May 17th.
We got to sleep in today, starting out at 730 instead of 6.
I forgot to change my alarm, so I accidentally woke up at 530 still. So I
grabbed my alarm to reset it for 630 and promptly fell asleep! Kira woke me at
7:40, when everyone was out ready to go, and I hadn’t arrived! I threw on some
clothes and grabbed some food, and left for the morning’s adventure. Today, we
did some road clearing. That just entails us clipping, chopping, and sawing
trees/branches on the sides of the road that are beginning to grow into the roadway.
We cut everything about 2 meters back from the road, so it would stay clear for
a while. I learned that just about EVERYTHING in South Africa has thorns! Flaky
bark acacia, sickle bush, and a bunch of others I don’t remember the names.
They somehow all found my legs and arms as I worked. We were out working from
about 8 to 1030, and it got very hot and sunny. We called it around 1030 and
headed back to camp. I got to tidy up my room a bit, and take a nice luxurious
shower! I felt like a real person again, letting my hair dry down and putting
on shorts and flip-flops for the afternoon, instead of bush wear! So nice, for
a change! Andrew and I were on food duty, so we made egg salad and chopped
veggies for sandwiches for everyone. We ate around 12, and sat and chatted for
a while. We had a Zulu lesson with Toko at 1:30. Zulu is one of the native
black languages that is commonly spoken around here. Most of the animals are
named with Zulu names, so its quite fun to learn! Now I can say to you, “Sawubona
unjani,” when I meet you in town someday. Our lesson lasted until around 3,
then we went out on our monitoring drive at 330. At first, we traveled around
on some roads that I hadn’t been down before. It was a whole other side of the
reserve tonight. We saw some kudu and impala, like usual, and I actually got a
decent picture of a kudu, finally! We moved down to a different area, and we
found a nest made by the buffalo weaver. Then we found a leopard tortoise
shell. That made us go 3 of 5 for the “Small Five”, counting the ant lion holes
everywhere (missing the elephant shrew and the rhino beetle). Apparently they
also have a Secret 7 and an Ugly 5. Oh South Africans! Haha. Anyway, the shell
was really cool, and I took it with me. I will get pics later, but it still had
vertebrae attached, which was cool since I just studied turtle skeletal systems
in my CVA class. After that, we moved to a nice clearing where we had followed
cheetah tracks too. We sat in the clearing for a while, before finally spotting
two cheetah laying down a ways off. We drove to them, and got within 10 meters.
It was a mother and her 6 to 7 month old cub! So exciting to get my first
cheetah sighting! Unfortunately, dusk was falling, and it was impossible to get
a good picture! :( After watching them for a while, they ran off, so we moved
on. We drove to a dam where Andrews had seen lion earlier that day. We saw a
female drinking at the watering hole, so we off roaded down to her. We found 3
others, lying nearby. They had bloody mouths and full bellies, so we knew they
had just eaten. Moving past them, we hit the gold mine! Five lions, on their kill!
It was the whole Makhutswi pride, and they were devouring a zebra. One of the
most amazing things I have seen, BUT THEN MY CAMERA DIED. I could’ve beaten
myself. It wouldn’t have been nearly impossible to get good pictures anyway,
but I would have liked to try. Still, it was amazing to watch the interactions.
There were 3 cubs and 7 subadults/adults, which was absolutely insane! We watched
them for a while, and worked on IDing them. The truck hadn’t been sounding
good, and almost got stuck a few times on the way back to the road. Scariest
moments of my life. Luckily, we made it, and were on our way. That would have
been enough excitement, but then we saw a civet, which is a small nocturnal
mammal that is part of the Secret 7! Pretty unusual to see. We also saw two
hippo lumbering along, out of water! Talk about a full day! When we arrived
home, Andrew had been bored waiting for us, so he already had dinner ready:
macaroni bolognaise. Delish. We chowed down and relaxed, but with no fire,
because it was a good deal less cold than it has been. I wonder how long that
will last. All in all, a very successful day!
Female kudu. They have huge ears!
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