Advertisement
Published: June 27th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Max in Musth
Max was unhappy to see us, and told us so by chasing us down the path. Thankfully he stopped to pose here We opened the day in Satara camp with some bird spotting, where we found a pearl spotted owl, a african hoopoe (supposedly the stinkiest bird of all), and a crested barbet. We are not bird people, but there is something about seeing such colorful birds in such proximity that makes you appreciate the variety and abundance out there.
The morning drive from Satara out of the park was a little slow (please note how seeing a herd of impala on your first day can be the most exciting day of your life, but by a few days later it just becomes routine. Stupid Americans...). We spotted a very large herd of buffalo, some zebras, and a few giraffes.
However, just 3.5 hours after leaving Satara, we fell straight into a little piece of heaven. We separated from Barbara, Tham, and Mart, and stepped into Akeru, a private lodge with only seven beautiful thatched roof huts. Right among the huts and outside our front door was a warthog watering hole, and not too far away was a watering hole for some larger visitors. Separating our little piece of heaven from these larger visitors was... well, nothing. Two strands of
Lilac-breasted roller
If you think this is pretty, you should see it fly wire about 6 feet off the ground allegedly kept out elephants, but the animals had been smart enough to knock down the wooden posts supporting them in the past. We were sans electricity, but had every other comfort we could ever dream of. Upon arrival we were treated to a delicious chicken pot pie (ok, it's not particularly "local", but it was still tasty).
We ended the day with our first night game drive. The drives at the private lodges are on open air 4x4s, and we are accompanied by a ranger (who also drives) and a tracker (who watches for animals and, as best we could tell, acts as bait dangling off the front of the truck).
The night game drive was absolutely unbelievable. The drivers tear through the veld, rolling over anything or any bush in the way. We had our first encounter with Max, a 40 year old elephant currently in musth (or musk, depending on where you're from). We came tearing around a corner on the way to see a cat of some sort, when in the middle of the road, Max was very displeased to find us. He charged our car for about
Rockfig the Leopard
She seemed quite content to have an audience as she walked the bush a hundred feet as we quickly reversed, then, having grown tired of us, he simply turned off course and headed away. Danika wasn't too crazy about this experience, so we have decided to take all elephants out of the wedding. Please see the picture of Max (mid-charge) attached.
That night we also met Rockfig the leopard. This was our first "real" cat experience, so we were extremely excited. She was very laid back and fine with the three and four trucks circling around her, so we watched her as she traversed the bush for a while (see picture). After a few more sightings, we pulled out to an open spot, GOT OUT OF OUR VEHICLE, and enjoyed some sundowners. While there we had time to spot Venus (Danika's star) and Jupiter with some of its moons. It's remarkable how many stars are still actually out there, if you can just get out of the city from time to time.
We returned to Akeru that night for dinner in the firelight with about 15 other people. We met some interesting folks from Cleveland (I think that's the right word to use when describing Clevelanders), then dined on delicious broccoli
Sundowners
A quick beverage to take our minds off the fact that we are SURROUNDED BY WILD ANIMALS soup, oxtail, mashed potatoes, squash, and an unbelievable apple tart. We returned to our lantern-lit hut, cut the lights, and slept in the pitch black, hoping there would be no elephants waiting above our beds when we awoke.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0544s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Nana
non-member comment
Be Careful
Please be very careful if you see Max again. Particularly if he starts charging again.