After a not great night of sleep, in part due to Nick’s inability to locate a light switch for LED lights in the mosquito curtain, I rose around 4:45 and took a nice hot shower. I had been warned that it would be cooler today, so I wore longer pants, a t-shirt and a light sweatshirt - the warmest jacket I brought. There was a 5:30 am knock and by 6 we were headed to the lodge for coffee. It did not seem too bad temperature wise. The black coffee tasted great, and we boarded the truck around 6:10 am. It’s now down to 2 couples, us and Carl and Jackie from Houston.
Within moments I had my sweatshirt zipped to my chin and was taking advantage of the blanket and hot water bottle Advice had left on my seat. In addition to a much lower temperature, there was a nasty wind. At one point Morne assured me I could buy a warmer jacket in the shop. We had not anticipated this weather when we packed, and we are limited (by the bush flight) to smallish carryon luggage, so we didn’t want to pack unnecessary bulky jackets. A staff member later told us that using a weather app to predict the weather in South Africa is risky. Some places it can change to all four seasons in one day.
We first saw a herd of zebra and Morne confirmed they all have different stripe patterns like human fingerprints. He said when a mom has a baby, she takes it away from the group so it can learn to recognize her distinctive pattern. We then were shown some amazing crocodile tracks going right down the center of the road. Morne suggested he was going from one pond to another, possibly due to hippos in the first pond.
We saw some more Impala, and Morne explained how they release a pheromone from above their ankles to confuse their prey. We learned about the 3 subspecies of termites in Southern Africa and their fascinating mounds that pepper the landscape. As we drove, the wind picked up and all of us were quite cold.
Nick spotted a rhino and we drove off-road for a closer look. It was another white rhino bull built like a tank. We got quite close, but it never cared. Morne had earlier explained how they try to acclimate all the animals to the trucks. As long as we stay seated in the trucks and talk quietly, they are perfectly happy with being observed and photographed from a few feet away.
We next saw a herd of about 30 buffalo and a Saddlebill stork. We had been watching some eagles and vultures circling above, hoping they would lead us to a kill. Despite following them for awhile, we never saw them plunge toward the ground, so Morne concluded they were just enjoying the wind. As we watched, a pair of eagles locked talons and started tumbling toward the ground. Morne was “chuffed” as he had only seen videos of what he called taloning, never having witnessed it in the wild. He said it could be either part of mating or fighting behavior. It was very fun to watch.
We saw a giraffe and had our coffee break at a pool with 20 hippos and a crocodile. There we saw a pair of fish eagles and other interesting birds, including the stork walking along the bank quite near to us. Our last sightings of the morning were a family of baboons, 2 large male buffalo and a family of giraffe.
We returned to the lodge for a made-to-order breakfast and then went back to our room for a nap. We skipped lunch and went up early for tea, hoping to purchase a warmer jacket for the days ahead.
We headed out and almost immediately came upon the same rhino we had seen earlier. Nick questioned the notches in the bull’s ears, and Morne explained it’s a form of identification that the camps use to differentiate the rhinos. We saw some impala and mongoose and some water buck, who are good swimmers. Next we saw an old bull elephant thought to be part of a bachelor herd. Morne pointed out a lilac breasted roller, the beautiful blue-winged bird we had seen in Botswana. We saw a gray duiker, a small antelope named for its tendency to dive into the bushes at the first sign of trouble.
After driving for a long time we started hearing talk of something exciting on the radio. Jackie guessed it was a leopard, but Morne would not confirm, saying it was a surprise. We passed a truck full of guests, and they were giving us the thumbs up and knowing smiles. We drove off-road and came upon another truck pulled over in a clearing. There was a female leopard lying on top of a termite mound. A little ways away was a large male, lying in the grass. They were taking a rest after mating. They mate multiple times over a five-day period. The female instigates the process by going to the male and raising her tail. If he’s willing to, he mounts her. The male has a barbed penis and it’s quite painful, so he will grab the female’s neck as some sort of relaxation method. Afterwards they will snarl and back away from each other - they are really not very social. We did not wait long before she walked off the mound and approached him. He obliged, and it was over quite quickly. Morne made a joke about two-thrust Tom. They rested for a minute or two and went again. They did it about 4 times in the grass, and then he moved onto the termite mound right in front of us. In a minute or so, she followed, and they proceeded to couple 3 or 4 times “on the stage” with ten feet of us. It was incredible. She tried one more time, but he declined. She went to rest in the grass and we returned to the lodge in the dark, extremely satisfied with the magic we had just witnessed. On the way Morne explained how the female can mate with multiple males and store the sperm and become impregnated by the stronger male. It’s even been known for females to have two cubs in one litter, by different fathers. It was fascinating.
At dinner we met our new companions, Rickie and Ralph from Saratoga, Florida, and staff brought out a birthday cake for Carl. We sang happy birthday, and Carl advised us to keep our day jobs. Jackie and Carl will be leaving in the morning. We exchanged contact info, hugged goodbye and thanked Morne for a once in a lifetime experience.
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