Our last morning in Tswalu, Matt and I both sad to go. We woke up early, 5:30, got packed and ready for our last game drive. We then went searching for Lions. A pride had crossed our tracks from the previous night’s drive so we circled the area trying to find them. After a fruitless couple hours we discovered they had doubled back and were now in a different area entirely. Finally we gave up and decided to see if we could find the males, we hadn’t seen them yet. After a bit more driving we came across their tracks, heading towards a watering hole. Along the way, we came across a cool little bird, a pygmy falcon. It’s the smallest bird of prey in Tswalu, hunting large insects and smaller birds. It looks a bit like a light grey parrot. We then sped to the watering hole, seeing their tracks along the way and right when we got there they were emerging from the bush. Three large brothers greeted us, beautifully black manes, incredibly powerful animals. We watched them for a bit, walking towards the water hole, sniffing the air and catching scent of a herd Steenbok Antelope. Our Guide had thought ahead so we had coffee and snacks in the vehicle while we observed the big boys. The lions then got sleepy as lions always do and all had a nice lay down. A fantastic final sighting for our final morning. Then we sped to the airstrip where our plane was waiting and off to Johannesburg.
We woke up pretty bleary eyed this morning. We were going all day yesterday and we didn’t get back until bed time basically. But we got moving and we were going to start the day off with the meerkats. On the way there, we got a call that the wild dogs might be in the area which is pretty surprising given that they were many kilometers away yesterday when we saw them. Sure enough, here they were pretty close to the lodge, and better yet, they were on the move. They were definitely on the hunt for something, but they hadn’t found anything specific yet. We got to see them darting off in different directions looking for something, and then stopping to look around, listen and smell, then dart off in some direction again. It was great to see them moving around as a pack.
Just like yesterday, it was three individuals, the alpha female and two males. The fourth member of the pack is presumably back at the den with the pups. We got to followed them around for quite a while, and they were slowing going in the direction of the giraffe carcass from the other day. They didn’t have any urgency to what they were doing so it didn’t seem like they were aware of it, but we were hoping they’d stumble across it. Unfortunately, while they got pretty close, they stayed upwind of it and never noticed it. We followed up them until they disappeared into the hills.
Another truck joined us just as they were disappearing that was filming for a Wild Earth live safari, which is broadcast live (or probably live-ish) on the goo-tubes. It looks like this is the video.
We drove off and made it to the meerkats after our wild dog diversion. We got to hang out near their den with a family and three or four week old pups. The pups were happily rolling around and playing with the parents were on the look out for predators and doing a bit of scavenging for bugs.
After our morning coffee we heard over the radio that the live safari truck had spotted the cheetahs from yesterday near a watering hole that the wild dogs had taken us by a bunch of times this morning already. It sounded like they got some good video of that, so might be worth checking out that link, I think these cheetahs are the headline shot from the video. So we made our way back over there and got to see the cheetah brothers walking around trying to find a good place to nap for the day. We followed them along for a while and got to see them moving around before they did indeed find a nice shady tree to sleep under.
For the afternoon drive, we went way into the lion side, looking for the big male lions. We were actually mostly setting down tracks so that it would be easier to find them the next day. Basically we were making clean Land Rover (“landy”) tracks, so we’d be able to tell if tracks on top of them were fresh. While we were doing this, we came across some nice zebra. Rather impressively we also stumbled across a rhino. He was off in the bush a bit, but we got some nice views of him.
After we got back, dinner was a nice “feast” with pork belly and roast chicken. Pretty tasty all around. We headed for the room a bit early so we could pack up to finish up our morning game drive at the air strip.
Today may well have been one of the best wildlife days of our lives! It’s been a bit of a slow start at Tswalu for wildlife but today our luck changed! It started on the way to a sighting of a Black Rhino, the first time we’ve ever seen one! On the way there we saw a Sable, a very large antelope with a jet black coat. Beautiful creature that is very distinctive in the desert ish environment. We also spotted a Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, a tiny florescent green bird that looks right out of the tropics.
Back to the Rhino, the Black Rhino are smaller than White Rhino and usually a lot more ornery! Luckily we found a mother and calf that were shockingly chill and they let us observe them for quite awhile. I didn’t get any good pics because they were too far away for my phone but Matt will have some later.
After that we were alerted to Wild Dogs, it was a miracle!!!! The alpha female had just given birth so the area around their den was off limits for a couple weeks. Thankfully the rest of the pack of four was still hunting outside the excluded area. After some serious bush driving, dodging thorn bushes and giant holes in waist high grass, we caught up with them. They had given up on the hunt for the day and were laying down in the shade. Their coloration is really crazy making them camouflage really well! We were just a 10 yards away and they would sometimes disappear. After watching and slowly following them for a bit it was off to morning coffee. Once there we got a bit of a show as two make Oryx got in a bit of a tussle, locking horns over and over again. Then to our next sighting, a fresh giraffe carcass.
Because our stay hadn’t been special enough, haha, we went horseback riding in the late afternoon, basking in the golden rays and having fun. Our horses, brothers Lex and Lancelot, liked to compete for whom was in back. Matt’s skills came back to him right away and he did great. Trotting and controlling the horse with ease. My non-existent skills did not come back, I had fun but was slightly wary the whole time. All this even though I was on a horse nicknamed “the couch.”. We finished our ride on the top of a red sand dune where we had dinner with our tracker and guide as the sun set.
At some point during the night or early morning, a young giraffe died. It might have been during play fighting or some other accident, but no animal in Tswalu could have killed it. Either way, it made an enormous feast to whomever found it first, add the lucky ones were a pair of cheetah brothers. By the time we got there they had gorged themselves and were relaxing in the shade of a bush next to the giraffe. They looked positively round, clearly happy and contented. Because of their demeanor, our Guide took us out of the safari vehicle and we approached them on foot. Don’t worry, he had a very large gun and we didn’t get that close. So we looped downwind and got low on the ground getting a great vantage point of the beautiful animals. It was about 20 yards to the cats and we spent a few minutes there watching and marveling at them.
Then a long journey to object of the night, a pangolin. We sped across the reserve, Matt and I in a ridiculous amount of fleece, scarves and blankets, hoping to see our rare and elusive prey. Along the way, the milky way came out, as crisp and defined as I’ve ever seen. I usually can’t see it in places where others can but here it was stunning in all it’s glory. Along the way we came across bat-eared foxes, cute nocturnal black foxes with the most enormous ears. A Springhare which is a rabbit sized rodent that hops around like a kangaroo, and a few jackals. Finally we get to the area with the Pangolin den and we set off hiking to see if we can find its owner. After a ridiculously short time, the tracker found the female pangolin, making her way on her hunt for ants. She was a lot bigger than expected, probably around 50lbs and looked like an armored anteater. She made clicking and snickering noises, sounding like the baby dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. She moved quickly, walking hunched over like on all fours but on two legs. She was a magnificent creature, like some alien from another world. Sadly they are going extinct very quickly, they are the most trafficked animal in the world.
On our way back we caught glimpses of other animals, a giant owl, more foxes, jackals, and Springhare. Then we got caught in a traffic jam, a giant porcupine refused to get out of the road and led us for quite awhile. He clicked like crazy as he ran, all his quills clattering together, and refused to leave the road! Finally, thankfully, the road split and we were able to leave a very irate porcupine behind.
After last night’s lion and rain filled outing, we weren’t quite sure what to expect with the morning’s drive. Turned out that we had some good clear weather, even though it was pretty chilly until the sun rose pretty well into the sky. We were going out to have a look for rhinos and possibly a big male lion depending on what turned up.
It was rhinos that we got, driving along a road Richard suddenly spotted a rhino horn sticking out of the brush. This is pretty impressive because the brush was fairly dense and about as tall as the rhino. It was a female white rhino with a calf about two years old. We managed a couple of quick pictures before the rhino decided she’d had enough of us and trotted off into the brush again. It’s pretty impressive that a critter the size of a light truck can just disappear silently into the brush, but it can.
After a bit more searching we came across yet another white rhino, this time a big male. He was a bit more cooperative and we were able to hang with him for five minutes or so before he too trotted off into the dense brush.
We kept on looking for more rhinos, specifically hoping to find a black rhino, but nothing turned up. Along the way though, we came across some mountain zebra. They’re stunning animals, they have white bellies and extremely sharply defined stripes everywhere else, with none of the brownish undercoat that other zebra have. We also stumbled across a black backed jackal that seemed pretty curious about what we were up to.
We were warned that this evening we’d be visiting the fancy restaurant at the hotel, so we should have a light breakfast so we have lots of room for dinner. That also meant a fairly short afternoon game drive. We went out to the west of the reserve to look for more rhinos, but didn’t come across very much other than a large herd of oryx. As we made our way back and towards the restaurant, we came across a bunch of giraffes and some of them were playing with and chewing on a kudu horn. Apparently they will sometimes gnaw on bones and horns in order to get additional calcium in their diet.
We arrived at the restaurant to find that it was a quaint frontier style two room house with some tables on the patio. Inside you could see it was well decorated with pieces from the era including kerosene lamps and 1920s music playing. Outside there were clothes hanging on a line and a rusty windmill peaking over the roof. We sat down at a table on the patio and had a “beer” brewed from local plants which is a traditional coming of age sort of beverage. It wasn’t exactly good, but it was chewy! After a bite of an appetizer and finishing our beer we were led inside to check out the house.
They took us out the back door to find the windmill and corrugated metal water tank or silo with a strange lit door on the side of it. This all felt very much like a Cyan style video game at this point and even more so after we went into the door. Inside was a spiral stair case leading down under ground with water falling in the center of it. This lead to a long brightly lit hall way going further underground. This turned out to be a root cellar with various gourds, fruits, cheeses, aging meats and wine bottles along the walls. At the end of the cellar there was a small room with an antique coal oven and a table full of breads, roasted pork and a nice dessert wine to start off with. They served us a fantastic little cup of pumpkin soup to go along with that.
Finally after this room, the door opened onto the dining room with the entire opposite wall open to the sunset over the savanna. This place was apparently built into a hill side. Now time for actual dinner, and they started with a beautiful pumpkin salad with grapes. Our wine pairings came in impossibly delicate stemware. The main course consisted of ten different takes on traditional South African dishes, it was quite a spread. Then there were the several dessert rounds, which were a preserved peach and watermelon gremolata and some sort of whipped evaporated milk. Then a hard meringue shell filled with a camel’s milk caramel, lemon sorbet and date gelatin. Finally there was the truffle course with a couple of exquisite chocolate truffles and after dinner drinks served in more impossible glassware.
W
e didn’t know anything about any of this before hand so it was quite a surprise. The story here is that South Africa’s first chef to earn a Michelin star (Jan Hendrik) created this restaurant as sort of a home coming to celebrate South Africa’s culinary heritage. Quite a night!
Today was a slow start to the morning but paired with a beautiful sunrise. The landscape was stunning with the clouds painted with pinks and oranges and the arid savannah coming to life with golden light. We came across two male ostrich right off, hanging about and giving us the stink eye. Moving on, we came across a yellow banded mongoose in the road with a kit! It was adorable and for some strange reason they weren’t running from us! The mom was about the size of a small cat and the kit was the size of a chipmunk. The kit kept playing with mom and just running around in spastic circles while mom put up with it patiently.
After that we searched for awhile till we found a pack of lions. This pack had a whole bunch of little ones, a few adolescents, as well as a few aunties of course. They were mostly just hanging out under some bushes, doing what Lions do best, sleeping. After watching that for a bit we headed back to the lodge for lunch deciding to come back in the afternoon when they might be more active.
Fabulous lunch, way too much good food at this place. During our afternoon break we got to see a giraffe and Oryx hang out at the lodge’s waterhole, both incredibly suspicious of them humans watching them! Then out on safari again!
This time on safari we got the pleasure(?) of a rare fall rain storm. Luckily it only rained a bit along the way to the lions and we were provided ponchos. Once at the lions we watched the young ones perk up and start to play with eachother until the rain returned with a vengeance! We waited for a bit, but then when the lions started to hide our Guide Richard drove us, as best can be described, into a small tree. The tree provided a little shelter but we had ponchos and our tracker Fez had proper rain gear. Richard was not so lucky, he got drenched in cold rain and we only later found out it was his 39th birthday. Ouch.
Once the rain cleared the lions came out and started getting to work cleaning the rain off their coats. Once accomplished, the little ones were ready for some play! They started hunting and springing onto eachother, slowly stalking the others around the bushes. They were having a grand ol time and pretty soon got the adults joining in. Mom was getting pounced on by three cubs at a time and her nephews’ we’re stalking eachother. Magical, just like house cat kittens.
Around the shrubLions chattering
We watched them for quite awhile and then went to look for another lioness from this pack that had just taken down a kill for her four cubs. We raced across the savanna, trying to get to them before we lost the light. Around us a glorious sunset was playing across the sky and mountains. Incandescent oranges and pale blue clouds followed as until we finally found them, all hiding in a shrub, the cubs gorging themselves on Pumba, oops, I meant warthog. Sadly they were rather hidden so off to the airport 30 meters away for G&Ts amongst the chattering weavers. When leaving we got a surprise, momma was out sleeping in the road right in front of the gate to the airport and the gore covered cubs were playing in the grass. Our Guide had to put a spotlight on the lioness’s eyes so our tracker could unlock the game gate to get us out of the airport. It was a tense couple minutes, all of us holding our breaths that should would be night blinded enough for long enough. An exciting end to a lion of a day! Ha
