Before we headed out on our afternoon drive yesterday, I had a nice team meeting with the couple that I am driving. They are very well travelled retirees and have lived in some really exotic locations, such as Uganda and Tanzania, and travelled much of the globe. This not being their first safari or first time to South Africa there is no undue pressure on showing them the "BIG 5."
In our little team meeting around afternoon tea, snacking on mini chicken pies and caramel filled Swiss roll, they said that they would like to see some elephants... So off we went on our afternoon safari looking for elephants. About 15 minutes into the drive my tracker, Solly, put up his hand for me to slow down. He had picked up fresh tracks of a herd of elephants, so I climbed out the vehicle and the two of us went for a little stroll to check which way they were heading and to discuss which route we needed to take to find them...after some careful deliberation and a very short bit of tracking we bumped into the herd feeding near the road. To our surprise there was a very small baby, maybe a month old, flaring his ears at us trying to scare us off, however the only thing he managed to do was to bring us into hysterics at his misjudgement of his size and the impact he would have on us. You could almost see in his face that he was thinking, "But this works when Mom does it..."
After following them for about 30 minutes the little guy got a bit irritated with a bird that was following him and then turned his intimidation tactics on the bird. After he successfully chase off the bird he paraded with pride running around trumpeting, letting the rest of the herd know that he had won the battle!
We left the elephant herd and moved off to see what else we could find...and not 300 metres down the road was a white rhino with a TINY calf. this calf was so intimidated by everything around it that it was too scared to move more than 2 metres from his mother but even through this fear we could see the inquisitive side of this guy popping out, never taking his eyes off the vehicle, ears upright taking in our sounds as we discussed the ins and outs of rhino poaching and the stupidity of the use of the horn as an aphrodisiac. At one stage this little guy turned away to make sure his mother was where he left her and a bird, called a folk tailed drongo, swooped in to catch a insect that had been disturbed by the movement of the rhino and startled him so badly it sent him scurrying for cover under the belly of his mothers 2 ton frame!
We went back to the lions that had been sleeping at the pan that morning after enjoying a BEAUTIFUL sunset on the open plains with a glass of wine in hand! They had moved maybe 20 metres and were still digesting the food from the night before. It is a really boring thing to sit and watch lions sleep...everyone gets so excited every time one of these big cats rolls over...so we didn't stick round too long.
Slowly we started heading back to camp and stopped briefly to enjoy the beauty of the stars...and they were out in all their glory....MILLIONS OF STARS ALL AROUND!
Dinner was exceptional and full of hearty laughter as we joined another group of guests with whom we had been competing for game drive glory...chirps were passed, wine was flowing and we all enjoyed the fantastic meal.
This morning was an early start as usual and we decided to head down to the south of the reserve for some spectacular views of the Sabi River and to concentrate on the small things...birds, trees and insects...which was a great success. We also managed to enjoy a herd of about 8 giraffe feeding 20 metres from the vehicle, from time to time lifting their heads to see what we were up to. Towering above us at 4,5 metres tall they looked down on us with beautiful inquisitive eyes.
We had some in depth discussions about evolution, the origin of species and the many incredible interactions happen every minute of every day in every location. It was spectacular!
Now its time for me to put my feet up and enjoy the peace of the bush while reading my book, "The Elephant Whisperer", before I fetch my new guests!
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