Arathusa Safari Lodge, Wednesday & Thursday, October 7&8, 2015

When we arrived at Arathusa Safari Lodge it was lunchtime.  Most meals are served in a large gazebo that overlooks one of the largest ponds (waterholes) in the area.  During our lunch we observed four or more Hippos and about a dozen Elephants in the water.  At the water's edge there were also some Wart Hogs, some Kudu and Impalas.  When we got to our unit there was a Yellow Hornbill bird knocking at one of our windows.  Nice start.

Our accommodation exceeded all of our expectations.  We have never had a unit/house/cabin that was nearly as nice as this.  Our unit (don't know what to call it - cabin, or house, or room, or apartment??  I will use UNIT) is about 800 sq ft with tile floors.  In addition there is a partially covered patio that is 400 sq ft including the small soaking pool.  We have indoor and outdoor showers.  No other units are in sight.  We are approximately 1/3 mile from reception.  Meals and the bar are further.

    Wednesday PM game drive 10/7

Another group found a female Leopard in a tree with her kill, probably a very young Impala.  She was sleeping and looking away from us most of the time.  She was about 25 feet from us.  In addition we also saw African Buffalo (I have previously referred to them as Water Buffalo.  That is incorrect.  These are African Buffalo, also called Cape Buffalo.)  These animals are more likely to kill people than any other animal in South Africa.  We also saw Elephants, Giraffes, Steenboks, Waterboks, Wildebeasts, and Zebras.  After dinner we had to be escorted to our unit by a ranger because Elephants were near our unit.

     Thursday AM 

When we got our 5 AM wakeup call we looked out the window by our soaking-pool.  There were two elephants drinking water from the soaking-pool and a baby elephant was inching his trunk toward the water when the parents decided to leave, so the little guy did not get any water.  There were at least a half dozen elephants in the group.  When it was time to leave for the morning game drive our way was blocked by Elephants.  A ranger drove one of the safari vehicles to our front door to pick us up.

     Thursday AM       Game Drive

We found one of the five dominant males in the area near a partially eaten Buffalo.  This coalation is reportedly followed by National Geographic with live transmission at their website under "Live Safari".  This coalition is called the Birmingham Boys.  Our Ranger, Cedric, was surprised that so little of the carcass had been eaten.  Then one of the other brothers wandered in and plopped down.  He, too, was gorged.  Cedric suspected that the second Lion came from another kill.  So we drove to where the Lion had come from.  When we got there we found the other three brothers.  They were also gorged and laying down, breathing hard.  There were two dead Buffalo calfs and a full size Buffalo among the Lions.  Cedric said he had never seen such wasteful carnage.  Nor had any of the other Rangers.

We also saw a baby Elephant with its mother.  The baby was still very wobbly on its feet and was lifted up from a lying down position by its mother.  It was probably only a day or two old.  On that drive we also say Zebra, Buffalo, Wildebeest, and Impalas.

After breakfast we went on a nature hike with Cedric.  He showed us some examples of tracks that various animals leave.  We encountered Elephants and Buffalo and observed them from a distance.  We finished about 10:30.  My wife came near to getting heat stroke.  I was so tired I took a 1-hour nap - so I did not get any writing done.  The temperature was probably about 90 degrees F by that time - headed for over 100 degrees for our afternoon drive.

     

Babboons

Lion Brothers

Wildebeests

Leopard

Vulture

Simbavati Monday & Tuesday, 5 and 6 October, 2015

First a little bit of background.  For our game drives we are seated in an OPEN Land Rover that has 9 passenger seats.  So far there have been 4 empty seats in our vehicles at both Garonga and Simbavati Safari Camps.  While we are 30 to 50 feet from game we can carry on normal conversations - and the large animals ignore us.  They even ignore the crashing and crunching of shrubs we drive over to get to them and they ignore the sounds of the vehicle.  It is kind of surreal.  The wildlife tends to ignore us as long as we stay seated in the vehicle.  Both of the leopards walked within 5 feet of the vehicle that had, moments earlier, been chasing about 50 feet off to the side of their paths.  Our guide and tracker are more clever than all the rest, it seems, as they anticipate where the animals are going to go and they get in the path.  That is how we get the good views and photos.  By the way, during a game drive we drive TO the game.  We do not "drive" the game.

Yesterday, on our Monday afternoon game drive we started by mingling with a herd of more than 100 African buffalo.  Since they were scattered among the shrubs and trees we could never see more than a small percentage of them at any given time.  Then while cruising round we saw a Water Buck.  Photo attached.  Then we heard by radio that a female Leopard had been spotted nearby so we proceeded briskly to it.  She was very cooperative in spite of the commotion our vehicle made.

Then we went to a road that defines the boundary between Kruger park and the private game reserves and went to a large waterhole.  First we noticed the herd of zebras on the other side; then we noticed that there were 3 Wild Dogs near the Zebras.  When the Wild Dogs wandered into the brush we headed out at a good clip - not knowing what the plan was.  It turned out that we intercepted the Wild Dogs.  They went by pretty rapidly, so I did not get any good photos when we were close.  So I have attached a photo taken from across the pond.  Then we went back to the point where we first entered the clear area around the water hole.  That gave us an opportunity to watch the four Hippos in the pond.  They did their yawning behavior at least 4 times but I was never ready any of those times so I did not get a shot.  When it got fairly dark one of the Hippos went to the other side of the waterhole and left the water to graze.  I got a photo of him out of the water, but it is pretty dark.

At about that time a herd of Buffalo started going to the pond across the road on which we had driven in to the pond.  Before long we realized that it was a HUGE herd.  They just kept coming.  There were probably 800 of them.  Even more surprising to us was that there was a mother and baby Rhino among them.  Seeing a herd this size is not a common occurrence.

Last night our drive-partners from Denmark were asked what they would like to see on their final drive since they were leaving after this morning's game drive.  The lady said she would like to see a Pride of Lions.  This morning we went to a water hole and our tracker observed that some females and cubs had been there during the night.  Our tracker guided us the the general area where he thought they were.  He was on foot and we proceeded without him.  As we were driving I spotted a moving leg through a small hole in the underbrush that was the Pride.  They were feasting on last night's kill.  Three females and 7 cubs.  They were on one side of a small dry creek bed.  We were on the other side about 50 feet away.

After we left there our guides took us to a Hyena house.  They had made their home in an abandoned termite mound.  We saw the two females lying around.  Then they moved and laid down for the youngsters to suckle.  The youngsters were more shy, but we did see them and get some pictures.

On the way back we saw another type of hoofed animal, Duiker Deer.

This whole trip is surreal!  And it just keeps getting better.

African (Cape) Buffalo

Leopard

Hippo

Young Kudu?

Lioness and Cubs

Wart Hogs

Water Buck

Wild Dogs

Zebras being frisky