South Africa TravelBlogue (Part 9 – Safari Day Four & Panorama Route)

FRIDAY 11/23

The Big Five

Friday morning came much too quickly. It was my mom’s and my last day at Elephant Plains Game Lodge, a little piece of heaven on earth. In the days prior we had gone on five wonderful 3-hour game drives and our sixth and final game drive would begin at 5:30 am. So far we had been able to see four of The Big Five (water buffalo, leopard, elephant, lion) and we were just missing the rhinoceros. We had already spent hours looking for a very elusive white rhinoceros who constantly wandered in and out of the territory we were permitted to explore. My mom and I had high hopes that today would be the day we’d come face to face with the creature who seemed more like an airy ghost than a palpable megafauna.

GAME DRIVE 6

Shortly before 5:30 am my mom and I met up with our group in front of Willie’s Land Cruiser. Willie told us he and Connie had already been out tracking the rhino and we would head to his last known whereabouts first. Everyone kept their eyes peeled for any sign of the rhino. Willie and Connie pored over tracks from their respective vantage points and they even got out of the car to look for the rhino. Willie told us that rhinos are extremely endangered because they are poached for their horns. (The horns are typically shipped to Asia, ground to powder and used for medicinal purposes.) The estimated number of rhinos in South Africa is kept secret by researchers. Willie told us that poachers are willing to look for rhinos anywhere – even in private game reserves like Elephant Plains. No wonder this particular rhinoceros was so shy!

As we drove a long we spotted several termite mounds that looked a lot like a rhino. At one point I found myself staring at a warthog and for a moment I was convinced it was the rhino! The warthog held still for a moment and then ran off. Minutes later we slowed down and peered into a lot with relatively sparse vegetation where Connie had tracked the rhino. There, amongst the bushes and brush, stood the solitary rhinoceros. It was rather fitting to find him out in the open after searching for him for so long. Willie circled the vehicle around to get us closer. When the rhino came into view the second time Willie told us he would probably run away a short distance and then stop. Just as Willie predicted the rhino started to trot up the hillside before looking back at us and deciding to stop.  

My mom remarked that she never thought something so big could look so scared. After a short time the rhino relaxed a little and continued to walk along the road.

I can’t tell you how happy I was to be looking at a wild rhinoceros. Willie gave us an idea of how big his territory is and it was astonishing. Even though these animals live in daily peril I have a feeling they are much happier than animals in zoos. After seeing so many animals do their own thing in their own sprawling territory I felt like I never wanted to go to a zoo again. Then again what would the world be without zoos? When I was a kid I fell in love with giraffes at a zoo while I was visiting my great-grandparents in Colorado. After we left our rhino friend behind we came across a group of giraffes snacking on some thorny trees and I fell in love all over again.

Next up we were lucky enough to run into our four favorite female lions. We parked even closer to them than we had the day before. Willie told us that a lot of people go to lion sanctuaries where they are allowed to play with baby lions. He said that he would never want to touch a lion because they are quite stinky. We weren’t close enough to smell the lions but he said you never forget the smell. Lions are opportunistic hunters and if they have the chance they will kill more prey than they can eat in a single day. They will save the other carcass(es) and gradually feed on the meat even if it is four days old and rotten. Gross, right?

"Hey Willie, come smell my breath!"

 

Even though I loved looking at the lions we eventually had to move on. Willie listened to the rangers talking on his radio and heard that they had spotted his very favorite leopard, Moya. We drove over to her and watched her as she caught sight of some nearby impalas. Her body language told the whole story – she wanted to eat, she was excited to find a potential meal, she tried her best to stay hidden, and she had a hard time finding the perfect opportunity to strike.

The wind was not blowing in her favor and it carried her scent right over to the impalas. In response they set off their security system and started snorting warnings at each other. (It would have been disastrous for them if they had split up and run away in different directions the second they realized she was nearby. Someone definitely would have gotten iced.) They held their ground and showed me that maintaining a healthy level paranoia is better than succumbing to all-out panic.

Moya made a half-hearted run in their direction but she wasn’t able to bring any impalas down. She went back to scent-marking every plant in sight. I noticed she had the most striking blue-green eyes of any of the leopards we had seen. Maybe that is why she’s Willie’s favorite leopard.

The morning game drive was going great but time was also running out. I tried not to pay any attention to the clock on the dashboard. I knew time was winding down when Willie pulled off near a lagoon for our morning coffee break. He knew there were hippos in the water and he told us we could get out as long as we wouldn’t go past a certain log that lay parallel to the shoreline. That log happened to be the perfect perch for a lovely bird Willie called “a flying banana” – the yellow billed hornbill.

After our coffee break we got back into the Land Cruiser and slowly but surely made our way back to the lodge. The inevitable moment came when I had to leave the vehicle for good. Willie knew that this was the end of the road for me, my mom and a few others. He gave my mom a hug and he gave me one too. My first thought was, “Okay, I need to run to the bathroom and cry for a minute or two.” I walked over to the bathroom but there was already a line. There’s no crying in safari parks!

I walked back to the room and finished packing my things. My mom and I ate breakfast and then she went to the front desk to review our final bill. When I got to the office my mom said, “Look what they gave us.” She handed me a laminated certificate with my name on it. It was even signed by Willie. My immediate thought was, “I’m totally going to frame this.” I have yet to do so but here it is in all its glory:

"This is to certify that Amber spotted the BIG 5 while on safari at Elephant Plains Game Lodge, South Africa" : )

After leaving an entry in the guest book we very sadly rolled our suitcases to our rental car. My mom was a little nervous about getting lost on the way out or hitting rough patches in the road. When we got back to Gowrie Gate we found a shuttle driver who agreed to let us follow him. My mom followed his path around each pothole and over each shady-looking dip. It saved us a lot of time because we could see what his vehicle could handle and we knew how fast we could go as a result. Once we got to the main road we parted ways. My mom and I had to drive to the Avis office in Hazyview in order to get our flat tire repaired. (The spare one was already on the vehicle so we really needed to get the original tire put back on in case anything happened.)

It took us two or three hours to get to Hazyview. We talked to an Avis employee and he sent the tire out to be fixed. (It had been punctured by a screw.) It took about an hour but we used the time to eat lunch at one of the tourist-friendly restaurants. (There were only tourist-friendly restaurants, for the record. The town is located near a Kruger National Park entrance and it’s definitely a tourist hot spot.) After our tire was securely reinstalled we set out for the tiny town of Graskop. 

On our way to Graskop my mom was pulled over for speeding. Actually, she was waved off the road by a female traffic cop who was standing on the side of the road with a radar gun. The whole situation was kind of fishy. First the cop said that she clocked us at one speed, then she said she clocked us at another. When my mom insisted she wasn't speeding at all the cop just kind of shrugged her shoulder and said, "Let me see your license." I was starting to think that the cop's "radar gun" was phony or maybe it had dead batteries. The great thing was the cop must have had no way to process my mom's license because as soon as she realized we were foreigners she let us leave. Lucky us!

This final chapter of our trip involved seeing part of the Panorama Route, spending Friday night in Graskop, seeing more of the Panorama Route, and then driving to the Johannesburg Airport on Saturday.

PANORAMA ROUTE

The Panorama Route is a long scenic route with several viewpoints and interesting natural landmarks. Each viewpoint has a small entrance fee. The gates to each viewpoint close at 5 pm. Unfortunately we only had time for one viewpoint before closing time. Even though time was limited we were very happy to have “The Three Rondavels” practically to ourselves. Better still, the skies were clear enough for us to see a wonderful expanse of the Blyde River Canyon. If it had been cloudy we would have been a little sad.

At 5 pm we set out to find the B&B where we’d be staying the night. We had a little trouble reading the map and we ended up calling the owner in order to find it. (We were glad my mom’s iPhone was unlocked which allowed her to buy a micro SIM card and get a local South Africa phone number.) When we saw the brown and white landmark sign for “Zur Alten Mine Guest Farm” we were relieved and delighted.

ZUR ALTEN MINE GUEST FARM (http://www.zuraltenmine.co.za/en/home.php)

Zur Alten Mine Guest Farm was ridiculously idyllic. I mean, seriously pastoral. It was an entirely different scale of beauty compared to Elephant Plains Game Reserve. The craziest thing about it is that we had our very own Log Chalet for about $40 dollars per night. Can you believe that? I can’t tell you how badly I want to go back there.

Before I jump too far ahead, though, I should tell you that we drove to reception and met the owners. They were an extremely pleasant German couple with a small troop of dogs and cats.

After we checked in we drove up to the log cabin where one of the owners showed us around. He also gave us a list of restaurants where we could eat dinner. We chose The Glass House in Graskop. The restaurant owner sold me on ordering their catch of the day which was a river trout I wouldn’t be able to find in any other part of the world. The only unfortunate thing it is was served with its head, tail and fins intact. I always have a hard time ignoring shriveled eyeballs when I’m eating. Oh well, it was still great!

In truth, the most difficult thing to keep off my mind was the fact that there were 20-odd lucky you-know-whats who were still at Elephant Plains enjoying an evening game drive. For several days after leaving Elephant Plains I would look at the clock and become wistful if I knew guests were on a game drive at that time. I can’t tell you how many times I dreamed that I was back on one of those vehicles looking at those awesome animals. I miss them so badly.

When my mom and I went to sleep on Friday night my suitcase was all packed for the long journey home. I hoped that my mom and I would still have plenty of fun before we had to check in at the Johannesburg Airport at 6 pm.

TO BE CONTINUED!

South Africa TravelBlogue (Part 7 - Safari Day Two)

Wednesday 11/21

When I work up on Wednesday morning I found out my mom had barely gotten any sleep because she was so anxious about missing the 5 am wake-up call. We had our alarms set but we definitely didn’t want to be left behind. The morning game drive would begin at 5:30 so we had a few minutes to get ready and then we headed out to meet Louis and Fanoti at our designated vehicle. When I passed the patio area I noticed a lot of guests looking up at the trees. We had some visitors in the form of vervet monkeys!

 

GAME DRIVE 2

Once all of the passengers were assembled we set off for the open road. The game reserve was massive and Louis would follow his eyes, ears, instincts and Fanoti’s suggestions as we roved along. Some game drives yielded a staggering array of animal sightings and others were a lot quieter. This particular game drive was our first “quiet” one. However we got to see some of the bread and butter of the African bush.

Right off the bat we spotted one of my favorite animals: the classy and sassy plains zebra. Individual adult male zebras take care of groups of female zebras and their young. This particular harem’s leader made vocal noises to make sure his females noticed us and kept a safe distance. Louis pointed out that although zebras may stick out like a sore thumb to us humans most of their predators only see in black and white. When zebras are out in the open they make sure to stand close to one another and as a result the predators have a hard time distinguishing individual animals. Predators will always go for the slower-moving young, sick or injured prey since they have to expend a great deal of energy in the chase. If, for example, a lion can’t pick out a baby zebra in a group then that baby just might make it to adulthood.

Aside from a camouflaging advantage the zebra stripes also afford each zebra an unmistakable individual identity. Female zebras will step away from the herd in order to give birth. That way the baby will be able to memorize its mother’s stripe pattern before it meets any other zebras. No two zebras have the same pattern. They are as unique as a human face. A lot of people argue whether zebras are white with black stripes or black with white stripes. The only way to find out is to shave a zebra. If you do that you will find their fur is solid black at the roots. Problem solved!

You might be looking at these nice zebras and asking yourself, “So, did you ride one?” Heavens no! These animals would have kicked my tail if I had gotten anywhere near them. Louis told us that farmers did try to domesticate zebras for plow work and other farm chores but they found that extensive riding actually killed the zebras. Their kidneys are in a more vulnerable place than horses’ kidneys and the constant weight of a human or work load will cause kidney failure. Also, their backs are not as strong as horses’. Louis also told that zebras are pretty gassy animals and when they run away from something you can hear them farting. That’s right folks – plains zebras are classy, sassy and gassy!

Just around the bend from the zebra hangout we saw some mean-looking spotted hyenas. Despite their menacing appearance I was really glad to see them! They’re so darn interesting. They have the very strongest jaws in the entire animal kingdom. You can tell they are just made for ripping stuff apart.

 

Next up we saw another example of an adult male watching over a group of females. In this case it was a blue wildebeest. The wildebeest in the area have been getting dominated by a pride of lions. The rangers had to bring in wildebeest from Kruger National Park to prevent these guys from getting wiped out. The project was successful up until the new wildebeest wandered back to Kruger and never came back!

 

Other tasty animals in area included the water buck. They are named water bucks because in general they are never more than one kilometer away from a body of water.

 

BUSH WALK

After the morning game drive my mom and I ate breakfast and then we met up with Davi, Louis and a few other guests for a one-hour bushwalk. This was an interesting experience because there were a lot of rules and we actually got to walk on one of the roads we had previously driven on. It was fun being down closer to the ground and getting a different perspective. We had to walk in a single file line and stay completely quiet until we stopped off to look at something in particular. After vowing to stay in formation (even if a big scary animal charged us) we began our little walk. Louis pointed out a tree whose leaves contain latex. If you were to burn the wood from that tree for a campfire and inhale any of the smoke it would make you extremely sick. Direct contact with the latex would cause a severe reaction and ingesting it could kill you.

Next up we stopped off at a termite mound. We saw these things everywhere. (They always looked like animals!) I believe 1/3 of the termite mound is underground. Either that or only 1/3 of it is above ground. It’s one of those two. These termites don’t eat wood – they actually eat fungus. They are packed with protein so if you’re ever lost in the wilderness they’ll make a good meal. The termites create a complex system of vents which they can either keep open or temporarily block in order to control the temperature of the mound. The queen of the colony can control what type of termite she creates – workers, soldiers, reserve queens, etc. If the queen dies and there isn’t a reserve queen to take her place then the entire colony will lose purpose and die. (Queen termites can live for up to 40 years but one queen survived for 60 years in captivity.) The mound we were next to was only about four years old and it will continue to grow as long as there is a thriving queen inside. We saw many abandoned mounds and we picked up one of the pieces that had broken off. The stuff feels a lot like a porous brick. Louis told us that in the old days people would actually construct their homes using pieces of abandoned termite mounds.

In case eating termites to survive or using their old homes to build your own doesn’t quite make them useful or interesting enough to you check this out: you can use soldier termites to close your wounds if you don’t have a field suture kit. That’s right folks, according to Louis old school soldiers with lacerations would grab a soldier termite (with big pincers), hold their wound closed, let the termite bite them so the pincers would hold the cut skin together, and then snap off the termite’s body so the pincers remained in place. They would repeat that process multiple times until the length of the wound was closed with little pincer “staples.” Wild? Yes. Crazy? Yes. True? Not sure.  

GAME DRIVE 3

Between the bushwalk and the evening game drive I spent some quality time reading by the pool. When it was time for the game drive we jumped in the vehicle excited for whatever was ahead of us. I had already been jazzed by seeing zebras and hyenas that morning but when we saw this next trio the picture really felt complete.

 

The giraffes were the second-hardest animal to photograph. They were pretty shy and they’d scurry off almost immediately. (The very hardest animal to photograph was the warthog. They would sprint of every time I tried to get a picture.) Since giraffes are so tall and thin it was hard to focus the camera on their faces when they were on the move. It was always nice when they would settle in at a tree and stay put for a few seconds.

 

Remember how much I love zebras? Did you know I also love baby animals? Imagine what I thought when I saw this:

After staring at the baby zebra for what was probably too long we meandered over to a watering hole. We saw a lone hyena taking a very cautious look around before he/she got into the water to cool off. The hyena was very methodical. It would look around and then put one side of its head in the water. Then it would look around again and put the other side of its face in the water. Louis told us that a single hyena out in the open could easily be targeted by lions or a rival hyena clan. After a few minutes the hyena put its entire face in the water.

 

Hyenas got a pretty bad rap in “The Lion King” but I’ve always liked watching them on TV shows about African animals. The most interesting thing Louis told us about them is they are neither classified as canine nor feline. They are in their very own group. I personally think it looks like a bear.

The grand finale of the evening was meeting Salayexe, the mother of the cub we had seen the previous evening. Salayexe means “the lonely one.” She was named that because she had been born in a litter of two but her sibling died as a young cub. Now that she is a successful mother of her own cub I’m sure her life is busier than ever. Now if she could just find some baby impalas to keep her company…

TO BE CONTINUED!