As the birds started singing, we zipped open our tents and slowly woke up. We ate our camping breakfast of premixed Pronutro, milk powder and sugar and packed our daypacks full of snacks.
Today we headed straight for the Letaba River to walk its banks and see what animals came to drink. We sat on a rock and watched a bloat of hippos watching us back, laughing each time they broke into a cacophony of grunting, growling and harrumphing. We watched elephants, waterbuck and impala and enjoyed all the signs of life along the river bank.
Once the sun was high in the sky and the mercury well into the twenties, we stopped under a thorn tree overlooking a big dam. I didn’t know hippos were so curious – the little family who lived in the dam swam right across to come and watch what we were doing. The water was deep and Piet explained that the youngsters stand on their moms backs as they are not strong enough swimmers to tread water for a long time.
We took off our shoes, rested our heads on each other’s tummies and fell fast asleep, surrounded by a pure, deep silence, broken only by the occasional call of a bird or grunt from a hippo.
After our sublime siesta, we hiked through the russet red dry mopani bush, admiring all the footprints and hidden dens we saw. We went back to the lion kill and were really surprised to see that in just two days the huge buffalo had been reduced from a giant living and breathing beast to a set of horns on a partial skull with a few vertebra. Every morsel of meat, skin and bones had been consumed.
Today, time seemed to slow right down – we had spent the whole day at such a gentle pace and as the sun set slowly over the bushveld, we gathered around our campfire, still barefoot and without a care in the world. As our last night drew to a close, we were all serene and peaceful. We had found our place in nature, and gently enjoyed just being – here together in the wild in the middle of Africa.
After our bush breakfast of tea and rusks, it was time to try and fit all our gear back into our packs. In just three days, we had completely annexed the river bed and our things were everywhere. Rangers Piet and Amos popped all their equipment into their bags in less than 10 minutes and then sat and watched patiently while we tried to tame our belongings. Around an hour later, we were ready to leave. We buried our ashes, closed our waterhole and left with our hearts a little heavy – we were going to miss this primitive home.
As we walked silently through the bush, we relived our incredible adventure in our minds, quietly contemplating life and what roles we play in it.
Suddenly a mopani bush shook next to us and out stormed a lone male buffalo – a dagga boy, snorting in disgust at our procession. Piet yelled at us to run back into the bushes as he cocked his gun, aiming between the bull’s eyes. We could see the bull’s thought processes, as if in slow motion – should he charge or retreat? With just metres between us and him, he gave one last huff, turned tail and ran off into the bush. We collectively breathed a huge sigh of relief – as much as we enjoyed meeting the namesake of our trail, we would have hated to have been the death of him.
We hiked through the bush quietly in single file, following the river back to our collection point, where we sat together feeling enriched, refreshed and very lucky to have shared such an incredible adventure.
From adrenaline to serenity, from terror to delight – the Lonely Bull Trail engaged our every sense and emotion. In such a short space of time, we had experienced something so deeply profound and we left with our hearts and souls brimming with the spirit of Africa – savagely wild and beautifully free.
Yours in Travel
PS. Would we do it again? Absolutely! In fact we have just booked Kruger’s Mphongolo Trail for 2020! Feel free to ask us questions in the comments section below, or by private message – it really was a difficult family trip for us to plan, and hopefully we can help you with some of the info we couldn’t find before our adventure.
The Lonely Bull Trail departs every Sunday and Wednesday.
Minimum 4, maximum 8 guests.
The rate is R2,875 per person (valid until end February 2020)
Visit www.sanparks.org for more information
Did you miss the previous diary posts? Catch up here:
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