Sue was cooking smoked Haddock and when we shone the spotlight on a pair of eyes we were surprised to see four other Hyena's lying quietly in the grass just a few feet away, the smell of smoked fish must have been new to them as they are probably used to the smell of BBQ meats.

The next morning we planned to go out early to Oliphants in order to extend our stay at Balule and then do a game drive. The causeway had now re-opened so it shouldn't take us long, with coffee made and everything packed for a day out we jumped in Rupert and turned the ignition key, only to be rewarded with a dull click, both batteries were as dead as a Dodo! 

Now Rupert's split charge system is controlled by a switch situated under Sue's seat. The switch can be set to charge either battery 1 (the driving battery), battery 2 (the auxiliary deep cycle battery which runs the fridges etc) or both batteries in parallel.

Up to now we always left the switch set to charge both batteries and had both fridges on 24/7 and apart from one instance in Joburg when both batteries went flat we had never had any problems. The Joburg incident we put down to us hardly using the Landy for a week but still had both fridges on,  so we were surprised that  both were now completely flat now as we had driven a lot of miles the day before and they should have been pretty well charged. 

The previous night we had had the work lights on for long periods and had been using the laptop on the inverter till late however we were still under the impression that we could only drain battery 2 if we overused the appliances not both batteries, clearly this was not the case. 

In Joburg we had been unsuccessful in trying to jump start Rupert off an ordinary car and a pick up truck. The car was not unexpected as its battery was small and looked knackered anyway but we expected the pick up to do the trick. It was three hours later before a Landcruiser turned up with a heavy duty battery which eventually got it started but even that took quite a few turns of the starter motor.

Now the thing about the Kruger is it attracts many South Africans because its possible to travel around most of the park in 2wd, so a lot of visitors turn up in ordinary saloon cars. Therefore we knew from Joburg that they were probably not going to be able to start us, we needed someone with a heavy duty 4WD battery who were up and about at 5.45am and willing to help!

By sheer luck as it happened the only other souls up and about were a South African couple whom we had nodded to the day before. They had a Landcruiser which was just the ticket, the problem was it was going to be very embarrassing having to ask a Toyota owner for help with a Landy as virtually every South African especially the Afrikaans continually take the piss out of Landy owners, however on this day we had no option but to go over and ask for help.

Thankfully they tried hard not to look too smug as they drove alongside and we connected up the jump leads. When they heard we usually kept our fridges on throughout the night they thought we were mad but I'd rather risk the odd flat battery than have warm beer and sour milk. Thankfully this time Rupert jump started first time so happy days we could now head off albeit later than planned! 

Again it must have been fate because 15 minutes after leaving camp we came across three new Lionesses on the narrow track leading to Oliphants. The track here is on the side of a steep hill which goes down to the Oliphants river and there is not much ground between the two. We could see the Lions were very anxious over something and were looking to cross the road but were being put off by the vehicles in front, we held back to allow a space and they took advantage and quickly passed us into the bush towards the river. We tried going up and down the track to see if we could spot them but they were moving fast and had disappeared.

Oliphants is probably the highest camp in the park and is set on a hilltop with stunning views down to the river far below. It is somewhat up market with just Rondavels and chalet rooms - no camping riff-raff catered for here!

  next