The next morning (at 5:25 am), as I was brushing my teeth, I saw a frog hopping on the floor by the side of my bed. It surprised me at first but I left it alone as I was out the door anyway and I was confident it would find its way out of my room by the time I got back.
This morning was an important one aside from being on a safari. I was scheduled to register for fall classes at midnight Eastern Standard Time which works out to be 6 o’clock am in South Africa. We were scheduled to leave for the safari at 6 o’clock but I cleared it with Ben and the family that we could leave 10 minutes late. Unfortunately it actually took more like 25 minutes because the computer, (there is only one) was working terribly slowly and, as all things like this go, there were a few things that I have to do before I could plug in the classes. Aside from finishing later than I planned, my pre-registration went relatively smoothly. There was only one problem and while it is still pending, I am confident that it will work itself out soon.
After being concerned the past few days about whether or not I would be able to register at the lodge, I was glad it was finally submitted; I could put it behind me and focus on the safari. We first encountered two buffalo in a place very similar to the dogs the day before. They were lying down and seemed like they would stay that way for a while but eventually one of them got up to rub his back and neck on some branches. He actually became pretty agitated by what was on his back and the other one got up to see what was going on. They both became increasingly more active running up and down the drainage line. At one point we were only about 10 yards away from them and it was pretty intense. Before running up the hill through a couple of trees (literally, they ran into and through the trees) one of them stopped about 15 yards away and stared up down. The animal looked pissed off and mean and I was sure something was going to happen. Instead, he followed his companion and went into the heavy bush.
Our second major encounter was the king of the jungle. We had found two lion brothers hanging out under a tree. They were awake but they were about 30 yards away, and with the tale grass we couldn’t quite see both of there faces. It was pretty cool, but everybody wanted them to get up and do something other than take a nap. When another jeep arrived, we were on our way. (the reserve tries not to have more than 3 jeeps in the same area). After getting a safe distant away from the lions we decided to stop for coffee and hot chocolate near a herd of zebra and a few waterbuck. We weren’t too close to them but it was not a bad way to spend our break.
After a few minor sightings of nyala, wildebeest, and rhino we went back to the lions to see if they had done anything. In fact they had. They moved themselves much closer to the road and they were both in full view. We sat with them for a while. The family was kind of freaking out though as we were only about 10 yards away from them and they needed Ben to assure them multiple times that they were safe.
We headed back to the lodge shortly after the lions went to sleep. I went for the homemade cereal again for breakfast and we were set for our second walking tour by about 10:30. This time, two members of the family, mother and son, joined Ben and I. Instead of walking close to the lodge like yesterday, Jack drove us about 2 kilometers into the bush and we would walk our way back to the lodge.
Again, the walking the safari is a completely different experience. You hardly see any big game but if you look or listen closely, you find life bustling. Ben elaborated on a lot of the different types of vegetation that we were walking through, including how the local shangaan people use them for medicinal and therapeutic purposes. We also saw many more insects including a number of those giants spiders that we came across yesterday. After about 20 minutes, Ben took us deeper into the bush where we “found” elephant bones. These bones were absolutely massive and because elephants have very little marrow in their bones, they were extremely heavy. In the last twenty minutes we finally encountered some big game on foot. There were some wildebeest about 40 yards away hiding under some shade for the sun (it turned out to be a much more typical hot African day). We also saw the two buffalo that we came across that morning. Wildebeest are harmless and will just run away. Buffalo on the other hand, will charge you and as soon as Ben saw them he immediately became very alert, his gun was cocked and ready and he made sure that we stayed behind him. The buffalo were about 60 meters away and they hadn’t even noticed we were there so Ben may have just been putting on a show. Ben and I wanted to get closer to them but he said that the wind wasn’t in our favor and that based on there behavior this morning it wasn’t worth the risk. All in all the walking safaris were a tranquil experience and you felt much more in touch with what was going on around you.
No comments:
Post a Comment