We woke up to a gray and chilly weather, a bit disappointing for our wildlife viewing experience as the animals will not come out to play in the sun! Before heading out for our adventure, we sat down to have breakfast at the Lodge and guess who comes to visit us! None other than the wild African buffalos, who are claimed to be dangerous beasts and attach you without warning. As they get their morning fill of water from the nearby watering hole, Aditi candidly took some nice shots of them before the tour guide warned her to not go too close!
We boarded our 6 seater Safari jeep along with other fellow wildlife lovers, two girls – Libra and Debbie from New York and a cute couple from Scotland. It was a cold drive as we canvassed our way deeper into Kruger, to where the animals were waiting to welcome us! On our way, we stopped to buy some local food which is actually made of the local animals - 'Biltong', which is basically dried and spiced meat made from raw fillets of game meat cut into strips. Our flavors of the day were 'Ostrich' and 'Kudu' (a type of deer - our favorite...delicious) Now we know how these Africans are so strong and healthy...they even feed 'Biltong' to babies to help them chew during teething!
Now that we are well fed on some local animals hides, it is time to check them out for real!
But if the morning was a bit low, the mood in the car sharply improved as the wind blew away the clouds and the sun came out. And we were not the only ones eager to enjoy the warm glow of sunshine in the golden wastelands of Kruger National Park…by the noon time, we started getting an eyeful of interesting animal sightings.
Impalas by the dozen, so many that after 1 hour of game viewing, we were bored of seeing them! Then the baboons with their scary screams, running around on tree tops and picking lice off of each other. Gorgeous Giraffes playing in the fields with their fellow friends, Zebras and drinking from a well nearby. Giant African elephants stomping their way through the wilderness , munching on their grassy feed. Wilder-beasts, black rhinos, monkeys and buffalos – all beautifuly going about their daily business in their unspoiled habitat, oblivious to the hungry tourists prying eyes and camera flashes!
Watching our friends eat in their natural wilderness made us hungry as well! We stopped at one of Kruger NP lodges - a wide area surronded by electrified wires to keep the animals away (or was it protection for the animals against humans?) with many blue plummage birds dancing around in the sun, most of them were obviously prancing around my lunch plate oggling the food!
But our peaceful picnic only lasted for 35 minutes as the word was out that a game has just happened! A baby giraffe has been hunted and killed by a big 'pride' of lions and lioness. We all set out to watch the gorry spectacle. Indeed, the lions and lioness along with their cubs were feeding off a baby giraffe, right next to the road! It was gruesome but very exciting at the same time. The lioness had made the kill by jumping on the giraffe and getting him by the neck. The whole family apparently had a big feast as the insides of the giraffe were completly wiped out as the lions sat around with content and smug smiles. This feast continued for some 2-3 days before the lions got tired of the poor giraffe and left its remains to be devoured by the vultures!
As soon as we were done partaking in this wild feast, we got the news of a nearby leopard sighting. We sped towards the location in our safari jeep, scanning and scutinizing each passing tree to see the wild cat but couldn't find the elusive animal! But witnessed another cool view - around a nearby water hole, a group of giraffe were getting their fill of water while two hippos swam lazily in the pond. Obviously, these naive animals had no way of knowing that JUST across the street was a big pride of lions sleeping and laying low on the ground to escape their poor victims notice! I so wanted to jump out of the jeep and warn them all ;-) Unfortunately, we had to leave the place as the night was approaching but our tour guide promised us a big kill that night and lots more to see from the game the next day...for the first time, I wished that there was no kill and the giraffes run away just in time!
The views back without any more animal sightings were still spectacular as we reminicsed about the day's happenings, watching the sun's last rays done on the African Sub-Saharan wastelands. We returned to the warmth of our tree-house with the warm feeling that our unforgetable adventure had just begun!
