The Beginning of South Africa -- A Memorable Safari

A journey through wondrous South Africa
After nearly three weeks traveling with my friends Anthony and Shaul, we have been fortunate to see more of South Africa than many South Africans themselves. At least that’s what we’ve been told. There were SO many adventures that I hardly know where to begin. So perhaps it’s best to proceed in chronological order.
Our wonderful Swazi guide, Sendile, picked us up at 8:30 AM at the Maguga Lodge in Swaziland for our drive across the border and into the region where the famous Kruger National Park is located. Sendile had driven numerous guests to the Kruger Park area but never to the safari lodge we were going to. He came prepared with the a map printed out from the lodge’s website – which it turns out were decent but not very complete. At some point, about an hour from our destination (we now know) the tar road ended and the rocky dirt road took over. As we passed one of the last towns denoted on the map, we were left more and more to instinct and a few odd signs. Fortunately, there were two favorable conditions: Sandile had pretty good instincts and the dirt road we were on came to an abrupt halt at the entrance to a game reserve. It just wasn’t the one we were going to. We then recalled the small sign a few kilometers (KM) back that MIGHT have been our turn and headed in that direction. About 25 km later – still on dirt roads (e.g. rocky as can be) in our standard Toyota auto – we arrived at the Aruthusa Lodge in the Sabi Sands game reserve. It was about 2:45PM and we were greeted by numerous lodge staff all in their safari gear who told us our first game drive was at 3:30. Did we want to eat or go on our drive? That was a no-brainer even for us.
So first, we went to our accommodations which were these luxury chalets of about 1000 sq feet each about 10 minutes walk away from the main lodge. No, we weren’t roughing it but we were definitely in the wild. We were strictly instructed not to walk alone at night on the paths back and forth from our rooms as animals, including lions and elephants, are known to wander through. That made some sense since there was a watering hole about 300 feet from the back of the dining area. So we always had to be escorted by a guide who carried a flashlight and checked for game that might have gotten into the camp. Exactly what the guide would have done for our safety with a flashlight is beyond me but I obeyed the orders anyway. Better to be cautious, right?
Over the next 4 days, and about 8 game drives, we had the time of our lives and without further ado, I will share with you that we saw the “Big 5” – lions, leopards, water buffalo, elephants and rhinos. Even though I had just been on safari in Tanzania, this was different. First of all the rhino sightings were my first. But more than any safari I’ve been on, this was the closest I’ve been to the animals themselves. This is attributable to the fact that we were in a private game reserve and this enables the guides and trackers to go “off road,” an experience unto itself.
But the “Big 5” wasn’t all we saw. There were giraffes, kudu, wildebeasts, antelopes, warthogs, hyenas, zebras, mongoose, hippos, jackals, guinea fowl, rodents of every kind and even a tree snake. But of course, this wasn’t a zoo so we saw many of these animals on multiple occasions on our early morning and late afternoon (into darkness) game drives. But also because this wasn’t a zoo, we actually saw the predation process live. And that came in several forms. On our first evening, we saw a rather large leopard up in the tree eating her catch. While it sounds a bit gory (and I couldn’t watch it all) there is something special about seeing what you’ve seen on TV upfront and in person. We were probably only 10 yards away as the leopard devoured her dinner. We saw this scene several times over.
And, even more true to the documentaries, we saw the ultimate of nature’s wonders: a leopard killing her prey. I will spare you the details. But I will say that often times leopards will carry their kill up to a tree in order to enjoy their meal. In this case, however, there was no tree of any size around. And after taking what seemed like forever to put the warthog out of her misery (about 15 minutes), the leopard was approached by two hyenas. Sure as shooting, the hyenas stole the warthog away from the leopard. And this may be hard to believe but many of us actually felt badly for the leopard. After all, she had done the hard work. Is there justice?