37 degrees in the morning, 75 in the afternoon
Our first real day of safari! This has been such an exciting day. After a 10 hour drive yesterday from Johannesburg in a big tour bus, all 12 adults and 13 kids arrived for dinner at 7:30 pm. The tour bus couldn't drive all the way to the reserve so we switched from the tour bus to smaller jeeps for the last 30 minutes of the trip. Even on our big bus we saw a zebra crossing the road and several giraffes which got everyone excited.
As we pulled up to the lodge, the staff was waiting with hot towels...did that feel great after such a long day! We then got our safety lecture: After dark you cannot walk back to your tent/hut alone as you must always have a guide escort you. The animals all wander around freely and last night a lovely elephant was at the gate to greet us. In the safari vehicle, you can never stand up as the animals know the jeep as a unit but, if you stand up, the animals might think you are prey and attack. That certainly got the kids attention!
After we got settled in, we sat down to a candlelight dinner with a big bonfire. It was delightfully cool but not too cold. There are 4 other guests at the lodge in addition to us...2 from Sweden and 2 from Australia. Our dinner's menu was posted at the bar and included a homemade soup, garlic rolls, mixed salad, yogurt paprika chicken, beef sirloin roast in gravy, roasted potatoes, honeyed carrots, and lemon tart with cream for dessert. Amazing! Truly, the food here is wonderful and after a week of cooking for ourselves, it is delightful to be served. The adults all enjoyed some good South African wine from the bar too since we were ready for some drinks after the long ride here.
Dinner is served around 7:45 pm so when we finished around 9:00 we decided to get some sleep before our 5:30 am wake up call. We have a family chalet here which consists of 2 bedrooms and a bathroom that is just as big. We all have twin beds which are extremely comfortable and even come with electric blankets. The shower is a dual head rain shower with wonderful, on-demand hot water. It is very luxurious and we are not wanting for anything. Each chalet also has a private viewing deck too which is lovely.
We all crashed and at 5:30 am the guides knock on your day for your morning wake-up call. By 6 am you are dressed on at the main lodge drinking coffee, tea, or hot chocolate and getting a biscuit (more like a short bread cookie). By 6:30 we were loaded in our Land Rover Jeeps and heading off. It was COLD. We were all dressed in layers with hats and mittens. As we boarded the jeeps, we were given hot water bottles and blankets...needed in in the open air vehicles when the temps in the morning are in the upper 30's.
We then set off and watched the sunrise over the beautiful savannah bushveld. The first animals we came upon were 2 spotted hyenas. We then heard through the radio that some wild dogs were in the area which is a rarity. The driver raced to see if we could catch them. Literally, we were holding on for dear life as we were flying through the savannah. Alex, Owen, and Charles had the rear rumble set while Hannah and I were the next, and another family up closer to the front. It was better than any amusement park ride and I don't think I've seen Alex with a bigger smile on his face. We missed the dogs but the adventure was the chase for this one.
We then saw a big herd of elephants and turned off the road into the bush. There was a family with one young male about 4 years old who was really causing the other elephants to be disturbed. He would come up to them and whack them with his trunk. Then he would turn on us, fling his trunk, and make loud trumpet noises. Our guide said that was normal for a young male, but it certainly scared us. Owen, who isn't afraid of anything, wanted to move away from the outside of the jeep and be in the middle so you know it must be a bit scary. We continued to follow this herd which was a bit crazy since the vehicle just turns off the road and runs over everything. When I looked back, the trees and bush we ran over just popped right back up...thankfully since it was a bit disturbing to just run over the scraggly bushes and trees! It was simply amazing to see these huge creatures so close. Their poop is as big as you would think it would be as well and you know the elephants are close when you see these huge poop droppings and the tree bark eaten and frankly destroyed.
Next, we saw several huge vultures high in the trees which meant there must have been a kill somewhere close. We then came upon a pride of 8 lions who were munching on a cape water buffalo that they had killed last night. We were only a few feet away and watched the lions eat the meat and then lie down so full that they couldn't lie on their stomachs. Again, Owen asked if we could leave as it was a bit scary to be so intimate with this family of lions. For me, I felt adrenaline rushed, scared, and awestruck all at the same time. We stayed with the lions for quite awhile and will go back late this afternoon as, once the lions have had their fill, it will be time for the hyenas to lick the bones. Ah, the web of life up close!
After another lovely meal for lunch it was back out to the jeeps for the 3:30 game drive. This time since it was so hot it was a very different experience. We first came upon a huge, male rhino. The males are solitary and they cover themselves in mud to keep away the ticks and bugs. He was just enormous. The greatest view of this game drive was a leopard who had just killed a kudu and was tearing the flesh and bones. We were so close...you could see the blood on his face and his steely gaze. The guide talked about how the leopard had killed the kudu at the throat and now was systemically eating the kudu to make it lighter to lift up to a tree. The leopards take they kill up the tree in order the protect its kill. Unfortunately, we couldn't continue to watch this amazing view of life and death as one of the other vehicles had broken down and we had to go fix it before dark. Again, we found ourselves racing through the savannah bush which is such a wild drive! These guides seem to know how to fix everything and the other jeep was fixed and we all arrived back safely to the lodge for dinner. Again, hot towels await you after you get out of your safari vehicles.
The stars....I must talk about them as the skies here are glorious. We joke that we don't know the constellations but the milky way makes a huge swath over the brilliant heavens. The brightness of the stars is hard to describe but with no lights around the heavens are so clear. The other thing we all notice is the smell in the air: clean and fresh. I do understand why people fall in love with Africa,
Dinner was another glorious candle lit dinner with an outdoor small fire. We had beet salad, a lamb stew, hake, green beans, wild race, cabbage and panacotta for dessert. More South African wine and then a long hot shower before hitting the bed at 10:15 pm. Luckily, we had put Owen to bed before dinner with a grilled cheese and grapes as he was ready to crash a bit on the early side!
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