The daily schedule is as follows:
- 5:30am wake up call. You don't have to set this up with anyone, this is what it is. They call you daily at 5:30am to make sure you're on track to meet by 6am.
- 6am. Meet in the common area for coffee and to discuss the day's plan.
- 6:15am. Pile onto the Safari vehicle and get the show on the road.
- 9:30am. Back to the lodge for breakfast.
- Afternoon is free until lunchtime or you can participate in an optional nature walk. This is something you coordinate directly with your ranger, not something that happens daily unless people want it to.
- 1:30pm. Lunch begins being served.
- 3:30pm. Meet in the common area for mid-day coffee/tea and to discuss the afternoon drive plan of attack.
- 3:45pm. Pile onto the Safari vehicle and head out for drive #2.
- 7pm. Return to camp and head to dinner at your leisure.
It's definitely a long day, but one that is filled with amazing sights. It's 100% worth it. One of the best parts about the drives is that you take a break out in the middle of the reserve. The rangers and trackers have pop up bars with coffee, tea, booze and little snacks that they bust out in the middle of nature. It's so cool to feel so small, simply enjoying the reserve in all if its glory (and the human company too, I suppose). We found this to be an awesome way to get to know our ranger, and he us. It totally paid off too, because we established a great relationship with him very quickly and he had our sight requests at the top of his list. It was evident that he wanted to make sure we all got what we wanted, which was difficult in some cases, but the effort sure was appreciated by all.
The temperatures fluctuate so much throughout a single day here. It is quite cold in the mornings and at night, but very hot in the African sun in mid-afternoon. Learning the ins and outs of the weather patterns was something that made packing tricky, but we all layered up and ended up being fine. Once the first morning was under our belts, we knew we were good to go for the rest of the week.
Here is a snapshot of our day as a whole:
Animal sightings: Giraffe, Clan of Hyenas, African Stork couple (they essentially "marry" and partner for life), Crocodile, Impala, Kudu, Crash of White Rhinos, Male Lion, Female Water Buck, Warthog (at our lodge), Herds of Elephants (2), Pond of Hippos, Monkeys, Bushbok, African Hare.
I forgot to highlight the sightings from the first drive, so I will add those here too: Impala, Male Water Buck, Warthogs, Crocodile, Bull Elephant, Dazzle of Zebra, Giraffe, Pond of Hippos, Leopards (mother & cubs and a female - 2 separate sightings), Monkeys, Bushbok.
Interesting interactions:
1. Brandon had an encounter with a warthog at the River Lodge. He was watching him prior to Claire, Jason and I walking to meet him, when he wanted us to take a picture of he and Pumba. We warned him, saying they were mean and he was probably too close, but B insisted he was "nice," seeing as he had been hanging out with him for awhile now. Fair enough.... I got the camera out as Brandon bent down to pose, but the warthog freaked out and panicked before we could snap the shot. He ended up running away, but we only realized that after WE all ran first.
2. We found ourselves in the middle of a giant herd of about 20 elephants, most of which were mothers with babies. Justin informed us while we were in the thick of it that there are few things he is more afraid of than an angry mama elephant. We had about 10 minutes with them, getting wonderful shots of the herd as they ate, before the matriarch female had had enough. The babies were beginning to come out from the bush and she was doing what she had to in order to protect them. She slowly began making her way closer to the vehicle. She got within just a few feet of us before she started becoming irritated. Justin and Chris read the situation, moving us out of the area upon the animals taking negative interest in us. She trumpeted her trunk and began to charge the vehicle. She chased us down a hill, where we stopped at the bottom. She ignored us for a bit longer before she started coming at us again. This time from the top of a hill with us at the bottom. We got a very clear sight of just how powerfully large elephants can truly be. And as she was coming at us, we realized we were somewhat trapped between the herd behind us and another ahead, blocking the road. We slowly made our way up and they parted for us to pass through. Phew! It was super intense...
3. After our elephant chase, we took our pit stop at a watering hole filled with about 15 hippos. They all swam over to the edge where we were parked and watched us the entire time. We are referring to this as our "Hippos & Whiskey" outing. It was a perfect spot to watch the sun begin to set and spend some time with so many hippos at once.
4. After we left the watering hole to start making our way back to camp, we learned the only way out was to make our way through the elephant herd once more. Things had settled down by this time and they had moved to a different location - one with the babies a bit more off the road where they are less threatened. Except for one. It was the tiniest baby elephant even Justin and Chris had ever seen. They though it was maybe 1 month old tops, sporting a tiny little trunk that looked more like a string of spaghetti. It was TINY and belonged to a very young female elephant. We spent some time watching them before the matriarch set her sights on us again. She was a very old elephant and Justin and Chris thought there was even a chance that she was the mother to the baby's mother, making her the grandma.
The family of three moved away from our location and made their way down the path in front of us. While this was happening, one of the baby bull elephants built up the courage to charge our vehicle. It was in no way scary, as he was so small. It was more adorable than anything... But then from the left, one of the females ripped a branch from the tree and proceeded to throw it at us. It dropped just short of the vehicle and we all got a good laugh. Such personality! We took the hint and decided it was a good time to make our way back to camp.
Aside from the obvious events that took place, one thing I found to be really cool was the hunt. We had been tracking rhino since the day before and finally found them! It was a cool and exciting process - following the tracks, working with other rangers on the radio to see what they were finding. It was a blast.
It was such an amazing first full day! We got to know Justin even better throughout the day and felt like we established a pretty good relationship with the other couple we were with as well. We were sad to only have one more drive left with Justin & Chris before we relocated to the Leadwood Lodge, but knew we were going to make the most of it come morning!
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