Africa - Day 10

We had such a great time in Botswana we thought it was an experience which couldn't be beat. We were wrong. Today was the start of the most wonderful and exciting 5 days of our lives, and it all began with a domestic flight to Hoedsprit.

Arriving at Hoedsprit was an experience. After walking off the plane we were led into a tiny courtyard where the representatives from the various game lodges in the area waited. After meeting our ranger, Arend, it was only another couple of metres to the road where our luggage promptly arrived on a little trailer. Within 5 minutes of landing we were in Arend’s car and on our way to our lodge, Gomo Gomo Game Lodge, in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve bordering Kruger National Park. We spent the hour-long drive chatting with Arend, and began to feel really good about spending the following five days in his constant company. His enthusiasm and love of the job was immediately obvious.

On arrival at the lodge the friendly hostess, Lourenza, came out and greeted us and took us into reception to fill out the paperwork and to give them the details of our emergency contacts in case we got eaten by lions. Arend then took us to our lovely tent. With electricity, running water, and comfortable beds we were definitely not roughing it. It was set on a wooden platform and had a proper wooden door. Inside it was just like a nice hotel room, with the exception of canvas walls & ceiling. A wooden door at the back led through to the attached bathroom, which had solid walls on 3 sides and was perfectly acceptable.

We were pleasantly surprised when we turned up to our afternoon drive half an hour later to find that the other guests in our vehicle were all a similar age to us; 3 English guys and a Swiss couple. We had imagined that we’d be spending much of our safari with older people which was somewhat the case in Botswana. There were 2 other vehicles, and they contained a mix of people our age, and people in their 50’s or 60’s. One of the other vehicles had a tracker sitting on a precarious little seat on the front, but we were told that the other two were on holiday with our own one not getting back until Thursday.

Our drive started extremely well. We had hardly left the lodge when we came across a herd of elephants. Not long after that we were on our way to our first rhino sighting. It was amazing getting within a couple of metres of a pair of them. But they were constantly moving in bushy terrain and since we were up high in the back row we seemed to be spending more time dodging thorns and branches than looking at the rhino. After tracking the rhino for a while Peter, one half of the Swiss couple, yelled out and starting pointing excitedly to the grass in a clearing. Unfortunately Peter can not speak English so his girlfriend Lilly had to translate for us. After a few confused moments we discovered that Peter had spotted a leopard. Even after it was pointed out to us it took most of us a minute or two to actually see her. If not for Peter we would of driven right past! We very quickly forgot about the rhino and started following the leopard. She was beautiful! By this stage this single drive had already exceeded our expectations for our whole 5 day stay.

And it got even better. Each night the ranger selects somewhere nice to stop for sundowners - a drink and snack as the sun sets. We passed through a large herd of buffalo not long before sunset, so Arend parked on the far side of a waterhole that he suspected the buffalo were heading towards. Sure enough, the buffalo soon showed up and we enjoyed our drinks just a few metres away from where dozens of buffalo were enjoying theirs. We were packed up and pretty much ready to go when Arend suddenly told us to get back into the vehicle immediately. A handful of buffalo had snuck through the trees on the side of the waterhole and were now standing just a few metres away from us looking decidedly grumpy. After we were all safely back in we swiftly left the area.

That wasn’t the end of the excitement. We soon heard that the local lion pride had been spotted on a sandy river bed. I was a bit nervous when I heard one of the other rangers over the radio say the drive in to the sighting is a bit of a precarious one. One thing that had very quickly become apparent was that Arend was a touch crazy when it came to driving. My heart sank when I saw the steep, tree-covered, hill which we would need to negotiate. But after a nerve-wracking few minutes we managed to arrive unscathed at the lions, a pride consisting of an adult male, two adult females, and five cubs. Since they were all sleeping we didn’t spend too long with them, with Arend promising that we’d pick up their trail in the morning.

As we drove back to the lodge Arend shone a spotlight, with the hope of spotting one of the nocturnal animals. We didn’t see anything, except for a couple of scrub hares, but it didn’t matter. Just being out in the African bush at night was a magical experience. We’d seen the Big 5, plus a number of other animals, all in the space of 3 hours. We couldn’t of been happier.

After half an hour to relax in our room Arend came to walk us to the bar, where we chatted with Lilly & smiled and gestured at Peter before going to eat. Dinner was a 3 course affair eaten at individual tables set in a circle around a fire. The chef announced the menu before we started. He considered himself as a bit of a comedian and tried to inject some humour into his announcement. Unfortunately, due to his hard-to-understand accent his jokes fell flat. They were either met with silence, or the sound of people asking each other, “What did he say?”. It was painfully uncomfortable. Between us Shanon and I picked out that he was joking that we would be served, ‘Steamed Trousers’, and ‘Cheetah with Nice Shoes On’, but had no idea what he said that we were actually being served. The main meal was buffet style served under lights, but the appetizer and dessert were delivered to us at our tables. With only the light of the fire and a small lamp each to see by it was a mystery meal. We all peered through the darkness at our food before being brave and taking a bite. Everyone thought that the food was very good, but we found dessert to be….interesting. It was a nice cheesecake with a weird sauce on it. Thanks to my recent experience with blood noses I thought that it tasted like blood, but Shanon thinks it may have been rhubarb.