The Wild Dogs Cry Out In the Night

Sorry for the delay in blogging – between being on the go, and having some laptop issues, I’ve gotten a couple days behind.  So, I will skip right to the safari and then go back to our amazing day on the Cape of Good Hope in a future posting.

We got up early in Cape Town, checked out, and all gathered in the lobby to leave by 6:30 am.  The buses took us right away through the rains down in Africa to the airport.  We had an easy two hour flight to Johannesburg (Carol and I will be in the airport four times this trip!).  We all gathered as a group and marched off through the airport.  At least we weren’t all wearing the same shirts or hats or anything!

By the time we got to the charter flight building, which was off the airport, it was pouring.  I think that actually delayed some of the charter flights.  We sat around in the big chairs waiting for our 18 person plane to be called.  It was one of those flights you could see right into the cockpit – one seat on each side, the co-pilot gave the safety briefing, and they had a cooler with water and a box with snacks – that no one got up to help themselves to.

The clouds were amazing to fly just above as we took the one hour flight to the African bush.  They went way above us in puffy elevators up to heaven.  The pilots avoided the clouds as much as possible.  Upon arrival in the savannah, we did landed on a paved strip, which has been the last pavement we see until our departure.

Once we rinsed off with a nicely fresh cold facecloth, we boarded modified Highlands – four rows with three seats per row (except the front row had space for only two) and drove to the Earth Lodge at Sabi Sabi.

The lodge is built into the side of a hill, so it is VERY unobtrusive.  It was so unobtrusive that there were elephants roaming nearby upon our arrival.  Including one younger elephant who was hanging out right outside of what turned out to be Julia’s room.  That was a pretty amazing sighting immediately upon our arrival.

We had a very pleasant, and very late lunch before our first 4:30 safari drive.  We quickly changed in the rooms, which are amazingly private, unobtrusive, and quite large.  Each has its own plunge pool, and is a large suite overlooking the savannah.

For the three hour safari drive, we headed out with Justin our guide/driver, Petro, our tracker, and two families of two each.  We were to stay together for the entire trip – four drives.  We really enjoyed our time with Len, Claire, Keira, and Brina  – as well as Justin and Petro.  I had a great tie cracking Justin (and others in the vehicle) up with my one liners, some of which I will share with you in these posts.

Within three minutes of leaving the lodge, we watched some elephants, including an incredibly cute baby elephant.  Then, we went no more than three more minutes, and saw a rhino up close.

The rhino had been badly wounded, presumably in a battle with another rhino.  His, uh, manhood was out and was bloodied (makes low blows in boxing seem tame), and his butt had big open wounds on them.  The fight had clearly been recent, and the defeated rhino seemed to be moping about.  As that great American philosopher, Kenny Rogers, once sang, “every hands a winner, and every hands a loser, and the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.”

As we were pulling away, we were talking about the rhino, uh, extended, bloody man-parts.  It was a mess.  I quipped, well, I think after four hours of that, you are supposed to call your doctor.  Some laughed, others didn’t get it – until I noted, well, that’s what they tell us on the TV commercials.  (The quip was funnier at the time.)

We then immediately saw a herd of Impala – including the male with his impressive horns.  There were at least a dozen watching us as they ate and chewed their cud.

We drove around, and Justin filled us in on the various beautiful birds we saw, including colorful African parrots.  We actually saw the most birds the next day, during the morning drive.  The hornbills are my personal favorite, primarily because I, like the whole family, love the Lion King movie, and the part of Zazu was played by a hornbill (I know, not an actual hornbill!).

While you think it would be hard to top the elephants and the wounded rhino, but we did when we came to a pride of eight female lions in the grass.  (Someone said, “Look at them lying there.”  I quipped, “hence the name” – man I crack myself up sometimes.)

We stayed there quite sometime – just a few feet from them, watch them sleep (mostly), stretch, walk lazily and plop down, yawn (my, what big teeth you have), and even sneeze one time.  I was very impressed, because Justin called the sneeze right before it happened, just like a great play-by-play announced will predict a play right before it is run.

I brought three camera lenses – ended up taking 410 photos here at Sabi Sabi.  I gotta think two or three worked out!   I brought a standard 18-55 lens, the go-to 55-250 lens, and then the newest member – the huge 150-600 Tamron lens.  I also brought a portable tripod, but since we are not allowed to get out of the car, the tripod proved to be essentially pointless.

After watching the lions for quite some time, we had to leave to allow another safari vehicle to move in close.  We drove some more, marveling at what we had seen, and the beautiful lower velt (pronounced “felt”) landscape and vegetation.  We crashed through streams, and took dirt paths that seemed near impossible.  Finally, we pulled off the track to enjoy the sunset, and have a sundowner.  Justin and Petro smartly set up a small table connected to the grill of the vehicle, and served us our choice of beverages and snacks.  Very civilized.  Sundowners should become a staple of life.

Then, after reloading into the vehicle, we drove around for an hour plus in the dark, as Petro shone his light around to try and spot eyes in the black night.  All we (and by “we” I mean him) spotted were two chameleons, both turned green to blend into the plants they were on.  Carol and some others saw a shooting star, while we also marveled at the Southern Cross, the Milky Way, Orion, and a far-off lightning storm.

Upon returning from the safari, we had to be escorted back to our rooms.  They do not allow guests to walk to/from the rooms in the dark, in case of predators.  So, once we were ready, we had to call and ask for a ranger to come collect us.  The funny part is, it is one person coming to get two – if a predator strikes whilst the ranger is by himself, I’m guessing that would end badly, and be more likely to happen than a strike on two people.  But, we followed the rules.

We had a drink in the incredible bar before dinner.  The Pinotage was nice, but the carved wood of the bar is unlike any I’ve seen.  The wooden benches and chairs here at Sabi Sabi are works of art.

Dinner was in the boma, which is an outdoor area for gatherings.  The five course meal was delicious, and we had a great time talking with the others at our table.  After dinner, which finished late, we were all exhausted and went to bed.  Wake-up call was set for 5:30, with the morning safari to start at 6am.