Safari II

We’re on the plane now, winging our way from South Africa to Paris.  Our second safari, which was in a private game reserve near Kruger National Park, finished yesterday and we drove for 7 hours to get back to Johannesburg.  I was afraid that after the fascinating experience we had in Moremi I would be disappointed or bored with a second bout of game stalking.  I needn’t have worried.

We did five game drives and one bush walk and saw new and wonderful animals every time.  By the end, I’m embarrassed to say, we were getting fairly jaded.  It took something really special (like a mother cheetah with 3 cubs devouring a freshly-killed impala) to impress us.  Otherwise it was “Oh, just another giraffe” or “Oh, just another herd of buffalo”.  Fortunately the guide and game spotter on our drives were terrific at delivering new and wonderful experiences.  This was partially due to the fact that, unlike in Moremi, our Toyota Land Cruiser was allowed to pursue the animals off-road.  The driver would slow way, way down, to maybe 1 or 2 mph, and then creep into the bush following the elephants or the rhinos.  That’s how we got the video above.

Here’s a selection of some of our favorite photos from our Kwa Mbili safari.

(The cheetah cubs were soooo cute, even when they were pulling meat off the bones of an impala.  That’s why there are 3 pictures of them.  Momma cheetah was watching both us and them pretty closely.

I had to include this rhino shot.  It was dark and we were on our way back to camp and we came across a group of 9 rhinos around a small pond.  They were maybe 30 feet away from the Land Cruiser.  The guide cut the engine and told us all to be quiet but that flash photos were ok.  The rhinos didn’t appear to be bothered by our presence.  Then a 10th rhino came over the hill and joined the group.  All of a sudden the males in the group started to get restless and began pushing and shoving each other.  I thought to myself, “I hope these guys don’t mistake our Land Cruiser for another rhino, because any one of them is a lot bigger than this 10-passenger 4 wheel drive vehicle.”  About that time, the guide said softly, “We’re getting out of here.  These guys are getting too restless.”  Later he told us he wasn’t sure what was getting the males riled up – us or the new male that joined the group – and he wasn’t taking any chances.  I couldn’t have agreed more!

Part of what made this safari so great was the wonderful group of people who happened to be at Kwa Mbili at the time and the two young staffers who worked so hard to make sure everything was perfect.  The guy at the left who looks like he’s 14 years old was our guide.  The young woman in the front row to my left was his girlfriend, who also worked at the camp.  They both put in very, very long hours every day.  Two of the people (the couple in white T-shirts at the left) came to Kwa Mbili to get married.  Their parents are 4 of the remaining crowd.  The fellow in the kilt is the groom’s father.  The groom is a Scots man and we wanted him to put on his wedding kilt for the picture but he said that was bad luck.  So his dad put it on instead.  What sacrifices parents make for their children!