An "At Home" day at Marc's Treehouse Lodge

Looking downriver

I'm back from my trip to Idaho to visit my brother (that's a one-thousand-mile round trip, which kinda takes it outta ya) and now I'm ready to resume where I left off a couple of weeks ago ~ let's see....ah yes! Kruger National Park.

Sandy banks show tracks

As I've mentioned before, it is next to impossible to journal or sketch in the bouncy environs of a game drive truck, so I was getting behind on my journaling. And I was tired! Those drives are exhausting!

So I took the next day off, turning down another game drive in the park in favor of exploring the grounds at Marc's Treehouse Lodge and catching up on my journal.

This lodge is situated on the Klaserie River. The water level is low in August and the banks are bounded by bamboo-like reeds, but the river is capable of staging raging floods in other seasons. I could see the line of flotsam where the water had flooded in the past, and I heard that one of the treehouses had been swept completely clear of furniture ~ bed, mattress, everything ~ by floods last year.  

Sketching along the Klaserie River

But now it was lovely, calm and low, with lots of places to search for tracks on its sandy banks.  I sat on a huge boulder and sketched the river. Look closely at the photo, and you can see not only my shadow, but also my treehouse at the extreme upper right. 

Nyala buck

From this vantage point, and later  from my treehouse balcony, I watched a magnificent nyala buck browsing in the reeds. 

Then I followed pretty nyala antelope does around the grounds to sketch them, and caught up on my drawings from previous outings. Nyala stripes and markings are like fingerprints ~ each one is different.  And look how different the doe appears from the nyala buck!  The bucks don't hang around the treehouses like the does do, and I'm not sorry ~ with those huge horns they could be trouble.

Nyala does wander the grounds

A vervet monkey gives me the eye

I was fascinated by the bands of striped mongooses which drifted ghost-like through the grassy openings beneath the trees, and the vervet monkeys which eyed me suspiciously as I tried to edge closer for a look. These same monkeys (maybe this very one!) later broke into my treehouse and chewed off a corner of one of my wildlife guides. But I wasn't really upset ~  how could I ask for a more authentic souvenir of my South Africa trip?!

my private shower room

After this exciting day of exploring, I took a leisurely shower in my own private open-to-the-sky shower room (next to my own private outhouse). I suppose you can't expect to have a bathroom and shower in your treehouse!
Then I settled down on my balcony with my journal to finish my river sketch and watch the sunset on the Klaserie River.

Here's my river sketch page ~ can you spot the nyala buck in the reeds?