9th July - Last day at Garonga

This morning started off much the same. Us giving a plan of what we wanted to do - drive around slowly and see what we saw. Even the ‘Common Animals’, Josiah agreed so we were in for a better day. Not 30 seconds out of the lodge gates and “Oh, drag marks. We have to change the plan and follow this leopard.”

Now…Sarah is no professional tracker, but the footprints were the same size as fox’s and the drag marks looked to be something about the size of a chook. Her conclusion…a Jackal and a Guinea Fowl. But anyway, off went all the staff (as the other vehicle had joined us), armed with their big rifles. 15 minutes later “We lost him!”

But we had a fun 15 minutes – naming birds and the like. “Oh a lesser, short tailed, seed eating, green spotted bird”.

So off we went again. This time we saw lion tracks on the road. So of course we followed them. Two Ks straight up the road, then a right hand turn for a k, then another right hand turn for a k. Suddenly the radio crackled and word was that the lions were inside the area we had just circled. Into low gear, and into the bush, over many trees.

We arrived in time to see the two lionesses leave the cubs and stalk off in different directions. One came straight to us. Stalked around the car towards the herd of Impala near us. She burst into a run and just behind a bush grabbed an Impala. The bush exploded with the crashing of animals running everywhere then the warning cough of Impala. Impala do not run blindly from danger. They run a short distance then stop and assess, giving off strong barking/huffing warnings in case they run into another predator (lions often attack from multiple sides, chasing the prey into the claws of another lion)

Meanwhile the other lioness had charged and brought down a big Warthog. The first one, dragged her Impala under a bush and called the cubs.

But too late. The cubs had heard lioness two, calling them to the Warthog. So lioness one got to feed on her own.

We drove over to the cubs – far to close in our opinion, but we did have an amazing view of 11 clubs tearing a Warthog apart. We had never really had an appreciation of the word ‘feeding frenzy’ until we saw this. It was amazing!

All 11 heads were shoved in and chewing with the most amazing noise. A mixture of growling, grunting, purring, and occasionally savaging each other, biting and swatting too. We sat there for around 25 minutes watching it all happen. After a while a pecking order developed – often related to the age and sex of each cub. The smaller ones filled up quickly and left the group – going to the lioness to begin the clean up job. She just sat watching, then licked them clean as they came to her.

Some managed to pull off a piece – a shoulder, the head and so on and went to their own spot to enjoy.

Occasionally massive fight broke out with hard bites delivered to another’s neck and shoulders. Some would get up and move to a more prime position – involving a not so little Arggy-Bargy. One young girl sat happily munching on the large intestine. She certainly got her dose of roughage and greens that day.

There was an amazing point where about six cubs were holding firm to the meal, all just biting, pulling and standing their ground. Suddenly, it all broke apart, the two biggest cubs got the two pieces that tore apart, moved about a meter away, sat down to eat. And the other, smaller ones completely gave up. After that point, everyone was quiet. The battle was over and the victors had been decided.

By the 25 minute mark there was nothing left. Seriously nothing!  No head, no long bones, no hide. One youngster – covered in blood and mud, went to the patch of soaked dirt and kept sniffing around with a bewildered face “I know it was just here”.

What an amazing experience.

Josiah then pointed out to us that tracking really does work. It was worth abandoning “The plan”. Raina made some comment about how wonderful it was that the lions had walked around the road for such a long distance and even taken two right hand corners. And then, even though it was us following the tracks, somehow it was the other vehicles that found the spot. It definitely wasn’t the call on the radion that told us where they were, it was the tracks. Weird hey.

Either way – it was brilliant!

Our wandering brought us to two Giraffes fighting. So cool. Slow motion swinging of the neck, then bammm! Into each other.

And we saw another Cheetah.

Eventually it was time to go back to breakfast and to finish our last game drive.  We packed into the safari vehicle for our final ride to the airstrip. The small plane was buzzing around, as there were so many animals on the strip. It brought back memories of living in Cobar in central NSW, where Raina had to drive up and down the airstrip at night to remove animals and let the Air Ambulance in.

Before we could go, the safari vehicle had to do another run, chasing Warthogs and Impala away. A wonderful farewell to Africa.

We arrived at Hoedspruit airport in plenty of time. Pity our plane was three hours late. And lucky the departure lounge was great as we had 3 ½ hours wait.

We arrived in J’Burg, collected a car, booked into the hotel then drove 90 minutes in hideous peak hour traffic to a place called “Carnivores”. Yes, a game restaurant.   We ate…Impala, Kudu, Croc and Zebra among other things.

Then we went back to Wynand’s house to get our big cases, say goodbye and give back the things he had leant us.

Off to bed on the best beds we had slept on in a month!

8^th July – Garonga

Another 6.15 start and it was soooo cold with wind, like arctic, the kind of wind that gives you an ice cream head ache.  Again we had on everything we owned – except what we had given to Peir and Avery who still had no luggage. We all took our blankets from dinner the night before so were a bit more comfortable.

Off we went for another crazy drive. Guess what?  Josiah decided to change our plans and to go looking for Cheetah.  “No, cannot stop. No common animals, can see them later!”. We wonder if he understands the concept of latter, and that latter is not an eternal and infinite thing, that time in fact runs out.

They were becoming very theatrical and absolutely putting on a show for the tourist. He would screetch to a halt to point out tracks, on the road, and claim to be following a lead. “This way” then drive for 10 ks’s at 50kph straight up the dirt roads. ????

At one point we stopped to send Petrick off tracking. It was an excellent stop. We heard Zebra calling. Something on the wish list.

Minutes later we heard Lions roaring.

And then we got a radio call. Someone had found some Cheetah with fresh kill. We got there to find two Cheetah eating a young Wildebeest. It was sensational. As they were eating they were making such happy grunting, growling noises.

Every few minutes one of them would sit up tall and look around, then back to chowing down. It was great.

In the distance Jackals had caught the smell and where howling about it. Obviously planning to come down when the cheetahs had finished. They sounded extatic with anticipation of the possibility of meat.

What a bonus, we didn’t know it was an Audio tour!

Then it was back to racing back to the camp. “We are a long way from camp, we have to hurray. No stopping!”

We started to drive into a big dry river crossing not far from camp. Petrick started yelling “Look, Lion, listen to it eating, off to the left.  Get your cameras ready.”

We all knew that he was taking the piss…but of course we all looked left, just in case. Suddenly he yells –“No, to the right”.  We all looked right and there set up in the river bed was a huge breakfast camp. It’s the kind of thing that takes you a few seconds to process because it is all so out of context, while you meanwhile stare dumbly at the scene. Brilliant. So much food and drink. The others arrived in the other car (it was just us two and Peir and Avery) and we had a lovely breakfast.

Of course we had to have a Giraffe poo championship. The Now Yoork guy won. Unable to not take part in a competitive game, hysterical.

We went back and each had a massage, in the most lovely little hut overlooking the water hole. There used to be a tree obstructing the view, but a congenial elephant came and knocked it down, greatly improving the view.

For the afternoon game drive we were joined by three new girls (all currently living in NYC, but two were from Iran originally and in between, France). Earlier we had been asked what we wanted to do (don’t know why, its not like Josiah would ever listen). Sarah had mentioned that she “wouldn’t mind” going back to check on the cheetah kill to see if any scavengers were about. Hyenas, jackals, vultures, etc. So despite having poor little Avery – who still hadn’t had a good look at anything but the Cheetahs – and the new girls who hadne seen anything, we sped over to the Cheetah kill sight. “NO STOPPING”

We all joined in with the, “Don’t stop!”

A group of Bush Buck with many youngsters entertained us for a while. For some reason we were allowed to stop.

Back at the carcass from this morning we found – nothing left. Head, spine and skin.

7^th July – Garonga

Another 6.15 start and a freezing cold day. The temperature was above freezing but with the wind chill of the open vehicle it was glacial. Though admittedly we did underestimate the cold, we had packed enough clothing for the temperature, but not for the wind chill. We wore everything we owned and took blankets from the lodge and all. All cocooned up and still freezing.

But…poor Peir and Avery (the Jackson Holes people), still had no luggage, only what little they were wearing – including a distinctive lack of shoes, just thongs. None of our shoes fitted them but we did load them up with socks, scarves etc.

So off we went. We found a group of Rhino and got very close. The matriarch had the biggest horn we have ever seen on a Rhino, even on TV. Ginormous. We spent quite a while with them but then Josiah, decided they were were going to the other side of the reserve. “there are Cheetahs”. “No, cannot stop” as we speed past Elephants, Giraffes, Impala, Warthog, Zebra, Wilderbeast and more. At least we had seen them before, but poor 10year old Avery was getting her first look at these amazing creatures as we zipped by at 50 ks on twisty dirt roads. “No! no common animals – we will see them later”.  So we hung on and went for the ride. And it went on and on. And no Cheetah.  We tried to say that we would be happy just pottering along, seeing what ever but “No! The Cheetah are just up here”.

After nearly three hours we happened to see an African Civet so at least our frustration was overwhelmed by joy at seeing that cutie.  A Civet is a badger / raccoon / cat type animal and another animal we were very keen to see. We only got a glimpse of it but that was great.  

The afternoon drive was fairly similar as Josiah again decided that we were going to find Cheetah. So off we went again “No stopping”.  Not the best safari drive, but we had fun with our new friends and yelling out “Impala, Don’t Stop”  “Wildebeest, Don’t stop”, “Elephant, Don’t stop”. Poor Avery hadn’t had a good look at a single animal yet.

The Cheetah hunt was abandoned as it was nearly dark – we are too far from the lodge, we have to go back”. We didn’t get to do Sundowners at sunset either. As we drove along in the darkening light, all ready to kill Josiah we saw a Honey Badger. Sarah nearly exploded with excitement. The Honey Badger is a member of the “Secret Seven” the seven most elusive African animals. It’s a big like a giant bumbling skunk and is the badger is the mascot of the Hufflepuff house (of which Sarah is a member of) in Harry Potter. The other house mascots are a Lion, a Snake and an Eagle. There is footage of the good ol’ honey badger chasing and owning all of these animals. GOOOOO Honey Badger!!!!

We also saw another Black Backed Jackal. Additional awesome animals.

Then in a spectacular occurrence of chance, up ahead, the ‘Elusive Leopard’ crossed the road. It was beautiful, and huge –really huge and didn’t just run across the road. It wandered. Then it stopped in the grass and starred at us. WE GOT A GOOD LOOK AT A LEOPARD! Such a magnificent animal, and we even snagged a few photos each as well as time to look before it turned and streaked off into the bush.

So we were ecstatic – and no longer wanted to do punch Josiah in the face. Thank goodness for Petrick and his brilliant spotting skills.

We (us and Peir) asked if maybe we could go out tomorrow at 6m instead of 7am. Lets get out before sunrise to maybe see animals going home after a night of foragging. “No” was our answer. Unlike other lodges that we have stayed at that are constantly searching for ways to discover and meet your wishes.

A few new groups had arrived so we got to sit around that evening with a really nice group. Pommies, Scots and a newly wed couple from Noow Yourk. They were so funny and entertained us all evening with stories of the wedding. The wedding that they didn’t want to have but was just for the family. They wanted to elope. They had us rolling around the floor in stitches. They were both from Queens and had the classic rough hard Queens accents. They drank Corfee and owned a dowg.

She invited someone to the wedding – “Don’t know why. Don’t even like her but she invited me to her wedding. Then she gets up and says she wanted to sing us a song that she wrote for us. All about communication. As if we need to know about communication It was teeerrrible. I just sat there giving hur the stink eye”.

6th July  - Garonga

Life is very regimented at Garonga with zero room for flexibility.  They come and knock on your door at 6.15am. You then need to be at the lodge having a cup of tea by 6.30 to leave at 6.45. No food, breakfast is latter! That is the way it is!

There are usually about half a dozen vehicles out form the different lodges in the vicinity and they all communicate on the radio to talk about what they see.  Word came that someone had found a lion pride. When we got there, there were 13 lions. Two mature lionesses and 11 cubs – 2 at 10 months (the first litter still travelling with mum), 4 at 6 months old and 5 at 4 months old.  They would lie in the sun for a while then get up and walk 500meters to a kilometer.  Then they would find another lovely sunny spot and lie down again. Then off they would go again. This happened about six times. When they would move off, they would all straggle along, some playing, some staying behind then hurrying to catch up.

They began to cross a track in front of us. Suddenly one of the adults barked an order and 11 cubs all hit the deck, most in a lovely straight line. The two adults crouched and went in opposite directions. They circled a herd of Impala that we could see. We could see the Impala milling around, seeming mostly calm but every now and then stirring a bit. Many minutes later one of the adults attacked and everything exploded, Impala were running everywhere and snorting in warning. The cubs, in their excitement, jumped up to watch, but not one bottom left the ground. Moments latter a signal must have been given and the cubs stood up, milling around but still remained in place until the adults returned. They then headed off having missed the kill.

We had seen lions hunting!  Tick, Brilliant.

We returned to the lodge for breakfast – really brunch as this place only feeds you twice a day – a bit strange! As we were sitting there eating our brunch – guess who came to the waterhole below????

Our 13 lion buddies!

They must have looked up and though “Bloody Hell, thought we got rid of them!”

After brunch some new guys arrived.  A really lovely Mum and 10yo from Jackson Holes (where we spent Christmas in 2008). They had arrived but their luggage was still in Washington DC. They went to bed having flown a long way, including a day in Paris as a stop off. We went out on afternoon Safari.

We watched a lone Elephant in a river bed ripping out the roots of a huge tree, growing in the bank. Then the hippos. In the middle of this Bushvelt was a deep river, fill of Hippos. We hopped out of the car and walked to the river bank. The guide tried to make it sound really scary, giving us a huge lecture about hand signals – this means stop, this means freeze. He loaded the rifle and off we went. By this stage we were begin to realize that Josiah, our guide was a bit of a tosser –very taken with the theatrical side of guiding. As if they were going to take a group of tourists into danger. Just as we were about to walk off a bug flew into the neck of Jasper, the pommy guy with us. He screeched, jumped so high and we are sure nearly poo-ed himself. We all, including Jasper, laughed so hard. The hippos were well below us down and steep bank. There was not a chance they ever came up here. Totally safe – but great.  They did a lot of roaring and blowing. It was fantastic. The noise is just so loud and deep. Quite amazing.

Another magnificent sunset was spent at an old Mica mine.

5^th July  Travel to Garonga

The morning was nice and uneventful with a 60 minute flight to Hoedsprit  (Hoodie (as in shirt) – sprit (as in fairy). After landing we walked across the apron to be met by a family of Warthogs on the airstrip.

Only to find that one bag of clothes was AWOL. Sarah’s of course. So onto the tiny plane for a flight to Garonga Safari’s in the Malikali Conservium next to Kruger. We landed on the dirt strip, were met by our safari vehicle and drove off with four giraffe at the end of the strip.

We flew into Hoedsprit on a commercial flight and were to then connect with a four seater plane. But the small plane was late so we had a 70 minute wait. Luckily it was the nicest departure lounge we had ever seen. A nice big room with lounges – not hard chairs.

Garonga is a Private Reserve. It is a group of people who have bought farmland and rehabilitated it to a natural state, and added some lodges. It then runs as a privately owned national park. The benefit of a private Conservancy is that the number of vehicles on the area is controlled and the vehicles can go off road. We were very much back in the Bushvelt. Flat, heavily timbered and scrubbed land. Very similar to Ant’s Hill but flat.

After settling in we headed off on Safari One. An afternoon safari starting at 3.30 after tea and finished at about 6.30.

First stop was to a group of bachelor bull Elephants. We spent a long while with them, watching them eat and consequently destroy the bush. If they want the branches at the top of a big tree – they just push it down. Snapping trunks as big as ones with a 400mm diameter.  Some areas looked like a mini cyclone had been through. Stacks of mature trees snapped off at about 1.4cm high. And the trees not snapped by the elephants, were destroyed by the safari vehicles. If a small tree (ie 2meters high ) is in the way – we just drive over it.

The Elephants snapped off large branches and chew the bark off, then spit the bare stick out. They would rip off great bunches of Acacias, complete with six centimeter thorns and chew on them. They also eat leaves in great quantities.  Bark is a favorite, so many of the trees that were standing were ringbarked and long dead.

Next stop was to a recently discovered Hyena den.  So exciting. This was one of the animals we really wanted to see and had not yet encountered. And there they were. Two massive girls basking in the sun with their giant fat bellies poking out. The trackers had discovered the den by following the drag marks of their latest kill. 

Seeing the Hyenas allowed us to tick off the ‘Ugly Five’ –Maribu Stork, Vulture, Warthog, Baboon and Hyena.  Yahh!!!  

Sundowners was spent indulging in the great South African tradition of spitting poo. Giraffe poo was the choice of the day, it is in pellets just a bit bigger then the size of Kangaroo poo.  The aim is to spit it the furthest.  We were legends. Though Sarah struggled to overcome the difficulty that arose when the poo exited her mouth and would snag on her teeth, disrupting the trajectory and thus hindering her distance.

This was washed down with the traditional sundowner booze. After sundowners we got to have a night drive. We saw an Owl thing a bit like a tawny frog mouth. Then went back, somehow Sarah prevented Raina from falling asleep in her dinner and crashed out.

4^t July

Not much happened today. 

We did have lovely massages. Raina had hers on the deck and saw elephants.

We flew to J’burg and went to visit the Venter’s again. We hired a car this time so we didn’t have to travel in the scary shuttle bus and as we had to sort out our gear and leave some our big bags with them as we were flying to our next stop on a four seater plane – with no suitcases.

For dinner we did an internet search for a game restaurant and came up with “the Boma’, only 30 minutes form where we were.

Sadly the Boma was not much better than a food hall.  And the game they had that night was stewed Springbok. Could have been lamb…could have been road kill. We will never know.

Oh….and they also had ‘something worms’ floating in a sludgy pot of red stuff. We went home hungry!

3rd July - Vic Falls

Oh Joy!!!  Another day of getting up at stupid o’clock. This time up at six am!  Sarah gets so excited about these mornings.

But it was worth it.  Today started with a visit to the see some Lions.

In the last 30 years the population of African Lions has dropped by80-90%, taking them from the threatened status to Endangered. We went to a group called ALERT - African Lion Environment Research Trust, a not for profit group that raises Lions for re-introduction into certain areas.

They have a great four-stage plan. There is a game farm 600km away where they breed lions. Cubs are taken for the parents at three weeks old and are hand raised. At around six weeks they start going on walks with the handlers. These cubs will never live in the wild.

Stage Two sees their cubs raised in family groups with genetic compatibility.

As the stage One hand reared cubs get older they are used in a program called “Walk with the Lions”. This is where tourists – read Raina and Sarah- have the opportunity to walk through the bush with both three month old and seven month old cubs. As they get older they have the opportunity to chase game. After this age, they move away from the humans into stage two. 

The year old lions in stage Two are encouraged to kill – given access to small game. By the time they breed they are self-sufficient and are in massive reserves with no human intervention.

Their cubs are Stage Three.

They live a wild life (in a reserve with no human contact) – again in genetically compatible groups.

Their cubs are Stage Four – totally wild lions who are shipped off to various parts of the continent where lion numbers have fallen. They never leave Africa and do not end up in Zoo’s or worse, as pets or in circuses etc.

We spent about an hour walking through the Vic Falls National Park. First with two three month old cubs, then with two seven month olds. Walking, patting, watching and laughing. Fantastic.

After that we then went back to the lodge, got a packed lunch and headed back to town.  Back to see the Monkeys and the Baboons, and the Warthogs. The day before we saw four juvenile warthogs who had somehow lost their parents. They were so obviously lost and were trying to find their way out of the National Park fence. They would snuffle around for a while then huddle up – four noses together making a cross. They squeaked and grunted, a few got cross then the huddle broke up and they all tried again.  We watched them for 20 minutes having the same problem trying to get through a drain. Very entertaining.

As we were walking along near the boarder crossing we saw them again. Happily united with the parents and all so happy.  Good team work kids!!!

Back for another look at Victoria Falls. We caught a taxi to Zambia – well three taxis. One from town to the Zimbabwe exit point. Through immigration, then another taxi across 3 ks of no mans land to the Zambian entry point. We walked around for a while and went to the most aggressive markets ever. And it was stinking hot. In the mid 30’s.

The guys at the markets nearly attacked you and tried to keep you in their stalls, hounding you to buy from them at any cost – almost with physical force. But they were so aggressive Raina thought it was no fun. Sarah loved it though, being firm when you have to and then eventually bargaining them down. Figuring out the best bargaining tricks for each place and person. Here the trick she learnt was to offer a price first, not let them suggest one. They would offer up stupid prices, like $60 for a bracelet if you didn’t start the ball park at your level.

We hired another taxi for a few hours to take us around to see a few sights.

We saw an awesome train rattling through town. It could have been from a Depression movie it was so old. It had people travelling on open cars, cattle in others.  All the school kids walking home ran and climber on and went for a ride all whooping and cheering without the train stopping.

We went to a tourist market – but much nicer than the markets near the Falls, and bought a few things.

We then went to the local markets where there were about 100 stalls selling plushy blankets – it was winter after all. Others were selling grog. It took a while for our brains to click that there were stalls at the markets selling every kind of spirit imaginable.  There was a stall of dried fish. Many selling electrical plugs and cord and another selling used nuts and bolts. So cool.

We then bid farewell to Zambia and returned to Zimbabwe. We decided that we would try High Tea again, but again went for the lovely cocktails. Sarah was allowed to chose her own this time and had an Espresso Martini – her first decent coffee hit in three weeks.

We had so much fun on the houseboat we decided that we would do the Sunset cruise…… It was OK. Saw a few Hippos and to Crocs.   We did see a young bull Elephant on a tiny island. Poor guy. Four very large boats full of yelling tourists got really too close to the island and herded him from one end to the other. Then back again. It was very sad to watch. We so strongly believe that if you are disturbing the animal you are too close. And these guys were certainly too close.

Our boat also went over the top of a Hippo. They were showing off a few on the left had side and didn’t see the one ahead to the right. As the Hippo swam away our boat happened to turn and go directly over the poor guy. 

We do love the whale exclusion zones in Australia.

There was a lovely sunset of the giant sun into the Zambezi River. Then the giant full moon hanging low in the sky, a blood red colour. Great.

It was then back to the lodge. We only just managed to stay awake and eat a few mouthfuls of dinner. It had been a huge few days. We slept!