5:15 wakeup and on the road by 5:45. Shortly after departing, passed three white rhinos sleeping by the side of the road. As we came level with them, the foremost sat up on his hind legs like a great, armoured dog, yawned, blinked and tried to wake up and focus on us, but with very little success. Clearly we had awakened him from a deep sleep and he just couldn’t rouse himself. Really fun to see as he was only about 3 or 4 metres from the LR; in a pose that I would not have associated with rhinos. (more…)
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Up at 5:30 for our 6:00 start, in a way that is now becoming frighteningly routine; may never be able to sleep in ’til 6:30 again. Sun still below horizon and very cloudy, still too early to tell if clouds would burn off and heat up or repeat yesterday morning’s performance. Just in case, took my rain jacket out and had it on standby. Early morning giraffes, grooming the tops of trees and large herds of impala, grazing. Yuri had reports of a cheetah on a far section of the property so charged off to look. En route, passed the private airstrip that services the camp and found an old DC3 that had arrived the previous night that was being run by National Geographic on a photo shoot; the planes wheels were covered and surrounded by thorn branches to prevent hyenas chewing the tires. Pleasing to see a classic, old plane still chugging its serviceable way over southern africa. (more…) -
Met our car mates at dinner last evening. Young couple from Florida who seem very pleasant, sure that we’ll get along.
Morning started clear but clouds began to build as our drive progressed. Found the large 5 year old leopard that could hardly move after his impala feast of two nights ago. His belly was significantly smaller and he was clearly gearing himself up to begin to hunt again. Tracked him to a sand bank in mid-river and got some great shots of him sunning himself on top of the sand pile. More cape buffalo, wildebeest, rhinos, etc and had a great time photographing them. Young couple seem comfortable with our approach to safari drives so should all work well.
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Wakeup call came at 5:30 as promised. Pearly gray, early morning light with the sun not yet over the horizon. Quick cup of coffee and underway by 6.
Had expected it to be cool and had brought layers, but very pleasant and short-sleeved shirt was sufficient. After previous evening, had expected animals to be waiting to be tripped over, but they had probably heard our gloating to the other guests about our good luck the previous evening, and decided to redress the balance. Beautiful country to drive through as the sun rose, but aside from elephant and impala herds, over which you can continually trip, not much to be seen. As an aside, never thought that I’d very quickly become blasé about herds of wild elephants and antelope.
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Easy and pleasant breakfast with Susie and Rich and Ethne and Malcolm, then off to a local school in the rambling, black township about a 20 minute drive from Ethne’s. Ethne as well as Susie and Rick have been working with a school in the township whose pupils are local kids as well as some orphans and because of an innovative and energetic head-mistress, it has been turned into a model of creative collaboration. Ethne apparently drove by the school about 11 years ago with a group of South Koreans who were touring the district and saw the kids sitting under a tree for their lessons, because they had no other classroom or materials. She stopped and the visitors watched the teaching for a while and then left, and as they parted, many of the South Koreans, out of a sense of misplaced but well-meant generosity, handed money to the students. The headmistress, it seems, raced up to the car, berated Ethne and the visitors and told her to leave, never to do anything like that again, and never again to set foot on the property. An epiphany for Ethne, and the beginning of the story. Ethne says that she learned for the first time that giving is not about what the donor thinks is needed, but about what the recipient really needs and that giving and receiving is a collaborative act that requires mutual respect for each other’s dignity. (more…) -
Laird’s had packed a box breakfast the night before so up, re-packed and out by 7:30. Re-traced yesterday’s steps and beyond to George, the largest town in the area, and reached the George airport by 9:00, and turned in the car. Because we were flying through Jo’burg, we had been advised to have our checked luggage shrink-wrapped for theft security, so this we did at George airport. Probably a good thing to do, but two important learnings; since the bag is cocooned in plastic and then a hole is cut to pull the handles through, make sure to attach something identifiable to the handle since every bag looks the same under plastic; and two, put squishables in the middle of the bag and well cushioned since in the process of shrink-wrapping, the bag is squeezed very tightly and things have a habit of exploding, like my toothpaste and V’s sun tan lotion all over the inside of her bag. Fortunately my tooth paste was in my shaving kit so no major harm done for me but V spent an hour washing clothes and scrubbing out her bag. (more…) -
Lots has happened since last posting and I’m writing this two days after the fact but will try to keep the daily diary format intact.
First, when we arrived at Lairds Country Estate, we got a phone call from Susie at African Avenue to tell us that she had both good news and bad news; the bad news was that our guide at Inyati who was going to take us in a private car for our safari drives was attending his wife’s childbirth and the private car option was no longer available to us, however the good news was that she had arranged for a complete refund for our vehicle and stay and had instead found a place for us at Mala Mala Rattray’s Camp. She was very excited, as were we, since this camp is head and shoulders above Inyati but at the time we booked at it, they could not provide a private safari vehicle. (more…) -
Spotless, perfect day. Early breakfast and on the road by 9:30. Over the last 7 or 8 days have worked out a routine for stuff that we’ll need and stuff that we probably shouldn’t have brought. Luggage is now divided into two piles and lots of auxiliary bags, suitcases, shopping bags and knapsacks. Terrifying to think that after our next two nights at Lairds Lodge we will have to re-pack and consolidate for our flight to White River. Poor Susie, who is putting us up; not sure if she knows what she is letting herself in for.
First stop this morning was a cheetah and white tiger breeding farm. I hadn’t quite taken in how few cheetahs are left in the wild and the future of the species seems to lie with breeding programs around the world who exchange young cheetahs to keep the gene pool as clean as they can make it. The farm that we visited is an example of this and they have exchanged animals around the world including two with Canada.
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Dinner at Jemima’s which is reviewed as the best restaurant in town. Very good meal; V had a skewer of local lamb chops which were much more flavourful and gamey than the ones that we get at home and I, in spite of the heat, had a braised lamb shank. Very good, but still not as good as mine, said with proper humility. We had reservations for another and equally well-reviewed restaurant for tonight but they seemed to have an unfocussed menu, some Thai dishes, some bistro dishes and we were concerned that they weren’t quite sure if they knew what they wanted to be when they grew up, so we re-booked Jemima’s for tonight. May have missed a great meal but, at this point, couldn’t matter less.
Spent the day driving, first to an ostrich farm, which was an instructive reminder why we don’t travel in tour groups. We were bundled in with a group of young Belgians who were good fun but tiring en masse. V got some very good shots but unfortunately my battery died, and a baby ostrich that I was holding, relieved itself on my newly laundered shirt so all told, couldn’t get out of there fast enough!
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Woke up a little stiff after last night’s fall but ready for another day. Another boringly beautiful day, high blue, burnished skies, without a cloud.
Pleasant breakfast at Montagu Vines then packed up, managed to get the blog and photos uploaded and then off. Not much to report today. Interesting drive through valleys and over mountain passes; V is, I think, ready for a change from beautiful but endless vistas of mountains.
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