Ngala Reserve - Day 10, Last Day

It was a beautiful morning for our last game drive. Richard spotted a trail of cheetah tracks, which we followed to a clearing. As we scoured the area, we found two cheetah laying in the shade - a young adult male and a young adult female. We followed them through the bush as they hunted and played with one another. It was a very unique experience. Very cool. The wild dogs still managed to elude us.

We had a fantastic final breakfast back at the lodge and then settled up our bill and gratuities and went back to our villa to shower and pack up. The Ngala Reserve Tented Camp was truly awesome. We loved every second of it.

Elvert drove us up to Hoedspruit Airport (about 1 hour) where we are now. It's very tiny, but fun. We were told our flight is delayed, but they don't know how long. We were told this orally by a woman who walked around person to person - no PA system. Elvert says it won't be long.

We hope you've enjoyed the blog. We will be seeing the States soon.

UPDATE: we made it to Johannesburg and our NYC flight looks on time and boards in less than 3 hours. Good to go.

Ngala Reserve - Night 9

The African Wild Dogs continued to elude us, despite our best efforts. We did see one new species tonight: a pair of jackals off in the brush who paused to look at us while we drove past. A number of giraffe, zebra, kudu, impala, elephant, waterbuck and mongoose were also out tonight. We enjoyed our last sundowner with LeeAnn and Richard, during which I may have found a new drink of choice: Amarula on the rocks. (In the morning drive we had "Ranger Specials," which are coffee, chocolate and Amarula).

                               Waterbuck (male)
 

                               Tree Squirrel 

                               Jackal

                                                Giraffe

                                         Snake Eagle

We definitely missed our Rochester friends tonight, though. The bush animals seemed to miss them too, since it was a very quiet night.

The highlight of the evening was dinner. We had a traditional South African "bri," which is the local word for BBQ. Venison, chicken, boerworst, steamed vegetables (there you go, Turk) and peas in a steamed squash cup were all served to us from a fire pit grill in a lantern-lit dinner that took place in the middle of the sandy river bed at the foot of the lodge. It was amazing. We also had adish called a "pop tart" that was a porridge and cheese based dish with tomato and other stuffing. Very good. I also enjoyed a teadiontal South African cocktail called "duaah," which is whiskey on the rocks with a dollup of honey and a muddle to work in the honey flavor. Delicious.

Tomorrow morning is our last game drive with LeeAnn and Richard and the official end of this amazing trip. We are going to have breakfast out in the bush and sit for a while at a good lookout point to see what we can see. Then it's back to reality and a long trip home to 718 and Kemble.

Ngala Reserve - Day 9

Another beautiful day for a game drive. What started off slow ended with a number of accomplishments. New species sighted included 11 hippos submerged beneath the cold dark waters of a large watering hole and a mother cheetah resting in the grass with her two seven-month-old young at her side. We also saw a group of three young male white rhino, a separate pair of older white rhino, several group of zebra and giraffe and a large pack of elephants, which included several babies playing with and trying to figure out how to use their trunks. Toward the end of our drive we caught a very brief glimpse of a father leopard teaching the son how to hunt in the dried creek bed (the young of the female leopard we saw yesterday), although they darted away before we could observe them.

                                         Hippos stare out from the water's surface...

                                          Fishing Eagle

                                          White Rhino (3 young bulls)

                                          Pair of male Kudu

                                         White Rhino (male and female)

                                         Cheetah (mother and two young)

                                          Elephant herd

                                          Hornbill

                                                       Pair of Zebra rest on one another

                                          The canopy of a leadwood tree

Then it was back to the lodge for breakfast and now we are relaxing in our villa with the pet warthogs and nyala taking care of the lawn out front. Our last dusk game drive is tonight, but our Rochester friends will not be there because they are moving on to another &Beyond reserve further south in Kruger. The African Wild Dogs have eluded us so far, but we heard that tracks were spotted nearby this morning. That's what we will be seeking out tonight.

Ngala Reserve - Night 8

We had a fairly quiet drive tonight - not a lot of animals out and about. A few zebra and wildebeest. Our real quest was for rhino. We drove through the reserve going waterhole to waterhole hoping to see one wallowing or taking a drink. As the sun was getting low we still had not seen much and then our tracker from his seat atop the hood of the land cruiser pointed off in the distance. Through the bush about 1,000 yards away there it stood. Rhino. A massive, armor-clad white rhino bull with an intimidating horn. LeeAnn turned off the path (it would be a stretch to call it a road) and we took off through the bush, driving over some small trees and around larger ones. In a minute, we were alongside the rhino. He barely seemed to notice us and continued about his business of foraging and scent marking. We followed him along for about 20 minutes positioning and repositioning our vehicle. Truly an incredible animal in its combination of docility and sheer mass. It's amazing an animal can grow to this size on a plant diet alone.

    Kudu (female)


    Zebra


    Steenbok

    White Rhino (bull)



We drove over to a clearing to celebrate our new sighting with a sundowner.

      

                                                Lee Ann, our Ranger, and Richard, our Tracker.

We chatted and had a glass of wine and were preparing to head back to the lodge when the call came in. There was a pride of lions near a watering hole at the edge of the reserve (along the border with Kruger proper). Our tracker plugged in a spot light and scaled back into his perch while LeeAnn threw together the sundowner materials and then we were off - speeding through the darkness of the bush to come fve to face with a pride of lions. A bat flew alongside us for a bit; silhouettes of three giraffes stood off to our left, their heads turning quizzically to follow our vehicle. Our spotlight caught a pair of eyes far ahead on the right and when it next swung around a hyena was running across the path, seeming to sense our urgency and probably somewhat jealous that our efforts were not for him.

We stopped and LeeAnn said we were getting close and that this pride of lions tends to be very aggressive and has charged vehicles - but not to worry. Richard, our tracker, climbed inside the vehicle in lieu of sitting on his front seat and being seen as an offering. We came around a bend in the path and the reflection of the moon shown in the water up ahead. Richard aimed his spotlight across the water about 500 yards away and about a dozen massive glowing eyes glared back at us. The shadowy shapes of the massive feline killers and were barely discernible against the dark night and muddy banks. We swung around the watering hole and came over a ridge to get closer to them. Unbelievable close. 50 feet close. They layed there on the banks - 8 of them in total - noting our presence but not seeming to care (a good thing). We watched as they scanned the horizon, seeming to be waking up for a night of murderous endeavors. Their paws, the size of a catcher's mitt - could kill a human with one swipe. As one yawned and stretched, it's fangs gleamed in the spotlight - all several inches of them. One by one they got up and headed for a drink down by the watering hole. Then they silently slanked away through a gap in the ridge and back into Kruger proper to begin their nocturnal hunt.

Back at the lodge we enjoyed another delicious dinner and drinks and had a great time with our new friends, Ella, Lisa, Pam and Maureen from Rochester.