Evening Game Drive – Lion Hunt!

The afternoon was too hot to do anything except sit in your room. We did head to the lobby and played a couple games of cribbage in the “lobby” while sweating profusely. But that was about the only time we did anything mid-day.

We headed back up around 4pm for tea and to hook up with Dierdre again for the afternoon game drive.

The morning drive we had all hoped to see lion but after Themba and another tracker went out on foot (with rifles) for over two hours, they found the pride sleeping in an area that we couldn’t get a vehicle into. And we certainly couldn’t get out on foot to view them.

We set out to find another pride, given that lions sleep most of the day into twilight so we weren’t going to see any movement from the pride that morning until later. We rounded a bend and bumped smack into two baboons on a rock. The big male was being preened (groomed) by a female and they just sat there content to do their thing as we stopped to watch.

A bit later we found African Buffalo. They are huge and aggressive and not so nice looking. We happened upon two of them just hanging out about 50 yards off the road. Too far away for a good view, Dierdre took us 4-wheeling over rocks and ruts – this Land Rover could handle anything. As we got closer, Dierdre warned us to not make any sudden movements and to make sure we moved slowly. It seems that the aggressive nature of the buffalo often caused them to charge anything, event the trucks. So, we got within 10 yards or so, good enough for great pictures and to observe them.

We continued onward, viewing a variety of animals along the way. Soon enough, sunset was upon us. Another perfect sunset in a once foreign feeling place that had become more like home, like the place where visions are realized and where the sight of a sunset can bring forth a sense of wonder we seem to lose as part of living our everyday lives.

Tonight's cocktail hour was special in that it was Erica’s birthday. As we arrived at our sunset viewing point, we found a few of the staff there with lanterns and chairs set up for perfect sunset viewing. A small table had been set up with snacks and the bar on it. And champagne was popped as we arrived. What a perfect surprise for a birthday and one not soon to be forgotten. After hanging out for 30 minutes, we were on our way again, this time for the lion hunt.

As it was dark, the lions were on the move, and so we were. We were headed toward a pride that had been spotted earlier. In constant communication with another truck, they had found the pride as they were heading straight toward us. Dierdre quickly left the road and we found ourselves driving through the bush toward a place they should be walking toward. We saw the other truck in the distance, its headlights and spotlight shining our way.

And then it was lights out! And Dierdre cut our engine. And dead silence. With nothing but the sound of the bush as a backdrop, the excitement (and a bit of tension) was palable. We had no idea what to expect. A quick flash of the floodlight by Themba, and then it’s there. A lion….no more than 50 feet away. A quick follow and then it’s lights out again. As Themba continued to flash his light, we found at least 8 more lion, gently walking right across our path.

As they moved, we moved, always getting out in front of them for a (ahem) killer view – pun intended. So we had many shots of them as they stalked.

According to Dierdre, this was their stalk. They continued to walk, sensing for prey through sight, smell, sound. As they continued their walk, Themba shined his light elsewhere and uncovered eyes – Impala eyes! We were going to be part of a kill!

Then it was lights out for good. It wasn’t fair to give either animal an advantage. So we waited. It was quiet, and dark. And lions were everywhere. And there we sat in our truck, like little prey. We were told not to talk and not to move. This was a little scary.

Dierdre told us to listen for sounds….and then we heard it, the sound of running. Of dead grass rustling. Of branches being bent. Sometimes you can hear the crunch as the neck breaks. But there was no crunch. No roaring. No sounds of a struggle. The impala had escaped.

Exhilerated (and a bit disappointed) we began tracking the lions again and ran through the entire cycle. Impalas = 2, Lions = 0.

We headed back toward the road and continued on our nighttime journey through the bush.

Mountain Biking In The Bush? You Bet!

Upon our arrival back to camp, Dierdre asked if any us wanted to do anything else like Mountain Bike, archery, etc. I really wanted to experience the bush on bike. No one else on the truck did. So Dierdre and I made a plan to hook up at 10:30. She and I would bike and Themba would follow in the trucks with the rifle – no lie.

After some breakfast (we literally ate 6 times a day – three meals and three snack times), I relaxed for a bit in the room and then headed back to the lodge to meet Dierdre and Themba. We took off right from the lodge and biked. That plan was to be out for an hour as at that time the temperature was over 90 degrees. We ended up biking about 13km with Dierdre tiring out and trading with Themba, then later they switched back again.

It was hot! And it was tough work! But we pedaled through it. I got the chance to learn more about Dierdre and how they lived life in the bush. Beyond all the training I mentioned earlier, they work for 6 weeks straight, then have 2 weeks off. They live about 20 minutes away from the lodge in a little village of 164 people who work at both Sweni lodge and Lebombo. They are a mix of people from different parts of Africa – some from the city and some from local villages around Kruger including many who are Shangaan tribe as mentioned earlier.

Themba learned how to do what he does from living in the village his whole life. It was their way of living and those skills are passed from generation to generation.

As for the animals, we got up and close to zebras, giraffes and lots of impalas. But the animals were less used to bikes than they were the trucks. So for the most part, the animals were skittish around the bikes and tended to run off as we approached. Nonetheless, it was a different type of experience in traveling through the bush.

As we bicycled home, the last leg was up a hill for a good 10 minutes all the way back to the lodge. Not much but in the 90 degree heat, it was brutal. It took a 45 minutes to sort of cool down including a 15 minutes soak in cool water.

I later learned that I was the toughest mountain biker they had ever had (usually they take out families and kids) and later that day, many of the staff basically told me that they heard I “kicked Dierdre’s ass” mountain biking.

Morning Game Drive – Rhinos and Zebras and Owls Oh My!

It was a gorgeous morning as always. At 5:30am, it’s not horribly hot yet. Very pleasant as a matter of fact. We headed out today on a broad tour of the concession, looking for all kinds of things including any one of the four prides of lions that call the concession home. I think this is the day we’ll see all types of creatures big and small.

First up – an owl of some sort. I don’t want to minimize it since it was beautiful in its own right but I don't remember which type of owl it was. In fact, it was quite young given how furry it still was, molting its feathers as it came into adulthood.

Birds were all over the place and some of the most beautiful birds I’ve ever seen. They were hard to capture however without an extreme telephoto lens. If there was one regret about the trip, it’s that I didn’t buy a better camera to capture the animals close up. But next time!

Next up, on the side of the road, a big pile of dung. And that means dung beetles! I think these things are amazing and there at least six varieties digging through the pile of dung. Here’s the deal – they get up on two legs and roll the dung into a ball. They then deposit their larvae into the dung ball and bury the dung ball in the ground. The larvae then feed off the dung ball, and finally emerge as little dung beetles. This one was about 1.5 inches long and we learned that this was all over our room last night! You can see them in action in the video -- look at the earth "breathe" -- that's all dung beetles burrowing in shit!



Same as last night, these things would power up, then slowly take off and fly -- imagine...a 2.0" x 1.5" flying hard insect with dung all over it! Even better
was watching these things land. Since they were so heavy they would come flying toward the dung pile, then crash land into it since they couldn't slow down enough to land and sustain their weight at the same time.

Themba then helped us spot a white rhino mother and baby. We learned that a lot of babies of all types were born within the past couple of months so we should expect to see more. These Rhino really were quite stunning and something right out of Jurassic Park.

We continued on, finding other animals along the way. By 9am the sun was high in the sky and blazing hot, yet we continued on with the wind keeping us somewhat cool under our khakis and hats.

As we continued driving, we would hear a slight buzz that would get progressively louder until, sort of like the buzzing under electrical wires along telephone poles. Turns our they were cicadas, just not the 17 year kind like we have in the states. But just two cicadas calling to each other could be heard over the roar of the truck and just became a constant din.

Enough of the game drive, we're heading back to the lodge for breakfast!

Daybreak

Day 5 – November 23, 2008
We awoke early. Like 3:30 early. I’m sure it is still a bit of jet lag that wreaking havoc with our senses. I tried to go back to bed, which I was semi-successful at, but being father north than Joburg and even farther east, it seemed only a matter of minutes before the sky started getting lighter. And although the bedroom part of the room had a wraparound blackout curtain, it wrapped around 90 percent and left a doorway-sized opening that conveniently was where the sun rose, allowing perfect passage to shine on my face.

So, I slept on and off for the next 1.5 hours, covering my head with the blankets, turning away from the sun and doing my best Dracula impression to avoid that brightness rising from the horizon.

At 5am the wake up call comes. I unlatch the door, and step out onto the deck. The sun is beautiful, a giant orange ball casting an orange juice colored hue across the N’wanetsi river and Lembombo as it rapidly ascends. Savoring the view, I breathe deeply, inhaling the intoxication that is Africa and the experience that I’m having, relishing it’s ability to transform one’s mind.

Back inside, I’m excited at the prospect of what the day brings so it’s a quick brush of the teeth, donning of the sun cream as they call it here and heading toward the lodge to meet up with Dierdre for coffee, tea, and some light snacks before heading out.

One of the snacks is African Rusk. It’s sort of like biscotti only not as hard – kind of a flaky crunch. It’s baked like a sheet cake, then cut into bite sized squares and is really hard to describe the taste. It’s perfect for dunking in coffee!

Dierdre gives us the game plan for the day and we head to the truck.

BUGS!

We arrived back at the lodge to our trio of Catherine’s (there were three "hostesses" that were our point people for anything and everything we needed -- Catherine, Cathryn and Kate) there to greet us with cool wet cloths in that delicious lavender/citrus scent. After wiping our faces, we headed back to our rooms.

But since it was after darkness, we weren’t allowed to “walk the plank” alone. We had to have a night porter lead us anytime after dark since it was the bush, and animals lurked in the bush. And any animal could be there waiting to pounce if need be. This is a daytime shot of the plank but it gives you an idea of how it's situated and this is only a portion of it that we had to walk.

We arrived back at our room to find the bed had been turned down, the mosquito netting had been lowered and the entire place warmly lit.

And then we noticed it. A huge beetle took flight from the table in front of us. This thing sounded like a buzzing bee times 10 in terms of sound. It was like watching in slow motion as the thing powered up, slowly got airborne, then flew. It was bizarre. As we looked around, more bugs had been attracted to the light. And then our eyes were drawn to the floor where we found at least 20 more beetles, ready to create a buzzing nightmare.

Needless to say that Mike, the bug-o-phobe wasn't really digging the Africa experience at that point but he was a good sport about it all.

The whole scene reminded me of that Travelocity commercial where the family books a great vacation online with another website, then wakes up in the middle of the night to find their entire mosquito netting teeming with bugs.

We took showers, got changed, then called the night porter to take us to dinner.

We also alerted the Catherines about our bug issue and Marty and Matt said they didn't have the issue. Catherine explained that so many factors could have caused the bugs. From that moment on, we arrived back at our room each night to a very dimly lit, bug-free environment.

Dinner, and every meal was amazing. We meet Edward who was to take care of us for all of our meals -- similar to your guide and tracker, the philosophy at Singita was to connect you with your team of people who were going to take care of every aspect of the trip for you, and that creates a bond between the employees and the guests. We pretty much had the same night porter, housekeeping team, tracker, guide, waiter, bartender, etc. throughout the entire trip.

For every meal, you ordered from a menu. But you ordered whatever you wanted. Since all meals were included, you just did your thing whenever and however you wanted to, 24 hours a day. If it wasn't on the menu, then they'd make it for you. I love that!

Exhausted (remember, we had arisen at 5am that same morning and left the comfort of the Saxon in Joburg), we ate dinner and returned back to our room at 10:45 to find all the bugs had been swept away and the room cleared. We fell into bed, knowing that we had to awake at 5:00 the next morning.

Things that go bump in the night

As late day settled into twilight, Dierdre pulled the truck over in a clearing and asked everyone to get out for some snacks and cocktails. Out of the back of the truck came coolers full of wine, beer, ice and liquor for mixed drinks. And then three tins full of snacks – are we’re not talking chips and pretzels. We had vegetarian sushi rolls, small squares of toast with grilled springbok (a version of venison) and other stuff on it, and fresh fruit kabobs. Simply delicious and amazing.

After the quick cleanup, it was now dark. But the next show was about to begin as we would continue on our game drive for another two hours. Themba was given a spotlight by Dierdre and as she began to drive, he would move the spotlight back and forth 180 degrees, side-scanning in a straight arc but scanning up and down trees as well. The picture doesn't do it justice but you can see how far the spotlight reached. He was looking for eyes. Since most nocturnal creatures have special eyes that allow them to see at night, it also means there’s some type of reflective part of the eye that allows it to stand out among just about anything. It was these reflections that Themba was looking for. Themba was so experienced, he could identify what type of animal it was just by seeing the reflection of the eyes – and it could be hundreds of yards away. Themba's scanning was constant, like some science fiction cyborg robot - he had this uncanny ability to see peripherally without moving his head.

One of the more interesting things that Themba came across was a 10 foot tall bush with all green leaves except one yellowish leaf. That was enough for Themba to stop Dierdre and then she saw it too. She stopped the truck, got out and pulled a 8 inch long chameleon from the branch, resting it on her shoulder. The chameleon immediately turned dark brown/grey in anger as it was angry, Dierdre told us. After all of us got a chance to see, she put it back on the branch and we continued on our journey.

Now dark for over an hour, there not only was relief from the intense heat and sun, but it was quickly becoming cooler, where a jacket or blanket was needed.

As we continued our drive, Themba did a backward sort of scan and found something that was going to look pretty bizarre - a hippo out of water. Seems they only come out of the water at night to feed and we spotted one, covered in wetness -- a sort of sticky secretion that I can't remember what the purpose of it was. The hippo just stood there, almost deer in the headlights style with it's head hung low. It was almost as if it was saying, "If I don't move, and avert my eyes, then these people won't see me." Although we were shining the spotlight on it, it didn't budge. As we drove on we found two other hippos out of the water as well.

It was after 8pm as we made our way back to the lodge to get cleaned up before dinner after what turned out to be an exhilarating first game drive.

The First Game Drive

As Stefan drove us out to meet our truck, we prattled along on a dirt road through the bush. Sometimes wide open, sometimes running through thick brush, we soon learned more about the diversity of the some 60,000 hectares of land that comprised the Singita Lebombo and Singita Sweni land concession. All told however, there were only 42 guests staying in 21 rooms between the two lodges, so it would be rare to see another truck on the roads while on game drives. Kind of nice.

We soon hooked up with our truck and Themba (Tem-ba) our tracker and Deirdre our guide. Also in the truck were Erica and Kitt from Washington DC on their honeymoon, then Mike and I are our friends Matt and Marty who we were traveling with jumped from one truck to the other. The trucks are Land Rovers with tiered seating in three rows so everyone has great views and plenty of room as each row seats three although only two people actually sit per row. It was like being in a moving stadium seat. As customary in South Africa, drivers sit on the right. On the left front of the vehicle just in front of the hood was Themba’s seat, situated right out in front so he could track – and track he did – something so amazing that the only way to believe it is to see it first person.

Themba’s job was to look for signs of where animals may have been or where they are going. He does this by looking at tracks on the ground, in the brush, how fresh the animal’s dung is, what animals may be traveling together and more. At times we would be traveling along a road at 20mph and Themba would point to the left. Deirdre would stop, back up a bit and then it would become apparent what Themba had seen – a baboon 100 yards away in the shadows, an owl hiding in the branches or a tree, hippos 500 yards away – truly amazing in the daytime. His ability to find animals at night dumbfounded all of us over and over.

Deirdre was the resident guide. She drove and serve as the Julie McCoy of the trip making sure everyone was comfortable. More importantly, she worked hand in hand with Themba and then educated us. She had gone to school for a related field, then throughout her career had received certifications in all kinds of subject matter related to her job. We would later learn that she knew of geology, plant life, animal life, astronomy, and more. There never really was a question that she couldn’t answer. She, like Themba, astounded us over and over again.

Driving along, the terrain was simply astounding. The afternoon sun was incredibly hot but began casting beautiful shadows on anything it hit. This shot is the epitomy of Lebombo. Rocky outcroppings along the ridge, full of beautiful boulders -- I'll spare you the Lion King references but it was humorous that a lot of us used them to describe what we were feeling, thinking and feeling initially (that's like Pumba from the Lion King (to describe a wildebeast), that's the kind of place that the lions would live, etc.). Dierdre was a good sport about it all and said she's heard that a million times. What novices we were.

Until we started seeing some really dramatic animals like a journey of giraffe (as a group of them is known). What a beautiful site and so hard to put into the right context when all you've ever seen are animals in a zoo. Impalas are everwhere. They are like the deer of the bush. Skittish and more often in groups of 10-15, but sometimes in groups of up to 50, they were amazing when we spooked them enough to get them moving. Their ability to bound is dramatic and graceful and beautiful.