South Africa: Day Three

We were woken up by a knock on our door at 5:30AM on our second day at Motswari. The morning game drive wasn’t due to leave until 6:30, but they had set out coffee, tea and some light rolls for us on the verandah. After being on the ship for so many month where the only free coffee is coffee made from syrup, I’ve become even more of a coffee junkie. Let’s be serious, nothing beats an early morning cup of good coffee. I wasn’t in the mood for the pastries, so I just sipped my way through a couple cups and kept an eye out for the wild animals that tended to wander through the clearing across the river from the verandah. That morning we spotted a couple of giraffes munching on leaves and watched them until they disappeared.

At 6:25 we headed through the camp to the landrovers at the front gate. On the walk up to the gate we spotted a few monkeys playing around in the trees. One of them even posed at the top of the reception hut for us; I have a couple funny pictures of him. We stuck with the same rovers and the same seating arrangements the entire time, so I was between Saahil and Austin in the highest seat again. We definitely had the coolest seat on the trip.

The first thing we did was head around the river to find the giraffes we’d been watching from the verandah. It ended up being a mom and baby. Well, not quite a baby. Giraffes stay with their moms until they’re twelve years old, so it’s not uncommon for one giraffe to have a couple of kids hanging around. We got pretty close to the giraffes, which were definitely less aggressive than the elephants, and then moved on. When Palence asked, we told him that we were interested in seeing lions, so off we went.

The guides from all the local reserves keep in touch via radio, so if one group spots something cool, everyone gets a chance to see it, too. We had been cruising around looking for lions for an hour when we got a radio call that one of our rovers had stumbled upon a few leopards. This was ridiculously exciting information because we’d been told from the beginning that we probably weren’t going to be seeing any leopards because they’re nocturnal. As it turned out, we were the only safari that got to see them at all.

We had to drive thirty minutes to reach the spot where they’d found the leopards. When we got there, it was even better than I’d imagined. It ended up being a momma leopard lounging in a tree about twenty feet off the group half sleeping and half keeping an eye on her two cubs as they played! Leopards are surprisingly cuddly looking. They’re less lean than cheetahs and when they’re lounging in tress with their claws tucked in, they look like big stuffed animals… except they could rip your face off.

The cubs ran up and down the trees, sometimes coming within feet of the landrovers. One of them was even pulling the other one’s tail. The tail-pulling victim simple retreated to mommy for a hug and grooming. To make room for our third rover, we drove directly underneath the momma leopard. It was incredible to be so close to such beautiful wild animals. I had to keep reminding myself that it was real.

 After a while we had to move on to make room for other groups. We stopped to take a quick coffee/tea/cookie break (like the wine/beer/jerky break) and then resumed our lion quest.

Before much time had gone by, we got another call. This time it was a lion call. Our lion quest was almost complete! We basically took off down the dirt path, winding along so many different dirt roads that I don’t know how we didn’t get lost. After a while, we had to leave the dirt path and go crashing through the bush over small trees and around bigger ones. The lions weren’t conveniently camped out near the road.

When we finally caught up to the other rover the sight was breathtaking. Six lions were lounging in the shade lounging off an early morning hunt. There were two lionesses and each of them had two young cubs. Three of them, one mother and her cubs, had the typical tawny coloring, but the other three were different. We later found out that we’d stumbled upon three of the incredibly rare white lions. The two white lion cubs were lying next to each other, looking up at up curiously. They had big, bright, powder blue eyes and gleaming, golden white coats; their mother was the same.

White lions are not albino. Their coloring is due to a very rare recessive gene that is only found within the breed of lions specific to Kruger National Park. They’re so rare that until the 1970s, most people believed that they were a hunter’s legend and that they didn’t truly exist. I think they’re cute.

We hung out and watched the lions until we needed to make room for another group and then headed back to camp for breakfast around 10:00.

Breakfast, complete with more coffee, was phenomenal. They had made to order omelets, potato pancakes and the best fruit salad I’ve had in my entire life! I love breakfast!

We had a couple hours off in the afternoon to sleep, swim in the infinity pool and just hang out. I had bought myself a new J.D. Robb book (guilty pleasure birthday present) in the airport, so I curled up in our overstuffed chair and read for a couple hours while my roommate took a nap. At 12, I went to high tea, which was more coffee/tea and small treats, then hung out by the pool for a little while. The woman who owns the reserve was there and talked to us about how lucky we’d been that morning; she said that most people never see leopards and white lions, much less both in the same drive. She was super nice and we found out that she was the artist whose work hangs all over the camp, which really impressed me because it’s all professional looking. There was a short bush walk offered at 12:30 where Palence talked about traditional medicinal plants, but only Saahil and Austin went on it. We all met up again at 1:30 for a delicious lunch before our afternoon/evening game drive.

We’d already seen cape buffalo, elephants leopards and lions, so the last animal on our Big Five agenda was the rhino. We told Palence that we wanted to find rhinos and zebras, so he drove us in a completely different direction than we’d taken on our last two drives. We drove for a while without seeing anything big, but there were lot of cool little animals to keep us excited. We saw a honey badger hurrying away into the bush with her babies in her mouth. We saw a leopard tortoise and a bunch of huge ants that are smart enough to know how to protect themselves. When they’re hidden in the grass, they go about their business normally, but when they’re crossing the dirt road, they know that they can be easily spotted by birds, so they clump together into a huge, twisting line as they walk; this little trick makes them look like a snake and keeps them safe until they’re back in the grass on the other side. There were also tons and tons of beautiful birds, including eagles and impala galore.

We drove for a long time without spotting our rhinos, but eventually we found a small herd of zebras. They’re much more skittish than the other animals and every time we tried to get close they ran away. We were all super excited to cross one more animal off of our list. All we had left was a rhino. After the zebras, we stopped for a beer/wine break; it was around 5PM.

As it got dark, we spotted a couple more giraffes, but by the time the spotlight came out, we didn’t have much hope of finding rhinos that night. Difference did, however, spot another chameleon in the dark. This time was even more incredible because it was at least 30 feet off the road. He picked it up and let it climb from Saahil’s arm to mine. It felt super weird and the little guy was groping the air trying to find branches to escape into. Difference put him back after a minute.

Instead of driving us straight back to camp, we all met up at a clearing in the bush. They’d set up a huge buffet dinner and the only light came from the candles and the moon. Saahil is an astronomy major, so he used a laser pointer to point out Cainus Major, Sirius and the Southern Cross. After dinner, we roasted marshmallows around a fire and drank a little wine before they drove us back to camp.

It was an amazing day.