My African Adventure: Day 33 (pt 2) and Day 34

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June 14th.

So we left for the evening around 3. We went on a short drive, which turned into another driving lesson on the airstrip. I was back with Team 1, since I hijacked Team 2’s predator drive this morning, and they hadn’t had a chance to drive. This time, everyone went except Justine and I, because we didn’t have much time, and Lukas promised to teach us next week since we will still be here. After the few girls got a chance to drive up and down the strip, we headed off to Weaver’s Nest Dam to look for hippos (since this group hadn’t seen them yet). Since I had been on Lukas’s drive that morning when he took them to see the hippos, I had already seen them that day. But it was cool when we went back, cause there was a family of waterbuck there. I had never seen so many waterbuck together, and they were beautiful! There were also some babies, and they were SOOO fluffy and cute! We sat there for a while, getting pics of hippos, waterbucks, and selfies with the animals, or course, like true tourists. :D Then, Lukas took us to a gorgeous lookout spot for the sunset. We all sat and relaxed and took pictures of the amazing view overlooking the Makhutswi. After the sun set, we headed out to the sleepout spot. We went back to Xinkanka Clearing and met Andrew, Jamie, and their trucks there. It was dark by the time we got there, so we had to drive the trucks around the clearing, looking for the fire pit. When we found it, we parked there and began to unload the trucks. We pulled out all the firewood and stacked it up in a pile as Andrew started the fire. Then, I helped him prep the poitjie and get that, the rice, and the vegetarian poitjie in their pots. After everything was on, we all sat around the fire and talked and played games as we waited. It wasn’t super cold yet, which was good. We ended up playing some rousing games of telephone, which was hilarious, because when you have Americans, South Africans, French, Australians, and Germans all mixed up with different accents, the sentences get so twisted! It’s especially good when at least 4 of the 13 didn’t speak English as their first language! After playing that, and a few other games, for about an hour, dinner was ready! We all ate and chatted for a while, just enjoying the calm, still bush. I had been wearing shorts on the drive, and had just put a jumper on over it when we got to camp. I wasn’t cold at all by the fire, but when we went to set up out beds, I thought I should put on my sweatpants. So I hopped into the truck to change in the dark. I heard some crunching grass to my left, and the fire and the people setting up their beds were on my right. So I shone my head torch over there, and there was a lone hyena, about 5 meters away from me in the truck. I told the others, and Anna came and shone the spotlight on it. We were all kinda surprised that one showed up so early, but Anna yelled at it, and it backed away. It was really cool to see it up close, because I haven’t had a really good sighting of a hyena thus far. We watched it in the spotlight for a while, until it decided to trot off. After we finished setting up our beds, some of the girls got in bed and some went around the fire. We had established a watch of 2 hour shifts, so at least 2 or 3 volunteers were always awake. Some of stayed up and did some star-gazing and finding constellations. I headed to my sleeping bag around 10:30, because Phil and I had the 4 to 6 am shift of watch. I fell asleep pretty quickly, but I didn’t get woken up til 6! Apparently, the French girls had the 2 to 4 shift, but were wide awake at 4, so they just stayed up! It was kinda nice to sleep longer, but at the same time, I really wanted to be up doing a watch shift! I think it would have been really cool to be awake with only one other person, sitting around a fire in the middle of the African bush at 4 am! Oh well.

June 15th.

We all got up and started packing up our bags and all our supplies at 6. It was sooo cold, and everything was damp from dew, which wasn’t that lovely. My toes had gone numb, through 2 pairs of wool socks! We left the sleepout spot around 630 and headed back to camp. When we got to camp and unloaded the car the trucks, it was already 7. We had until 7:45 to clean ourselves up to leave for our outing that day. Everyone rushed to freshen up a bit or take a (cold) shower. We hurried to eat and then jumped in the Quantum. It was a one to one and a half hour drive, so we figured we might nap on the way. But everyone was surprisingly awake! We all started dancing and singing to the radio, and it was hilarious! The five American girls are a hoot. Even the French girls were singing along! My feet finally got un-numb, but the morning was still really cold when we left camp. By the time we got to Maholoholo, it was a little after 9 and finally getting warm. Our tour started at 9:30, and we got an informational talk about what the sanctuary does first. Then, they split the big group into groups to take on walking tours. Our group was the 12 of us, and a few groups of two or three. The first thing we did was go see a young cheetah, about 15 months, and learn about the education programs they do. We each got a chance to pet him and get pictures, which was super cool. He was precious. Then, we got a tour of the whole place, which included honey badgers, servals, lions, leopards, hyenas, another cheetah, wild dogs, ground hornbills, eagles, and vultures. It was cool to see all these animals up close and personal and learn about them. The Center does a lot of cool work, but I didn’t agree with all their practices. Some of the animals were injured and rescued, then rehab-ed and used for educational purposes, which is great. But for the animals that were completely healthy and could be released into private game reserves in the area, it seemed pointless to keep them captive in enclosures that are never enough space for these animals. Especially the wild dogs, which can’t be naturally sustained well on a piece of land less than 30,000 hectares. But, during the tour, we did get to pet a bateleur eagle, as well as feed white-faced vultures by letting them hop on our arm. It was pretty cool! After the tour, the owner came to collect us and give us a little behind the scenes tour, because we requested that. Maholoholo took 4 of our lion cubs when the rest of their pride got shot over a year ago, so he took us to see them. We walked through a maze of cages and buildings to some back enclosures. We walked into an enclosure with 3 lion cubs that looked about 5 months old. They were getting bowls of milk, and they were sooo cute! We got to pet them a little bit, and of course, I was “mao”-ing at them as well. Behind a fence, were two of our lions. They were very aggressive sounding, as they were growling quite fiercely at us. They seemed to be irritated that we were so close, even though they were behind a wall that kept either of us from having a visual of each other. You could tell they were wild, not tame, but still, I am slightly surprised how aggressive they seemed. I don’t know quite in what condition they came in, or what the plan with them was/is, but it was pretty sad to see them in that state. After we left there, the boss talked to us for a while about the problems with doing rehab and release, and how a lot of reserve and game parks are hard to work with. You can tell that the man was very passionate about what his work is, but I also felt like his views were jaded. It was definitely interesting to see his view from doing private rehab/release for years. He has definitely saved a lot of animal’s lives, and has a lot of experience. Next, he told us about a wild leopard that he had to remove from an heavily populated area where she was becoming a problem. He ended up asking if we would like to see her. He took us back through the rehab center and showed us some of the quarantine cages on the way, where animals are kept for disease monitoring when they are first brought in. We got back to where the leopard was, and she was in a small cage in her own area. She was very aggressive and not happy that we came into her room. It was so hard to see her locked up like that, and I didn’t like the way the owner handled it at all. It seemed like he was provoking her to show us how aggressive she was. She clearly was healthy and strong, and would do well released on a reserve somewhere. After we left that area, we talked to the owner for a bit longer, and then left. It was past 12, and we were all really hot and hungry. We headed straight to Blue Cottages, the B&B. I got a smoothie, butternut soup, and some type of marinated beef sandwich, which was actually quite yummy. The butternut soup was not as delectable as expected though. We looked around the shop and relaxed, which was nice. On the way home, we stopped at the ATM for the girls, and then headed back to camp. On our way, Jamie pointed out a baobob tree, which is a really traditional African tree. We made Lukas stop the van, and we all jumped out to take pictures with the tree. There aren’t any on our reserve, so we were really stoked to see one! We became complete tourists! :D We got home around 4, and we were set to leave for the pub around 6:30. We showered up, and then the American girls asked me if I wanted to come get ready with them. We actually got cute and put on real clothes, after wearing safari gear for so long! We had a lot of fun getting ready, like typical girls haha. A few of us ended up wearing our hiking boots with our cute outfits, which is perfectly classy :D We headed to Mahlahlah at 6:30, and it surprisingly wasn’t that cold out! We had a lot of fun, and the American girls definitely shook things us, by turning the little game lodge pub into a dance party. It was a super fun night, and we stayed til past 12! Everyone was playing pool and dancing and just having a great time. :D When we got back, we all sat around the fire to hang out and talk for a while, because we had decided to cancel bush clearing in the morning. Yay! :D Eventually, the tired-ness began to find each of us, and we wandered off to bed. It was probably one of the most entertaining nights Mahlahlah has seen in a while!

Handsome 15 month old cheetah boy.