Day 66: South Africa
They served us tea, coffee, and biscuits before we headed off on our morning game drive. 5:30 in the morning weirdly didn’t feel that early once we were out in the bush.
The first thing we heard was that a young male lion had been kicked out of his tribe and was seen lurking around the dam. We found him easily and spent a while looking at him. Robin told us that he was kicked out of the tribe because it was time for him to learn how to fend for himself until it was time for him to fight for his own pride. He will spend a lot of his time in fear of being killed because the dominant males of all the prides will want to kill him as soon as he steps into their territory. Eventually he will either be killed or win himself a pride.
At the point that we saw him he was still very mopey because he still hadn't learned how to fend for himself. Robin told us that there had been a injured Nyala a few days ago and the lion had just laid next to it because he didn’t know what to do. It couldn't move and ended up being eaten by a crocodile. Poor lion.
We spent the remainder of the morning searching for elephants.
A lot of the other jeeps were going to be looking for cheetah. Robin explained to us that not all the land is owned by Phinda. There is a portion of it that they just lease and so are allowed to go there, but there can only be 5 vehicles on the land at one time. And the owners of that land are not allowed to come onto Phinda. So it was a good thing that we had seen cheetah the night before because we never would have been able to get onto the land, everyone else wanted to as well.
A herd of elephants had been spotted up in the north of the compound so we made our way up there, which was about an hour drive up into the sand forest. On the way there we drove along the east most fence of the reserve and he told us that it was there to protect the bigger animals and keep them in. If they got out then there would be nothing to protect them from poaching. Poaching is still a very real problem. The reserve has an anti-poaching team that patrols 24 hours a day.
One thing that we saw tons of was Guineafowl. Really. Guinea hens. We have those in our front yard at home. They are following me everywhere.
We also saw more giraffe, buffalo, and impala. We stopped to look at some giraffe and one of them was bending down to look at us. We also saw a Terrapin, which is a kind of turtle that can walk on land and go into fresh water. Usually when you start to see them it means that the rainy season is starting, which is was.
It actually rained the entire time we were there. The first day and a half were manageable. It was basically just cloudy and dreary with small spits of rain every once in a while. But the last mornings game drive was not all that much fun because it rained very heavily. Riding in the open jeeps was interesting in the pouring rain, and taking pictures was difficult. But we made it work.
It didn’t rain very much on our way to find the elephants. Eventually we got to a point in the trees that Busani and Robin decided we had arrived and turned away from the fence and headed back into the compound. After a bit of searching we finally saw the elephants. They were walking down the road right behind us. These huge animals were coming right at us and all Robin did was pull off the road a little. He said that as they got closer we probable would have to move, one might walk around us but probably not all of them.
It was a group of about 5 to 7 elephants. Mostly females. They didn’t make it all the way to us but instead veered off the path into the woods. They smoothly disappeared amongst the trees. It was amazing that that many elephants could just blend in completely with the forest. It was impossible to see them. We had to drive around the area a few times before we found them again. I took some amazing pictures of them with my zoom lens. We watched one of them pick a piece of fruit out of the tree, crack it open, and pick the seeds from the inside, all with his trunk. Animals are so cool to watch.
After spending a bit of time with the elephants we made the hour drive back towards the south side of the reserve and our lodge. We stopped for a few moments to view a giraffe and some warthogs. I may have sung some Lion King to myself.
Right near our lodge we spotted a White Rhino. We were able to get so close to him. We watched him eat grass and lope around. We were so close to him already that my zoom lens helped me get the most beautiful photos of him. I got all up in his business.
Those are some of my favorite pictures.
When we got back to the lodge we were greeted by Walter and the most delicious glass of hot chocolate I have ever had in my life.
Because of how far out we went we got back much later than the other group. They had already almost finished breakfast when we got there. Just like our meals it was multiple courses. There was a tower with rolls, and cinnamon buns, and bread and cheese. Then there was bowls of yogurt and granola. There was also a gorgeous fruit plate with pineapple, watermelon, papaya, and pear. We were then offered a got breakfast, made to order. I got an omelet with mushrooms and onion and cheese. It was one of the most delicious omelets I have ever had.
While we were waiting for our hot breakfast I experienced the most traumatizing thing ever. Like I told you, we weren't fenced in, and there were animals everywhere. One of the bravest animals around were the monkeys. We were told to never keep the doors of our lodge open because they will come in an destroy everything.
I was sitting at the head of the table and we were sitting having a nice conversation when suddenly everyone around me reacted to something and from over my shoulder comes flying a monkey. He lands on the table, in the middle of everything, scrabbles around while everyone is yelling and the staff is running in, grabs a cinnamon roll, and runs out the direction he came. Clay got a lap full of hot chocolate, there were papaya slices in the yogurt, basically everything was everywhere. Damn monkey.
I wasn't too keen on sitting at the head of the table after that.
When breakfast was over we had free time to do whatever we wanted. The lodge offered nature hikes and rhino tracking but because it had been raining so much it wasn't recommended that we walk around very much. So we couldn’t do the rhino tracking but it had dried up enough to be able to walk up to Mountain Lodge where the store was. Yay shopping!
Robin took us on a mini nature hike to get there. The rangers are required to carry rifles when they are out in the bush. When we are in the jeeps, they keep them in the case but when we were walking he had it out and ready, just in case. He told us that only two or three animals had been shot in the 20 years that the reserve had been open. He told us one of the stories:
A ranger, a tracker, a photographer, and some guests had been out on a hike when they stopped so the photographer could take some pictures of the guests with a elephant herd walking behind them. The herd was probably about 100 meters away but for some reason the bull got spooked and charged at the group. The photographer and guests started running, something you definitely aren't supposed to do. The bull knocked the ranger out of the way and then tusked the photographer in the back, ripping through him and killing him. The elephant then started to go after the tracker, who had gone after the guests. The ranger, despite his dislocated shoulder, managed to shoot the elephant. The ranger left the reserve a few months later because he couldn’t handle that he had killed the elephant.
Hopefully nothing like that would happen to us.
He told us that if we did come across a dangerous animal that we should just look at him and he would tell us what to do. One of the other people that came on the hike with us asked about eye contact and which animals you made eye contact with and which ones you don't. He said that if you were to come across a leopard you pretend like you never even saw it. Because if a leopard thinks that you saw it then you become a threat, but if it thinks you didn’t see it then it won't see you as a threat. So you don't look at it at all and walk calmly away. Lions you make eye contact with, stand your ground and make as much noise as possible, be threatening back at it. When it wavers you back slowly away and repeat the process as necessary.
On our walk he pointed out various kinds of plants and birds to us. There was a plant that had crazy pricker things on it. Really only giraffes could eat them because the skin on the inside of their mouths is so tough. They would eat them by putting their whole mouth over a branch and and dragging up so that the prickers would fall off and then they can get to the leaves.
We also saw a crab. That was odd, it was really far away from water. Robin picked it up and it had a sac of eggs attached to it. He nudged the egg sac and broke it so when he put her back down she scurried around to try and find somewhere to drop her eggs. Robin said that they start coming out of the ground when the rainy season starts so that they can find bodies of water.
We also walked right by that really old giraffe that I told you about. He was still standing in the same exact place. He just looked at us as we stood there and looked back at him. At that time he had been joined by some zebra. When we kept walking the zebra started to follow us.
I wore my Toms on this trip, and nothing else, which was probably not the best idea. Our walk was very muddy and slippery and grassy. My poor Toms are now struggling so much. I found a picture of them that I took when I first bought them, they were so shiny and pretty. Now I can compare to what they look like now.
Note to self: wear better shoes when going on a hike in the African bush.
Mountain lodge was a lot bigger than Rock. It could hold more like 50 people. They too had a main lodge, it was just on a much larger scale. There was a moderate size court yard that the dining room and the sitting room opened out into. There was also a store that lead into the courtyard. The store was beautiful and had some really interesting things in it. They had a these small baskets that were hand woven by some women somewhere in Africa. I thought they were really cool and unique.
One of the other dads asked me what they were and I told him and read to him from its tag, which told you what the different baskets were used for and what the symbols woven into them meant. "That seems like a pointless and worthless souvenir." He said as he walked a way.
So I bought one.
I also bought a tiny, colorful, zebra statue. And a bunch of giraffe stuff for Kellie because when I am around giraffe stuff I go crazy and forget to buy things for myself.
We rode in a jeep back to Rock and had a little over an hour of free time before lunch. Lunch! It felt like we had just had breakfast.
I don’t know what I planned to do during my free time but I found myself laying across the very comfy bed and then suddenly woke up. Apparently I needed a nap.
Lunch was tapa-style again. There were little bowls of things that we passed around: beets, squash, rice, and a green vegetable, and lettuce. There was ostrich and a potato leek quiche. We passed everything around and just took little tastes of everything. The coolest thing was that we were given a bunch a ingredients and a bowl that we could make our own salad dressing in. That was fun. The ostrich was absolutely delicious. It tasted like beef and had the consistency of beef. I had hot chocolate for dessert.
Lunch was the lightest meal that we were served, which was good because we had tea only an hour and a half later before we went out on our afternoon game drive.
In the time between lunch and tea I took another nap. I was so asleep that my mom had to come wake me up so that I didn’t miss the game drive.
The doors of the lodges didn’t have latches, or locks. We were given a piece of wood that you slid between the two door handles. It could go on the inside or on the outside, so its was very possible to lock someone out. But it kept the monkeys away and I was ok with that.
Our afternoon game drive was much rainier. But not as bad as the next morning. We saw more Nyala right off the bat and a warthog that was sitting and staring at us.
We went up to look at the lionesses, which another group had found in the morning. There were three of them, two younger and one granny. When we got to them the granny was laying down and the other two were finishing up eating something that we couldn’t see. My zoom lens was again my friend. I can't wait to show these photos.
The two eventually came over to where granny was laying and they each greeted her and gave her a sort of hug before laying down. It was nap time.
We left them soon after nap time started. We had gotten really lucky with the lions. Lions are inactive 20 hours out of the day and every time we daw them they were always doing something. Most groups just watched them sleep. So that was really cool.
After we saw the lionesses we came across a giraffe carcass. It had been killed by those same lionesses about 6 months ago. So it was pretty decayed but still distinguishable as a giraffe. There were just bones and hide left. Oh, and the tongue, that was still there too. We got out of the jeep and walked right up to it. It was so cool. I picked up a rib bone. And the jaw bone.
My mom thought that it smelled awful but after the really ripe buffalo from the night before I didn’t think it was that bad at all. That giraffe carcass was one of the coolest things we saw. To me it showed that we really were out in the wild. This wasn't the zoo or the safari at Disney World. There really is a circle of life, things die, things are born, things are killed and eaten, and when that happens there are bones left over.
My dad asked Robin about that really old giraffe that hadn't moved for a few days. He wondered if they would ship him off so he could live out his life in captivity somewhere. Robin said no, of course not, then we wouldn’t be a wild game reserve. That would disrupt the circle of life. Maybe he dies of old age or maybe he lays down and then gets ambushed by a lion. Either way he will be food for someone else, and the carnivores have to eat.
That made the experience so much cooler. The fact that we would be driving along and occasionally smell something dead, that we were able to see animals eating and peeing and mating and just living their lives. Growing up away from Africa, away from the natural habitats of the animals that we always view in zoos, made it hard to wrap my mind around that these animals naturally exist here. This is their native home, this isn't a zoo, they weren't imported. Well, they may have been, but not from not all that far away.
It was really surreal to feel the scale of it.
After the giraffe carcass we decided to try and find a Black Rhino. We were driving along when suddenly Robin backs up because Busani saw some rhino tracks. The went off into the woods. We drove around to the other side to see if they came out there but they didn’t, so we went back to where he originally saw the tracks. Robin and Busani decided to follow the tracks into the woods to see if they could find him. If they did then they would come back and get us and we would all walk up to him. Sweet.
So Robin and Busani went off into the woods and left us sitting in the jeep all alone. For a really long time. A really, really long time. Probably close to 20 minutes. Was this when the survivor part of the trip kicked in? It was a bit creepy, a lion could just appear out of the bushes.
Eventually they came back toward us from the complete opposite direction. They had found where he walked and where he slept and then walked again but they couldn’t find him. Bummer.
It was starting to get dark then so we decided to set up the table and have a drink. We had hot chocolate with Amarula in the middle of nowhere. Followed by some cider for the road. And I ate my fair share of corn nuts. Those things are so good. After that we pretty much made our way back to the lodge. For dinner.
More eating, yay!!
We were supposed to have a picnic like dinner in the middle of the bush with people from the other lodges but we couldn’t because of the weather. So we just had dinner at the lodge like all our other meals.
Our starter was two soups in one bowl, a squash soup and a carrot soup. It was served with a cheese bread stick. Our main course was either chicken or venison. The venison was impala. I learned that venison doesn't necessarily mean deer. It just means any game animal raised in the wild. So if you raised a deer in captivity then it would no longer be venison.
I had the impala. It was served in a little bowl and was seasoned with a barbecue like sauce. It was delicious, although I liked the ostrich better. It was served with potatoes and tomatoes. Dessert was an apple tart with vanilla ice cream and a tiny chocolate pastry. That was so good.
After dinner we again just went to bed. It was late, almost 11 and we had to get up at 10:30 again. It felt like the longest day ever. We did so much before noon and then fit an entire other day worth of activities in the afternoon. Sleep was great but the 5 o'clock wake up call came way too fast again.
