Our afternoon drive was cut very short yesterday due to torrential rain. The upshot of this was that I was in the bar by five thirty as opposed to the usual eight pm. A very good night was had but of course the Damaclean sword of the four thirty alarm call very much hung over us.
It therefore took a while for body and brain to engage this morning and for the first time I was glad to have brought a safari jacket on tour. The height of summer in the low veldt and a fleece was required! It did take a while for the excitement to kick in this morning but boy did it kick in in spades.
Our first sighting was hippo. These aren’t much to look at really as they mostly stay under water with just the nostrils and eyes sticking out. Then we came across a mother and calf rhino, an elephant for which we didn’t bother stoping and then the jackpot. The river pride. Two lionesses, a lion and three cubs. The cubs were eating the carcass of a waterbuck hidden inside a bush.
After a while two of them wandered around to one of the lionesses who did a bit of grooming. The second lioness pricked up her ears and set off. She had smelled or heard more waterbuck. We drove on a hundred metres or so and spotted her hiding in the long grass downwind of several waterbuck. They sensed something was wrong and eventually trotted off elsewhere. It was very exciting for a while thinking that we might see a kill.
We had to stop on several occasions to let columns of huge army ants cross the track. They had raided a termites nest and were carrying off young termites. Another stop was to look at a giant snail – it was the size of a first.
The bush kept on giving as shortly after breakfast a herd of elephants walked into sight in single file. Must have been at least fifteen of them. It made me think of Colonel Hathi in the Jungle Book.
I had a couple of hours kip after brekkie although it doesn’t particularly feel like it. Now I am sat around the pool watching a nyala and four waterbuck who don’t appear to have moved since breakfast. Worralife. Just two more game drives to go.
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Elephant watching from the pool…
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The highlight of the evening drive was watching the Motswari Zebras play football against a side made up of visiting construction workers. ‘Our”team had proper kit and the visitors wore yellow bibs. Not all had football boots. Some were barefoot and two players shared a pair of trainers wearing one each. What a spectacle. It was a dirt pitch with no markings but a goal at either end. We think the score was two all when we left, before the end of the game.
Prior to that at lunch a family of warthogs paraded in front of the lodge verandah and on the drive itself we saw a family of hyena cubs lazing in front of their termite mound den. No sign of the mother.
We finished off by seeing a hippo. Another great day in the bush.
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The highlight of yesterday’s evening drive was watching the Motswari Zebras play football against a side made up of visiting construction workers. “Our” team had proper kit and the visitors wore yellow bibs. Not all had football boots. Some were barefoot and two players shared a pair of trainers wearing one each. What a spectacle. It was a dirt pitch with no markings but a goal at either end. We think the score was two all when we left, before the end of the game.
We also saw a litter of hyena cubs lazing outside their den in a termite mound. No sign of mum. We drove home in the dark along the track that divides the Motswari/Timbavati reserve and the Kruger. There a true wilderness extended for twenty three kilometres before the first sign of human beings. Darkness reigned.
The Timbavati is a fusion of twenty six or seven independent game reserves that have removed their dividing fences and that between them and the Kruger proper. The upshot is that animals are free to roam between them all providing an enormous genetic diversity.
This morning we went in search of two leopards that had been sighted nearby but were not successful. We saw plenty of other game and that bit of the trip is now over.
During our four intensive days on the reserve we have been lucky enough to see a wide variety of wildlife at very close quarters. This is not something you get in the main Kruger park as vehicles are not allowed to go off road. This has allowed us to get up close to lions, leopard, elephant, rhino, buffalo, giraffes, zebra, the whole lot really.
We saw two separate pairs of white rhinos, mother and child, and three different packs or part packs of lions. We even got to see a hippo walking along into the water. The pack of African wild dogs was a very rare sighting.
I leave Motswari somewhat lost for words (I know, I know). It is hard to see any other holiday beating this for the major life experience it has been. It isn’t that the Motswari Lodge itself was particularly posh or luxurious. It was just what it needed to be and the staff have been brilliant.
It is billed as an all inclusive gaff but tbh you didn’t get much time to take advantage of this. We were early to bed every night as the alarm had to be set for a ridiculous four thirty am every day.
I am now sat on the verandah, binoculars on the table in front of me, prepared to watch the wildlife tableaux as it parades by. I have read approximately a third of my book and written several thousand words in my online diary that this effectively is.
We are being picked up at one pm and taken to a private strip to catch a Fed Air flight to Joburg. Cue exciting jungle music…