Off on Safari

OMG is the only way I can think of to describe being on safari.

After a delayed flight, and a long day of travel we arrived at Hoedspruit (pronounced Hood Sprite). I was worried about being on a small plane to Victoria Falls which turned out to be unfounded, but my worry was founded on this flight. The plane was a Bombardier Q400 prop plane which required a bus trip out to the tarmac. Luggage size, however, was not a problem. The plane was similar to the ones we had taken many times from Vancouver to Victoria.

Getting off the plane in Hoedspruit, we found our transfer guy and went to get our luggage. There is no luggage carousel in this part of the country. They piled everything into the back of a minivan and a trailer and brought it around to the parking lot for us to claim.

Just a few miles from the airport our van had to stop as a large bull elephant crossed the road in front of us.

After a reasonably long drive

from the airport to our safari camp, on what can only be defined as off-roading in a street vehicle, we arrived at Simbavati Hilltop Lodge in the Timbavati Game Reserve. The evening game drive had headed out about 30 mins before we arrived but they suggested we head out to join them. So glad we did.

We climbed into a safari vehicle that accommodated 10 passengers and joined a couple from Australia, Duffy, and Rosalind, who were on their last day of safari. Our driver/guide Colbert, and tracker, Derrick, advised the no #1 rule - which is - don’t stand up as you may cause an animal to then see you as a threat.

At first, we encountered the numerous impala that seemed to be everywhere. We stopped at a waterhole beside the vehicle path and were fortunate to see a herd of elephants coming to get a drink and to cool off with mud baths. We came across Kudu, giraffes, warthogs, wildebeests and finally found an elusive Water Buffalo that had eluded them for days. Colbert advised that he trusts most of the Big 5 animals but not the Water Buffalo. Still, we were very close to him. During the safari, we saw lots of various birds including the African equivalent of a Bald Eagle.

Towards dusk, we stopped at a large lake that had several hippos and crocodiles swimming. It was "Sundowner" time and we parked beside the edge of the water and watched the hippos swim towards us to check us out. Our guides brought out a portable picnic table and served cocktails and ostrich meat hors-d'oeuvres. It doesn’t get much better than this as we watched an absolutely gorgeous sunset in Africa.

Back to our luxury tent at the lodge to get changed and an amazing 3-course dinner by candlelight. We could hear the hippos snorting

around us as they came up on the land to graze around the lodge at night.

Our accommodation was a luxury tent including a very private outdoor shower and a separate bathroom. We had to make sure we kept all the doors locked as once again the baboons will get in and steal things.

We were not allowed to walk the outdoor path to our room after dark and had to be escorted back and forth for dinner. I asked the escort if he has ever encountered an animal in this process and he said that the previous week he came across a lion. Apparently a few days previously, guests had to be accommodated somewhere else when an elephant blocked the path to their room. I am sure I will get used to it, but the thought of walking across the 6 feet of open space (where the outdoor shower is) between the bedroom and bathroom during the night was frightening. I waited until Geoff was up and had unlocked the doors and turned on lights before trying that.

Day 2

We received a wake-up call at 5 am to head out on safari at 5:30. As we walked from our tent to the main lodge area, we could hear the hippos somewhere around us. A quick coffee/juice and a cookie and we were off in our vehicle. This AM we were joined by a lady from the Los Angeles area, Leslie and her private tour guide, Cameron, from Johannesburg.

Our first encounter was with a family of baboons getting fruit out of a Marula tree. The baboons are considerably larger than the ones we saw in Cape Town. A large bull elephant decided he also wanted the fruit from the tree but since he couldn’t climb the tree he shook it with

his trunk to get the fruit to fall to the ground. The baboons won’t let us get close to them but the elephant was not far away. Next, we watched as a large herd of impala ran and jumped back and forth in front of us. Apparently, that is their form of exercise and also signals to the males that mating season is about to start.

Our guide spotted fresh leopard and hyena tracks and in the process of following them came across lion tracks so we followed them. We quickly came across a pride of lions. We drove quite close to them as they headed towards a waterhole. A couple of young lions were climbing a tree and another young one climbed a termite ant hill providing a great viewing spot for him and ourselves. Amazing.

In our drive, we saw different kinds of what I would call, the equivalent of deer or antelopes. I couldn’t catch or write down the names of all of them as we drive along bumpy paths. We came across a number of giraffes hanging out with zebras and waterbucks. The Kudo antelope are huge and majestic. We were in search of Rhinoceros on our way back to camp when we come across a Mother and baby!

By the end of our second game drive, we had already seen 4 of the Big 5. Elephant, Water Buffalo, Lions, and Rhinoceros. Only the Leopard left to find.

We headed back to the lodge for wonderful breakfast.

It was reasonably warm for the morning game drive. I was advised to bring a fleece sweater but didn’t need it. Geoff wore shorts and the only reason I wore long pants was to reduce the possibility of insect bites. We both just wore our safari shirts as a warmth layer and didn’t need that after about 7:30 when the sun got high enough. Apparently, at the start of winter, it will be 5 or 6 degrees in the morning and a high in the mid-20s during the day.

I can understand why the animals rest during the day though. The temperature was in the mid-30s and all we did was rest, read, and swim in the infinity pool to cool off. Lots of beer from the bar and a wonderful lunch are conducive for napping. In the river beside the lodge, a herd of elephants appeared from the bush and swam across the river.

3:30 PM is high tea, basically drinks and a snack before heading out on safari again at 4 pm. It is very hot until about 5:30 when it starts to get a little cooler.

We got a new tracker today, Denver. Our previous tracker, Derrick, had to leave suddenly to go visit his brother who has been bitten by a King Cobra snake and has been taken to the local hospital.

We passed some hippos relaxing in the river near us, and lots of impalas, and small deer, as well as Kudo. We spotted a couple of large male rhinos passing by in the brush. They had clearly been having a mud bath earlier to cool off.

The landscape we drove through was mostly small shrub trees and occasionally some large ones. They are either acacia trees or marula trees. A lot of the tall trees are either dead or knocked over by elephants. Apparently, the elephants like the bark of the acacia tree and they will take strips off the bark and eventually it dies. If left standing, the tree is a great perch for birds. Many times the trees are just knocked over by the elephants.

Our game drive does not have as many animal sightings as the night before but we have another wonderful sunset "Sundowner" event out

in the wild before heading home in the dark for dinner.

Dinner that night is called a Boma. Our tables were set up around a large campfire and we enjoyed traditional South African BBQ under the Southern Cross, Orion and Milky Way. The stars were magnificent without any city lights nearby.

I had a better night sleep as I was getting used to the animals being around but not threatening. In the morning we were advised there were fresh lion tracks outside our tent.

Day 3

Another 5 AM wake up call, a quick snack and we are off on Safari again. We were lucky that the weather was fantastic.

This morning we started by crossing the river and viewing hippos back in the water for the day. They only come out on land to eat during the day. Hyenas walked across our path and the guide could hear wild dogs apparently calling each other to chase them. After a wild fast ride around the reserve to try to keep up with the hyenas and possibly see the wild dogs we came across a young male hyena who has tired from being chased and was just sitting in the middle of the path. We watched him for awhile and then had to shoe him off to continue along the path. As we were about to cross the riverbed we saw a Waterbuck on high alert and looking towards the river bed. We headed down there, and there were 3 hyenas checking out what they could find to eat. They walked right beside the vehicle and didn’t seem too concerned about us.

Our guide was radioed by the other lodge guide that they had found fresh leopard tracks and would like us to help find her. So off we went in another direction to find the last of the Big 5. We stopped to see a few elephants just grazing on the road beside us. There was a crew out on the road that was nailing cans filled with creosote to the acacia trees to try to save some of them from the elephants. The elephants will avoid the tree as they can't stand the smell.

We arrived in the area where the leopard had been spotted. There were a few other safari vehicles as well and we caught a brief glimpse of the leopard. Our guide decided to do whatever it takes so that we could see her up close and it was a “hold on for dear life” ride that would rival an amusement park ride. We went up and down ravines and right over small trees in pursuit. Poor Denver, as he was hanging out the front of the vehicle trying to keep an eye on the leopard and point out the best route for the driver to get around, and through trees. There were lots of calls of “look out for branches “ and “get down” to avoid them. We were successful and got to watch the

female leopard just before she passed into the boundary of the next game reserve. There are heavy fines if the guides pass from their private reserve into another. With 65000 hectares we have more than enough area to find all kinds of wildlife.

We followed up our exciting ride with a morning coffee break beside the same lake where we had our first sundowner. The same hippos and crocodiles were there to watch.

We then headed back home for breakfast and a shower.

As I was typing up my notes on the private lounge bed outside our tent, a couple of deer grazed nearby and a very ugly warthog was just outside the railing. I could hear loud noises down at the river and expected an elephant to come walking by. The bird calls are amazing and one sounded like the ring of my cell phone. Perhaps that is where it came from. A couple of eagles were soaring overhead.

Another afternoon of lunch and relaxation before our drive at 4 pm. The temperature is 33 with a real feel of 41. Hot!

On the evening game drive, we were in search of a hyena den where there was a young pup. The hyena has taken over an old termite mound and dug out the corridors for her young one to hide. I thought the ant hills we saw in the fields from Cape Town to Pretoria were big, but the termite hills here are gigantic. Most of them taller than a person. Many of them in oddly shaped pyramids. Most of them are beside trees and I assumed it was because the termites were eating the trees. Apparently, the termites can’t eat the healthy tree and often the tree will grow out of the anthill because it is rich in nutrients.

The hyenas were, as Colbert said, “playing games with him”, and we didn’t find them. After seeing lots of other game on previous days, I was most interested in seeing some giraffes and zebras up close. I was not disappointed as we came across a couple of giraffes grazing beside the road.

We went tracking after some lion and for the first time, our guide and tracker both went on foot to follow them through the bushes, leaving us alone in the vehicle. They took with them only a walking stick, which I am guessing was to use against any snake they may come across. Funny they were more worried about snakes, than coming across the lions. They didn’t have any luck finding the lion pride but another guide had found one closer to our lodge so we headed off to find that pride relaxing under some trees. They seemed more curious about us than worried about us, as we watched them from only a few metres away.

On our way back to the lodge we stopped for our usual Sundowner cocktail hour overlooking a valley with a gorgeous sunset. It was a fitting setting for our last night in Africa.

Day 4

Our last game drive and 5 AM wake up call. It was already comfortably warm by the time we headed out. We managed to find the hyena mom and 6-month-old cub rolling in the mud at a local watering hole. As we watched them, a very young cub came along the road to join them and was very curious about us. We watched as he tried to get his mom and brother to play with him. Too cute. The mom was already pregnant with another cub.

This morning we headed to a new area and crossed an aircraft runway that the local landowner uses to get to and from his property. There was a fairly open area nearby that had lots of wildebeests as well as zebras, so I finally got my chance to see the zebras up close. We came across the tracks of a large herd of Water Buffalo and started to follow those to see if we could find them, but they had crossed into the Kruger game reserve before we got to them. Once again we could not follow them there. We did, however, find a lone male Buffalo cooling off in a nearby watering hole. How Colbert and Denver track and find the animals is amazing, but then Colbert has been doing this for 23 years and knows every path like the back of his hand. If you tell him you are interested in seeing something he says “let’s make a plan for that” and calls the Land Rover his "chariot". He was an extremely knowledgeable guide and shared his enthusiasm for the wildlife with us.

Sadly we returned to the lodge to end our last Safari.

Our transfer to the airport arrived and it was my least favourite part of our journey. Essentially we were off-roading in a Toyota SUV and the driver thought we were tight on time and he drove like a madman. I really appreciated how comfortable the Land Rover had been for our game drives once we drove some of the same roads in the SUV. It was 31 degrees when we left for the airport and at least we were in the comfort of an air-conditioned vehicle. There were a lot of people leaving from Simbavati’s 3 resorts and we considered ourselves lucky, as another couple from Toronto who was leaving as well had to drive to the airport in the open-topped Land Rover. There was only room for Geoff and I and our luggage in the SUV.

As we headed for the airport in Hoedspruit we saw almost as many animals as when we were on Safari. A herd of zebras, lots of giraffes and a family of baboons. They were all behind a wired electrified fence that keeps them off the highway. The same Bull Elephant that was on the road on our way in, was beside the road on the way out. Elephants tend to all look the same to us, but this one was distinguishable by a broken tusk.

After getting up at 5 AM for the Safari and leaving Hilltop Lodge at 11:30 AM, we took the 1st of three flights today that would have us land in Amsterdam the next day at 1 PM South Africa time. A very long travel day.