On our penultimate night in South Africa, Jo kept Natalie while Chris and I took our final game drive at a neighboring reserve, Makalali Private Game Lodge. Jo arranged for a private game drive so we had our own vehicle, driver and tracker. The Lewis lodge house is on the edge of their property that borders Makalali so we started our game drive about 10 minutes away from the house (this was amazing since it took at least 30 minutes of driving over bumpy dirt roads to get anywhere else)! Saw all the usual (giraffes, impala, waterbuck, rhinos, etc), but the highlight of the trip was observing a momma leopard and her three cubs (8 mos old). Leopards are loners and are able to navigate the fences – they move around a lot so it is a lucky sighting for us. Apparently this female has been hanging around for 2 years and then had these cubs and appears to be raising them there. We got within 15 feet of them and turned off the motor and just watched them for about 20 minutes. When we first approached we first saw a leopard under a bush eating what looked like an impala leg. The trackers couldn’t immediately tell if it was a cub or the mother, since the mom was quite small. We took the land rover pretty much straight up a hill over bushes until we spotted the mom and her two other cubs. At that point we were in between the cub and the mom, not a good feeling. The cub made some chirping/mewling sounds, but the mom didn’t seem to notice as she was grooming her other two cubs. Eventually the separated cub circled way around our vehicle, vocalizing along the way – mom finally perked up and noticed but never vocalized back – and then suddenly the cub rejoined the group. All three cubs and the mom appear in excellent condition. The rolled and “played” and groomed each other. The got tired of us and got up and walked off back down to their food.
Then, we spent the rest of the drive racing over to catch a group of lions. We got there after dusk and found 3 females, a mom and 2 daughters. They pretty much got up and walked off as soon as we arrived, as it was time to go hunting. After that we drove a little ways and stopped and had a glass of wine in the bush under the stars.
Our guide, Lawrence, was very knowledgeable about animals and animal physiology and filled us with more facts. We also talked about his home – a village about 3 hours away. When he grew up, the village was unaffected by the West and he remembers farming and hunting for food. Money was not part of anyone’s life. The men in his village would take as many wives as they could “afford” to feed, depending on the amount of cattle and land they had. Lawrence is one of 27 children born to 4 wives of his dad. Now, he says the west has influenced his village and children are watching tv and things are changing. He works 6 weeks on the game reserve and then goes home for 3 weeks to his (one) wife and 2 children. He says one wife is enough. :)
After the drive we joined guests at the lodge for dinner. This is a luxurious game lodge. Lawrence showed us an empty guest “hut” – beautiful beds with ornate headboards and drapes of mosquito netting, huge bathrooms with outdoor showers and clawfoot bathtubs. Large open decks overlooking the riverbed. To have stayed there would have cost us $1,500 per night. Yikes.
We had dinner by a roaring fire and under the stars. We sat across from a couple, British, who have lived down here for 20 years. They had their 8 yr old daughter with them, but she went to bed early. We had long conversations, some about politics, both in the US and South Africa. It was a very enjoyable evening. There is a certain kind of person attracted to living down here, strong minded, opinionated, tough and most of all – animal/nature-loving.
South Africa is a place we have to visit again. It is truly very different and spectacular at the same time.
The Next South Africa Entry: Emperor’s Palace
The Whole Trip: South Africa – The Summary