African Safari Day 2 & 3

Day 2
At 5.15am we were up and having a cuppa with a rusk before going off for a sunrise walk. We were driven down towards the Oliphant R. As usual, we saw warthogs kneeling on their front knees as they fed.There were two guide with us, Andy and Eva, both armed with rifles as we were going to be walking in the bush with wild animals. Arriving at the river, we got out of the vehicle to walk in line with one guide ahead and one behind. Coming down to the river, there were some hippos submerged with just eyes and nose visible. On the opposite side of the river were a few water buffalo and small antelope as well as a small crocodile on the edge of the river. We could also see some other small antelope but they were very far away. An outcrop of basalt across the river at this point was unusual as most of the area is granite, so pretty poor soil. There are many old termite mounds and natives fish for termites with sticks dipped in honey. There was a large entry hole to a burrow in one of the termite mounds and this is is where the anteaters, aardwolfs, live. These are nocturnal animals and rarely seen. There were small  brown common mongoose peeping out of their burrow in what seemed to be a small old  termite mound nearby. We also saw the slender mongoose as it ran across the grass the following day. On the way back to the vehicle we saw giraffe and zebras  among the scrubby trees. The giraffe look so cute peering across the treetops. There are many impala all over the nature reserve and Eva referred to them as NAFI : Not Another Flipping Impala. The 2-3 hour walk was good and we had a lovely breakfast on our return to Tremisana lodge. Then we moved rooms as the air conditioning wasn’t working in the first unit and so were able to relax in cool conditions before a light lunch at 1.30pm. I enjoyed a short swim before we met Eva again at 3.30pm for an afternon drive on Balule Nature Reserve.
On this drive Eva was our only guide and she is passionate about her work, just like other guides we had during the safari.

We came across more impala and zebras and then saw a rhino with its young among the bush. There were two giraffe  we saw which had wounded rear legs, one on left and the other on the  right, so the guides can tell them apart easily. One of these had two small birds on its      long neck pecking off insects. The male giraffe doesn’t have hairs on end of their short horns because of the “necking” contest between the males. We stopped for a short break on the airstrip and watched  the sun setting. On the way back to Tremisana, Eva had a call to say there was a pride of lions on the airstrip, so back we went. There were 5 female lions quietly wandering across it and we enjoyed watching them. Now it was dark so time to go back to the lodge. However, on our way back there was another call, a large male lion was on the airstrip. Eva turned the vehicle around and after a mad fast drive back over the rough dirt road to the airstrip, we saw the lion, stretched out quietly!

Eva certainly enjoyed the driving and she is good too. What a great sunset drive that was. Dinner in the Boma with fire going in the firepit, was OK but pork chop could have been used to shoe leather!  Bedtime was welcome after a busy day.

Day 3 was our full day trip to Kruger National Park. It was over an hour drive to the park entrance. Patrick was our guide and he’d been doing it for 23years but was still passionate about his work. We saw more warthogs, giraffe and  a number of Nyala (a larger antelope with stripes) among the trees. Then Patrick drove us to a waterhole where we saw 5 lions in the shade of a tree watching 2 hippos in the waterhole. The hippos carefully walked backwards to the bush to escape the lions’ attack. Futher on were greater Kudus, a large antelope but with fewer stripes than the Nyala. It has huge ears! Patrick then drove us to a large waterhole where we saw over 40 elephants! They were enjoying the water with young ones splashing around and spraying each other with water and older ones spraying themselves with mud to keep cool and also help to get rid of parasites on their skin. Fascinating scene! There were some hippos here too with just their noses above water. We were told they don’t swim but sink down and walk along the bottom of the waterholes or rivers as they can stay submerged for up to 8mins. Then it was lunchtime at Satara in an open air cafe. This was  a lovely spot and we saw gnu here as well as hornbills and eagles. Of course, there were impala and warthogs.
Next Patrick was told about a lion kill. Seems about 18 lions had taken down and killed a giraffe(hard to kill because of their strong kick). There were about 10 lions lying around sleeping under the trees after their feed of giraffe. One lion was till gnawing on the huge carcase under the Marula tree. The vultures were around cleaning up the area.  Further on, a chap had told Patrick about a leopard which had killed an  impala.  Once there, it took a while to see the leopard sleeping in the branches of a tree with the remainder of the impala some distance away. How amazing to see the leopard in the wild. As we drove back past the resting lions, a white lion appeared. This is apparently seen very seldom. The white lion is the symbol of Kruger Park. Later on during the drive we saw a hare rush aross the road,  then some wild dogs and more elephants and gnu. The Marshall  eagles were flying around, looking great. Along the roadside we saw more vervet monkeys feeding on the Marula tree fruits and near the gate spotted a tiny squirrel.
This was such an amazing day seeing so many animals in their natural environment. I think we all dozed on the long drive back to Tremisana Lodge