June 8th. This
morning, my body did NOT want to get up. I had this brief thought of getting up
at 6, even though I could have slept later, to get some work done on my project
in the morning. But at 7am, I could barely drag myself up! I got ready quickly,
and hopped in the car by 7:30, and it was COLLLD again. We headed to Lloyd’s
clearing for the morning, and set to work. Panga was my weapon of choice, and
after about 2 hours of solid panga-ing, my arm was getting pooped and it was
hot! Around 9:40, Lukas showed up in the van. He and Andrew talked, and then
Andrew announced that, if we wanted to, we could go find some cheetah! Of
course, no one opted to stay behind and work! They were really far away, in
Garonga, so we had to drive fast. We flew home, threw all the tools out, grabbed
some loaves of bread, fruit, peanut butter, jelly, and water, and jumped back
in the car. We positively flew out to Garonga, the fastest I have seen the
Landie move! When we got there, the cheetah were just moving off into the bush.
We were a little bummed, but we were able to follow them at a distance until
they settled down, and then watched them for a while. It was absolutely
amazing! It was a mother and her three cubs that were probably a month old. So
fluffy, I almost died! Apparently, the mother had four cubs originally, but we
only saw four, so one may have died :( After watching them for a while, they
decided that the visiting hours were over, so the mom calmly stood up and
started walking away, as her little ones tumbled along after her. It was about
11 then, and we were hot and hungry, so we pulled the car into the shade and
made our sandwiches there. After our little picnic, we headed back to camp, and
got in around 12. I got to talk to Cara for a while about BushWise and other
training programs to be a guide, as well as some ecology and conservation
oriented studies and careers. I would definitely look into doing a BushWise
course! Today, we had vehicle clean-up, so we went ahead and washed the Landie
up, inside and out, as soon as we got home. It only took about 30 minutes with
everyone helping. It had gotten unbelievably hot, compared to the temperature
this morning! If this is winter, I’m not sure I want to see summer! Then, we
all showered up and relaxed for the afternoon. We put on a DVD of a David
Attenborough series called Africa, and watched an episode of that before our
drive. When we left for drive, we went down toward Hlalagahle and about ran
into a herd of ellies. We stayed with them for almost an hour, and they crossed
the road back and forth all around the car. It was Queeny’s herd again, same
from yesterday. We got to see them eating and interacting, as well as see all
three babies clearly! So much cute! We got a little mock charge from one of the
youngsters, then Mom stepped over to check us out. After a while, the ellies
decided to move off into the block. Such a cool time. Then, we started off on a
mission. No one knew where we were going, but Lukas was driving like a crazed
man. We stopped for general game about 2 times, then zoomed past all the rest. Poor
impala, zebra, and kudu. They just got ignored on the way to our destination.
We passed a small antelope that was either a duiker or a steenbok, but since we
weren’t stopping on our mission, I couldn’t get a good look. Both of those are
fairly uncommon to see, so that was cool. After almost an hour, we finally
reached our mystery destination, the remains of the landowner’s old house, on a
beautiful high peak overlooking the river. It was spectacular! We sat there for
about 30 minutes, relaxing and watching the sunset. There was a cool kitchen
and lounge area that overlooks a cliff drop-off to the Makhutswi, and it was
gorgeous! After enjoying the sunset, we set off again. On the way home, the
post-sunset colours were absolutely breathtaking. They started out as this soft
yellow, which deepened into a rich pumpkin-y colour. Then, a little white
later, the very bottom was darkening to a rosy pink, and there was a very faint
green line forming above. At one point, it looked like a rainbow of red,
orange, yellow, green, indigo, working up from the mountain and treeline. And
the mountains with that backdrop? Unbelievable. I can’t get tired of looking at
these miraculous sunsets! It cooled down really quickly once it got dark, so we
were all bundled up riding along, looking with the spotlight to see if anything
was about. I often feel like I’m riding in an old-fashioned horse-drawn sleigh
at night, because the vehicle is open air, the night is really cold, and we are
bundled up with lap blankets over us. Just, minus the horses, I guess. As we
drove along, we suddenly saw something scurry across the road, so we stopped
and looked into the bush. It was another caracal! Such an awesome sighting,
because the little cat was very calm. It walked around a little bit, then sat
down and just gazed at us. We were able to get some pictures of it with the
spotlight and get a really good look at it. He/She moved away, but then came
back into the clearing and stood quite nicely for us! It was so cute! And I
actually had a chance to see its body and face really well, unlike the last
caracal sighting I had. Super great. On the way home from that, we saw a civet
running across the road. They are kind of like raccoon-cat mixtures. White and
black stripes, long tail, and a long nose. We had a great view of the civet as
it shuffled into the bush. It stopped a few times and looked back at us, so we
definitely had a clear visual. Two awesome sightings! Then, as we drove along,
we slowed down to move a branch out of the road. When the car engine slowed, we
heard crunching of trees, and sure enough – Ellies! We quickly checked with the
telemetry kit, and it was Queeny’s herd again! They had moved from where we saw
them at Hlalagahle to Judis in just a few hours. Those ellies were on a
mission. We sat and listened to them and watched them by shining the light on
the ground near them. When the road cleared, we continued our venture home. I
was feeling pretty lucky after the caracal and civet, and I bet you we could
have seen a leopard tonight on the right roads, but it was already almost 6:30.
It was definitely a really awesome drive for the last drive of the week! Great
sightings, a beautiful sunset, and lots of pictures! Andrew made us a kudu
poitjie for dinner, and we ate it with pap, which is a traditional South
African starch made from maize meal. They eat it with almost everything, and apparently,
they roll it into balls and eat it with their hands to dip and soak up the
juices and meat of the meal. The poitjie was still simmering after we got home,
because it had gotten on the fire a bit late, so we sat around the fire and
talked as we waited. Lukas made us wait til 8:30 to eat! We were waiting for it
to cook down and thicken a bit, more like a stew than a soup. Finally, we were
allowed to eat. The pap was interesting: it looked like mashed potatoes but had
a much grittier texture. It was good, but definitely different. The poitjie was
yummy, but a little hard to eat because the kudu chunks were large, and
sometimes, there were bones in it. Honestly, the kudu tasted basically like
beef. It wasn’t tough or game-y or anything, because when it all slow roasts
together, it gets tender and juicy. It was really quite good, and very hearty
and filling. I felt like such a traditional South African around the fire. We
all hung out for a while and relaxed, then it was off to bed. Tomorrow is our
day off, for real this week! No town trips, no outings. Just a day to relax, do
the washing, work on my project, and sleep in! Yay! :)
Mama cheetah and her playful cubs!
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