For three weeks in March we had our first visitor. My sister Kaelyn braved the 24 plus hours of flights and layovers to get from Phoenix to Durban. “I didn’t realize it was really going to be that long!” she said when we found her in the baggage claim. Oh yes, you prospective visitors, it really is.
The brave pioneer!
On her first weekend, our new friends Derek and Kelly took us on an overnight trip to the game reserve Hluhluwe (pronounced Sha-Shloo-ee by the white people who can’t do the throaty cough-up sound for the H and the L). Staying overnight in the bush was a first for Kale, Kaelyn, and I, but for Derek and Kelly, this was just another weekend of many spent searching for the big five (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and buffalo).
You have to really look for the animals.
We left early Saturday morning and arrived at the park about 11am. Late morning and afternoon are not the best times to see the animals, so on our first day, we caught sight of a few far away rhino, a warthog or two, and a lonely crocodile (which I spotted sunning itself on a rock—I’m very good at spotting crocs!)
He might look big, but he was just a wee little thing.
Then, nearing the end of our four hour drive, we came across a group of zebras hanging out in the middle of the road. They were beautiful! One zebra was pregnant, and we could see that she had recently escaped the claws of a big cat! Healed cuts ran across her belly and her tail was barely attached.
A middle of the road find.
Ouch! This mama's a survivor!
We returned before dusk to our rented chalet, basic and lovely with a kitchen, two bedrooms, a living room, and a braai facility just off the back porch. As we were cooking sausages, chicken breasts, and lamb chops on the braai (yes, we were really cooking meat outdoors and unfenced in the land where lion and leopard tread), we noticed how absolutely gorgeous the sky looked as the sun set, and so we walked a few feet away from the braai to get a better view. “Do you hear that?” Derek asked. Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. “Listen.” Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. And then he pointed. Not 50 yards away were three zebras, gnawing on some grass.
A beautiful sunset in the bush.
Our friends and tour guides, Derek and Kelly
As the meat sizzled away and the night grew dark, I got a little jumpy in my flipflops. Animal attacks are extremely rare in the game reserves, but not long ago at our very camp sight, a lone braai-er had his back turned to the night when a leopard jumped out and pulled his scalp off! The man lived actually. But I wish no one had told me this story. I urged everyone to hurry up and get the meat inside, and so we did. We ate, played Settlers of Catan, and went to bed early—listening to the sound of a hyena laughing at the night.
Derek and Kale, sitting on the braai before they lit the coals, scalps intact.
The next morning we were on the road just after 5am. The odds were in our favour because the sky was gray, hinting rain, and the air was cool: perfect weather for animals to be on the move. The first thing we spotted were elephant droppings—loads and loads of elephant droppings, and the trees and brush on both sides of the road looked like King Kong had just come through in a stomping fit. We were on the trail of the elephant! We followed the poop, and suddenly, there he was.
We continued driving and saw so many animals! Wildebeast, impala, more zebra, giraffe, warthogs, and even a rhino. When we got out of the car at a lookout point, Derek began bragging to another gamer about our elephant. “But did you see the lions?” the man asked. “Lions?” Derek had definitely lost the contest. We jumped back into the car and drove as fast as we could to the place where the man had seen the lions. Two cars were parked there watching. We pulled up behind the second one and got out the binoculars. We spotted a family of lions in the distance. We could make out the faces of three females and one male in the grass but their faces were very tiny. The other two cars restarted and drove away. Derek said he had a good feeling that we would see something if sat still. So we did. And that’s when everythings started to happen! Kaelyn spotted a hyena in the bush quite close to us. ”There’s another one!” Kale shouted.
Did you know hyenas were this adorable?
“I bet there’s a kill right behind that tree!” Kelly said, and she pointed out the vultures circling in the sky. The tree was maybe ten yards from where we were parked. “Drive in.” Kelly commanded, and Derek inched his way off the road into uncharted territory. We drove to the side of the tree and spotted a huge carcass, licked clean. A wildebeast, we thought, and then Derek backed the car back onto the road, not wanting to get us into an uncomfortable situation. We sat. We watched the hyena. Then we saw another hyena. Then we saw another hyena. Then we saw a hyena carry one of the wildebeasts legs right across the road! Then we saw another hyena carry another leg across the road! Then we saw another hyena carry another leg across the road! All four legs of that wildebeast went past our van in the mouths of these spotted dogs.
The first leg goes across the road!
And there goes the second, angling the leg to look like a pirate!
Then we noticed that the lions were on the move. We drove along the road to where it curved and soon enough, all four lions crossed the road in front of our car. They weren’t as close as the hyena, but still, Kaelyn especially got some great pictures on her fancy camera.
What a sexy lady!
We continued to follow them to a watering hole.
Wildebeast makes us thirsty!
Two hours and we had seen a bull elephant, hyenas, and lions. We decided to head back to the chalet to pack up, and that’s when we saw another elephant! It was gorgoeus, in motion, walking right out of the bush towards the road. We stopped the car, and the car that had told us about the lions pulled up next to us. As Derek was telling the man about the hyenas taking away the legs of the wildebeast, the elephant got very close to the car and trumpeted at us! It wanted us to move! The other car sped off and that’s when Derek stalled our van. Everyone screamed. Derek restarted the car, and we sped out of there, the elephant waving its trunk behind us.
Really, he was only mock charging.
“Oh, my god. Oh my god. I can’t believe . . .” Derek got on his cell phone to brag to one of his friends about what we had just seen, and would you believe it? Just as he was saying that an elephant trumpeted at us, a cheetah ran right in front of our car! A cheetah! Another rare sight!
The cheetah was too fast to get on camera, but here's a mama baboon with a baby on her back, running like a cheetah.
When we got back to the chalet, we made breakfast and packed up. What a morning!
Yum! Steamy instant coffee in the bush!
On a final note, Kaelyn went outside with a load to pile into the car and noticed an entire clan of warthogs moving toward us. She got out her camera and positioned herself so dang close to those warthogs I had to cover my eyes. They are not kittens, Kaelyn! But it turned out all right.
That baby warthog is about to charge my little sister!
Every South African we have told about the morning’s adventures has kindly informed us that will never have a morning like that again. We were really lucky. And particulary lucky to have my visual artist sister taking pictures of the whole thing. Thanks Kaelyn!
wow! that is amazing! thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing! Awesome pictures and how wonderful to have your sister there. Miss you guys but we are taking good care of your Mom Kale!