We headed out this afternoon for our first official game drive — in what I can only describe as a safari vehicle engineered by someone who thought, “What if we made a jeep… but also a small apartment building?”
It’s a very (very) tall open-sided truck with three rows of covered seats. Getting in requires climbing a ladder, then stepping sideways onto an aluminum foothold like you’re boarding a ship in rough seas. I’ll try to take a photo tomorrow, because it’s a bit of a production.
And if we thought the drive to the lodge was kidney-jarring…
This was the deluxe upgrade: tooth-loosening, internal-organ-rearranging safari suspension.
But the reward?
Absolutely worth every rattle.
We saw both white and black rhino, named not for their color but the fact that one eats on the grassland and the other more in the forest (the black rhino – the forest eater -being the most endangered), plus zebra, a lone male ostrich struttin’ around, giraffes, “Pumbas” (warthogs, but forever and always Pumbas), wee impala-esque creatures, gnu, and a very shy kudu who seemed to be practicing the art of vanishing.
And then — just when we thought we were heading back…
Lions.
Yes. Lions.
We ended up very, very late for dinner, but luckily we were met at the lodge door by Zeb with hot towels — a small act of luxury that felt particularly deserved after being dust-blasted back into human form.
Entabeni has five lions on the property right now. The dominant male was killed last year when, in an unexpected plot twist, a large gnu fought back. At the moment, they can’t introduce a new male, because a newcomer would kill the young male coalition (yes, that is the real term — nature is dramatic and also extremely bureaucratic).
While things are getting sorted out, the females are on birth control, because otherwise you end up with… well… an unfortunate mythological family situation. (Oedipus-adjacent, but with more teeth.)
As the light faded slowly in the West while we compound-low-gear’d it back over the buttes, we saw hippos starting to come out of the water to graze on the shore. Our guide reiterated – faster than you can imagine, and have killed more people than any other animal in Africa.
Camera Notes from the Field
I’m also getting the hang of using H’s camera, and I truly think he would be proud of me.
One thing I swore, however, was that I would not come home with a gazillion photos to sort through. So tonight — before bed (and before our 5:00 a.m. wake-up call tomorrow) — I culled ruthlessly.
Only the keepers survived.
I hope you enjoy them. While it doesn’t capture how giraffes running looks like they are floating on clouds (who knew?), I hope that the big cat ones make you realize that they’re all just Kitties at heart.
And honestly…
What a day.
Uploading photos is EXCEPTIONALLY tedious, and I really have to get to bed. I will try to make a “shared album” tomorrow, as we do have a few hours of free time. The link is HERE; unfortunately the slideshow is “made by” iPhotos; I can’t make it show the full photo where it’s artistically doing “split screens.” Ah well!
The “knock at the door” to get out for the dawn drive is coming in…like 5 hours! Eeeeeeeep!
Beautiful…now I want to do another safari!!!!
Andrew