Of the larger camps in the park I would say that Shingwedzi (S23 06.580 E31 25.928) is probably our favorite. The campsite is large and fairly open but there are plenty of trees and the pool although dated is large and welcoming. We found a nice spot in amongst some Mopani trees which would offer shade and hopefully some protection from any heavy dew. As it turned out that first night, dew was the least of our worries!
Sue woke me not long after midnight as it seemed that a thunderstorm was approaching and we needed to close the end flap of the tent to keep the rain off. Well that we did and thank God we had. Soon after, the mother of all storms hit! We had to close every flap down, and listen to the gates of hell open outside. It hurled it down. The gusts of wind were scary. But we had faith in the tent, well we hoped we did! For nearly an hour the storm lashed away, and it rained another hour after that until the night was still again. All the while we had to keep pushing the tent up over the ladder to drain the swimming pool that kept creating itself there. At one point in the worst of it I had to hang down on the ladder to rescue our towels that we had hung out to dry. By torch light we could only see water all around us, but at least we were above it, not those in ground tents!
For some reason come morning we felt a bit sleepy! With the ground being quite sandy most of the rain had drained off. We found out later that over 90mm had dropped on the area in that hour or two. A few trees in the rest camp did not survive the wrath of the storm but thankfully none around us.
The remainer of our stay was very quiet in comparison. Lions were to be heard each evening but not seen by day. The cute Pearl Spotted Owls also paid a visit but no Giant Eagle Owls were heard or seen. All we did know was that our looming stay up at Punda Maria from Friday to Tuesday would be another experience altogether!
No comments:
Post a Comment