DAY NINE
sunday, September 18, 2022
game driving and poolside reviving
This morning was an early start as we were scheduled to leave at 6am for a game drive. Despite the challenge of an early alarm, it definitely makes sense to do the game drives first thing in the morning and/or later in the day because that’s when the animals are most active. (I experienced this firsthand when I went to the Bronx Zoo right before the trip to practice with my new telephoto lens (RIP), got there at noon, and got a whole lot of photos of napping animals haha.)
What a view to wake up to! This is the front deck of the tent that you can see from bed.
The African sun is really something special, especially in the early morning. It’s a fire-engine-red ball that doesn’t seem to want to be captured in a picture, but I’ve never really seen anything like it. (Which is weird since we all have the same sun, but it was… different.)
Bright red sun rising over the infinity pool of the lodge. Gorgeous.
We headed out into the park and drove around for about three hours before returning to the resort.
Some highlights of the morning drive:
Our first sighting of a herd of African buffalo, one of the Big 5.
Running into the same hyena newborn that we had seen the day before, this time joined by a slightly older cub. They were coming in and out of a burrow right across the street from where we had seen them yesterday – I wonder if they dug a cave underneath the paved road that connected through? No sign of their mom, though.
Our first zebra sightings.
A few more giraffes, including a young one with its mom.
Rhino tracks. We didn’t see a rhino, but our guide was excited about the tracks since it sounds like they hadn’t seen any in a while.
Stopping at a big watering hole, where we saw a small herd of kudu with their beautiful giant horns, as well as the tops of some hippos who were lounging in the lake.
A couple of big male elephants.
We were also told by our guides, somewhat jokingly but not really, that the animals seemed to have a knack for making sure that they were turned away from the safari vehicles as much as possible. The result is a whole lot of butt shots. It was definitely exciting when we were able to take the picture of the front of an animal!
Kudu running next to the lake
Cooling off with some nice sand
Coming back to the lodge, we had the rest of the day free until early evening. I spent some time listening to music in that peaceful hanging chair on the porch of our tent before joining a bunch of the group who were relaxing next to the infinity pool. Several people also booked a massage that was brought right to their tent!
Late in the afternoon/early evening, we had the option of either going on a short hike to a nearby granite hill for a sundowners drink, or going on an additional game drive. The group more or less split in half, with six of us – me, Caroline, Katherine, Nat, Sam, and Steph – opting to head out on the drive. Rachel was going to capture the rest of the group at their sundowners, so kindly lent me one of her cameras to take out into the park.
Our evening driver John took us on a similar path as we had been going. Didn’t see any different animals that we hadn’t seen (except for a very badass-looking eagle), but it was a beautiful, clear night and we had a great time flying through the park as John definitely had a lead foot haha.
There are tons of impala all over the park, so we tended to drive past without stopping, but I grew fond of these little guys. So adorably unaware that they might be breakfast for a bigger predator the next day. You can’t help but root for them.
We stopped at (I think?) the same watering hole as we had stopped at in the morning, though it took on a really different feel at dusk. We enjoyed the scenery for a little while, having a sundowners drink of our own, before heading back into the vehicle to continue the drive.
Somehow managed to capture these two mid-poop. Sorry, guys!
After a really lovely drive through the park, we headed back to the lodge for the night.
Absolutely gorgeous night for a drive. (Song by South African singer Vusi Mahlasela who I’ve become very fond of since this trip)