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They speak softly, but carry big tusks
July 5, 2008 Front office called for the 6:00am wakeup call for our early morning game drive set for 6:30am. Our rover mates Liz and Nigel stayed in bed as they needed to catch up on some zzz’s from their previous 5 days of safari drives at another lodge. So we were off for our private game drive.
Our first sighting was a beautiful sunrise with the red sun beaming through white clouds and blue skies. Our tracker spotted leopard tracks in the road and decided to take the shotgun and scour the land for the cat. In the mean while Nick drove us around looking for other animals. We came upon a Bush buck; these are medium sized antelope that are very common in the bush (hence their name) and are pretty tolerant of humans. Any quick movement and run away but they were around our room all day long and let us walk pass them with no such worry. Next we came upon an Impala; this lovely larger antelope has such grace about it. There is a symbol on their bottom that looks like the McDonalds
M arches; and the saying is “they are fast food and they are all over the place, just like McDonalds.
Right after we saw the Impala Nick was quiet for a second; later we found out he had a surprise as he brought us to the leopard and her cub. It was the same female and baby that we saw yesterday right after lunch but a much better view. We were ecstatic to see such a beautiful animal. She went on with her business as we were never there. Nick thought she must have made a kill and was leading her cub to the tree where she hid their breakfast. We drove right beside them for 45 min just watching and admiring their behavior.
The little one was running and jumping on trees and having a great time while the mother was eagerly trying to get somewhere. After about 45 min passed we lost them as they crossed a river bottom that our tracker could not attempt.
We moved on to find our next big 5 animal the Rhino. This animal is HUGE! The pair that we stumbled on was very relaxed and went on eating the grass.
They inched closer and closer; however never seemed to mind us and us not minding the close shots either. After a while with these large creatures we were off to find another one of the big 5 the buffalo. Wow that is 3 out of 5 of the big 5 in one drive and 4 out of 5 on the 2 drives. The buffalo are by no means my favorite animal but massive and sturdy they are. These bulls were stopped at the water hole for a quick water break. In the close distance from the buffalo the quiet zebra and impala were waiting to get their turn at the water. We had felt that our morning went quite well and we headed back to the lodge for breakfast and low and behold one more animal had to cross our path. A large antelope called the Kudu. Nick’s favorite animal of all the bush. This male kudu was just humming along eating his breakfast. We had no idea that we would be eating one of his friends for dinner the next night. At the lodge we feasted and then had a very leisurely day. We went swimming in our plunge
pool, I went to the gym and Sean took a nap. (Hard life)
3:00PM (or 15 hundred hours to South Africans) rolled around and it was time for afternoon tea and game drive.
It was the most terrifying moment of our Safari and perhaps one of the most frightening in my life. With eyes fixed on us and massive head shaking back and forth, a seven ton Elephant, the Alpha of the group, had walked slowly by our vehicle, not even one meter away and stopped abruptly. She wasn’t thrilled that we had decided to crash her pack of elephant party and was sizing us up for what was certain to be a stampede of our group. Her trunk swayed to the left and right as she dared Sean to react. He was too busy shooting photos to notice that she could have sucked him up her trunk and threw him in one of a dozen nearby trees. Meanwhile, I was too frightened to even video the scene and wasn’t thrilled either when Sean kept whispering at me to make sure I got the shot. She decided to move cautiously past us and encouraged her troop to follow.
She rounded the rear of our jeep - most of the group didn’t flinch, didn’t turn around, didn’t breathe; except of course for Sean - who desperately needed to get the elephant documented on our camcorder. Replaying the scene later, I saw the Alpha Elephant approach the rear of the van as if she was testing its courage - inching closer and head bobbing up and down - ears flopping violently as she shook. Nick dared not crank the engine as later he said that this could have easily spooked the elephants leading to a much bigger problem. She turned around after what seemed like an eternity and disappeared on the road behind us with her crew.
As we drove off our car full of people let out a huge sigh of relief and laughter of happiness. The rest of the drive no matter what it would entail could not be as lively, energetic, scary, or as cool as what just happened. We drove around finding a lot of the same animals that we saw yesterday. Impala, wart hogs, bush buck, and buffalo. In the middle of the bush we stopped and Nick asked us all to get out
of the rover. We were quite shocked as this is a no no however him and Gianyi thought this was a safe place for cocktails and snacks. They popped open wine and cooked up some beef kabobs camping style as we watched the beautiful sunset.
Back at the lodge we cleaned up for dinner and headed to the restaurant. Although the food was very good the company was awful. We had a group of about 14 loud Americans that came in today and distracted the mood of the quiet serene lodge. Normally we enjoy a rowdy crowd but had become in tune with the natural surroundings around us and were looking for more peace and quiet. At any rate we couldn’t be more excited for the next day to arrive!
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