A day based around food

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WAKE-UP CALL

Andrew (our guide) arrives at 7:30am with my hot chocolate and Tim’s orange juice. Not quite sure what happened to all the hours between 10pm and 7:30am, because I closed my eyes at 10pm and suddenly its morning, what a great sleep, my first warm night in ages! But sadly, no animal noises were heard - is that because there were none around or because we were virtually unconscious…

I tried to turn the heater back on, click, click, click, click but nothing. After the 20th click, Tim had his head under the pillow, so I took this as a hint to give up, time to get ready for breakfast and our morning game drive anyway.

BREAKFAST

Having now experienced lunch and dinner we could only presume breakfast was not going to come up short. There was only a small buffet which initially surprised us, then we realized it was because everything you could ever want to eat would be cooked for you fresh, anything from porridge to a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato - ANYTHING! So out of ANYTHING, Tim had his usual 2 bits of toast and I had scrambled eggs, yummmmmy!

We head out on our game drive and after, we get a radio call from the Camp to say that there are baby lions and their mum were drinking at the Camp’s waterhole. So we race back, speedy, speedy to see them. We pull up and just about fall over each other to get to the verandah. They had finished drinking and were now sitting nearby; the babies (more like teenagers) were play fighting - awesome!

After watching for a while, we jumped back in the car and continued. We found jackals feeding from a fresh Kudu carcass - maybe the lions killed it and were having a drink to wash it down! We saw still more warthogs with their babies (gotta love ‘em), mongoose, water buffalo, eland and kudu. It was a becoming a really nice day, even could be called warm - just.

After the game drive we had about an hour and a half before lunch, so I had to still track down our Emergency Replacement Credit Card. It didn’t arrive at Addo yesterday as it should have and the hotel staff was really helpful in phoning around in case it had been delivered to their Head Office, but nope, no-one had seen or heard of it. Phoned bank again, turns out they sent it to Uganda, so now it will be about Thursday until we can access any money. But at least it is there, so all is sorted, or getting closer anyways.

LUNCHTIME

More amazing food and so much of it! Our Irish friends haven’t come for lunch today, but there is a new addition to the guest list - 10 Americans, and all the men were very much dressed for a safari (we overheard one of them say he had 7 different safari outfits, we’re in jeans and t-shirts!). And they were loud, remembering up till now everyone had been almost whispering to appreciate all the other sounds going on around you. Dave (the Irish guy) said they could hear them from their room and thought there were about 20 of them! Although, when I was chatting to one of the ladies on her own, she was very different, much quieter and was good to chat with; so the trick is to separate the herd! So perhaps now it won’t be so hard saying goodbye to Gorah now that it won’t be so peaceful.

There was an upside to them being loud and very dedicated to the safari notion, they had very good binoculars and were looking all the time. We overheard them say the lions were back, but over the far side of the plain near the waterhole, way too far for us to see. So we zoomed in for a look with the video camera, damn it, they were right! Once the kudu, warthogs, zebra and birds saw them from the waterhole, they all took off running for safety but the lions weren’t hungry and they just baked in the sun!

AFTERNOON TEA

We had a rest between lunch and afternoon High Tea (a rest from what???) then made our way down for more food - fresh made vanilla cake with frosting, mmmmmm!

Time for our last game drive. Andrew said we will go straight to the other side to see the lion cubs. So it’s off we go. Just as we’re nearing them, the guide with the Americans radio and ask Andrew if they can come by as well, he said straight away he would prefer them not too. All 4 of us in the back laughed because it was what we all thought too, but then Andrew went all proper and said of course they could come.

We were almost at the lions when out of nowhere came a whole family of elephants, 7 in total and smallest being 6 months old. How you could not see 7 elephants coming is anyone’s guess, but we did, they were so very quiet. As we sat in the car they literally just walked right by, if we wanted to we could’ve reached over and touched them (okay we all wanted to, I should have said ‘if we could have done so without them getting angry and tipping our car over’). So amazing, looking at them so close and them acting like we didn’t exist. The baby was gorgeous and was having to run just to keep up as the rest just sauntered along it was so tiny.

After waiting for the elephants to pass (they have right of way and decided to walk down the road - remember it is a plain, the road and land look the same but for 2 very feint tyre marks), we finally got to the lions. The mother was nowhere in sight and the 3 babies were half dozing and half watching the world go by on the junction of our track and another one. They were not more than 3 mtrs from our car, amazing. They weren’t bothered by us at all. Even when the car with 4 of the Americans in came by the lions were still content staying there. In the distance another lone male elephant was making his way over then went in another direction. At this stage the herd of elephants was at the dining rooms waterhole having a drink and blowing water over themselves, didn’t know whether to look at lions or the elephants!

After we left we saw more warthogs, zebra, water buffalo, hartebeest, and kudu. We were now driving at night and again all of a sudden an elephant is right next to our car, unbelievable! We get a call from the camp to say the lion cubs are directly behind the camp near the tents, so off we race back to camp.

The lions were maybe 25 mtrs from the closest tent and were sound asleep in the middle of open ground. Almost as though in mid walk they decided to just stop right there and sleep, must be in South Africa!

My trip here is now complete! Awesome!

We then went back to camp (no sundowner set up tonight as we spent so much time with the lions and elephants we were running a smidge late). My fireplace had been taken over so had to settle for dinner to keep me warm!

DINNER

While waiting for dinner we got talking to the manager and she told us a few funny stories, the best by far was when she received a late night phone call from a guest to say that there was a lion near her room and as it’s making so much noise she fears it may try to get in. So the manager calls 2 rangers and sends them to investigate and to take the car and not walk due to the danger. So the rangers arrive at the back of the tent and can see no lion. So they turn off the car to listen, and all they can hear is the man in the next tent snoring LOUD! Apparently his wife thought it was pretty funny the next day when they were told what had happened, him not so much!

After another fantastic dinner we make our arrangements for our early departure tomorrow morning, finish up our packing and enjoy our last night at Gorah.

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