Best Game Drive Ever!

We started our game drive at 6 AM in the dark with a gentle mist. Our first discovery was a genet, a small nocturnal cat we spotted in the dark. As it became lighter, we found a herd of Cape Buffalo (one of the Big Five). The Big Five are the five most dangerous animals for hunters. Cape Buffalo have moved into Thornybush since the fences have come down. Their horns are as hard as steel , bullets bound off. Next encounter was a small herd of Wildebeest, but we went on for bigger things. 

As we went along the road, we could see elephant tracks, but it took a while to finally find a 25-year-old Elephant munching away at a tree. Its trunk had been injured, but it still managed to tear apart the branches for food. We had spotted our second animal of the Big Five. After the Elephant, we came upon a Dewdrop Spider web. They usually have their webs along the ground, but because of the mist, we found them in the bushes. The web is designed to capture the water from the dew.

Roland, our guide, led us to a unique sight – a pride of lions had invaded the territory of an African Wild Dog (Painted Dog) den. There are only about 4000 dogs left in the wild (420 in South Africa). In Thornybush there are two dens with 18 adults and 9 pups. We heard the dogs before we saw them, barking at the lions. Trying to get them away from their den. The worry is that the lions will kill these rare dogs, since they compete for the same prey. We were observing a very rare situation. There were 8 lionesses with the male lion, who was within ten feet of our vehicle. He opened his mouth as we were watching, not as a threat to us, but to test the air for what was nearby. Number three of the Big Five.

As we went further along the road, the tracker spotted fresh rhino dung, still quite pungent. We started in the direction the tracker had indicated, eventually coming upon three Black Rhinoceros. The Black Rhino is the more aggressive and rarer (critically endangered) of the Rhinos. It is a browser, eating bushes, and has more flexibility with its head, allowing it to swim. The White Rhinoceros is a grazer, eating grass and its head is lower and less flexible. Both species are a gray color, so white and black is confusing. The alternative names are hook-lipped (black) and square-lipped (white). Now we had seen four of the Big Five.

Other groups from our lodge had spotted four Leopards – a male, female and two cubs. But we had to wait our turn (the two vehicle rule). There were at the spot we had identified last night as the stash for a recent kill. We stopped for our tea break while we waited our turn. After tea break, the male had separated from the others, so we went after it, finally spotting it off the road, drinking at one of the ponds. So in this one morning – we had seen all the Big Five plus the rare sighting of African Wild Dogs.

How could we top what we had seen this morning, when we set out in late afternoon? We started out watching a Dark Chanting Goshawk tearing at something on the ground. After it flew off, Roland found it had been trying to get at a lizard, but had only gotten its tail. Further on we saw Plains Zebras, which have brown stripes between the black or virtual stripes. Finally, we pulled up to the leopard kill we had smelled last night. There was our female leopard feasting on a warthog up in a tree. We could hear the bones cracking as she chewed on the carcass. Down below were her two cubs. We enjoyed watching them play around.

Time to move on and our next discovery were Pine Processionary Caterpillars, the first caterpillar lays down a pheromone trail and other caterpillars follow that exact trail. Then we found the African Wild Dogs again, but their six 1-month-old pups were out of the den playing wile at least four adults were watching for those lions. We found the lions about 500 yards away, sleeping. Our best safari day ever!