Our wake up call came at 0500 just as they had said. I answered the phone and turned my alarms on for later. Tea was served at 0530 and we had to be ready to leave on the jeeps at 0600. Carson and I agreed that we didn’t need to go to tea, we’d rather sleep in. at 0540 I got up and got dressed in shorts, a tshirt, and a sweatshirt. It was still pretty dark out as we walked over to the entrance. We could see light off in the distance as the sun began to rise.
We all got up into the jeep and waited for everyone and Richard to leave. It was a little cool out, but not too bad. Everything smelled fresh and it was gorgeous out. Our excitement was already rising just to be up early and out there on the reserve. Claire and Elena had signed up for an elephant-back safari this morning because the next day was full. So our jeep only six people in it. Quite spacious.
We saw another giraffe almost immediately upon leaving the Lodge. After driving for a little Richard stopped the jeep and he and Emmanuel got out to look at tracks that they had spotted on the ground. They had seen elephant tracks, so we’d be spending the morning trying to track them down since they were in the area. Whenever one of the jeeps found something cool they’d use their radios to alert the others about it, and they’d work together to find the different animals. But only 3 vehicles can surround an animal at a time per their regulations so as not to stress out the animals.
We saw a bunch of warthogs running around and saw a hyena off in the distance down the road. Before long we came upon two rhinos. One was a female adult and the other was a young male. Mother and son. They were so cute. I took a million more pictures of rhinos. Neither of these were the rhinos from yesterday. Apparently rhinos are rare to see, even though we’d now seen four different ones. I later found out that most people didn’t see these to complete the Big Five.
We continued along the dirt road and looked to our left to see tons of zebras. If you looked into the trees it looked like a blanket of white and black stripes. They were gorgeous.
Someone radioed Richard to alert him that there were elephants in the area. So we sped off to find them. We kept seeing their tracks. We’d go down one road then another in search of this group of elephants with little luck. Eventually we took a right turn and there was another jeep watching the elephants disappear into the trees. We got a glimpse of one of them. Then we sped off to try and meet them on the other side where thee was a watering hole.
We waited by the watering hole, but no such luck. So we continued onward to see if we could meet up with them on another track. No luck. We doubled back by the watering hole and it was absolutely perfect timing. Just as we had stopped the vehicle the elephants emerged from the trees to walk down to the waters edge and drink. There were probably about 15 of them. Males, females, and babies. They were so cute. After drinking for a minute they continued on behind our jeep crossing over the road and heading back into trees. We watched them for awhile and took a million pictures.
Then we continued down the road and met up with them again as they crossed all around our vehicle. Apparently all the animals on this reserve are used to seeing these jeeps and don’t find them to be a threat. They’re used to the size and shape of them. What they’re not used to is when the jeep changes shape and people stand up to take pictures or make quick movements. This appears as a threat to them and then they might attack. So we were told never to stand up around the majority of these animals.
The elephants disappeared after awhile back into the brush. We stopped to listen to the birds and monkeys making a noise as a warning to one another that there was a cheetah in the area. Richard got incredibly excited and we sped off. A little ways down the road we came across a cheetah lying in the middle of the dirt road. It was so beautiful. It was just lounging there. They had released 2 male cheetahs into the reserve about 2 weeks earlier. They still had tracking collars on them to see where they went and what they were doing to see how they were adapting to being there. They were the only 2 on the reserve, and they are hoping if this is successful that in a few months they can release some females onto the reserve. One of the males is younger and is supposed to be learning from this one that we saw, the older, wiser cheetah. Richard was a little surprised to not see them together, but he said that sometimes cheetahs split up for a few days then meet back up.
We drove off after the cheetah got up and walked away. I had realty wanted to see it run off, but that would be asking for a lot. As we drove along we saw a smaller male elephant by the side of the road tearing down a tree for food. Richard explained that when the male elephants reach sexual maturity they are kicked out of their herd for a few days until they can get their hormones under control. Then they are accepted back into their group.
We stopped a little ways up the road for some tea and hot chocolate. Richard pulled the jeep over by a watering hole. The skies were starting to look threatening. Emmanuel made us some hot chocolate and there was some type of delicious biscuits. We dipped them in our hot chocolate and enjoyed our breakfast. We hung out there for about 20 minutes and took pictures with Richard and on the jeep and up in the tracker’s seat. It started sprinkling. Emmanuel produced green ponchos from somewhere. We had just figured we’d deal with getting wet before we got back, but this was nice. A few wildebeests appeared by the watering hole and began checking us out. So they packed everything up and we got back into the jeep to finish up our morning game drive.
We drove around for a little while and were told over the radio that there was female lion in the area with two cubs. We sped off to find them. When we got there, there was already a jeep looking at them. They backed out and we entered the trees. We pulled up to see the male cub eating something. It was hiding in the grass and it was somewhat difficult to see. We couldn’t believe we were watching lions. The mother and female cub were off to the side in the brush hiding under the trees as it sprinkled. The male stood up with a small warthog in its mouth. Apparently one of the other jeeps had seen the mother teaching the cubs how to hunt and pounced on the warthog. That’s so cool. We sat there watching them in the grass for a while. The mother kept watching us to make sure we were of no threat to her cubs. Richard told us that the cubs were probably about 4 months old. They were so cute!
After awhile we’d taken enough pictures and headed back on our way to the Lodge to get some breakfast. On the way back we saw a female kudu, what we’d eaten at dinner the night before. Pat had really wanted us to see one, so she was really excited by this.
We got back around 1000, almost an hour later than everyone else. We’d spent more time than we thought with the lions. Richard’s mood was much improved as we’d seen so much that morning: the elephants, zebras, cheetah, a lion and her cubs, kudu, rhinos, and other crazy animals. We’d now seen 4 of the Big Five. We just had to find a leopard. These are the hardest to find. They’re active at night, making them extremely difficult to find. So we’d have to look for it during our evening game drive.
Elena and Claire had gotten back from their elephant-back safari and told us all about it. They said it was amazing and were so happy that they’d signed up for it. So that made us excited for ours the next day, and seemed to justify all the money that we’d spent on it. They’d already been to breakfast so Amy and I went over together and sat down with Pat. The food was amazing: sausage, bacon, croissants, toast, tea. Mmmm. She was from right around Capt Town. She talked all about her travel agency and tours and her travels in the United States. She told us her opinions on Americans; she actually liked them! She felt so motherly; it was nice to talk to her for that hour.
After breakfast Amy and I went to the gift shop and loaded up on everything we wanted to buy. We weren’t sure we’d get a chance to shop in Cape Town at all since everything would be closed on Easter. That seemed like justification to spend a good deal of money here. Then we headed back over to the pool where people were sitting around journaling and playing cards. We ran into Elena and all decided to go back and put our bathing suits on and lie by the pool. The rain had cleared up by now and it was actually somewhat sunny out. We all changed and met back up at the pool. I brought my computer to finish cleaning out my inboxes and uploading pictures onto facebook. It was pretty hot out.
We all sat on the edge of the infinity bar and made Tyler take pictures of us. They came out really cute. The pool was freezing and we all ended up jumping in before quickly hopping out to lie out and talk. Amy passed out and we laid there til we were all dry. Then it was time for lunch. Even though we’d just eaten, we figured we should go and get some food before our evening game drive.
Lunch was also delicious. There was pasta and chicken and salad and tea. After lunch we headed back to my room. I wanted to shower before we went out, and they wanted to use my internet while I was showering. So we all hung out for awhile. Before long it was time to head out to the entrance to get back on the jeeps for the afternoon. We made a quick detour to get some tea at 1600. There was chocolate cake, toast, and other little meat and croissant deliciousness. They literally fed us every 3 hours here. It was slightly ridiculous. Then we were off to meet up with Richard for the afternoon.
Before long into the drive we saw another female lion. She was lying on the edge of the dirt road that overlooked a watering hole. She was gorgeous. She was one of three sisters that lived here. During these past 3 or 4 days she had been with the male lion on a “honeymoon.” They had just recently split up to go their own ways and she was now just chilling alone. We took a million more pictures and got incredibly close up to her. We drove around both sides of her and then watched as she walked off to drink down by the water’s edge. Richard eventually radioed in that we had found a lioness. He wanted to give us a good amount of time with her first. Once another jeep showed up we headed on our way to see what else we could find. In all of these watering holes there was a large number of terrapins, but no fish. They terrapin are relatively small.
We continued on by a river. Richard told us we might be able to cross it since it was low. This excited us a great deal. That is, until we saw a male lion chilling by the side of it. He was beautiful. He had a huge mane. I can’t get over how big the mane was. And it was blonde and dark brown. We approached him slowly and carefully and Richard advised us not to move as the lion watched us intently.
After a few minutes of taking pictures the lion started roaring. It wasn’t just at us, but to all the animals in the area to let them know that he is the king and he is here. Richard told us that it’s really rare to actually hear a lion roar. I don’t know how true that is, but it was pretty sweet. Richard then radioed in to the other jeeps that we’d found him. Two other jeeps appeared within minutes. Richard revved the engine of our jeep to get the lion to roar again. Everyone was fascinated by this. One of the other jeeps tried doing this a few minutes after Richard, but failed. He would only respond to us. We did it one more time and the lion roared for us. We probably spent a half an hour there with the lion before we continued on our way to see more animals.
We were able to see some male kudus with the females. We saw more warthogs and impalas and birds. It was getting dark now, about the time my camera was rendered useless. Everyone now wanted to find a leopard. I still wanted to see a hippo.
We came across a big watering hole. There were two hippos in it! Emmanuel shone the torch onto the water and we caught the eyes and ears of the hippos above the water. One was an adult female and the other was her child. I can’t remember if it was a boy or a girl. The little one stood up out of the water a little bit for a good glimpse. Pat told us how much more exciting it was to see the hippos here in the water at night rather than just in the daylight. I agree. It was so cool. Both Pat and Richard told us about how dangerous these animals are and how many people are killed every year by them. They’re mostly natives and not tourists. That’s so crazy. I love them.
We decided to drive off before they decided to get out of the water. We didn’t need to put ourselves in danger. I mean I would have loved to see them come out. But Richard was afraid that they’d charge at us, they don’t have very good eyesight. Oh well. So we drove off for about 20 minutes through the blackness of the night. The clouds hid all of the stars, making it way darker than the night before. Claire dropped her camera in the back. We had to stop because she was afraid that she’d lost it along the path. Richard dug it out of the back of the jeep. But he played it off like he couldn’t find it. He loved to freak us all out. He could keep a completely straight face when he joked. Like earlier in the drive, he found a giant spider and he knew that Elena was petrified of them. He pretended to throw it at her and had her nearly in tears. He had finally taken to liking us. He kept making jokes about the female animals and kept having to tell us to be quiet because we were all so chatty. Sorry that’s what happens when you have a jeep full of girls. Haha. Ricahrd was probably in his mid to late 30’s. We were driving him crazy.
We pulled over on the side of the pathway next to one of the other jeeps to have some drinks. We had cider and red wine out in the middle of the reserve. It was so funny. The other jeep left almost as soon as we got there. It was a little eerie to be out there with no real way of seeing everything around us. After about 20 minutes we got back into the jeep to finish up our drive.
As we were cruising along we were pretty content with what we had seen so far. We just figured we wouldn’t be seeing a leopard, but whatever. All of a sudden down one of the dark roads our tracker made us stop and back up. He had seen something up in the tree. He said “Luongi” or something like that. We got excited thinking this might have meant leopard in Africans. They pulled right up to the tree, this made us all a little nervous that the leopard would be able to pounce down on us. Our guide asked us if we saw that. What? Saw what? They pointed out a 6 inch long chameleon. I don’t know how he was able to spot this out as we were driving along at full speed. I would never have been able to stop that. It was ridiculous. We asked him how he saw that. Richard backed up the jeep and pointed out that it was a lighter shade of green than the rest of the tree. I could kind of see what he was talking about, but still, I never would have been able to point that out or see it as we drove along. We had been talking earlier about how we’d probably passed tons of animals that we hadn’t seen. We now decided that that couldn’t possibly be true. Emmanuel was that good at spotting things there was no way that we missed anything.
We got a signal on the radio that there was a leopard in the area. All of the jeeps started working together to track it down. It was pitch black out. We got so excited that there was the potential to see a leopard, the last of the Big Five. The elusive leopard. I was still a little hesitant to get myself too excited about finding the leopard.
We spent about 40 minutes driving around this one area circling it. We got a lead that it was in the brush and tree. So we off-roaded into the trees. We drove into the densely wooded area. We drove over trees and through the thorned trees. We were getting scratched up and annihilated by these trees. Richard kept yelling back at us to duck down as far as we could into the jeep. The thorns were several inches long and incredibly sharp. I’d gotten scraped by a few of them. We were all alone driving through trees and bushes. This was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Easily. It’s up there with shark diving. I’ve got a video of us tromping through the trees. It was kind of creepy too. It was very much Discovery Channel-esque.
Eventually we emerged on the other side of the trees. We hadn’t found it yet. We kept going through the area looking everywhere for it. But we found nothing. Then we got the radio call, they’d found it. We drove as fast as possible to that area. There was already a jeep there. As we came in we heard the leopard kill something. It was a daikur, or something like that, it was like a little impala. It had killed it down in a ditch so we couldn’t see it. We heard the animal struggling to die as we waited alongside.
The leopard moved out of the ditch and hid amongst the bushes and trees. It had gotten scent of another leopard in the area. It was now waiting to see what the other leopard was going to do. We moved our jeep a little bit and were able to finally get a view of the leopard. It was beautiful. I wish we could have seen it run and finish up eating the daikur. We watched it for awhile, before deciding to leave it alone to eat in peace.
We were so excited. We’d now actually seen the Big Five. Wow. That’s so awesome. We ended up getting back to lodge after 2000. We went immediately to dinner with Richard. Dinner was delicious. There were ribs and other meat. It was so good. The soup was cheese and meat. So good. Dessert was some type of bread pudding. Amy, Carson, and I ended up staying at dinner talking for awhile after everyone else left. We were the last ones there. It had started raining so we weren’t in any hurry to walk back. They offered us umbrellas to walk back to our suites. I spent a long time on the internet. There were a few people drinking at the bar, but we didn’t really feel like staying up late drinking if we had to up extra early for our elephant-back safari. Our wake up call was going to be at 0445. I didn’t go to bed til almost 0100. I was so excited to have unlimited internet. Oh well. I fell asleep immediately when I laid down though. It was pouring outside and we left our balcony doors open to listen to the rain. There were even thunder and lightning off in the distance. It was a perfect atmosphere for sleeping. Delightful.
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