Last weekend... for a while

I can't believe these 3 months have gone so quickly; I leave Cape Town this Friday for SF for 2 weeks at home.

A quick run down of my last weekend starts with tennis at sunset below the 12 Apostles (the back of Table Mountain) Friday evening. Saturday, I surfed with Garth, a local who showed me around - I'm definitely bringing my wetsuit back with me - and a drive up the west coast past Blouberg to watch the sunset and take some pictures of Table Mountain.

Sunday morning, I hiked Lion's Head at sunrise, which summits above the clouds - beautiful - followed by an afternoon of surfing. I got home just in time to watch the sunset at Clifton.

The only downside of the weekend was Monday morning's news; there were 15 muggings on Table Mountain over the weekend and 7 on Lions Head. That will be the end of my solo hiking...

Safari - Day 3 and 4

Day 3 (this reminds me of ELC writings!) kicked off with another early wake up call from our friendly ranger, Dale. Some of us felt better than the others; clearly the elephants have a little more body weight to help absorb some of the Amarula… We had another great drive with plenty of game and the highlight being watching a bull elephant push over a tree – it’s an amazing feat! The capability of an animal so big is fascinating – check out how he locks in his back legs for power! Little educational side note: elephants use their tusks to get to the food under the bark of trees or they just push the tree over and eat the roots. They can actually be destructive to the ecosystems and kill too many trees – interesting how before humans had the ability to control where the elephants roamed, nature seemed to more or less take care of itself – now there are efforts to ‘protect areas’ from the elephants. We also saw the same pride of 7 lions (including our blue-eyed friend) again, and they were lying less than 100 yards from where we had taken our morning walk on the previous day. Realizing how close we may have been is more than a little unnerving…

After the morning drive, we went for a morning hike in search of zebras as we hadn’t seen any yet – but all we found were fresh tracks, giraffe bones, elephant watering holes, and hair from a hyena that had been carried up a tree by a cheetah. We packed our things and after writing our notes in their gigantic guest book (largest book I have seen in my life), we left Lukimbi for Idube, the sister lodge. We had been told it would take us 2-3 hours to drive through Kruger and then another 20 minutes outside the park to Idube, which is within Sabi Sands. We had hoped to spend all 3 nights at Lukimbi but due to availability, we (Herman) booked us at Idube. In retrospect and such as life, it all worked out. The drive through Kruger is not to be missed. It is fun to take on the responsibility of finding the animals on your own. Along the drive, we saw impala (of course), elephants, giraffes, rhinos, wildebeests, warthogs, monkeys, and …zebras! After 5 hours, we found ourselves in the same boat as we had been in two days ago and rushing along dicey roads in order to make it in time for the evening game drive (ah, the beauty of rental cars). We called ahead and they said that we’d be sorted when we got there. Quite the relief because at one point, we came around a corner and a HUGE rhino was in the road and we had to wait until it got far enough from the road to prevent provoking it into turning our car into a top for afternoon entertainment.

Idube’s location within Sabi Sand makes it an entirely different than Lukimbi, which is on a concession within Kruger National Park. The different game parks in Sabi Sand have an alliance and share information regarding the movement of the animals and various sightings. On that evening’s drive, the highlights were a herd of water buffalo, sleepy lions (they had a successful hippo kill the previous day and were roly poly with bellies full of hippo), and finally a cheetah. By the time we found the cheetah, it was past dusk and he was walking along a dry creek bed. It was as if he didn’t know we were there – even with our spotlight on him. There were 2 of our Land Rovers there and we were actually driving alongside of him. His gait was beautiful and majestic. At one point, he said down and we stopped alongside him; there were literally only a few feet between him and our vehicle. He definitely could have walked into the woods on either side of the creek bed (which he eventually did) to escape our staring eyes, but I felt as if we were intruding. Lukimbi in Kruger Park is more my style; it’s hard to put in words and I’m glad I experienced both styles of safaris.

Following the drive, it was time for dinner. Dinner at Idube is outdoors and there are tables set up circling a campfire. Every chair had a blanket and I wrapped myself up and enjoyed a fabulous dinner of kingclip. Exhausted from the long day and in anticipation of the early wake-up call, we returned to our beautiful rooms for our last night in the bush.

Monday morning’s game drive was our final drive and featured a herd of 20+ elephants and a giraffe kill. The entire trip, I had been fascinated with the idea of seeing a kill. Now, I’m struggling with sharing it. Upon returning to Cape Town, it wasn’t something that I included in my recap with friends. While we were watching the elephants (and at one time getting too close a bull elephant trumpeted and stomped towards us a few meters until our ranger revved the engine and then backed away – again, I felt as though we were antagonizing), our ranger received word that a baby giraffe had been attacked by hyenas. We drove for 20 minutes (seeing Virgin Atlantic’s Richard Branson’s impressive lodge en route) and came upon the noticeably distressed mom giraffe in the road. The baby had been attacked and was lying in the grass 15 yards away. 4 heynas were circling but wouldn’t go near the baby with her still in the vicinity as a giraffe kick could bring their laughs to a quick end. The entire trip, I had wanted to see a giraffe drinking water as they look quite goofy reaching for the ground. Unfortunately, I saw this stance as the mom would stretch down to muzzle her injured baby. The baby would go into shakes and the mom would stomp her foot – not on the baby but sometimes she’d get its leg. I don’t know if this was a recognition that the baby was suffering? Then she would walk away and look to the baby; in my head, it looked like she was ready to leave but wanted her little one to get up and leave with her. As she increased the distance between her and her baby (up to 20 yards, the hyenas would get closer to the baby. Then she would circle back and the hyenas would recede. You have no idea how much I wanted the mom to give a good kick to the hyenas when they would laugh. Finally, the mom distanced herself enough for the hyenas to begin their feast – remembering the sounds makes my stomach turn.

I left Idube with a broadened perception of ‘circle of life’. Both in seeing the hyenas and giraffe and seeing impalas and other animals in proximity to lions and wild dogs. In my head (without ever really thinking it through I guess), I imagined that the impalas that survived had never crossed the path of an animal higher on the food chain. I learned that they aren’t quite the sitting ducks as I had previously believed.

We packed up at Idube and made our way back to the Nelspruit airport for our flight to Cape Town via Johannesburg. Candice and Susanne left us in Johannesburg for their excursion to a diamond mine while Patricia and I headed back to Cape Town. It was definitely a weekend of a lifetime.

Safari - Day 2

The second day at Lukimbi started with our 5:45am wake up call from Dale. We bundled up and walked from our hut (if you can call them that – see the picture of the bedroom and bathroom – we also had our very own patio and a private outdoor shower…) to the main lodge where coffee was waiting. We loaded into the Land Rover and set off. Words do not do the animals justice so I’ll keep it brief – or at least try!

Our first sighting was the rare black rhino; they differ from their cousin (the white rhino) in the shape of their mouth – it has nothing to do with their coloring, just a confused translation (we’re told the word wide was mistranslated to white).

Next was a family of 5 giraffes when Dale heard from another ranger (from Lukimbi on the radio) that a pack of wild dogs (aka spotted wolves) had been found – another very rare animal in Kruger. Our friends here are surprised when they see our pictures because many people who have taken multiple safari trips have never seen wild dogs. The morning drive also included white rhino, numerous impala, kudu, elephants, and a puff header - an extremely venomous snake. Unfortunately for him, he became intimate with the tires before Dale could stop.

After the drive, we ate breakfast (think 5 star hotel quality) and then went on a walk in the bush. Walks are meant to allow for guests to learn more about the vegetation, smaller game, and of course about the different footprints and droppings. We got lucky and walked up on 2 white rhinos. White rhinos are nearly blind and depend on their sense of smell and hearing. It was quite windy and we were pretty close before they heard us and trotted off. Next we saw a couple giraffes in the distance – and then 3 bull elephants. They started making our way towards us so we turned around and headed the other direction to keep a safe distance. We ended up finding again and were sandwiched the white rhinos between the two while trying to keep safety cushions. Eventually the rhinos heard us and trotted away again. Dale and his sidekick, Roger (? funny I don’t remember his name as well) showed us the way to spit some dropping – supposedly it’s big competition in the bush but we resisted the urge to participate.

Back at Lukimbi, our afternoon was rounded out with lunch and massages. Before we knew it was time for our evening game drive. The Italian family of 3 had left that day and we now had Dale and our spotter, Doc, to ourselves. It made for interesting conversation along the way. That drive helped add two new animals to our list: a crocodile and a cheetah. Counting the glimpse of a water buffalo as we were racing to the wild dogs that morning, we had seen ‘the big five’.

That evening, we had a candlelit dinner outdoors with plenty of game to choose from: crocodile, kudu, and ostrich to name a few. Dale joined us for dinner and then entertained us with his bartending skills, introducing us to the ‘nutty elephant’ which is made with Amarula. Amarula is a liquor made from a tree known to locals as the elephant tree because the elephants like its berries so much – smart elephants. Then Dale escorted us on our walk home - here's a picture of the walk back to the huts during the daylight. And finally, a picture of dusk - with some impala scattered near the tree.

Safari! Aug 3-6

August was kicked off with a trip of a lifetime – the standard keeps going up and I don’t know how I’m going to beat that one. Even the events leading up to our departure were eventful. Due to a school holiday in South Africa, when it finally came time to book for the weekend, all Patricia and I could find were full lodges or those that were over $500 per person per night. Lucky for us, one of our South African teammates grew up close to Kruger National Park, which is the largest game reserve in the country, roughly the size of Massachusetts. To make a dreadfully long story short, being South African, Herman finagled reservations for us at 2 amazing sister lodges at the local price, which is significantly lower than the tourist price! Unfortunately for Herman, he had to make the payment and it took 3 weeks and numerous phone calls to both a Chicago bank and a South African bank to get the money transferred. He actually didn’t receive a confirmation of the wire until after we were already enjoying the safari!

Anyway, we (Patricia, Susanne, Candice, and I) left on Friday morning and flew to Nelspruit via Johannesburg; immediately were pleased with the warmer weather as the cold and wet weather of winter had returned to Cape Town. After a quick snack at the airport, we picked up our rental car and set out for Lukimbi, the lodge within Kruger which we would call home for the first two nights. Within 10 minutes of entering the park, we spied our first treat – a giraffe noshing away at some trees alongside the road. It’s captivating seeing these wild animals so close. While we probably could have stayed and watched for hours, we needed to arrive at Lukimbi by 4pm for our afternoon game drive – and the speed limit within the park is 40 km/hr on the gravel roads. We continued on and soon realized we were pushing our 4pm deadline. Resisting the urge to stop for all the sightings (impala are everywhere!), we hurried to Lukimbi and although we were about 10 minutes late, we were shuttled in the open Land Rover to meet our guide for the week, Dale. The pictures along this story are from our first game drive – what a welcome!! More soon but it’s past my bedtime and I’m going to try to be at the top of Lions Head for sunrise!

an old friend

This is my friend from shark diving a few weeks ago; Amy went and visited him today and he told her he missed me...

Seriously, this is a picture of a print from our underwater 35mm. The quality is diminished and it's still this crazy!!

Anyone who comes to visit: I want to go visit the sharks again!!