December 1, 2013

Home…. 0220.

Sitting at my desk.  It’s surreal to be here.  At Kruger, it’s 1221.  If it’s hot, all of the animals have called a truce from the daily contest to huddle under some bush and pant in the heat.  Nothing will be moving.  Somewhere, right at this moment, twenty cars are stopped along the side of the road watching a group of lions sleep and pant miserably in the heat, idling their vehicles so they can run the A/C and not suffer any personal discomfort.

Our last full day in the Park was amazing.  We headed out early (but not with the first bunch when the gate opened) and encountered a group of three cheetah moving along the roadway.  Too dark to shoot but it was just so nice to see them as they began to run back and forth, revving up for a day of hunting.  We left the crowd with the cheetah and just headed south.  The main mission seemed to be to avoid crowds and to spend as much quiet time as possible enjoying the place on this last day.  We had yet to see a leopard and I think we both held out some slim hope that we’d find one on this last day.

As we headed south, we saw a vehicle pulled over on the side of the road and as we crawled by we saw that they were watching two lions dating.  I think that these were probably the same two we’d seen some days previously – he gnarly and with a face like 40 miles of bad road, and she cute, petite and unscarred.  It was still a little dark to shoot, but we pulled over next to the other vehicle and spent quite a bit of time with these two lovebirds.  And, we got bonus lion sex, complete with after-sex roaring by the male, making sure any other males in the area knew that he was here and didn’t care if you knew it.  After a while, the couple in the other vehicle left and stopped near our car to whisper how awesome that was and it truly was.  If you’ve never been near a roaring lion, it’s an inspiring thing and you imagine the fear that many people must face in small villages and farms when they hear that sound.

We also decided to leave the two alone and proceeded east along the paged road (H-6) where we soon encountered another small group of cars and three healthy female lions resting on the side of the road.  The road is built up a bit over the surrounding plain here, giving them a wide view of what was happening around them on this windy, blustery day.  They were very relaxed and we watched and photographed for a while, and then continued east.  We encountered then a very large bull white rhino, eating alongside the side of the road and then made our way to a hyena den I’d noticed the day before to find two teenaged hyenas sleeping outside. 

Later, continued north on the S41 and then west on S110 (both unpaved roads) back toward Satara, seeing lots of wildlife – mostly the usual suspects.  No leopards.

Breakfast, rest, then back out for the final afternoon’s drive and move to Orpen.  Decided to head south and then take S125 west and then S40 north to link back up with the road to Orpen – basically a very indirect, roundabout and not heavily traveled route.  It’s a beautiful drive, mostly through heavy bush, greened up by recent rains.  We were very careful around elephants (there were plenty around) because you couldn’t see them if they were only 10 meters off the road.  And then, as we rounded a bend, I saw here sitting in plain view up in a tree.  We found a leopard.  We stopped, got camera situated and watched for a few minutes.  She obviously didn’t like us hanging around and changed positions a couple of times before deciding to slink down the back side of the tree and quickly move off into the bush.  It was a short sighting but it was very satisfying, seeming like a gift to us at the end of this trip.  And it was our time alone with the leopard – we were in the middle of the bush and there were no other vehicles around. 

We continued the drive in high spirits.  Later, driving along S40, Gina hissed to stop and out of the corner of my eye I saw a male sable deep in the bush.  By the time we were able to turn around and get back it was gone.  Sables are very beautiful and there are not many left in the Park.  They’re apparently also very shy.  We cruised up and down that stretch of road for a bit and got one more glimpse of him but then he was gone like a shot.  A very nice sighting.

And in the last moments of light on this last day, we encountered a martial eagle with a warthog piglet up in a tree.  The martial is the largest eagle in Africa, I believe, and it’s a spectacular bird.  We were able to watch, and photograph, for a brief time and then it was off and the day was over.

The next morning we began the trip back.  We packed and hit the road, taking one last swing by the jackal den to see if we could find any hint of the pups – and we did not.  We drove back to Johannesburg on a route called the Highland Meander and it’s really a beautiful drive, climbing out of the lowveldt up to an elevation of about 6200 feet. We stopped and had lunch in Dullstroom – a pretty little resort/tourist community reminiscent of Sisters – and reached Jo’burg by about 1630.  Returned the 600/F4 to Penny of Wild Eye, and then began the process that is flying….  We arrived in bend about noon on Saturday.  By my reckoning, we’d been moving about 40 hours, confined in tight places with no opportunity to get horizontal.  Along the way, I know I experience a real sense of sadness.  Happy to see family of course, but the process of travel seems to separate you so completely from the bush and the contentment of sitting in a pretty glade somewhere, listening to the birds and waiting for the next thing to unfold in front of you.

We arrived in Redmond to see our daughter Aislin, see the in-laws, home to see the cats, nap, dinner for Az, sleep and up at 1230 unable to sleep more.

It’s kind of surreal and hard to describe the feeling of being here.  In a way, everything is familiar and like we never left.  It was a lot of effort and expense to have a short time in the bush and it goes by so quickly and now I’m remembering back, remembering which drawers contain silverware and which cabinets contain drinking glasses and where the light switches are in the dark.  The cats have been all over us.  I don’t know that they missed us, exactly, but they do crave routine and I think are looking for reassurance that the old routine will be restored.

And tomorrow (or today actually), we buy groceries, pay bills, etc. and prepare ourselves for work, for chauffeuring the 15 year old, for stressing about losing weight and all that other stuff.  We have a few curios to remind us we were there.  A few random bug bites to remind us we were there.  And the tan pattern on our feet from our sandals which, for a few months, will remind us.

And, I believe, start thinking about how to go back.