South African Wilderness at its Best: Kruger Park

We have settled down at Sabi Sabi Little Bush Camp in Kruger, thus living the safari lifestyle. Since our schedule has changed so has my timing for updating the blog. We are on the hunt for animal sightings by 6 AM with downtime in the middle of the day (i.e. – blog and photo update time) followed by an afternoon safari and then dinner.

I am not a fan of traveling for long periods at a time because I often get motion sick. Yesterday we drove from Madikwe to Johannesburg with a brief stop to look at souvenirs and use the restroom facilities. I also grabbed some more souvenirs (wow, I feel like a broken record). By the time we arrived at our small charter jet terminal, I was not feeling my best. You can imagine how happy I was to discover that hors d’oeuvres, fruit, and drinks were waiting for us as well as a comfortable area to relax and wait for our flight. I have never flown on a plane that small! There were maybe 12 seats and I literally had to bend over at the waist to shuffle down the aisle. I really felt like we were going into the wild at that point! The plane encountered a small bit of turbulence during the flight and fluttered like a moth caught in a wind current but most of the time it was fine and the flight was only an hour long. I decided to take a nap and woke up at the perfect moment – just before we touched down in Sabi Sabi. The four of us (Carmin, Dennis, Dan and myself) were the only passengers to get off at this stop. The plane would be making two or three other stops before heading back to Johannesburg.

We were picked up from the landing strip by our guide for the next few days, Mike. He is such a character! Not only is he funny and enthusiastic (that is an understatement), you can really tell he loves what he is doing. His knowledge regarding plants, insects, reptiles, birds, mammals and stars is close to encyclopedic! I think we all find him absolutely mesmerizing. On the way to the lodge, we saw a hippo mostly submerged in a pond right off the little dirt road. He repeated a pattern of surfacing and sinking beneath the water. Every time he arose, he snorted from his large nostrils and spun his ears like little windmills. He was so cute! I am really glad we got to see a hippo. They’re such neat animals!

We came to our rooms which are quite lovely - large, comfortable, with a nice big bathroom, and AIR CONDITIONING (a rarity in the bush) and then had some quick tea before heading out on safari. What a brilliant experience. The land here is so pretty – green and open one moment and the next there are flowering trees and rocky beds. We drove very near a pack of white rhinos grazing and watched little birds light on the rhinos’ backs and heads and peak in their ears. Mike told us some incredibly interesting facts about the white rhinos, such as they can run up to 45 km/hour, drink 70 liters of water per day and eat 100 kg of grass. They have a 16 month gestation period and their calves suckle for four years!!! I guess we have it pretty good as humans. Despite their weight (a female can be 1.5 tons and a male 2.7 tons) they are very bouncy and light in appearance when they trotted away.

It wasn’t long after we left the rhinos that we came upon a beautiful leopard cub (approximately 1 year old) relaxing beneath a tree. She yawned, stretched, and decided to hunt impalas. We learned that leopards can run up to 90 km per hour and that they shave the fur off their kill, disembowel them, and drag the carcasses into trees to keep them away from other predators. It was amazing to follow the young leopardess on her hunt. She slowly snuck up a small hill and crouched low so as to be obscured by brush before carefully approaching the impalas. She had inched her way closer when, suddenly, a hyena darted out of nowhere! Hyenas prey on young cubs who cannot yet defend themselves. In a flash the leopard was up a tree. The hyena circled the tree for a bit before moving off. It was absolutely surreal to watch the reality of nature in action. As the sun lowered in the sky it cast golden light over the world. At that point, there was no more beautiful vision than the young leopardess balancing effortlessly in the tree, bathed in warm light and peering into the sunset. We watched her for a while longer before heading out for our sundowner. The sunset that evening was the most beautiful I’ve seen in months, painting the sky with pinks, reds, and blues against a soft, cloudy texture sky. It made the perfect backdrop for our sundowner.

On the way back to the lodge, Jerry (the tracker that rode with us, perched on a seat atop the hood of the land rover) spotted an owl in the tree. We were able to watch it swoop from limb to limb until it was too far away to see and too much in the thicket to pursue. Mike spotted a scorpion and hopped out of the vehicle. I swear, in that moment he was just like an excited kid that possessed uncanny knowledge. He described the scorpion to us as he nudged it with the toe of his boot. The scorpion responded with repeated lashes from his tail. Just before we arrived back at the lodge, we made one more stop. There was a chameleon hanging out in a tree, so Mike grabbed her and she crawled all the way to the top of his head. He said they always try to make it to the highest point. Dan, Carmin, and I took turns holding her and letting her climb all the way up our heads. When we arrived at the lodge, it was just about time for dinner. We were served butternut squash soup, kudu steak, and “chocolate pizza” before hitting the hay.

This morning I made it to the main lodge just in time to grab a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin for the road. Mike almost immediately found two male lions laying around, relaxing. Man they have massive heads! One was scarred from previous battles, though he was only around 4 years old. It was so neat to see their manes and the size of their paws. As we watched them resting tiny droplets of rain began to fall on us. It wasn’t long before we were enveloped in a full scale shower. We made it back to the lodge somewhat dry thanks to the ponchos that Mike had for us. We sat around conversing for a while, waiting for the rain to let up. It is now time for a full breakfast, so I am going to stop here and hurry off to join the others. I’ll write again tomorrow.

Here is a video we made of the lion cubs from Madikwe playing togther.