7-29-14 South Africa Cutenss (Part 2 – The Bush)

                The bush sounds exactly like what it is, large areas with an overgrowth of grasses, trees, and bushes. It refers to all areas of this type, but in particular we stayed in Sabi Park, just adjacent to Kruger National park in South Africa. Here the animals have a large reserve to wander about from Mozambique to Swaziland.  It really does have all animals too; We found the Big 5, named for being the most dangerous animals in Africa: Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, and both Black and White Rhino. We also found Giraffes, Hyena, Zebra, Baboons, Vervet Monkeys, Bushbabies, Cevets, various birds including the go-away bird who’s call sounds like a high-pitched GO AWAY and vultures and parrots, 4 different types of Antelope (Kudu, Impala, Nyala, and Eland), Hippos, Crocodiles, Wildebeest, and more.

                The time we spent in the Bush was absolutely amazing. We got to know our resident Tracker, Albert, and Ranger, Simon. They explained the intricacies of the ecology of the bush and spent 3 days tracking a Leopard for us. When we finally found that Leopard, it was a truly magical experience. The animals in Lion Sands have been accustomed to seeing the Range Rovers all their lives, so the Leopard just continued to hunt as if we weren’t there while we followed him.

                The awesome thing about the Range Rovers, that I know the Stollmeyer’s will appreciate, is the ability to just go anywhere. There were rudimentary dirt roads that simply existed because they are the frequented routes of the Rangers. But when we found the Leopard we went where the Leopard went. We drove through a sandy river bed as if we didn’t require traction, we went up the verticl side of the riverbed as if gravity was no big deal, and we went through dense forests as if the trees did nothing to block our path (we drove over them and they spring back up behind the Rover).  Driving around in that Range Rover (Which had seats for 11, plus the tracker who sat on the hood of the vehicle) would have been fun all by itself, adding the surrealism of the wild animals was just double the fun.

Arriving to the Bush. This is the Skukuza Airport.
Smaller than even the SLO Airport! 

Right away we got to get into the open top Range Rover
to head to the Lion Sands Reserve.

This little guy was part of our first elephant sighting.
Right when I took this photo he trumpeted, and it was absolutely adorable.

African Sunset

African Sunrise. We  had 2 game drives every day.
One at 6:00 am and one at 3:30pm.

ZAZU

Vervet Monkey, this guy was actually plotting to steal our lunch. 

Giraffes. We asked our Ranger if we could find some Giraffes and he explained that
Giraffes are like Leopards, if you are looking for them you will never find them,
but if you are looking for something else you will see them everywhere.
Sure enough, we saw these 2 Giraffes when we were tracking the Leopard.
And the day after we found our Leopard, another Leopard
crossed the road in front of us as if it were no big deal. 

This is the rare White Rhino that our vehicle alone had the privilege of seeing. 

Hippo in the River, we hiked down to the river to see these guys. We didn't get too close (this is with my 200 mm lens).

Laney in the Bush

Marc in the bush.

We happened to stumble upon a herd of about 500 African Buffalo.
Since they are used to the Range Rovers, they don't feel threatened by us.
Our Ranger, Simon, said that the way that
the buffalo look at you is like you owe them money. 

Madi enjoying the Buffalo. 

Dad enjoying the Buffalo. 

A hyena. The trackers say that the hyena will always follow
the Leopard or the Lions so if you see a Hyena, it means a big Cat is close by. 

Wildebeest, the only one we saw. 

We saw so many Antelope that I really didn't take that many pictures of them,
 but these are some Impala feeling threatened by a nearby Hyena.
Their tactic is to look at it and make a loud snort, signifying that they know it is there.
Leopards and Lions will give up if the Antelope spots them because
 they require the element of surprise to make a successful kill.

Madi and Laney feeling giggly on an early morning game drive. 

 

Sunset (one of many beautiful Lion-King-Esque sunsets and sunrises)

Laney showing us the toothbrush tree. (A skill she learned in the kids class).

Jill makes her own toothbrush.

Finally after 3 days, we found this Male Leopard.
We followed him around in the bush for about half an hour. 

The Leopard. You can see the tracks from our Range Rover in the riverbed,
while the other Rover behind him shows the crazy hills we were able to scale. 

We found these 2 male Rhinos fighting in a watering hole that we
had played in earlier that day. Male Rhinos are quite territorial,
but it was somewhat exhilarating and we tried to keep our distance
from these angry Rhinos. Their fight was so intense they were knocking down trees
and trying to stab the other in the stomach. Very scary. 

During our last evening Game Drive they set up sunset cocktails and
appetizers under a large Amarula trees. At this point I was pretty certain
they were trying to make us cry from the cute. 

Madi beneath the African Sunset. 

Dad and Jill in their seats in the Range Rover. 

Male Lion after an unsuccessful hunt. 

Lioness regarding the other vehicle. 

Male and Female Lions greeting each other. They're almost just like house cats.

Baboon, we found this male and his group of baboons
because they were yelling warnings about the Lions. 

Madi, Laney, and Candace, one of the kid counselors. 

All of us out in front of the Lion Sands sign. We're sad to be leaving! 

When we were done with our time in the bush, we headed back to Johannesburg, where there was a closing ceremony over-the-top party waiting for us. Our flight left at 11pm so we had to leave the party early. It included tearful farewells to the friends we had made on the trip and it was terribly bittersweet to leave. We definitely fell in love with South Africa while we were there, and on the bus to the airport we promising ourselves that we would return and get to visit Cape Town and our New friends.

Our flight from Johannesburg landed in Amsterdam, where I then said goodbye to my family. I then immediately met Miki (Mikayla) in the baggage claim to start Part 2 of this wild crazy worldwide adventure! But more on that later.

Some cool facts that I learned in the Bush:

-The Acacia tree is a tree that is famous for coevolving with the Giraffe. (Giraffe ate the tree, the tree grew thorns and got taller, the Giraffe became better at eating around thorns and got taller, the tree got taller, the giraffe got taller, etc. We now have very tall Acacia Trees and Giraffes with long necks). But what I bet you didn’t know about the Acacia tree is that it speaks to other trees. When an Antelope or Giraffe starts eating the leaves off the Acacia tree, the tree emits hormones that travel downwind to other trees to warn them about the approaching herbivore. The tree then immediately transfers large amounts of Tannins (the bitter taste in wine) into the leaves. The antelope or giraffe doesn’t like the bitter taste and will then move on to a different tree. As a result, Antelope and Giraffe have learned to always eat upwind, that is they take a bite and the next bite is upwind. Thus, the herbivore gets to continue eating, but not enough to kill the whole tree. Interesting stuff!

-What is the most dangerous animal to encounter in the Bush?

I bet you think it’s a Lion or a Leopard. While it is dangerous to encounter these animals, they usually run away from humans, and you will have a very difficult time even seeing one. There is so much antelope around that they do not feel the need to hunt humans and instead are simply scared of them.

The real answers that we got from our Ranger about what he is most scared of are African Buffalo, Elephants, and Snakes.

 African Buffalo go towards anything they don’t understand, and once they encounter something they consider a threat they will charge it and stamp it out. Thus African Buffalo is very terrifying to encounter and when we went on a bush walk with one of the Rangers we rounded a corner and saw the helmet of the bull and were told to immediately run in the other direction.

Elephants, while generally nonchalant about human attention, can suddenly change their mind about something and charge at it. A few times in the Range Rover we would find elephants and our Ranger would refuse to stop because he could see that the elephant wanted to charge.

And snakes, which are good at hiding and usually have good displays before they strike, can hide in small crevices. If you are standing near a rock where a Black Mamba is hiding, he may display his black mouth at you in warning, but you will be unable to see him and he may strike. The venom will kill you in a matter of hours.

Now those  of you who know some stuff about Africa may have heard that actually the Hippopotamus is the most dangerous animal in all of Africa. This is more or less true as it has killed the highest number of humans. But the thing that is important about this is that it is purely because humans encounter Hippo’s more frequently in Africa than they do any other animal. Most Africans do not have access to clean drinking water and thus must make daily trips to get water from ponds and rivers. This is where Hippos live their lives, and their massive teeth can pierce a hole straight through the human body. And when they bite, they bite multiple times.  Even in South Africa, where the government is arguably the best in the entire continent, 30% of its citizens still do not have clean drinking water.

A Hippo Skull we found after the sunset,
 our trackers said that it had been eaten by Lions a few months ago.

Anyways, I wrote this on a train from Interlaken to Basel, Switzerland. (I missed Corey by 1 week!!!). It’s amazingly beautiful here and I feel very fortunate to be able to go on this trip.

Emily