TUESDAY 11/20
My mom and I were very sad to leave Cape Town behind but
the departure was bearable because it meant we were headed to a new part of
South Africa to go on safari. We got to the Cape Town airport with plenty of
time to spare. In the process of looking around for something to eat we found a
tiny nail salon (about the size of your typical Piercing Pagoda mall kiosk) and
decided to get manicures. It was a fun, spontaneous thing to do and my mom and
I picked matching gold glitter nail polish. We weren’t sure if it would attract
or deter the animals but we had fun nonetheless.
When it was finally time to board our plane we had to take a quick shuttle bus ride and then walk out onto the tarmac where our tiny South African Airways
plane awaited us.
Our flight was about 2.5 hours long and when we landed at
Eastgate Airport (HDS) near Hoedspruit I couldn’t help but scan the landscape
for signs of wildlife. I didn’t have any luck but we were able to get our next air-conditioned
rental car squared away in a decent amount of time which was important because
it was really hot outside. We also bought a helpful tourist map which showed
just how close we were to the border of Mozambique. (Basically we had flown
from the southwest corner to the northeast corner of South Africa.)
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| Eastgate Airport (HDS) |
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| If you see this map buy it. You will need it! |
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| Can you spot Elephant Plains in the center? |
On our way from the airport to Elephant Plains we passed
through a lot of small towns. In the early afternoon hours we saw a lot of
schoolchildren walking home. Each school we passed had a
distinctive uniform and some uniforms were very colorful. It was very tempting
to try to take stalker photos of the kids walking by but I would have felt like
a total creep so I didn’t do it.
We came across a lot of grazing cows that would traverse
the road at random times. We had to keep a close eye out for them and drive
relatively slow.
When we left the paved road we had to slow down even
more. The road had some pretty unforgiving bumps and dips. (One particular
ditch gave us a flat tire but we didn’t know it until we got to the game lodge
and someone told us.)
When we were really close to our destination I saw a juvenile
giraffe. I was like, “Game on!”
ELEPHANT PLAINS GAME LODGE (http://www.elephantplains.co.za/)
We checked in at the main desk and I got a glimpse of the schedule. I knew the
game drives were offered twice a day and each one was three hours long. (They
were scheduled during the times animals were most active: dawn and dusk.) My
mom and I planned to go on every game drive offered during our time there (six game
drives for a grand total of 18 hours). Luckily we made it to the lodge in time
to catch lunch. After we ate we checked out our luxury
suite (the rondavels
were sold out) and unpacked a little. We were so excited for our first game
drive at 4 pm. We knew this area was not a fenced-in territory with “wild”
animals that were basically trapped for the tourists to see. Instead this area
was wide open and the animals were free to go wherever they wanted, even in and
out of nearby Kruger National Park. Since the animals were so free to wander there
was no guaranteeing what we would see.
GAME DRIVE 1
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| The Big Five |
At 3:50 pm we headed out to the safari
vehicles (giant open-air Land Cruisers that had room for a ranger, 10
passengers and a jump seat for a tracker). Each guest was assigned to one of
four vehicles during their entire stay. That way the rangers and trackers could
keep track of what each guest saw. The staff does their best to help each guest
spot The Big 5: elephants, water buffalo, rhinoceros, lions and leopards. Unfortunately it isn't possible for every single guest to have all five sightings but it would be much more difficult
if guests constantly switched between vehicles. I also suspect vehicle selection would turn
into a popularity contest between the rangers. I was glad to have this decided
for me.
We met our ranger, Louis, and our tracker, Fanoti. Each
ranger and tracker works seven days a week (about 16 hours a day) for six weeks
straight and then they go on leave for two weeks. We were lucky to meet Louis
and Fanoti on their second-to-last-day before going on leave. Even though they
must have been exhausted we had a great time with them.
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| Louis & Fanoti |
When I first got into the vehicle I couldn’t help but say,
“I feel like I’m on a ride at Disneyland!” (The Indiana Jones adventure, to be
exact.) Louis gave us a safety talk and told us that the animals in the park
are used to the shape of the vehicles. However, if any of us were to stand up
or reach out we would change the shape of the vehicle and have an immediate
problem on our hands.
I didn’t know what the next three hours would entail but
we got off to a fast start when we came across a “big tusker” male elephant in musth leaving his
scent for females. Louis told us that this male had the potential to grow truly
gigantic tusks (the kind that almost reach the ground) and that we had to keep
pretty far away in case he tried to charge. Since our vehicle only weighed a
fraction of the elephant’s weight he could easily flip us if he felt
threatened. The British lady in front of me very seriously asked, “If he flips us
are we to stay near the vehicle?” Louis grimly answered, “If he flips the
vehicle you’re going to hear a lot of gunshots.” The vehicle let out a
collective, “Ah.” This was the first time I noticed the giant rifle on the
dash.
The “big boy” (as Louis kept calling him) eventually made
a false charge at another vehicle and we backed the h#!! out of there as fast
as we could. It was a great way to start our first game drive!
It didn’t take long to see scores of impalas. Louis
called them “the McDonald’s of the bush.” He said only a small percentage of
them make it to adulthood. The baby impalas are very popular meals. Since it
was spring time we saw dozens of baby animals and most of them were impalas. The
babies liked to hang out in little groups (called crèches) and they were the
most scared of the vehicles.
When we spotted this little guy we thought it was another
baby impala but Louis corrected us. “He’s actually a full-grown steenbok. They’re
monogamous for life. Aww!”
The nice thing about being in a lodge with multiple
vehicles is all of the rangers could talk to each other over the radio. If
there was an especially interesting sighting the rangers could notify each
other. Each type of sighting had its own particular rules for how many vehicles
could be there at a time. For example, the next animal we saw was only allowed to
have two vehicles nearby it at a time.
That’s right, folks, it’s a baby leopard! A baby freaking
leopard! This little girl was such a beauty. She doesn’t have a name yet (one
of the rangers is still deciding on it) but she’s 5-months-old and she was
hanging out in this tree waiting for her mom, Salayexe, to come back with dinner.
When we saw the cub I was really surprised. My coworker
had gone on a safari in January and he hadn’t seen any leopards so I didn’t have
my hopes up. The leopards ended up being my favorite animal to see.
By this point we had already seen two of The Big 5 and we
were well on our way to seeing another. We stopped a lagoon near one of the
sister lodges in the area and we saw several pairs of hippopotamus eyes and
ears just above the water. Hippos don’t count as one of The Big 5 but they are
responsible for more human deaths than any other animal in Africa. Louis told
us that people who try to take canoes down the Okavango Delta in Botswana put
themselves at huge risk of startling hippos. Hippos can only stay underwater
for 5-8 minutes and if they hit something when they come up to breathe their
first reaction will be to defend themselves and bite whatever is next to them. A resurfacing hippo can easily knock someone out of their canoe. Since hippos have giant teeth and powerful jaws they are capable of biting the human
body right in half. I think you know where I'm going with this. Next time you want to canoe the Okavango Delta count me
out.
On the shore of this little hippo paradise we saw three “old
dagga boys”- adult male water buffalos who had once been part of a breeding
herd but were now content to spend their days knee deep in cool mud. The mud is
also beneficial to them because it suffocates the ticks that constantly vie for
their blood. A lot of the water buffalos we saw had little bird friends that ate
the ticks right off their fur. Now that’s a great friend to have! It’s a good
thing they get along because water buffalos kill the second highest number of
humans every year. They might look serenely stuck in the mud at the moment but they
are extremely aggressive.
In just a few hours we had already seen three of The Big
5. My mom and I would be going on five more 3-hour game drives so the chances
seemed good that we would manage to see lions and rhinos.
Our vehicle continued to wander as Fanoti and Louis
scanned for tracks in the dirt. We entered a large clearing near a small
watering hole (I think we were near an airstrip) and were enjoying our
surroundings when Fanoti said something to Louis. (They always spoke an African
dialect together. Louis spoke Afrikaans over the radio with the other rangers.)
Louis turned to us and said, “Fanoti said he can hear elephants coming.” We
looked around the huge expansive area and saw no sign of elephants. We all got
quiet as Fanoti pointed to the tree line far off to his left (like really far).
I saw trees moving before I heard any of the elephants rustling. That man has
super powers! We watched in awe as 17 elephants emerged from the trees. They
were a bit cautious coming out to the open.
By now another safari vehicle had arrived and Louis
called other rangers who might be interested. The elephants took a look around
and Louis anticipated they’d make their way to the watering hole. He backed up
and got us in perfect viewing position. Then the elephants started walking in
another direction and acting like they were going to skip the watering hole all
together.
For a moment we were disappointed that they were going to
move on so quickly but then they changed direction again and came straight for
the watering hole. The next few minutes were some of the absolute best I had
while on safari.
The tiniest baby of the group stole the show. Louis
estimated he/she was about four weeks old – too young to know how to use its
trunk in a sophisticated way like the adults. Instead it just put its entire
mouth into the water and drank that way.
The fun thing about the evening game drives was the fact
that it would get dark. Around 6 pm each night we got out of the vehicle for sundowners
(bottled water for Mom and me) and chatted with other tourists or our guides.
Mom’s favorite person to talk to was Fanoti. He told her that he grew up in one
of the nearby towns and that his uncle had taught him how to be a tracker. His
dream was to become an engineer but in his community the women had better luck
picking up the math and sciences aspects of engineering. I really hope he’ll be
able to pursue his dream career.
After our short break we got back into the vehicle and
Fanoti pulled out a spotlight to search for animals. Louis told us that we could
only look for certain animals in the dark. If we shone the light too long at
certain animals it could blind them permanently. Lucky for us we were able to
see our second female leopard of the night – this one was an adult female.
After a long and extremely eventful game drive we pulled
into the lodge and enjoyed a nice dinner around the fire in the boma.
My mom and I were super wiped out and I’m pretty sure we were asleep
by 9 pm. The next morning we would have to be up by 5 am and we didn’t want to
risk missing the wake-up call.
TO BE CONTINUED!
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