Marty and Matt decided not to join us this morning so it was Mike and I and Kit and Erica along with Dierdre and Themba. The goal was to find the elusive elephant this morning. We had seen a herd at one point a couple days back across a river. But the minute we pulled up and shut the truck off, they had turned and beat a quick retreat into the safety of the tress. Dierdre explained that they had a large number of young and so it was to protect them.
As we headed down the road again this morning (we had to head north again to elephant land), that meant we had a roof over our heads. Not more than a couple minutes down the road, another lion sighting. They were just settling down for their daytime snooze. A beautiful lioness lay resting in the low light sun, filtered all around her except that a small sliver of light that sliced through, perfectly illuminating her in a soft early morning glow. You couldn’t plan this type of perfection. It just happens.
We encountered the entire pride of lion a bit further down the road, cubs and all. Just an amazing sight.
As we continued to drive, I snapped a photo of the truck as we were driving. Just the shadow of it along the grasses of the roadside, the image turned out to be much more like a twisted version of the Flintstones car than it did our truck. How apropos though given my constant feelings and writings of feeling at times as if we were back in the dinosaur age.
As I mentioned earlier, babies abounded everywhere.
Here we ran into a junior giraffe. The mom wasn't close enough to grab a shot which would have helped you understand the scale, but this little guy was probably only 8-9 feet tall, half the size of a grown adult.We happened upon a strange trail at some point a little later on. It was fairly wide but wasn't at all something that we've ever come across in our travels. I asked Diedre about it and so she stopped and backed up a bit. That was the great thing about her.
If you wanted a closer look, to ask a question, to understand and to learn, all you had to do is ask. The trail it seems is an animal trail. Duh. But the interesting fact about it is that it serves as an animal superhighway. These trails typically lead to water and many animals come out of the bush wherever they may be and get onto the trail, like surface streets that feed to the interstate (which ultimately leads to water). So many animals use it on a daily, or nightly basis, from hippos to lion, a lot of animals have worn this wandering path from the bush to the river's edge.Onward to small monkeys hanging out in the trees, their 4 foot prehensile tails sticking straight behind them for balance as they navigated a tree limb, or hanging downward, or gripping. And then baboons in numbers we hadn't seen. We saw a big male, and then a female with him, and then a baby nearby. And soon, everywhere we looked were baboon. Under the trees, near the bushes, in the trees. Themba estimated there were more than 75 in the troop, scattered about.
We had an early return to camp that morning as Kit and Erica had to catch their plane and we had to clean up and pack, ready for our next adventure. We never did encounter the elephants, but that was for another trip I guess and we certainly couldn't argue with everything we did get to see and experience.
Upon our return to the lodge, we took one last picture with Dierdre and Themba (and her rifle), a keepsake that will remind me everytime I see it of so many things about Singita. All it takes is that image to conjure up animals, and animal walks, African Rusk, a warm people, amazing sunsets, the hot sun, dung beetles and so much more. It truly was an experience of a lifetime.
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