Whilst preparing for our upcoming honeymoon, the Consultant and I came across one website recommending each of us to keep a journal of our safari experience. I thought it would be interesting (plus I have the memory of a sieve...). My journal entries for Days 1 - 5 follow.
Day 1: March 9, 2012 (Friday)
Woke up earlyish (9am) in order to finish packing and wasted 2 hours of our life in Natwest. After being told that we would be able to set up a joint bank account, in the end it wasn't so. What jerks. [NB: Inefficiencies and the excess of red tape in the UK should definitely be another blog post of mine]
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| Enjoying the Concorde Lounge |
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| We were born to [work hard to accumulate airmiles in order to] fly First Class |
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| Well I suppose we can't complain too much.. |
Day 2: March 10, 2012 (Saturday)
Arrived safely at Johannesburg with plenty of time to spare before our connecting flight to Hoedspruit. Totally got taken as chumps by the airport 'porters' who persuaded the Consultant to hand over a tip after he took charge in escorting us to our check-in for the connecting flight. Oh well. (He probably had a family to raise.) Stopped for a coffee and milo milkshake at Cappello, where the waiters and waitresses were wearing Al Capone hats. My overall impression of the airport - CentralWorld Mall in Bangkok, but with airplane terminals. It's huge.
The flight to Hoedspruit was fine - we went on one of these small planes with turbo propellers - when we landed, it took us ages to finally arrive at the airport building, and we were the only plane. I thought to myself 'That's when you know you've landed in the middle of nowhere....' The airport building itself was basically just a shack containing 1 living room inside furnished with sofas and animal skins. Our driver George from Eastgate Transfers was waiting for us and he was polite and friendly. Originally from Mozambique and trained to be a tour guide. Sadly his car's air conditioning seemed to consist of fan only so I was sweating pretty quickly and for most of the car journey (1.5 hours). My first impression as we were driving along is that it is far more green and wooded than expected - I guess I have been watching too many documentaries on the open plains of the savannah.
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| Our awesome villa at Simbambili Game Lodge |
We got into this open air big vehicle with Richard (our guide), Service (our tracker), an American couple who are also from their honeymoon, from Chicago (Dan and Mindy), and a couple from Suffolk (Jill and Paul).
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| Lucky on our first game drive! |
Day 3: March 11, 2012 (Sunday)
Started at 5am with a knock on our door by Richard. After getting ready quickly (including clumsily bashing my knee into the vanity corner - ouchie), the Consultant and I had a debate about leaving because I was convinced the drive started at 5.30am, but the Consultant refused to leave our villa as it was too dark. [I forgot to mention yesterday that we are not supposed to stroll on the grounds when it is dark because there are no fences - the animals are free to roam around the game reserve as well as through the lodge's property; Carrie mentioned that a rhino had walked through near our room the previous week, and that a baboon had tried to break into our room the day before we arrived...] Finally we made our way to the main area of the lodge where hot tea and coffee and cakes awaited us along with the rest of our vehicle's gang.
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| Make it quick, I'm eating breakfast |
We saw a few more groups of impalas at various points while we were driving; unlike other animals, they seemed easily spooked when the vehicle approaches. Oh!! We saw a lone hyena strolling along the bush and it crossed the path in front of us without having any regard to us whatsoever. It was much bigger than I thought hyenas would be.
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| Hyena. |
Richard motioned for us all to get out of the vehicle and pointed out a rock python to us. These bad boys can grow to be 3 metres in length and have been known to eat baby impalas! They are non-venomous constrictors and move in a caterpillar motion as opposed to S-shaped slithering. When we approached it, the snake lay perfectly still - Richard explained it could feel our vibrations and it tasted us in the air with its tongue. Creeeeepy~
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| Really big rock python that would kill me if I had more fur, probably. |
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| At the Rock. |
Eventually we hopped back onto the truck as the impalas had apparently given out alarm calls - we didn't find Service or any leopards, but we did meet the family of 4 lions that we had come across last night. The lion family are SO COOL. The family consists of all female lions. They were tracking something - perhap one of the giraffes we saw earlier (today was a good day for giraffe spotting - in addition to the first 3, we saw 2 and then one more). So we, along with 2 other vehicles, stalked those lions while they stalked their prey. They were totally at ease with the vehicles, coming up alongside ours several times. They are truly magnificent animals - instantly commanding respect.
Apart from the above-mentioned animals, we also spotted a gang of hippos at the watering hole (about 7-8 all in the water), more impalas, some waterbucks and an endless number of giant spiders (with body and legs extended, on average they are a quarter of the size of my palm). They are the non-dangerous ones - one has to be careful of the small spiders with big sacs. I'm grossed out either way.
It's a wonderful dream come true, to be here and experiencing all this with the Consultant. I'm so glad he thinks the animals and safari adventure are cool, too. It's super relaxing in between the game drives and as our bed faces the outdoors you can just lie down under the fan, look outside and feel at one with nature.
Funnily enough as I was telling my feelings about this to the Consultant, he spotted a little monkey with a black face watching us from the side window! The really hilarious part was that his monkey facial expression was that of 'guilt' as if he felt guilty about being so voyeuristic haha. He ran off as I approached him but I managed to capture him on my camera with one of his friends, who I think was a baby monkey or a very young one. He did come back again to stare at us through the window once more, what a cheeky little creature.
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| Aren't they awesome?? |
Apart from the above-mentioned animals, we also spotted a gang of hippos at the watering hole (about 7-8 all in the water), more impalas, some waterbucks and an endless number of giant spiders (with body and legs extended, on average they are a quarter of the size of my palm). They are the non-dangerous ones - one has to be careful of the small spiders with big sacs. I'm grossed out either way.
It's a wonderful dream come true, to be here and experiencing all this with the Consultant. I'm so glad he thinks the animals and safari adventure are cool, too. It's super relaxing in between the game drives and as our bed faces the outdoors you can just lie down under the fan, look outside and feel at one with nature.
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| Voyeur |
Aside from the amazing service, friendliness of the staff and awesome villa, a note should be mentioned about the food. I'm going to gain so much weight here!! Yesterday's lunch was excellent (I had salade niçoise, veggie springrolls and meatballs with tomato sauce); yesterday's dinner was outstanding (curried butternut squash and orange soup with coriander mascarpone for starter; kingklip fish with asparagus on top of potato rösti and served with carrot purée for my main); this morning's breakfast was highly satisfactory with cold cuts, poppyseed roll and giant stuffed omelette. I really should have joined everyone on the bush walk after breakfast but I just felt so exhausted that I napped on the lodge's sofa while they were out.. I'll be sure to go tomorrow.
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| Another rare species |
When the bush walk finished, the Consultant had a nap back at our villa while I sunbathed outside and listened to the sounds of wind, birds and insects. Being here has definitely made me appreciate birds more, since I've been able to observe more than just the scary pigeons of London Bridge Station and thieving seagulls of Brighton Pier. While sunbathing I watched 3 birds (long grey tail feathers, grey mohawk - Richard later informed they are called "Go-Away Birds") carry out a little scene that was quite amusing. One flew down from the tree to the plunge pool and seemed curious to try tasting the water but was unable to reach it without falling in. The other 2 flew down to join it and were all peering into the water while swaying backwards and forwards as if just discovering their own reflections, all while chirping at each other in some kind of bird discussion.
2pm. Lunch was another delicious affair, with chilled creamy parsnip soup and lemon cake. All of the other guests are leaving tomorrow, except for a new couple from the USA who just arrived right before lunch time - Chris and Nisa from New York. While we were chitchatting, Jill spotted a warthog family at the watering hole nearby! There were about 3 warthog piglets which were super cute. One big one decided to roll in the mud to cool down.
The temperature today is about the same as yesterday (32°C) but with a bit more wind. Hopefully this means we'll be able to see more predators - apparently the wind makes them come hunt because they are so well disguised among the moving tall grasses.
Evening drive - AWESOME.
Animals spotted:
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| 1 Rhino with 2 horns and several cuts on his face (a bull) |
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| On an open plain: dozens of impala grazing and jumping; about 25 wildebeest grazing; zebras |
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| 1 Male Elephant that made a large noise to shoo the aforementioned wildebeest. We quickly drove around the bush to be in front of its' path and the elephant was walking straight towards us (but walked around the vehicle and carried on). |
- 4-5 Kudu: These are like big deer with grey and white markings, and long spiral antlers
- 4 Bunny Rabbits: one was running away from us on the road for quite some time (fool...)
- 4 Bushy White Tail Mongoooses. The first one was in an open field, looked like it was nibbling on something; then 2 scampering in the bush as we drove past; then 1 ran across the road in front of our vehicle. So it turns out they can eat snakes but usually just grass snakes (not giant rock pythons).
- The same 4 lions we saw this morning and last night, just lying right on the road all next to each other. It turns out they are all lionnesses, about 3.5 years old and should be entering estrus (i.e. ready to get raped by male lions) any day now. They were just snoozing on the roadside! They came up gradually towards our vehicle, one by one (funny moment - the first one got up, came to pee beside us, walked on; the second one got up, walked and sat where the first one had peed) and kind of trapped us from moving for a short while as they lay down behind and under our vehicle. We may have been unknowingly accepted as part of their new pride...
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| Fancy seeing you gals again!! |
Richard told us the story of the pride in which these 4 lionesses lived originally. These 4 were born in a time of turmoil, when 6 different male lions were locked in a power struggle and 2 battled to the death. The new male that took over did not want any cubs sired by the previous males to remain in the pride and would have committed infanticide, which apparently is quite common. The matriarch took all the cubs and ran away from the pride and raised them for a few years. When the matriarch and cubs ran into the pride again (the matriarch was seeking her 2 daughters who had given birth to the present 4 lionesses), she discovered her daughters had already been impregnated by the new male. The matriarch was welcomed back, but not the other 4 lionesses, since they had been sired by the other (now dead) males. What a lion soap opera! These lionesses have to be careful where they go because if they came across the pride, the dominant male will try to kill them.
Dinnertime. We first had a glass of champagne upon arriving back from the game drive as it was Paul and Simon's (another guest) birthdays. Dinner was served under the star-filled sky in the ravine below the lodge's deck, where we could occasionally hear hyenas howling and more often than not, observe crickets jumping onto the table and small spiders quickly weaving webs around my bread and the wine glass or lantern. The food was once again very delicious and I am, once again, totally stuffed. The menu: starter of potato and leek soup; chicken casserole, beef fillet (v. tender), lamb kebab, 'poptarts' (like polenta cakes), ratatouille, roast butternut squash and potato wedges. For dessert, chocolate cake (birthday cake) and Cape Brandy pudding, which was like a cross between sticky toffee pudding and Christmas pudding (I am soo going to fast when I get back to the UK... seriously).
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| Paul's birthday dinner under the stars enjoyed by all the guests at the lodge |
Day 4: March 12, 2012 (Monday)
Last night I dreamt of cooking fish and chips as well as chicken, fish and beef fajitas. It must have been an omen because the entire day we saw very few animals out and about.
Morning game drive. Saw some impalas, but spent most of the morning tracking down a leopard, whose tracks had been spotted on a road near our lodge. About an hour and a half passed without a single sighting of this elusive creature... OR any other animals. Finally Nisa and Chris' guide and tracker in the other vehicle spotted her and we showed up where they were, as the 3rd vehicle. We were positioned on the road looking down into a ravine where this lovely creature was resting on some rock - so difficult to see because she was lying on her back and only her spotted tummy was visible. The ever-adventurous Richard decided to go on the other side of the ravine to see if we could get closer. After some serious offroading, Little Miss Leopard actually walked right in front of our vehicle and back towards the road from which we had just arrived. How exciting! We tracked her along the road for a bit, taking turns to share the viewing with the other vehicles. She ventually walked back into the tall grasses, so our tracker Service and the other tracker attempted to follow her.. they soon radio'd in so we got into the exactly most awesome position to see her walking towards our vehicle, then resting in the shade for some relaxation and some grooming. So beautiful~
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| Little Miss Leopard |
Fact: Leopards are highly territorial and solitary creatures. (This leopard was constantly marking her territory by spraying urine). The species exhibits sexual dimorphism, by which the males are much larger than the females. The males have much larger territories than females also.
4.30pm Evening Drive. Right before we went off, the Consultant spotted 2 Bushbucks off of our balcony, and we also heard the deep throated groan of the baboon. So many sounds out here even when all you can see is the vegetation - that's when you feel like the bush is really alive, with its' own pulse. So for the evening drive, the Consultant and I were alone in our truck with Richard and Service, while Nisa and Chris were in the other vehicle. They, as well as us, were all tracking a pair of lionesses with 2 cubs (we'd been discussing at lunchtime how much we all wanted to see cubs!!). Richard parked, grabbed his rifle; Service hopped off his front seat with his slingshot; then both went disappearing into the bush while searching for these 4 new lions. They were gone for probably about half an hour - in the meantime the Consultant and I swatted flies and were coming up with various contingency plans in case they never returned.
They did return eventually, but empty handed. Luckily, the 4 had been spotted by the other guide, so we quickly made our way over there. We saw the magnificent lionesses with the 2 cubs (each about a year old and likely brothers). SO CUTE. I shot loads of photos as well as a couple of video clips. They were just lazily laying in the shade as if they hadn't a care in the world. We were silently observing them when suddenly one of the cubs stood up as if it heard or smelled prey, followed by the other 3 lions; they all walked down the road for a bit very alert with their ears pricked up, but soon lost interest and plonked down again - the cubs lay on the road while the 2 lionesses lay on the grass nearby. It was really amazing to observe how some of their behaviours are so similar to household domestic cats, like grooming and cat-yoga stretching - it was super adorable when the cubs were play-swatting each other and biting each others' faces.
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| 2 Lionesses with their cubs |
In the background, we also saw a flock of guinea fowl (grey birds, quite plump, with blue heads). Lions would apparenly love to eat them but are unable to catch them.
Our next sighting was again originally spotted by Chris and Nisa's tracker - the very same leopard we had encountered earlier, she was just strolling along the road parallel to the game reserve fence, marking her territory with sprays of urine (as if she was one of those Glade Automatic Aromatic Room Sprays, but far smellier, probably). We stalked her for quite a bit as she stayed on the road and I even managed to capture footage of her looking into my camera. Absolutely awesome! We even heard her roar - it was quite a deep, gutteral noise - apparenly that was a noise to mark her territory. In the distance, one could hear the cries of monkeys and baboons. Apparently leopards are one of the few that can hunt baboons, but it's difficult as baboon find strength in numbers.
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| As our day ends with nightfall, hers begins |
After a while, we turned off for our sundowner cocktails. Halfway through my Gin and Tonic, the Consultant said, "I think I see something coming up the road..." ... it was Little Miss Leopard!! We all stood very still so as not to alarm her or mark ourselves as potential prey. I can't believe I've stood less than 1.5metres away from a leopard in the wild!! Awesome (and potentially very dangerous)!! She just sauntered past us and continued marking her territory like nobody's business. Phew! The bush is full of surprises =D =D =D
Back at the lodge, we were greeted with chilled towels (this was usual after a game drive - and these always smelled great, not like those super sterile ones) and a glass of amarula. Some time to relax, then dinnertime. This evening dinner was served on the level just below the lodge's main living room/dining room. It was all lit up by lanterns and individual tables were arranged in a semi-circle, with a fire in the middle.
- Starter: carrot & cashew nut soup. A combination I'd never imagined but very delicious.
- Main: Kudu with mash & seasonal vegetables (green beans and bell peppers). 10/10
- Dessert: Cheese plate; the only one of which I am certain of the name is brie.
- Wine: Cabernet sauvignon merlot (Matys). Excellent. We finished the bottle with Chris & Nisa while chitchatting with them in the living room above, before we all got escorted to our rooms by the porter.
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| Our final night at the Lodge |
Forgot to mention - the other night the porter pointed out some tiny white bats sleeping in a tree. They looked like a giant white caterpillar. How on earth he knew they were there was amystery, since he wasn't shining his light on them initially!
Day 5: March 13, 2012 (Tuesday)
Today was full of adventure!
5am wakeup call. The Consultant was convinced he'd been woken up by a large animal outside our villa but we never managed to find out what it was. Anyway, we started off on our morning drive and it initially appeared as if it would be an unlucky viewing day, as we only saw impalas then nothing for ages (aside from spiders and vegetation). But wow! We ended up finding 2 wild dogs that were rumoured to be in the region - AND they were both tearing a young impala to shreds. It was quite graphic - one could see blood everywhere, hear the bones crunching as the wild dogs chomped, and we watched them rip off the impalas ears and gulp it down.
Fact: Wild dogs are very successful predators. They rely on a combination of large ears (for excellent hearing), sense of smell and stamina to track and eventually wear down their prey. The kill is quick, unlike those by lions/cheetahs/leopards which kill their prey by strangulation, effectively.
After a few minutes, one of the wild dogs (the fat one) stopped abruptly, as if it heard or smelled something. It ventured onto the road to investigate but the other one just kept munching away on the impala. Oh there was a pretty gross moment where the wild dogs tore out the impala's stomach sac and swung its' contents around, spraying partially digested grasses and stomach juices everywhere. Richard speculated that the fat wild dog may have thought a lion or leopard was nearby.
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| The Bush: A great place if you're a wild dog; a pretty poor one if you're an impala. |
Moving on from the wild dogs, it seemed as if we drove for ages without seeing anything; then we started to do some serious offroading. We eventually found what we'd been seeking - a male lion! He was a young one, but he did have a mane. The story provided by Richard: he lived and roamed the bush with his brother, who did the hunting as he was injured. The brother lion was nowhere to be seen, and even this one was very difficult to observe because he was hiding among the tall grasses within a circle of trees (due to being injured). It's tough to be a male lion - you get kicked out of the pride after a few years, have to roam about looking for food, fight with other males for dominance, controlling the pride, rights to mate, then die a lonely death once you're no longer strong enough to maintain your grip as leader of the pride.
Another sighting, albeit very brief, was a large male warthog running off into the bush.
Our morning game drive ended with a plethora of elephants - beginning with a single bull (about 40 years old!) snacking on some tender grasses bordering a lotus pond, then an entire family of elephants foraging through the bush. This included baby elephants!! The mother-and-baby pair that came closest to our car, that baby was about 2 years old; but in the distance we could see an even smaller one which was about 6 months old. Baby ellys are so cute!
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| Ellys!!! |
We even had a minor fright when one of the smaller elephants (a cow) decided to charge towards us. Luckily she backed off at the last minute!
An amazing last game drive. Our final moments at Simbambili Lodge consisted of breakfast (scrambled eggs with smoked salmon), packing and some relaxing outdoor cat-napping on our balcony before checkout time. I can't wait to go on safari again!
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