Day 89: Shingwedzi – Punda Maria

From Shingwedzi we go to Punda Maria, our last stop in the KNP. First we stroll along the banks of the Mphongolo and even if the riverbed rarely has small puddles, there are still animals to be seen nearby. Giraffes, elephants, buffalo. The big trees are great, as is the landscape in general.

Punda Maria turns out to be a bit of a “run down”. As in other camps, some renovations are still being carried out before the Christmas rush, one of the two ablution blocks is closed.

But the noise of the cicadas, which catches up with us here again, is more problematic. They prefer to sit in mopane bushes and trees, but there doesn’t seem to be a single quiet place on the campsite. Literally “deafening”! Loud and with a high frequency, the whole thing reaches the pain threshold again.

We would take a room, it is quieter around the houses. But: none are available. It's hard to believe, and it's also hard to believe that the campsite is fully booked, as it says online. Not in the mood? Too much work? Room not cleaned? Room not even inhabitable? We don't know.

We drive a little lap around the camp and go out to eat, because cooking ourselves is out of the question. The cicadas are between 4 and 6 centimeters long and if you have the light on, they fly at you with full speed and completely randomly. Harmless but annoying. Then a quick shower and off to bed. What would we do without our earplugs? We would probably have driven out of the park.

By the way, on our late afternoon game drive we saw a wonderfully large herd of buffalo and more nyalas.