Safari Day 2 continued
Yesterday after our nap we got up and went to lunch at 2pm, which was chicken. Then at 4pm we set off for our evening safari. It started off slow; we saw some of the usual suspects (impalas and wildebeests) and then we went quite awhile without seeing much at all. We saw a Zazu bird, which I can't remember what it's actually called, and then we were treated to a gorgeous African sunset. That was quite nice to watch for awhile. As the sun was setting we found an elephant and then realized we were in the middle of a herd of elephants; there were between 20-30 on all sides of us just grazing. That was pretty cool as they just casually ate and wandered around us. We learned from our guide that the male elephants go into "musth" (pronounced "must") when it's time for them to mate and release a distinct scent. The older males actually go into musth more frequently and longer than the younger ones, since by living longer they've proven to be of good mating genes.
Then we got a call and headed off to another area where we found two more spotted leopards! They figured these were siblings since it's very rare for leopards to travel together, and these still looked pretty young as they weren't as large as the one we saw the night before. We watched them for awhile before heading off again.
We stopped for a quick bathroom and beverage break. It was quite dark by this time and a little nerve-wracking to walk away from the group and squat behind a bush to pee without knowing what's hiding in the bush. But I survived.
Shortly after that we received another call and went off. This time we had to wait awhile on the road since they don't allow more than 3 vehicles in an area at a time so we had to wait our turn. Our patience was rewarded! When we were given the go-ahead we pulled in and found 3 adult lions, 3 males and 1 female, chowing down on a wildebeest they had clearly just taken down. Wow!! It was quite something to see. We were literally about 10 feet away from these lions just ripping that thing apart. I have a ton of pictures and videos but beware, they are quite graphic. We watched them rip the skin off and pull the intestines out. I don't think I'll ever forget the smell. It was an unpleasant smell but not like we were gagging; Matt said it smelled the same as gutting a deer. The whole thing was crazy- I never thought we'd see something like that.
We saw a couple of small creatures as well on this drive but difficult to get pictures. We spotted a chameleon in a tree, and then we also saw what's called a bush baby (also called Galago). We spotted it from the glow of it's large eyes and then it hopped from a tree across the road. It's a small creature and it was amazing how high it could hop. They are part of the primate family but they don't really look like monkeys. They are pretty cute though if you want to do a quick google image search for them.
The lions were our big sighting of the night and then we went back to camp for dinner (although I wasn't too hungry after watching that). We had the choice between kingklip fish with rice or beef and cheesy potatoes. We got one of each and shared a bit. Dessert was a banana cake with cream frosting. All very good. After dinner we sat around the fire for a bit with some of our new friends, then we headed off to bed. I slept like a rock the first half of the night until I had to get up and go to the bathroom but after that strange animal noises kept waking me up. Our friends from Tiajuana said they had monkeys making a mess all around their cabin all night. They kept hearing them and saw the mess in the morning. We had been warned to not leave anything out around our tents or the monkeys will get to it. They will eat anything that looks consumable and generally just make a mess, but we haven't had a problem ourselves so far.
Safari Day 3
We woke up at 5:30am again this morning to the sound of beating drums; our wake-up call for the morning game drive. After a quick cup of tea and some biscuits we hit the "road".
We watched the beautiful sunrise again as we looked for animals. We'd seen pretty much everything we could've hoped to see at this point except for zebras, which our guide said was pretty unusual since they are usually everywhere. But we drove around for awhile and then we found some! There was a herd of 6 of them grazing in a field. We learned there are several theories for their stripes: camouflage, it's difficult for predators to tell where one zebra ends and another one begins and therefore harder to take one down, perhaps a heating/cooling strategy since the black takes in heat and the white reflects, and/or perhaps a fly repellant since flies seem to prefer a solid dark coat to land on. We also learned they are not very nice; if a new male takes over a herd he will kill any babies still dependent on the mother so that the female will go into heat sooner and he can have his own babies. Pretty brutal. They aren't the only animal species that does that, though.
We also found some more giraffes; one blocked our way in the road for a bit- a safari road block. He wandered off after a bit and we continued on. Then we were just driving along when out of nowhere there was a leopard practically right on top of us! He was a large spotted-leopard and he was just walking down the road towards us. He looked up at us slowly but otherwise didn't pay us any mind and kept going. We quickly reversed off the side of the road to let him pass and then we turned around to follow him. We radioed our location so the other vehicles could come and check him out if they wanted and we followed him until another vehicle came. He just kept walking down the road as if it had been put there for him and he would stop occasionally and sniff/taste areas of the road. She told us he was analyzing the pheromones left there. Then we would let out a loud noise not like a growl or a roar, but more like a grunting noise. I have a video of him doing it so it's pretty interesting to check out. Anyway, we were pretty excited to find a big cat on our own for once!
We left him and found some more giraffes, one with a baby. Our guide told us they have a super long tongue (like 32 cm) and have evolved to have a rubbery mouth so that they can eat leaves off trees with thorns without hurting themselves. She went on to tell us that the plants then evolved to release a chemical when they are being eaten which makes their leaves taste more bitter so the giraffe won't eat it anymore. And that additionally the tree will release a chemical in the air to warn other similar trees nearby as well so they can do the same. So if a giraffe is smart they will eat and walk into the wind so those trees won't have gone bitter yet. It all seemed pretty crazy to me, and too similar to the horror movie The Happening but it was very interesting.
We stopped on a landing strip for a break after awhile; apparently you can actually fly and land there on the grass. Then we kept going and found more girafffes and elephants. At one point we were driving and an elephant popped out right behind us and she seemed a bit agitated that we were there and walking towards us rather quickly. So instead of stopping we kept rolling away from her slowly, and then the reason for her behavior came apparent. Suddenly a baby elephant popped out right in front of us. As soon as he saw us he made a quick panicked sound of alarm and turned around and ran the other way. Clearly we had accidentally driven right in between baby and mom. We quickly drove off the road and let mama pass to rejoin her baby and then all was well. But we didn't hang out there too long.
We made it back to camp for breakfast which was similar to yesterday. The monkeys apparently made a huge mess in the bathroom of our friends' tent while we were gone but no problems with ours. Then we said goodbye to most of our group, since they are headed off to another camp for a few days. We exchanged numbers with the couple from Tiajuana and they invited us out to see them when we are in California this summer, so that would be pretty cool!
We came back to our tent for a nap and now I'm writing this. When I'm done I think we'll go check out the pool since it's pretty hot today- 88 degrees and sunny. Then need to shower and be ready for lunch at 2pm! Life on safari is rough... ;)
Update post-lunch: We went to take a dip in the pool and on the way we went to check out the watering hole. We didn't see much at the time but saw a glimpse of a huge warthog wandering around the campsite. We also saw several small mongooses roaming around across the paths as well. Then we relaxed poolside a bit. We were about to head back to our tent for a shower when Matt spotted an elephant by the watering hole. We went back over there and found a whole herd gathered around the watering hole! We climbed to the top of the viewing deck and watched them a bit. There were between 20-30 with several small babies and they were just grazing and drinking water. It was pretty cool to see all of that also within view of our tent. After a bit something startled one of the younger ones and it made a very loud alarm call and then they all started trumpeting and making a racket. They all kind of stormed off and seemed to be mad at one of the bigger ones so we weren't sure what that was about. It was interesting to watch though and I have a video of them making a ton of noise, so check that out with your volume on.
We showered (hot shower! Apparently the afternoon is the time to shower!) and went to lunch, which was fish and chips and then a type of candied pear with ice cream for dessert. Yum. There are several new people here now since most of the group left this morning, but it's a small enough group now that we all fit on one table. We all chatted for quite awhile over lunch. There's still the couple from Italy who have been here with us the entire time, and now there's a mother/daughter duo from Germany, a father/daughter from the Philippines, a couple from France, and a woman from the UK. So it was quite an interesting conversation with lots of different accents. :)
Again, please check out pictures in the album. The wifi connection is too weak for me to add them here right now.
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