Oliphants and Satara campgrounds 11 November

I finally switched my internal clock to South Africa time this morning although the camp had no electricity. Thank goodness for our staple food of peanut butter and bread.  It was already hot, so started the slow trip to our next stop, Satara Campground.  On our drive, we saw a large, often photographed Baobob tree, also know as the “upside down” tree with its rootlike branches.  We had already planned to meet Phil and Mary for lunch at Oliphants Campground, where they were staying for a few days.  It was beautiful, right on the Oliphants River with great views from the restaurant.

It was not the hottest part of the day, but with less humidity than in Alabama, so we were surprised to see a troupe of about fifteen elephants cross the road.  Some babies and teenagers were among the group.  We also saw our first wildebeests, more zebras, giraffes and many more impalas (total in park about 130,000!).

We stopped for a break where a few other cars were parked and a man nearby noted that my rear tire was low.  After a lot of his sweat and hammering to get the wheel off, others from our group came up and the wheel was finally removed and replaced with the spare.  I send a special thank you to that young man and his wife who were touring from Pretoria.

Satara Campground was similar to Letaba, just a bit smaller with fewer amenities – but, yes it had air conditioning! The sun was still up, but a bit cooler so we took a short drive to look for more animals.  New ones now were water bucks and baboons.  We were warned to not open our windows around the baboons as they could climb into our cars.  Apparently they often get fed from unknowing tourists.