We finally found the heard of water buffalo. Actually it was only about half the heard, so about 50 or so. They are very similar to a cow in their movement and mannerisms. As with most African animals, and as the joke goes, you only get to see the ass of the animal as they walk away. So as the heard of buffalo were walking away from our truck it reminded me of a cattle drive back home. I wondered how it would go herding them with horses.
We also got to see the wild dogs which are an endangered species so they are actually monitored twice a day. This pack has an alpha male and female and their 5 grown pups. It was neat to watch their family dynamic. The pups are quite playful and full of energy. The old male is not doing well. He looks old and tired and is the laziest one. We followed them along one day pretty closely as they acted like they might make a kill. Unfortunately, they ended up just laying down for a rest on the shade once again. At one point I was within 10 feet of the dogs as they passed by the truck. And man do they smell bad! They are also very cheeky and playful and although they won’t have the intention to hunt they will pester buffalo, elephants and rhinos. We watched them bug the buffalo one day. The one was trying to sneak in to grab a hold of a buffalo’s tail.
We saw two of the young male lions one day lounging by one of the watering holes. They were being pretty lazy so there wasn’t much for exciting action packed photography. But we still got some good shots. We could tell they had had a good feed the night before because their bellies were plumb full. And they were so lazy they even peed where they were lying down.
One day I decided I wanted to ride on the tracker seat which is a seat way out in front on the hood of the truck where the tracker normally sits. And by the way, several of Thanda’s best trackers were once poachers. Since we don’t have a tracker with us on our drives (our guide/driver/tracker Maryanna does it all), I wanted to give it a go. I wasn’t too sure about driving through the park with all the wild animals but apparently the only animals that you can’t sit up there for is the elephants and the lions, since they see the vehicle as 1 object. Luckily we didn’t come across either of them, but if we had, we would have just driven by and I would have hopped in the back.
The only thing of interest we saw that day was 2 rock monitors fighting. It was so interesting and none of the guides or drivers in any of the vehicles said they had ever seen it before so it was a pretty rare find. We ended up sitting there for almost 2 hours watching the wrestling match go down. It was intense and actually quite comical to us. They were hard core as they fought for dominance which including biting and twisting legs and tails. Unfortunately we had to pull away for the main lodge vehicles to see and as were driving up again to watch some more, it ended and they ran off. It was crazy though, some people filled up a 16GB card on their camera with just photos of them fighting.
After that we met up with the research group to have ‘sun downers’ which is apparently a tradition that the Brits brought over many years ago of drinking gin and tonic. So we found a spot where we had a good view of the sunset and had a drink and some snacks and just enjoyed visiting with everyone. It was really lovely.
One of the nights we had the option of going to a bush dinner that is put on by the main lodge for all their high paying guests and we are asked to come along if we wish. I wasn’t sure about it but was really happy I decided to go along as it was really cool. We drove over in the dark around 6:30 and actually saw the lioness and her 3 cubs along the way which was cool. When we arrived we were greeted and escorted down a path lit by lanterns. At the bottom we were handed a glass of champagne and a warm wash cloth to wash our hands from the game drive. There were several camp fires going with chairs set up all around, lanterns all around and several tables set very beautifully and all fancy with each chair having its own blanket to be used. We were to bring our own drink so I had a cooler. We were served a yummy soup and bread to start with then went through the buffet. There were many different choices especially the meat. I made sure to try the impala sausage which tasted pretty similar to some deer sausage I have had before. Then there was lovely dessert buffet afterwards. As we were sitting there visiting we were all asked to be quiet. We sat a few moments in silence and then heard the elephant herd trumpeting. They were agitated earlier in the day so whatever it was must have been bugging them still. But it was such a great experience. Then to topped it all off, the staff got up and did some Zulu singing and dancing which was awesome. I love hearing it and watching them all have fun as they are doing it. The one song has been stuck in my head which is great!!
1 comment:
Sounds awesome Jody!
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