15 May 2019
It was on this day that we saw and felt another side to the Kruger. Deep in the hills of the eastern Soutpansberg, we awoke in our riverbed campsite, had a coffee, packed our backpacks and headed south along the drainage lines winding our way through granite domes. It was still quite early when we came across an eland carcass in a cable snare. Trapped and left to rot, the hyenas had a free meal. A little further on, encircling one of the few springs bringing water to the surface, a litany of snares. And then a Poachers Den, wire strung between trees to hang meat to dry before carrying it out of the park.
We removed a few obvious snares, our anger at the situation motivating us to find more and get stuck in. But Mark took the professional approach of calling it in to the section ranger and moving on out of the area. There were no fresh sign of the poachers, but it was protocol for us to move out of the area.
We pushed quite long and hard until lunch where we found ourselves on the edge of a hillside overlooking the expansive Mopani flats below. The terrain was about to change from granite koppies to Mopani veld. We continued to find bones all day, and spent a while reconstructing a giraffe skeleton and studying buffalo and elephant skulls. Michelle’s fascination with bones came to the surface as each one brought about a mixture of delight and sorrow.
After lunch we descended the hillside coming across our first fresh leopard track. With each day we were sinking deeper into the experience. As we settle into another river bed campsite with a water drop, this new type of lifestyle was becoming more familiar and the daily activities of walking, resting, drinking and eating were simple and pleasurable.
