UNBELIEVABLE!
2008
There’s a knock on our door at 5:30 and we stumble up and dress. People assemble for a quiet cup of coffee in the cold morning, and then we are off on our second adventure. The sun has risen, but is still quite red and the light is slanted warmly yellow across the dry and flat bush landscape. We see a cute little deer with big red ears, and then Elliot, the tracker, gestures vaguely to the right and Andreís swings the car off the road into the brush, while we duck and avert our faces from the considerable thorns. A large dark grey hump becomes visible - it is the backside of a very large and old elephant. He is standing quietly tearing and breaking branches from a tree with his trunk and showing them into is mouth. He pays no attention to us. Next we come across 3 rhinos, grazing with their rumps in the air. The ranger says pensively “ Imagine that in a pair of jeans!” He also informs us that the term ‘White Rhino’ is a misinterpretation of ‘Wide-lipped Rhino’ and we can certainly see that these guys have wide lips that drag on the ground when they lie down. After driving around some more and feeling the sun finally warm us, we come across an incredible sight: a herd of buffaloes resting in the sun. They look like ancient obsidian statues with shiny black faces and dully polished and powerful horns. Andreís says that they are the most dangerous animals in the bush. They can take out a lion and will attack anything, including humans, and grind them into dust with those horns. Back on the road several rangers are talking on the radio and at lake nearby our car is met by some trackers on foot, who proceed to disappear with our crew - and the shotgun - into the bush, looking for something, they don’t say what. We have orders to stay seated in the car, which we do. After 20 minutes they return after an apparently frustrating search and we head home, passing a dam, where baboons are playing by sliding down the water running over the dam wall. A wonderful brunch awaits us, but first we have to change into lighter clothes because the heat has become overwhelming. We have to defend our food from some in-your-face starlings and monkeys avid for breakfast also, and they do NOT practice good manners! Unfortunately, we have to say goodbye to the nice Defrancesco family from Penn, who are off to the Victoria Falls.
We should or could take a nap now, but instead wander around on the grounds admiring the Nyalas and the funny warthogs that kneel when they graze. We decide to go for a dip in the pool, which is surprisingly FREEZING, but very refreshing. Two rather large lizards move about near our seats and we feel we must be quite sure where they are at all times! It is very hot now and it’s time for the open air shower secluded behind a fence outside our rooms. After dressing as lightly as we can we go down to check out the look-out, reached by crossing a hanging bridge. Unseen by the animals you can sit inside the dug-out and observe a pond, where giraffes, impalas, monkeys and ducks move about peacefully. Then it’s time for lunch on the covered porch, where we sit at a large table and chat with the new guests: a couple from Venice, another from Munich and a young Brazilian man married to a woman from Panama, who live in J’burg.
After lunch it’s time for our evening safari. We get our jackets and go looking for game. Our first sighting is a young female leopard sitting high in a tree devouring a recently killed impala - which we get to watch in detail. Every now and again she has to stop feeding to catch her breath and replenish the oxygen in her system to be able to digest her kill. Andreís explains that cats can hold only small quantities of oxygen. This sighting is very unusual and 3 or 4 other cars join us from the other lodges in the reserve. Then we move on and eventually come upon a larger group of young rhinos lying about in the intense heat. Finally, as the sun is setting we see the 3 cheetahs again. They cross the road from a thicket and stop at a tree to sniff it carefully for markings - then move on, mouths open. When we stop for a snack and something to drink we notice a large black and blue wasp carting along a big brown Baboon spider. We learn that the wasp has injected the spider with venom, so it is not dead, but awaiting a dreadful fate of being eaten eventually from the inside, when the eggs she will deposit in it will become larvae! We see another such spider again, very much alive, sitting on the door to Victor’s room, when we go to dinner. Andreís says not to worry, that it will be gone by the time we get back - which turns out to be true.
After dark we are not allowed to move around freely on the grounds, so the ranger takes us to the room after the evening safari, pick us up for dinner, and finally escorts us back - usually holding a big gun.... The lodge is surrounded by electric fencing, but this is set high and will keep only elephants and giraffes out - maybe...
Our group is smaller tonight but still share another great dinner around the fire. We are exhausted and go to bed really early, but not before discovering a scorpion on the steps to our room.
Prepare for many, many leopard pictures:https://picasaweb.google.com/108088723826036223432/IdubeDay2?authkey=Gv1sRgCM3Mm4e7_JKxoAE
WE THOUGHT IT COULDN’T GET BETTER, BUT...
September 5, 2008 4:56 PM
A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG FEMALE LEOPARD - SITTING HIGH IN A TREE - FIRST FASTIDIOUSLY PULLING THE FUR OFF A FRESHLY KILLED LITTLE IMPALA WITH HER TEETH, AND THEN DEVOURING IT WITH GUSTO. WE COULD HEAR THE BONES BREAK...
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