Day two at the bush camp, we were already up at the five am wake-up knock on our door. Actually we were awake by 4am, dressed, and ready to go by 5:00am. Coffee or tea is served with some biscuits and juices in the lodge's dining room at 5:15am, and in addition, now they have put coffee-making units in each cabin. We had been given a box of cookies and snacks with juices in the refrigerator in case we needed anything during the day or night. There is a full mini bar set up in a cabinet along with wine, champagne, and ciders. Oh yes, and bottles of water too.
It was so much easier to have lights in the room and bathroom now. Especially that early in the morning when it was still dark outside. We only had candlelight and flashlights to get cleaned up on previous visits. No, we are past the pioneer days and we like it much better with convenient amenities.
The morning drive was good with a sighting of 11 lions laying in the mowed field. They barely lifted their heads when we pulled off the road and drove right next to them. There were seven cubs of different ages with four adult females. Some of them were laying upside down with their bent legs in the air. Fearless and without a care in the world it appeared. Nice to be young and clueless….
We left them to watch an adult male elephant almost standing on his back legs to reach the very top of a green leaf tree. It may have been a marula tree that was full of fruit. They will actually get "drunk" eating this fruit when it is over ripe we understand. As our driver sped away, he almost passed by a beautiful tall giraffe roaming across a field. I remember yelling "look", and he stopped so we could take pictures. Sometimes they think we have seen these animals so much, they are not worth the stop. But for us, that is the furthest from the truth. We can never get enough photos of these magnificent animals. Even the zebras that were nearby the giraffe. Do you know that every single zebra has a different stripe pattern? There are no two alike.
The big hit of the morning was spotting two leopards on the road in front of us walking like they were out for a stroll. We assumed they were going to look for a suitable hiding place in the shade because the morning was heating up. One was a young male, and the little four-month-old cub was probably his half-sister we were told. The cub stopped and dropped in the center of the road, while the older cat licked it clean. We thought only a mother leopard would do that, but what do we know? In time two more vehicles arrived and we had to leave.
We passed by one lone wildebeest and scores of impalas. On past trips, we had seen large numbers of wildebeests and zebras grazing in wide-opened fields. Where did they all go? We never did get a real answer to that question, other than they migrated out of here. More African vultures appeared perched on the dead tree trunks, while we saw tiny squirrels scamper up the same trees. One small dark mongoose darted in front of us, which was good for me sitting in the front seat. The only other find was a dropped green blanket from another safari vehicle. Joesph picked it up, and Ben put out a call to the other drivers to see who lost it.
Time for breakfast at 9am, we had orange juice, cheesy muffins, fresh fruit slices, salmon, one omelet made to order with wheat toast, and one eggs benedict. Starters were vanilla yogurt with granola. The coffee was so good, we had several cups. Once again, the servings were ample with lots of variety. We passed on the 1 ½ hour bushwalk in order to catch up on two day's worth of photos and reports.
One of us worked on the pictures, while the other did research on the excellent brochure that was printed for this camp. So here is some info in a nutshell. The lodge's beginnings dated back to 1963 when a great-grandfather purchased a sizable piece of land in the Sabie Sands Reserve. Several other parcels were sold as well. Now this lodge is in the fourth generation of family members. The combined acreage is 150,000 acres of pristine land for private game viewing. Two rivers, the Sand and the Sabi, supply this reserve with water. The lodge we are at has its own supply of water from springs and is safe to drink. It rains in their summer months and is cooler and dryer in the winter months. The bush camp is famous for lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, rhino, Cape buffalo and hyena. They roam freely as well as monkeys and snakes.
While reading on the outside deck, two large nyala bucks came to graze on the grass below the deck. They laid down in the heat of the afternoon and stayed there the whole time I was there. Further up the hillside were some elephants and wart hogs passing through. Later on the bucks left and some female nyalas with young ones took their place. I never felt lonely. Did we mention there are vervet monkeys here? They stick around the camp and will often try to snatch food from the open air dining room. It was time for me to have fun with the monkeys, or was it the other way around? Wanting to see a mother monkey with her tiny baby, I put out ½ a cookie for bait on the railing. Nothing came to check it out for an hour or more. Sitting on the outdoor couch, I spotted one of those little squirrels. It came on the railing and ran off with a chunk of cookie. Soon it was followed by a monkey with an older baby that cleaned up the crumbs then ran off. The bait was gone, but unknown to me, a much larger male monkey was on a tree trunk behind me. He jumped right over my head and onto the coffee table and down to the floor. No more food, he ran off. By then, so did I. He scared 10 years off my life.
In the meantime, we did make some progress with catching up before it was time for lunch at 2:30pm. Gosh, we were still full from breakfast, but we went to the dining room anyway. Once we took our seats at a table set for two , our server brought the charcuterie board filled with cheeses, crackers, and sliced meats. A beef stew pie was brought with a mostly veggie salad tossed with a honey mustard dressing. Breaded prawns and chicken tenders were served with an Asian sauce we liked. We added sodas, and once again, we were filled to the brim. By 4pm, it was time for another safari adventure.
The three of us took off in the safari vehicle before the other guests were loaded up. It appeared that another family group arrived today and one couple left. Once again our driver stopped at the nearest pond to see where a eagle was perched on a dead tree top. Sorry, we don't have a bird book with us and the driver did not have one either. This pond has a rock in the center where a grey heron seems to be perched every time we pass by. In the back end of the pond, we could still see (just barely) the crocodile lurking under the tree that was loaded with weaver birds. Ben says when these little birds leave the nests and fly near the crocodile, he eats what he can. In the same pond, we saw a really colorful woodland kingfisher perched on a tree limb. Wonder if he is aware of the danger below him in the water?
Just as we turned a corner, I spotted the first lilac- breasted roller we have seen here. There used to be scores of them on past safaris, and Joseph said we may have been here a few weeks later and saw more back then. Next we saw a possibly pregnant elephant with her baby, followed by three more adults and two babies. This must be "elephant" day again. One European roller was spotted briefly, another beautiful bird that migrates from Europe to here in the winter time up north. Nearby was a flock of Egyptian geese that preferred the thick grass to a pond.
Joe and Ben, our guides, had been looking for tracks in the sandy road for the last two miles, but never said in English what they were tracking. When they pulled off of the road in the shade of a tree and said they were going for a short walk to see if they could find leopards that other trackers had seen the night before. We all thought that was funny since we are not supposed to leave the vehicle here. All we requested was that they come back and not get eaten out there. They laughed and off they went disappearing in the trees. Oh well, we figured Bill could drive the safari vehicle, but would we ever find our way out of this maze of roads and crossroads? On a funny note, we have figured out they drive in large circles when they need to waste time. And they think we don't notice these things. Just as we were planning an escape, they returned, dashing our visions of getting lost in the jungle. Well did you all see any leopards we asked? The answer was no, but maybe we will return tomorrow for another search.
The Land Rover that had lost the green blanket yesterday passed by, and Ben returned it to the driver, teasing him about dropping it. Undoubtedly it was dropped by one of the kids sitting in the back seat. After going in more circles, we ended up at a different pond that had one lone hippo in it. He looked like a blimp floating there with pink ears that wiggled every so often. Joseph verified that this was an older hippo and was off on his own. He would soak in the pond, eating stuff from the bottom, then come out at night to graze in the weeds. What a life….
We saw three wart hogs running so fast there wasn't time for a photo, followed by sightings of a lone wildebeest and a small mongoose. All of us noticed that we had skipped the 6pm sundowner stop. That's when we were told it was the special night where we meet up with the other two groups and have a community "boma" drink and snack party. We drove slowly and on the way we saw some nyalas with oxpecker birds on their backs. Then the guys took their time taking us through the field where the lions were still playing dead. All 11 of them were laying over snoozing. There were seven cubs almost full size, and four adult females who could care less that we were a few feet away from them.
We arrived in the dark to join the other groups already having drinks and BBQ meats. To tell the truth, one of us is still having a hard time seeing in the dark (new glasses would help) and also both of us are experiencing the effect of the motion of the ocean, which stays with you even for two weeks after leaving the ship. So for that reason, we remained on the outskirts of the group and sat on the end chairs. It was a good spot because our tracker Joseph stayed with us, pointing out the stars and the Milky Way and Southern Cross. While talking with him, we saw lightning on the horizon flashing off and on. No one else saw this but us as they were chatting and sipping drinks. The kids were too busy toasting marshmallows over the open fire, then burning them until they were black. Yep…they ate them anyway. We had to laugh as it wasn't all that long ago, we did the same thing as kids. Anyway, guess what group did not eat much dinner? Yep, the kids.
The finale to this evening's sundowners was a performance done by ranger/tracker Joseph who got the attention of the entire group while he wove a story and did some animal sounds of Kruger. With total silence, the group was riveted with the accuracy of his mimicry of lions, leopards, hyenas, elephants, wild dogs and more. His voice echoed through the bluff we were on….truly a memorable moment.
A not so funny thing happened on the way back to camp. Just by coincidence, we had been discussing the fact that there are many types of snakes in this part of the world. If you are lucky, you will never see them. But guess what? Close to the camp while driving in the dark, Joseph and another driver spotted a snake off the side of the road with half of it hidden in the grass. It was right below where I was sitting in the vehicle. It turned out to be a puff adder, one of the most poisonous snakes here. The guys put their lights on it, and it appeared dead. Nope, I could see it breathing which gave me the heebie-jeebies. They couldn't leave quick enough for us. We asked them not to see any more snakes for the rest of the visit.
So at dinner tonight, snakes were the topic of conversation with the guests and one of the owners. He had some harrowing stories to tell of black mambas, spitting cobras, and more adders. We shared stories of rattle snake encounters we have had where we live. Bet that's all we dream about tonight….. OK time for dinner which began with Windhoek Draught beers to settle the nerves. Butternut squash soup was served piping hot with crunchy croutons on top. A small salad consisted of some lettuce with a stuffed mushroom cap with diced veggies and a cheese topping. So different but good. Our entrees were prok belly with broccoli, carrots, and rice. A sweet marmalade sauce was served on the side. Yes, we were full again, but a dessert of a small apple strudel finished the meal just fine. No…. better were the shot glasses of Amarula that will help is sleep better after the snake scare.
This trip is going way too fast.
Bill & Mary Ann
