Day 9 - South Africa - Elephant Plains

Up with the sun again. Getting used to this 5:30am wake-up... so long as I have my 11:00am-2:00pm nap.
The sunrises are pretty spectacular here.
As we headed out on our morning drive, we didn't get more than 100 meters from the lodge before finding a few of our old pachyderm pals.A few moments later we spotted some vultures up in the trees.

The phrase "look alive!" ran through my head as we passed the carrion crew.

Eagles were out in full force this morning as well.
We saw some Southern Ground Hornbills jumping around on a log. Apparently there are only a couple thousand left in all of South Africa.
In the morning, monkeys don't mind hanging out up in the trees. The eagles don't start picking them out of trees until they've left their own perches and start soaring about.


Ah, zoom... what would I see without you.

We rounded out the "Big 5" with a rhino sighting (mother and child actually!) midway through the morning.
Here's a close-up of mom. She's got a bird in her ear... looks uncomfortable to me.


We stopped for some tea/coffee near a waterhole and watched some baboons playing on the opposite bank.
When walking around the bush, you have to pay attention or you might find yourself stepping into a large pile of elephant dung... which is pretty much everywhere.
Back on the road again, we saw a herd of impala, which are almost as ubiquitous as the elephant dung... though tastier for a hungry leopard I suppose. Check out the two tussling in the back of this photo:

We stopped by a waterhole full of hippos. Caught one in mid-snort:


Never did see one out of the water. Glad I didn't though, because as it turns out the hippo is the deadliest animal in the bush (to humans anyway.) More humans get trampled and killed by hippos than any other animal related fatality out here.
We saw a few lion tracks, but didn't catch up with the pride.
We got back, had breakfast, went on the bushwalk, and I went straight to bed. Ming went back to the gym again and then had a spa treatment (I still can't believe they had a spa in the middle of nowhere.) Before the afternoon drive Ming took the Land Rover for a spin.

I was the tracker.
OK, not really. Richard just let us take a few shots while it was parked outside the lodge.
The afternoon drive started off with a few lazy buffalo. These poor guys. They just sit around baking in the sun all day with insects buzzing all about them. When they don't have insects in there eyes, it's only because there's a bird perched on there face pecking at them. Seems like a miserable existence to me.

Once again we saw Salayexe, but this time she was sleeping in a tree.
We drove right under her, took a few photos, and she didn't even stir.
We moved on to let her rest (her cubs were probably sleeping nearby.) A waterbuck was posing not far off:
Wildebeest were grazing on the airstrip, a long field where the tiny planes landed for the super-rich folks who wanted to avoid the 1.5 hour drive from Hoedspruit and fly in directly.


When we caught up with Salayexe again, it was dark. She was active... tense in fact. Other predators were starting their nightly rounds.


Three hyenas, truly ugly animals, started making their way towards Salayexe and her cubs. We saw one flee up a tree to safety, and the other one dart off towards the riverbed. Salayexe stood her ground and let out a hiss (as cats do) when the threat came close. When the hyenas were about a meter away, Salayexe slinked away.


We left them like that. One cub up a tree, Salayexe and cub number two escaped on foot. Hyenas can't climb so it's likely that no cats were harmed that night. Richard said that the hyenas were probably looking to steal some food if Salayexe had recently made an impala kill or something like that. Regardless, it made for quite an exciting night.

Another outside dinner around the fire and we hit the sack.

Day 8 - South Africa - Elephant Plains

We woke up at 5:30am to our "wake-up knock" (no phone for a call) and headed directly to the Land Rover for our morning drive. Everyone was groggy, but eager to find out what the wildlife was up to. Eco-tourists going on these safaris typically hope to see the "big 5": elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, buffalo. Add to that your cheetah and wild dog (both much rarer in the Sabi Sand reserve) and you've got your "big 7".

Spotted a few large birds sitting in a tree silhouetted by the rising sun. I don't remember what kind these were. In fact, there were many times on the drives where I should have been writing down species and interesting wildlife tidbits given that Richard was narrating as we drove along. I was too enthralled to think of it at the time though.


Birds of prey were commonly seen perched on branches with an eye out for the slightest movement of their next meal. I never saw one swoop in for a kill though.


Saw a few zebra grazing along the side of the road.


The fun part of this particular drive, though, was watching the elephant herd stomping around, eating, knocking over trees, etc.


The babies were especially cute.


Sometimes the elephants would come quite close to the Land Rovers. If they felt threatened by us, they would flap out their ears to make them seem even bigger in hopes of intimidating us. When they realized we weren't scared, they simply turned around and ignored us. Generally, animals will try intimidation and avoid resorting to a physical fight (unless they see you as food I guess.)

When the babies try to be intimidating, they get even cuter.
After watching the elephants for a long while we stopped for some tea.
After a little more driving, we headed back to the lodge and had a little breakfast. Then we went on the bush-walk. Walking around, everything suddenly seems bigger than when you are in the Land Rover. The termite mounds, for instance, are massive (and they are pretty much everywhere.) As I understand it, two-thirds of the maze of tunnels that make up the dwelling is underground.
A close-encounter with some warthogs was the highlight of this walk. Ming was struck by how much warthogs really do look like Pumba from the Lion King. It was a comment that I heard two or three other visitors make. I realized, that the poor rangers must get tired of hearing that all the time... it was all I could do to keep Ming from bursting out into a verse of "Hakuna Matata." (ahem, I would like to chime in here that Ian was actually the one who eventually started singing the words to the song).


We headed back to the lodge, and I zonked out for a couple of hours before our 2:00pm lunch Ming went to the gym and worked out... I don't know where she gets the energy.


After lunch (which seemed to consist of similar food every day... kinda reminded Ming of summer camp), we set out for our afternoon drive. We came upon a lone buffalo at a waterhole, which stared at us for a looong time before ambling off.


Next we spotted our first giraffe. Richard explained that by some unknown natural phenomenon... once you have broken the first-giraffe-spotting barrier, you tend to see them everywhere. He was right.


We even saw a baby...


They are such strange animals...


Squirrel sightings were also quite common.


We saw Salayexe again on this drive. She was Richard's favorite of the 15 (or so) leopards in the Sabi Sand Reserve, so he liked to check up on her. Here's a shot to prove I was just a few meters away!

She was resting...

Never disturb your mother while she is resting...


The Land Rovers were often followed by these relatively small black birds which flitted from treetop to treetop as we lumbered along like a four-wheeled elephant. They follow the larger animals around the bush so that they might feast on the insects, which often accompany the slower beasts as they plod along.

As the sun was setting we ate pickles and cheese (an odd combination I must say) and had our sundowners. Before heading back to the lodge, though, we tracked down the fourth of our big 5 (having seen leopard, buffalo and elephants already.)

The pride was asleep. From what Richard was saying, it's not uncommon for these cats to sleep for 20 hours a day. To cool themselves, they'll raise their paws in the air. Doesn't it look like an oversized house-cat just itching to have its belly rubbed.


As night fell, they began to stir.


But they always looked half asleep.

So much for the king of beasts.


We let the lazy cats be and drove back to the game lodge. We had dinner outside around a nice fire and the occupants of each Land Rover (there are three that go out each time) told stories of their sightings.