Farewell South Africa

Today we are leaving South Africa, so here's a quick recap of the last 37 days:

Day 1: Arrive Jo'burg, drive to Centurion
Day 2: Centurion (Josh works, Michelle relaxes)
Day 3: Fly to Hoedspruit, drive to Kruger
Days 4-8: Kruger National Park (self-drive safari)
Day 9: Drive to Kapama Game Reserve
Day 10: Kapama (fancy safari)
Day 11: Fly to Jo'berg, drive to Centurion
Days 12-13: Centurion (Josh works, Michelle does chores and relaxes)
Day 14: Fly to George, drive to Wilderness
Days 15-20: Wilderness (paragliding, sight-seeing, relaxing)
Day 21: Drive to Porterville
Days 22-26: Porterville (paragliding)
Day 27: Drive to and tour Cape Town (penguins, swimming, sunset drive, shopping)
Day 28: Fly to Jo'berg, drive to Centurion
Days 29-30: Centurion (Josh works, Michelle does laundry and gets a massage)
Day 31: Drive to Hartebeespoort (vulture restaurant, relaxing)
Day 32: Drive Bulwer
Days 33-34: Bulwer (relaxing, paragliding, hiking)
Day 35: Drive to Pretoria
Day 36: Pretoria (Josh works, Michelle relaxes)
Day 37: Fly to Thailand via Mumbai

Self-Drive vs. Guided Tour

After 6 nights in Kruger, we left the wide landscapes of the 2million hectare park and hopped over to a private game reserve. Fancy-smansy by our standards, Kapama was one of the less expensive almost-all-inclusive (no drinks included, not even water) game reserves near Kruger.

Our plush bungalow with a real queen-size bed, desk, patio and vaulted ceilings.

I took two baths in this tub--one each day we were there. Who knows when I'll see another bathtub again?

We stayed there two nights and were driven about the reserve in the morning and late afternoons by a pair of guides: one driving, the other tracking animals from the hood of the open-air land rover.

As we had seen the Big 5 already, many of the smaller animals and loads of birds, we weren't on the "hunt" for anything specific. We did, however, see plenty of wildlife. Still the whole thing had a markedly different feel than our simple, self-drive adventure.

Firstly, they wake you up at 4:30am with a knock on your door or a phone call. As our phone was broken, we got the personal visit each dawn. From 5-5:30 they offer you tea, coffee, fruit and assorted gluten-ful pastries which we longed to eat. Once caffeinated, we loaded up into an open-air land rover with the guide and tracker who rode with our entire stay at the reserve. And then we hit the dirt road, along with 7 other land rovers piled full with other traveler-tourists.

From 5:30 to about 8am, we would drive around in our designated quadrant of the reserve looking for animals. More often than not, our driver would stop the vehicle and he and the tracker would get out and wander about looking at the animal tracks, trying to devise who was heading where and how close they might be. All I can say is that this part was completely boring for me. I rather prefer the spontaneity of our self-drive adventures where a lion, elephant or clan of baboons could be just around the corner and we wouldn't know until--surprise!--we came upon them. But not in the reserve. There a certified tracker reads the paw prints and tells you where the animal is hiding. And, oh by the way, the leopard is deep in that thicket and we can't see it. Thanks a lot. I'd rather just not know that a big cat is nearby and instead be delighted when I see yet another small herd of impala or lone giraffe.

Wait?! You get OUT of the truck to look for the lions?

Then around 8 or 8:30, we'd pull off someplace with decent visibility, maybe a watering hole or meadow, and the driver and tracker would set up a little folding table with coffee, tea and more gluten-ful biscuits. Did I mention we can't eat gluten? At least the coffee was good. And then we'd be back on our way in hopes of spotting a few more beasts before we returned to the lodge for breakfast at 9am with all the other guests.

After breakfast are the "optional activities" like the pool, massages at the spa (yes please for Josh), elephant rides (not okay says me), the cheetah project (yippee!) and napping (check, check). Lunch is served at 1pm, afternoon tea and cookies at 4pm and then it's off on another guided tour to a new quadrant of the reserve. The afternoon tour is much like the morning one, complete with a sunset stop for drinks (this time with a full mini bar), returning to the lodge for dinner around 9. Then bed, then 4:30a wake up call. Repeat.

My favorite part of the reserve experience was the Cheetah Project. What can I say, they are just so cuddly looking! But alas cuddling the cats is not allowed so I had to get by with a few photos.

 

One other perk of the game reserve is that the animals who live there (entirely fenced in on all sides) are so accustomed to seeing the trucks that you can get really close. And they don't even try to kill you! It's pretty awesome.

 

All in all though, I would pick self-drive over guided tour because (a) it's so much less expensive, (b) you get to drive as far and as slow as you want and watch the animals for as long as they will let you, (c) you won't get sunburnt in a car with AC, (d) you can pack your own gluten-free snacks to munch anytime you're hungry, (e) there are much larger herds of animals in Kruger, and (f) you will be delightfully surprised every time you spot an animal.

However, if you're just there for the food, luxurious accommodations or to check off the Big 5 from your list, then perhaps a game reserve is for you.

 

P.S. I also recommend bringing an awesome hubby who knows how to drive a stick and is willing to be responsible for driving on the left side of the road while trying to spot wildlife. :)

 

Birds. All I Really Want is Birds.

Mom, Jeremiah, this post is for you!

According to a magazine found in the hotel we stayed at in Pretoria, there are some 507 species of birds in Kruger National Park. Not surprisingly, we saw just a small sampling of them -- some 68 that we could identify, plus many more that were too small, too quick or too not-in-the-book for us to identify. (Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the full list, if you dare!)

Here are some of the ones we got decent (sometimes even good!) photos of:

 

Swainson's Spurfowl (aka "Red-faced Chicken") a daily sighting.

Pearl-Spotted Owlet (aka "tiny owl") seen on our first night drive.

European Roller, commonly spotted along the roadways, this bird is beautiful

Southern Ground Hornbill (aka "the endangered weird-looking bird")

Ostrich (aka "fluffy rock")

Spotted Eagle Owl, as seen on our second night drive

Cattle Egret

Kori Bustard (aka "kori bastard")

Crested Barbet, often seen on the deck at Olifants Restaurants

Saddle-billed Stork

Saddle-billed Stork in flight!

Another European Roller

Southern Carmine Bee-eater

Cape Turle-Dove, mid song

White-headed Vulture pair

White Stork, preparing for take-off

Verreaux's Eagle-Owl looking super fluffy

Woodland Kingfisher

Lilac-breasted Roller, so pretty!

Inquisitive Green-backed Heron

White-backed Vulture

Greater Blue-eared Starling

Burchell's Coucal

Red-crested Korhaan

Paradise Whydah

And here are a few more unknowns. Perhaps you can identify them?

Mystery Eagle

Mystery Goshawk?

Tree full of songbirds of indeterminable species

Sky full of vultures awaiting feeding time at the vulture restaurant at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center.

 

Here's the complete list of birds we identified for anyone who is crazy enough to care:

1. Egyptian Gose
2. Comb Duck
3. White-faced Duck
4. Green-backed Heron
5. Goliath Heron
6. Grey Heron
7. Cattle Egret
8. Great Egret
9. Saddle-billed Stork
10. White Stork
11. Marabou Stork
12. Red-crested Korhaan
13. Kori Bustard
14. Crested Francolin
15. Natal Spurfoel
16. Swainson's Spurfowl
17. Helmeted Guineafowl
18. Cape Turtle-Dove
19. Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove
20. Red-billed Oxpecker
21. Red-billed Buffalo-weaver
22. Greater Blue-eared Starling
23. Cape Glossy Starling
24. Burchell's Starling
25. Black-headed Oriole
26. Red-billed Quelea
27. Paradise Whydah
28. Pin-tailed Whydah
29. Southern BouBou
30. Three-banded Plover
31. Southern White-crowned Shrike
32. Magpie Shrike
33. Red-backed Shrike
34. Southern Carmine Bee-eater
35. Fork-tailed Drongo
36. Burchell's Coucal
37. Grey Hornbill
38. Southern Yellow Hornbill
39. Red-billed Hornbill
40. Southern Ground-Hornbill
41. Water Thick-knee
42. Crowned Lapwing
43. Double-banded Sandgrouse
44. African Hoopoe
45. Grey Go-away-bird
46. Woodland Kingfisher
47. Lilac-breasted Roller
48. European Roller
49. Chinspot Batis
50. Cape Vulture
51. Hooded Vulture
52. Lappet-faced Vulture
53. White-backed Vulture
54. African Crowned Eagle
55. African Fish-Eagle
56. Martial Eagle
57. Brown Snake Eagle
58. Walhberg's Eagle
59. Gabor Goshawk
60. Black-shouldered Kite
61. Yellow-billed Kite
62. Steppe Buzzard
63. Spotted Eagle Owl
64. Verreaux's Eagle Owl
65. Giant Eagle Owl
66. Barn Owl
67. Pearl-spotted Owlet
68. Common Ostrich

 

Lions, leopards and hippos, oh my!

Our last night drive in Kruger National Park was another private affair. Just the two of us and our driver/guide, Chandrak. The drive started out without much hope as Chandrak had been informed by another park ranger that little was stirring. But we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best... And we were in luck!

First, we spied a hippo in the bush just a few year from the road. Hooray! Something was out. Then we spotted a second hippo. Double our luck.

Next up was a fluffy Verreaux's Eagle-Owl just chilling in the middle of the road only a km or so from camp. Standing more than a foot tall and puffed out, it was a sight to enjoy. Mostly gray and brown, this owl sported bright orange eyelids. Very cool!

 

Then, a third hippo. As our driver was informing us that they they can get disoriented under the spotlights, the hippo moved quickly towards us, seemingly charging the truck while spinning in a circle like a dog chasing its tail and nearly hitting the truck. But Chandrak was speedy and turned off the headlights, urging us to do the same with our spotlights. That did the trick and hippo avoided our rig and hustled off into the bush. We heaved a collective sigh of relief.

On the road again, we spotted impala and buffalo and the night-night birds that like to chase insects by flying in front of the truck. And then, off to the right, just lounging in a meadow I spotted a lion! A male lion which promptly got up and walked back into the brush. We reversed the truck in hopes of tracking him but we were too slow. We did, however, get a huge whiff of the lion's rotting kill. According to Chandrak, the lions must of been snacking on it, stirring up the rotting odor and making us want to gag. After a few more minutes of unsuccessfully hunting, we bid the lion adieu and headed back on our way.

 

Not to long thereafter, Chandrak alerted us to a leopard walking in the dirt road. Woohoo! A second leopard sighting and this one at night and on the move. We were positively delighted and followed the leopard as it walked quickly across the savana into the bush. We got a nice view of the leopard and what a beauty it was.

 

On the way back to camp, we checked out the night sky. More stars than I've ever seen before! Plus, the southern cross, pointer stars and Milky Way were on display. Another incredible day.

 

Holy Batman!

If Hitchcock lived in Kruger National Park, his movie would have been called The Bats, not The Birds.

Tuesday evening, as we sat in the balcony of the restaurant at Olifants, enjoying the last rays of the day's sunset and munching away at our dinners, a swarm of bats exploded forth from behind us. We were startled to see the dusky sky fill up with furry fruit bats fervently flapping their wings as they careened across the river below heading south towards the shrub forest.

Every couple minutes a new wave of bats would dive bomb our heads and joining the growing flock of flying mammals in the great beyond. Curious about where the bats were coming from, I hazarded a look behind me, only to have a madly flapping bat nearly collide with my face. In pure terror, I dodged the bat only to bash my head into the balcony railing, which hurt surprisingly a lot. (Apparently, the bats nest under the eaves of every building in the camp, including that of the restaurant where we were dining.)

To top off our bat viewing, we witnessed the impressive skill of a starling which caught a bat mid-air and happily chomped away it while calmly beating its wings to stay aloft. If only I was so nonplussed to be amid a swarm of bats.

 

Night Drive from Olifants

The last to arrive, we took our seats near the back of the truck filled with a dozen other tourists, mostly white. With spotlights in hand, we headed out into the bush in search of nightlife.

Unlike our first night drive, there were few animals about but the ones that were made the trek worthwhile.

Springhare. Imagine a squirrel mixed with a kangaroo and you've got a springhare. They are a type of rabbit (thus, the "hare" part) and they use their tail like a spring to leap forward. They make lovely little arcs as they bound across the night savanna, the black spots on the end of their tails acting as a sort of bouncing "." to underscore their trail. In one field, we spotted dozens of springhare jumping in every which direction, causing me let out a little gleeful giggle like a schoolgirl and Josh to smile over at his silly wife.

Hippos. Hippos come out at night to munch on trees and fill their very round bellies. According to our guide, hippos are very territorial in water, but not so much on land. Good thing, because hippos kill more people each year than lions (Josh Fact, accuracy unknown). We were fortunate to spy multiple hippos on this venture and get mauled by none.

Spotted Eagle Owl. Petite little owl with bright yellow eyes and an inquisitive stare, this owl (like most owls) perches on tree branches and absolutely hates it when you shine a bright light in its eyes. What a shocker. Still, shine our lights we did. And the owl blessed us by swiveling its head back and forth and glaring as us like we were such pests.

 

A Day at the Spa

Without much enthusiasm, Josh asked if I wanted to check out the Red Rocks detour. Sure, I replied, why not. So we turned our little rental car left onto the dirt road intended to take its travelers to Red Rocks. But we never made it. Instead we were derailed by the most glorious mud bath ever.

That's right.

A mud bath.

For ten.

Elephants, of course.

 

Less than 100 yards in from the main tarred road, a herd of elephants were leisurely enjoying a mid-day spa treatment, happily rolling in a shallow mud hole. The youngsters playfully pushed their brethren into the brown liquid, tumbling over each other with all the grace of drunken sumo wrestlers. The adults sucked up mud in their trunks and stoically spewed it out onto their backs, flanks, undercarriages, and even right in their own faces.

The bathing went on. And on. And on. With what seemed to be no end in sight to a truly entertaining show.

A baby tries to get in the mud while a few mid-size elephants roll underfoot of a large mama elephant.

Until one by one, the mid-sized elephants wandered off to nibble the surrounding grasses. Followed by the juveniles, sticking close to their mamas. And then last, but certainly not least, the big males left the mud hole to chomp on the nearby trees, ably breaking off branches and striping their leaves asunder.

And so we headed on our way. Ultimately deciding that the elephant spa day was much better than anything we might see at Red Rocks, prompting us to make a languid u-turn and continue our journey north.

 

Spotted: Lounging Leopard

Our Monday drive continued, heading north from Satara towards our final destination for the day: Olifants. After the heady action of watching lions hunt down breakfast and spying on vervet monkeys play in the trees, we were completely stunned to spot a solitary leopard lounging in a tree, a mere ten feet from the main road.

A leopard!

Another amazing sight. Especially at 11am, when leopards are supposed to be bedded down in some tall grass hidden from prying eyes. But, again, we were in luck!

With binoculars in hand and a camera set to record, we watched the leopard pant away with its mouth wide open, trying to get some relief of the mid-day heat.

This cat is not cool.

But after a few minutes, the leopard gave up and left its perch in the tree to seek shelter from the sun in the tall cool grass beneath.

Just as quickly as we came upon it, the leopard gracefully leapt out of view, not to be seen again.

And so, our sightings of The Big 5 complete, we headed north in search of our next camp.

 

Murder Monday

On Monday, January 20, we awoke early (5am), packed up our belongings and hit the road geared up for the long drive to our next Camp. Orpen, where we stayed the first two nights, lies on the western edge of Kruger National Park, just an hour's drive from Hoedspruit Airport. Our destination, Olifants, was some 226km to the northeast.

This Monday morning was like any other Monday I've experienced. First, I woke up happy without grumbling and ready to meet the day at 5am. I didn't try to hide under the covers or pretend I didn't hear Josh telling me it was time to rise and shine. Instead, I got up, dressed and collected my belongings. Sterilized a bunch of water using our handy steripen, drank some instant coffee and shoveled cold leftover rice into my smiling face, while Josh downed his yogurts and loaded up the car for the day's adventure. Little did I know what an adventure it would be.

Driving along the tarred road from Orpen towards Satara, we saw a couple cars up ahead stopped and what looked like a herd of African buffalo crossing the road enmass. As we got closer we noticed a graying lion walking along the right side of the road. The lion crossed in front of the silver Land Rover a few hundred yards ahead of us and then gracefully sat on its hunches on the left side of the road, tail in the street, eyeing the buffalo.

Lion eyeing the herd of buffalo, unbeknown to the driver of the white sedan.

Out of the corner of our eyes, we saw a second male lion stealthily prowling up on the right side of the road, passing less than ten feet from our car and moving into position masked by some bushes. This lion was younger than the first and seemed determined to make a move on the Buffalo herd.

The watchful pair.

For a few minutes, all was quiet, except the Buffalos' eyes which seemed to be darting back and forth from one side of the road to the other. Then the buffalo started boiling in their formation across the road, trying to move the smaller animals to the open field on the right, without letting the herd thin out. There seemed to be hundreds of buffalo spread across the road, out in the savana to the right and walking up from the river to the left.

In a moment of anticipation, the lions got to their feet and began walking purposefully toward the herd. The Buffalos got wild eyed and started bashing into each other and the lions took off running at them.

Did I mention there was a white sedan parked in between the herd and lions at on off-kilter angle watching the scene go down?

Well, in a matter of moments that car became the focal point of the lion-buffalo interaction as the older male lion, gray in its coat and hunger in its eyes, zeroed in one buffalo and, just barely skirting the white car, reached out with its huge paw and clawed at the buffalo tumbling with it around the back side of the car. With the lion at its heels, the buffalo skidded on the smooth surface of the road, fell over and got up as quickly as possible. But one was not quick enough.

The lion and the buffalo got all tangled up, rolling around and over each other mere feet from the white car while it's driver looked on in stunned silence and fear, luckily snapping one telling photo as the duo stirred up dust and the lion tried to bring down the buffalo.

A life or death struggle. (Courtesy of Sarel Smit, aka guy in the white car.)

What looked like sure success turned out not to be. And as quicky as it all started, the lion exited stage left, leaping down the embankment towards the river.

It was all over. All the people in cars, let out of a collective breathe of air, amazed at what we had witnessed and dumbfounded to have stumbled upon this scene at seven in the morning. Aren't lions night hunters? I guess things aren't so simple.

After all the other cars had dispersed, we made a u-turn and crept along the right bank side of the road hoping to catch a glimpse of the lions in retreat. Instead, Josh spotted the two lions on the other side of the river gnawing away at their kill. They had succeeded!

Although we they were bedded down several hundred yards away, we could see their heads bobbing up and down in the grass as the two males, young and old, sat side by side tearing apart the now-dead buffalo. With wide smiles plastered across our faces, we exclaimed to each other what an amazing sight that was.

Lions devouring their kill.

 

I have never been so rewarded for waking up early.

Oh, and no matter what the lions say, it was definitely premeditated murder.