After a buffet breakfast, we checked out (Satara doesn’t use keys), filled up with gas, headed toward Skukuza. We planned to take as many dirt roads as possible. About 3K from the gate we saw a large elephant on the right side of the road. I thought he was wanting to cross the road, so I backed up. He came closer to the road and we sat there. He looked at us, and started walking toward us, flapping his ears. He backed us up about a half mile. A Mercedes has stopped behind, and wouldn’t back up, so I backed around it and the elephant kept coming. Eventually he crossed into the bush and kept watching us. After a while he walked away and we went on.

Our route back to Skukuza took us west on the paved H7 road (where the elephant backed us up) about 18 kilometers to a left turn on the gravel S36.  This would give us the maximum gravel road, fewest other people and maximum wildlife (we hoped).  We stopped and got out at Muzandzeni where there was a little picnic area.  They were pumping the water tank full with a gasoline powered pump.  The same people we had seen at breakfast in Satara were there with their bush-braai going.   We bought cokes here and sat a a table looking over the field.  Using my fieldglasses we could see a small herd of zebra.

Further south we passed the lake at Shimangwaneni where there was a big dam, and also at Mandzweni.  We weren't seeing a lot of wildlife, but we did see a small group of wild boars and another python crossing the road.  We went on to Nhlanguleni, which we did not try to pronounce.  Someplace on those roads we saw the neatest little critter, it might have been the flap-neck chameleon.  He was halfway across the road and he froze when we approached.  Watching him through my field glasses, it appeared he was crouched in the starting blocks, but frozen.  To my surprise, he started vibrating, back and forth, microscopically.  The movements got slowly bigger and faster, until he finally lurched forward with enough momentum to take a step, and he kept going, but very slow.  Like he thought we might not notice.  Pretty neat.

We did our laundry before dinner, and had a nice chat with a resident of the park and her two children. They told us about elephants breaking down the fence behind their home, and letting the lions into their yard, so that sometimes they can’t leave their house until the cats go away.

We walked around the camp, visited the museum, and walked along the river. Having drank a lot this week, we passed up the nightcap. But as soon as we retired, I heard what I thought were large animals growling. Tom came over and said it was lions mating across the river. It was so loud I thought they were inside the camp.