Four of the Big Five in one afternoon!

Dec. 22 - Day 6 (Continued)

 

 

Big game hunters coined the term "the Big 5" to designate the most dangerous animals in Africa to hunt. Safari companies and tourist still use it today and the big 5 consists of Elephants, Cape Buffalo, Lions, Leopards, and Rhinos. I don't know the statistics, but I'm betting it's not so common to spot all five in one day, especially with the elusiveness of leopards and the rariety of rhinos. However, in one afternoon, we did spot four! AND a hippo on dry land, and a pair of crocodiles! But, I'm getting ahead of myself...

 

 

On the drive back from the Maasai villiage, we saw lots of buffalo, warthogs, and more elephants! I love elephants and am annoying my guides by making them stop every time we see some!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Driving, by the way, is like embarking on a Disneyland ride. The rain last night left the road slippery, and we slid and bounced along, sometimes literally moving sideways. Dominic took it all in stride and steered us over rivers, through defiles, and across swamps with nonchalant aplomb.

 

As silly as this sounds, the drives have made me appreciate the “authenticity” of several Disney rides more, including the jungle river ride and the Indiana Jones adventure. Both are actually very realistic now that I have experienced the real thing! But one should expect no less from Disney, anyway.

 

 

 

Because of my requesting new food for lunch yesterday, they said they had prepared a special menu today, and it was heavily meat-laden. The waiter said the starter was stuffed cabbage, and I said, “I’ll pass, I hate cabbage.”

 

His face registered hurt disbelief! “But…but…it’s stuffed with meat!”

 

Ok, I’ll try it – and I’m glad I did. I peeled open the cabbage and scooped the minced meat into fresh-baked biscuits and it was delicious.

 

Now, the afternoon drive was spectacular! First, we barely left the camp when we discovered a pride of adolescent lions and two females. However, they just lay about doing nothing, so after marveling at their beauty for a while we drove on.

 

We were heading to look-out point, a nearby hill where it seemed the whole of Africa was laid out at our feet. Truly a spectacular view.

 

 

 

After scanning the veldt with our field glasses we drove down onto the plains, passing herds of zebra, giraffe, the ever-present Impala, Topi, buffalo, water buck, etc. Dominic said during the migration the whole expanse was covered with Wildebeest and zebra. Hard to imagine. (Note: we saw this very thing in the Serengeti later and it is STILL hard to comprehend! The vastness of these herds is like looking over the Grand Canyon - impossible to capture on camera.) Also from here, the border of Tanzania is visible a mere 3 kilometers away.

 

 

We drove along the river where I spotted my first crocodile, half-submerged and looking like a gnarly tree branch. Not much further, Kathryn spotted a massive one on the shore, its nether ends obscured by rock and water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been writing by candlelight at the campfire when suddenly a low coughing, grunting sound comes from behind the main tent, approximately 50 feet behind me.

 

“Lion,” the Askari say. Cool.

 

 

We saw some more hippo heads peaking out of the water, and then one lone hippo whose body we could see. A few minutes more and we discovered a pod of about 6 whose bodies were exposed and you could actually see! So, now I can say I’ve seen a hippo rather than just their heads!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later we came across a herd of 22 elephants!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One gigantic male with the tell-tale “mating” marks on his face – a dark line that looks all the world like a tear trickling from his eye. This indicates he is ready to mate. A quartet of adolescents played together with one trying to mount the others until another got fed up and head butted him, and then flung dirt on him with his trunk.

 

 

 

 

Then we see a large hippo wallowing through the fields and we raced around a bog and up a hill, off road now, to catch up with him.

 

We’re lying in bed with our hot water bottles warming our bottoms. To my left at the river, I hear the grunts and floundering of the hippos, to the right, behind my tent, the cough of a prowling lion.

 

The hippo was badly wounded with large lacerations around its neck and one ear bloodied. He was not amused by us pursuing him in our vehicle.

 

Now a baboon is barking outside.

 

While we are still snapping pictures of the hippo – they are amazingly huge out of the water – Dominic says “Oh, my god guys, I see a rhino!”

 

We train our field glasses across the river and sure enough, there’s big rhino, PLUS a mother and baby. The hippo is forgotten as we head off after the elusive rhino.

 

Dominique says “I think there’s a river crossing near here, I’ll try and find it.”

 

Now you have to realize, we drove off into the middle nowhere to follow the hippo, and the river is marked only by a winding strip of trees and bushes through the grass plain. The tracks that we loosely call roads are nowhere in sight. Yet Dominic heads off and unerringly steers us through bushes and around boulders to a river crossing.

 

“Wait here and I’ll check it out,” he says as he bounds out of the truck and runs forward, clearly just as excited as we are. There have been heavy rains lately, and the river is much higher than normal so there’s a good chance this crossing is flooded.

 

Dominic runs back, leaps into the truck, cranks the engine and says, “I think we can make it.”

 

We careen through a gorge, and down a cliff in what can only be compared again to a Disney adventure ride. This is not a road; it’s a river bed, full of rocks, deep ruts, surrounded by forest. The crossing is narrow, the water deep, and the climb up the other side slick with mud. We head sideways into some bushes, fishtail the opposite direction, skim past some trees, then we’re on top of the hill and into the field.

 

Creeping along now, we spot the big male lying down in a mud hole. The mother and baby have disappeared. Me and one of the Japanese girls are standing up through the roof, and Dominic hisses for us to get down. I drop immediately, but either the girl didn’t hear him or didn’t understand. The Rhino spots her and bounds to his feet, snorting. He’s huge! Easily the size of our vehicle. He dances to and fro, pawing the ground, takes a few steps toward us, his horn lowered menacingly then. Then suddenly he wheels and darts into the forest.

Dominic thinks he may be back in the morning, so we will try and spot him again then.

 

 

 

 

Just as we get about 1/4 from camp, we see 5 lions sprawled about on top of a gigantic termite mount. Nearby, another 3 snooze in the grass. It is incredibly picturesque. Add in the storm blackened sky, and a brilliant rainbow, and it was an absolutely wonderful and unique view.

 

 

 

 

Undoubtedly, these are the same lions that are even now prowling about near the camp and upsetting our Askari guards.

 

We took our gin and tonics by the campfire and wrote in our journals until supper which was sirloin steak. What a day!