When Kevin and Lucy, who is a school teacher, planned on visiting us during the winter school holidays he wanted her to experience Marloth Park and Kruger National Park – she is a Capetonian, after all! We immediately agreed; it does not take much to persuade us to go there anyway, especially in winter. They would arrive at our place on the 19th June and our weekend would be from the 21st to 24th; the whole family was invited.
I had some ‘things to be done’, as usual, but this time we would do as much as possible beforehand. Once at the park it should be relax, fun, laughter, eat, drink and chat.
It was rather a challenge to pack the bakkie. There were four of us, including everything we needed for the weekend. Francois, Adri and Simoné were also joining us and, for a change, we were catering.
I was chuffed that for once we left more or less on schedule. The vehicle was packed to capacity, but we made it a leisurely drive, stopped for lunch, and reached our destination at about 4 pm.
Turning into our street we spotted a line of processionary caterpillars crossing the road. Roger took great care trying to avoid squashing them while driving past. Then there was another line, and another. The lines were so plentiful that we eventually couldn’t avoid driving over them. For me, this is the stuff of nightmares (I used to have a recurring nightmare about caterpillars as a child!).
At the house we were initially fascinated by yet more processions, and eventually horrified at the extent of what appeared to be a migratory event. All the lines seemed to be moving towards the east. By the end of the afternoon, as well as the next morning, Roger was sweeping them into the dust pan and dumping them on a heap in the veld, to the east of the house. There they soon regrouped and carried on their journey to who knows where.
According to AfricaGeographic.com:
The processionary caterpillar is the larval stage of the reticulate bagnest moth (Anaphe reticulata).
The name ‘bagnest’ is derived from the pupating stage of this moth’s life cycle, when the silken cocoons can be seen in a circular conglomeration on trees (‘bag nests’), held together by a silk mesh. Once the moth emerges from the cocoon, it lays eggs on trees and shrubs with palatable leaves.
After hatching from eggs, the caterpillars begin to feed on the leaves of their first host plant. Once having devoured that food source, they trail off in single file to their next meal, nose-to-tail and connected via a silk trail started by the leader. The leader will also make use of pheromones and chemical clues to show the way.
These long lines are most often seen during the colder months of the year. If the line is disrupted, the caterpillars become disoriented and the line will come to a complete stop, before a new leader takes control and leads the way.
Image of the moth copied from the AfricaGeographic.com article above
Soon after we arrived we received a WhatsApp message from Trish informing us that a lioness was spotted at the end of a driveway in our area. We were thrilled since the resident pride of lions was officially removed a few years ago. Clearly the fence is not keeping newcomers out.
Francois and family arrived rather late thanks to hectic traffic. We were before the wave it seemed, thankfully. My chicken liver paté, Fourno’s ciabatta and a drink soon had us all relaxed; the weekend had started. A big fire, a braai and ‘potbrood’ followed. The bread was made in a home-made oven, called a ‘varkie’, that Francois gave us a long time ago. Sitting around the fire, chatting and sipping red wine on a warm winter’s evening is certainly to be recommended.
It was such a pleasant evening; weather-, company- and food-wise, that I did not even take any fire-side photos!
Kevin and Lucy went for a run the next morning, as is their habit. They were on their way back when a resident stopped and gave them a good bit of her mind because they were out running whilst there were lions about. Mmm, perhaps not the brightest thing we did, telling them that it would be OK…
A few tasks were quickly completed before the champagne breakfast, followed by a nap and an afternoon game drive in Marloth Park.
After another balmy evening around the fire, eating ‘make-your-own’ hamburgers and drinking copious amounts of red wine we said our fond goodbyes. Francois, Adri and Simoné would be leaving first thing on Sunday morning, while we would be going into Kruger for the day.
Kruger NP, as always, did not disappoint. We were lucky enough to see 4 of the Big Five, lots of birds and lots of other interesting wildlife. Breakfast was at Mugg & Bean, Lower Sabie, which Lucy kindly paid for.
Back at MP we enjoyed a quiet evening braai and chat. It was so good to have had the family there for a change. Eugene, Marlene, André and Corné: we missed you!
We left Marloth Park at around 11 on Monday morning and stopped at Kaapsehoop for lunch at the Bohemian Café. It was delicious; the best salads ever. Sadly the train coach is no longer there; it was sold to Friends of the Rail and taken to Germiston for restoration. You can read about our 2016 stay in the coach here:
https://www.thereandbackut.com/kaapsche-hoop/
Back home the car was off-loaded in no time and once everything was unpacked it was time for a shower. To my horror I discovered a tick embedded in the flesh of my belly. I must have picked it up at Kaapsehoop during our short walk. Neither Roger nor I knew what to do.
Roger, equally horrified, scrambled to fetch his iPad.
“All I want is for you to take this thing off my body!”
“Yes, but we have to be sure to do the right thing. Google will tell us what to do…”
So, while I stood with teeth chattering he found the right article and read up what to do.
“Wait here while I fetch some stuff from downstairs”.
He soon returned with a bottle of whiskey and a pair of pointed pliers. In the meantime, I am turning blue from standing naked in the cold…
And so the Google procedure was followed; whiskey (instead of medical alcohol) was applied to the skin and tick before it was firmly gripped and gently pulled until it let go. Thinking about it now, my mother always maintained one should at all times have whiskey in the house in case of a medical emergency!
The bacteria from the bite of this species causes tick-bite fever in humans and heartwater in sheep so I dressed the wound with antiseptic ointment and a plaster. It did not look good the next day. The bite-site was as big and hard as a pea and the area around it was very red. Roger wanted me to go to the doctor, but I had a flash-back to much earlier days and remembered about a tin of Traxa drawing ointment that was well past it use-by date. In fact, it was so old that it did not even have a use-by date… That did the trick. For the next 4 days I replaced the dressing daily and watched thankfully how the red subsided and the wound got smaller and softer until it eventually all but disappeared.
Thumbs up for a Google-reading husband and a mother’s remedies!
I miss that place. And you guys.
We should make a plan to go there together.