Journey to the Safari
We checked out of our airbnb and flew out of Port Elizabeth through Johannesburg and on to Hoedspruit, which is one of the airports nearest to Kruger National Park. Our second leg was in a propeller plane which I had never been in before. Another first was when we landed there were warthogs 10 yards from the landing strip! Welcome to safari! Kind of forces you to wonder what happens if they are ever actually on the landing strip when a plane tries to land...
We were the first two off the plane as we were in seats 1A and1B. We started walking in a direction with a couple of other guys before we realized we actually had no idea where to go. There really wasn't a visible airport or even building in sight. One of the grounds-crew guys eventually looked up and saw us wandering around and pointed us in a direction. Once we got on the path we could see what appeared to be a house; there were even people just sitting on a porch. Apparently that was the airport!
We kind of just waited around outside for awhile in the "baggage claim" area. eventually our bags found their way to us (whew!) and we got our rental car. Most people had their safari pick them up but when we were booking and debating what to do the guy told us it would be cheaper and more enjoyable for us to drive ourselves to our safari. More about that in a bit. When we got our rental car we were surprised to find that we had been "upgraded"! They gave us a little BMW sedan... Talk about an impractical car for a safari! Whatever. We were just glad to be on our way because we wanted to get to our camp before the 4pm safari.
So we took off and all was well at first. On the drive we saw several different animals, including more warthogs, baboons, goats, and long-horn cows. At first the road was super smooth and nice, but then we turned on to a different high way which was still paved but there would be deep pot-holes frequently that we had to watch out for. Then google directed us on a different road which was all dirt and pretty rough. So then we were bumping around slowly down these dirt roads. Occasionally we would pass through little towns which looked to be pretty poverty-stricken. We felt a little conspicuous being the white strangers rolling around in a silly Beamer...
We made it to our reserve, Manyleti, without an issue. It's right outside of the Kruger National Park but it's private so you have to pay to enter. We paid the fee and asked for directions to our camp, Honeyguide ("Just go left and straight. There's no way you can get lost."), then went on our way. Then we got so lost. The location link that had been sent to us was just wrong we found out, and the directions we received weren't very helpful. We would get to forks in the road where it wasn't clear which way was "straight". Not to mention the roads were terrible with huge divets which were not ideal for our low-riding BMW. Our 4pm deadline came and went, but luckily we actually saw lots of game just while we were lost and driving around. We saw several types of antelope, which we later learned were called impalas and kudus. We actually saw two male impalas fighting with their horns locked together; I have a video of that. We also saw a herd of wildebeest right by the road. Then we turned a corner and there were two elephants, right there! I got some great pictures of them. How crazy is that?! We drove a little further and then we spotted some rhinos in the distance! There were a ways away so I didn't get very good pictures of them.
We were enjoying our own private little safari but we were also getting anxious. We were worried about what kind of damage we were doing to our rental BMW driving on those crazy roads and we were starting to worry about finding our campsite before it got dark. Luckily we found a guy driving around in his vehicle and asked for directions. He pointed us in a direction and we continued on. We eventually got to a fork in the road where we weren't sure what to do again, but then he pulled up behind us again and pointed us in the right direction. Eventually we started to see signs for our camp and we eventually made it there.
Safari Day 1
There were people there waiting for us and worried that we had gotten lost since apparently a lot of people have because of the misplaced google location. They quickly took our belongings and asked if we wanted to meet up with our safari guide. "Of course!" And off we went. They radioed to find the location of our guide and drove us right there, where we switched into the big 10-person safari vehicle.
It was the 4-7pm safari so we got to catch most of the last 2 hours of it. We got to see lots of stuff; some of it we'd already seen on our own! It was everyone else's first time out as well so when we came up to the elephants everyone ooh-ed and ah-ed, while Matt and I smiled at each other since we already had great pictures of them. We saw more antelope as well and learned more about them as our guide would stop and tell us about each animal we came across. The little impalas make a really funny noise when they feel threatened, almost like a donkey noise. The bigger kudus have long-spiral horns similar to the elands we saw a few days ago. Apparently the elands and the kudus are the largest antelope.
We also got a closer look at some rhinos. We even saw a baby rhino! The ones we saw are white rhinos. There are also black rhinos, but it's not really certain why they are named that since they are all gray. There are a couple of distinctions though: size, back curvature, and how they guide their babies. The white rhinos push their babies along in front of them while the black ones have the babies follow behind.
We also saw a couple of giraffes and a baby giraffe as well! We were taught how to tell the difference between the males and females: the horns of the female are thinner and more full of hair- similar to a paint brush. Male horns are thicker with less hair since they fight with them.
As it was starting to get dark we pulled over for a break and some drinks. They had a whole selection of alcoholic beverages that we could choose from. Shortly after the break we got a radio call from one of the other guides to head over to a different location to see something exciting. We went to one of the watering holes and found it: a spotted leopard. It was so cool! It was clearly big and powerful and absolutely no barrier between it and us at all. We actually watched and followed the leopard for about half an hour; it seemed really unconcerned with us. It walked around and drank some water. Then it laid right in the road and rolled on its back just like a big kitty cat. The whole thing was pretty incredible.
That was the last main thing we saw for the night other than the giraffes we passed by on the way back to camp. We were shown to our cabin but we couldn't really see it that well at night so more about that later. Then we went to dinner which was really good. Started with tomato-herb soup. The main course was either beef or duck, each with a starch and vegetables. Dessert was similar to a cheesecake and covered with chocolate. It was all really good and dinner was organized in a family-style way. Everyone sat at a large table with their safari groups. We chatted with everyone and learned where everyone is from. There are 4 other couples in our group. One couple from Tiajuana Mexico and they are friends with a couple from France. We chatted with them the most. There are also two guys who don't speak much English; I think they are German. Then there is another couple who joined late that we haven't talked to much so far. Our guide's name is Anja (pronounced "Anya") and she's originally from Sweden, so we chatted with her about that for awhile since we will be there in less than two months.
After dinner and a couple of drinks (we discovered they are very reasonably priced at about $2 for a beer) we went back to our tent for bed. Our camp isn't actually enclosed so after dark we can't walk around at night on our own so we were escorted with a guide back to our tent. We quickly and clumsily got ready for bed in the mostly-dark, since there are only a couple of dim lamps in the tent. We got into bed and sat there for awhile listening to all of the strange noises. Several times we heard the silly call of the impalas which sounded like they were right outside our tent. We also heard other things we couldn't discern. Eventually I drifted off to sleep and slept really well until our 5:30 wake up call of drums.
Safari Day 2
We woke up early and quickly got dressed in warm clothes as it cooled off a lot during the night. It was just starting to get barely light out when we rushed to the main building for tea/coffee and biscuits before the 6am safari. Then we were off again!
The first thing we saw was another rhino. This one seemed to be a bit more skittish about us and kept it's distance a bit. then we saw several elephants who passed right in front of us on the road as we sat and watched. We also watched 3 of them walk one right after the other similar to how they do in the Jungle Book so that was interesting. We also glimpsed what looked like either an orangutan or a large monkey in the trees but didn't get a good enough look at it, and our guide never mentioned it so she might've not seen it at all.
Then we went to a watering hole where we saw more elephants across the way. But then, even more exciting, there were hippos in the center of the water! You could barely see their eyes and noses above the surface of the water. Every now and then one would raise up a bit and you could get an idea of how big they were, but I never was able to get a great picture. That was pretty cool though. We were reminded that hippos are the most dangerous African creature and kill more humans per year than all other animals combined. We were told this happens because lots of people accidentally get in between the water and the hippo when it's on land, and when it feels threatened it wants to get in the water so it tramples the human trying to get in the water. So don't stand between hippos and water!
We also saw more antelope and more giraffes as we drove along. There were also several skulls of water buffalo, which made me wonder how long it takes for them to get in that condition. I'm guessing not very long. At one point our guide got out and picked up a milipede to show us. Gross.
Then, drumroll... We found lions!! We found an entire pride of lions lounging around under some trees. Our guide counted 1 male, 2 females, and 10 babies of varying ages!! It was so cool! I never really did get a good look at the male which was kind of a bummer, but you could see the babies playing around, nursing, and cuddling with mom. We were actually really close to them but the trees and tall grass blocked quite a bit of the view, but I did get lots of reasonable pictures. So that was super exciting!
After that we found a spot to take a break and they served more tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. We stopped right next to a watering hole where apparently other in the group saw a huge crocodile disappear into right when we pulled up, but I missed it. So the whole time we were studying the water hoping to get a glimpse of it.
We set off again and found another rhino, but then we got another radio call and took off quickly. They never tell us what was spotted, I think to keep our expectations low in case we don't find it. But again, we got lucky and spotted two hyenas! They are apparently pretty difficult to find. These were spotted-hyenas. We watched them for awhile walk about and just do hyena things. I couldn't stop thinking about the hyenas from the Lion King, a movie which has come up a lot on this safari.
Shortly after 9am we came back to camp for a proper breakfast. We had fruit with yogurt and granola and also some muffins and toast. They also served us bacon with an egg and baked beans. Everything was good. After breakfast we don't really have anything to do until lunch at 2pm, so we went back to our tent and actually got to see it in proper light for the first time.
It's a permanent tent built on an elevated wooded platform. On the patio is a coach, lamp, and a desk with chair which I'm sitting on now. During the day it's completely open and you can see impalas walk by often. At night they lower screens on each side and zip it closed. then there's the bed, which is a real elevated king-sized bed. It's a really comfortable bed with soft pillows and a thick comforter which was appreciated during the chilly night. It also has it's own mosquito net around it which is closed at night but open during the day. Then there's the bathroom, which is enclosed with walls but the back part of the ceiling is completely open. There's two shower heads and a huge tub, along with the sink and a separate toilet room. The whole thing is really nice. It's how I imagine "glamping" to be. There is electricity so we can plug in our devices (thank goodness, since that's the only camera I have!). And there's lamps and a fan and running water.
So once we got back I decided to take a shower. I tested and made sure there was hot water before getting in, but the hot water ran out very quickly. I was left to hurriedly finish my shower with the freezing water, so that was an adventure. The whole time Matt was narrating the journey of a lizard throughout our tent, so that added another element of excitement to the shower.
Then I sat down to write in this blog post, with the wind drying my hair. I've watched a couple of lizards and several impalas walk by so that's always interesting. It's a beautiful day now; 83 and sunny. I actually just got a little wifi so I'm going to try to post this as is, then I'm going to try to take a nap before lunch and afternoon safari! Pictures are too difficult to add right now, so I'll just upload them to the album when I can.
No comments:
Post a Comment