As I passed Lower Sabi I found a white Fiat with a yellow ribbon in the distance. This could only be one forumite – Heksie!
Now this meet up between old friends was a bit like a dramatic slo-motion scene … for our style in the Park is to creep along. There were still about 10 look left-look right routines before the cars would meet! Eventually, the two snails parked next to each other 
Fortunately, we speak with more haste than we drive, otherwise it would be like a gathering of Ents of Lord of the Rings! It did not take Heksie long to tell me of her 3 or 4 lion sightings she had just had over the last 20kms or so 
Of coarse this monologue of the prides of Croc Bridge had to be followed by me returning an equally cool story of sightings, so I went for the old faithful:
“up this way … bush”
It was a more or less typical exchange in our friendship as she headed North to see bush and put on Kruger's Latest Sightings Updates, and I headed towards what resembled Jan Smuts on my way to work! I managed to get a bum-shot of the cause of the hold up!
Soon after this, King Jan Smuts headed off into the bush with Sannie Smuts. This was my cue to snake through the paparazzi and say: So long and thanks for all the fish
I took the first dirt road to the left – Gomondwane
I surveyed the Great Garden which is Kruger, and was taken aback by the unrivalled splendour of the colours of the bush!! For the first time in my life, I reversed to take a photo of a flower!
A morning Glory … and how appropriate a name! This life-form which stood so pretty and purple was indeed a glorious sight! Notice how the droplets of the recent rain decorate the flower in natural beauty! In my lofty mindset the morning glory seemed to lift its grateful head up to the giver of life.
Perhaps I sound stoned or high, but I had a reflective moment on Gomondwane about the wonder of rain. Minutes ago, rain was that annoying element which interrupted good game viewing conditions! Just now, I was thinking how annoyed I am that the dirt roads around Skukuza are closed due to excessive rain! I suspected cheetahs and leopards were sommer lying in the road laughing at the fact that no cars will discover them on this day! Now I found myself leaning over my window staring at the ground below me.
Something else caught my eye … a rigid, yet flexible stem was bouncing under the weight of droplets falling from the sky. This blue bella provided a new colour to marvel at!
All one needs to do is turn your head and see all the different coloured wild flowers that blanket the ground!
I thought back to the world of human toil; the rat race. I was reminded of the words of King Solomon:
“I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.
I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
...
I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces.
I became greater by far than anyone before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labour,
and this was the reward for all my toil.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.”
As humans we get caught in these mindsets that we need more of this, and more of that to be ultimately happy. What a stark contrast to the flowers of the field … they have earth, and rain, and they are content! Somehow, this consideration made me content
Just Cooking at the October spring of life was grrrrrrrrreat
I had come down this way hoping to see Heksie's lions on the H4-2, or WendyA's leopard at Duke Waterhole, or even those S28 cheetahs of Spargish!! All fantastic sightings! But today was a time for me to appreciate the rain and October flowers!
All the animals were a bonus!!
It will be a bit weird to be there without your dad and the Brat, and you will probably miss them very much! But your experience of the Kruger is quite different! You will find average sightings become great sightings all of a sardine! You also get excellent sightings which seem surreal! How you will feel about what you see in the Kruger, is completely unpredictable when you are alone! Your perceptions on what is 'normal' and what is 'special' are blurred. 
In truth however, I just looked at the flowers and didn't think much about it. 
