November 27, 2013

Satara, 1330.

Sitting at the table in an open porch.  There’s a light overcast and it’s warm and humid with a gentle breeze.  It’s weather that reminds me of a Gulf breeze down in south Texas.  We’re close to the Indian Ocean here – Mozambique is to the east and it sits on the coast. I’m sure ocean breezes are blowing in from the east.  It’s probably too warm for my friends who’ve only experienced the frigid Northwest but it seems very pleasant to me. 

Sipping cool water and eating oatmeal cookies.  Does it really get much better?

Lately it’s been about lions, and all that entails at Kruger.  Day before yesterday, as we were driving the long uphill climb to Olifants just before gate closing time (1830) we saw a group of cars parked on the road.  That means only one thing so we stopped at the end of the line in time to see first one, then ultimately four, male lions walk out onto the road and walk down our direction.  We sat quietly in the car as the lions walked by, one at a time, so close that we could have almost touched them.  We could hear their footfalls as they padded by.  These were not Hollywood lions.  These were street fighting lions – gang lions, maybe – scarred and gnarly and looking for trouble.  It was already deep into twilight and I think people who spend time around lions will tell you that there’s something about a nighttime lion that’s very different than a daytime lion.  They’re much more purposeful and confident.  Their eyes dilate in the dark and they really do look right at you as they walk by.  I’ve been this close to lions many times now and it’s still a rush.  You involuntarily control your breathing so not to make a sound and signal to them a living presence in the car, though you know they know.  It’s awesome.

Yesterday we moved down to Satara, spending time at a hyena den on the way.  Then in the afternoon we took a drive down S100 east of Satara and saw a group of hot, sleeping lions panting under a tree.  Most of the time you see lions, this is what you get – hot, sleepy lions panting under a tree, surrounded by a gaggle of vehicles with diesel motors idling.  We didn’t stay long.  We drove on to Swemi Hide, a lovely spot overlooking a pretty waterway, and watched birds for a while.  Saw and photographed my first malachite kingfisher – probably the prettiest jewel in Africa.  Came back via the H6 and found a car parked on the side of the road, watching another hot, sleepy, panting lion.  We watched for a while and then realized that he was actually sitting right in front of a female and they were on a lion date.  They were in an area where the grass was just long enough that if they lay down, you can’t see them from the road.  Not ‘you could hardly see them’.  They actually became invisible.  Then you think about all of the animals having to walk around through this grass…. He was very old, with broken teeth – probably in the last year of his life.  She was young and hot and could have any lion in town.  What she sees in him, I’ll never understand.

Light was too harsh and way too much heat haze to do much photographically, so we just watched for a while and as we were preparing to head back a young couple stopped their car to tell us that a lone male lion had killed a buffalo (?!) just 5 meters off the road about 12K from here we were.  It was late – too dark to shoot really – but we headed down to do a reconnaissance.  We found the kill and indeed this very old male had killed a buffalo calf.  There were many cars around and it was quickly becoming dark so we headed back to camp with the plan of coming back in the morning.

So this morning we were up at 0345 and found ourselves on the inside of row 2 when the gate was opened for the standing start.  It really is just ridiculous but we held our own, blocking like it was F1.  Three hundred meters out the gate, we ran into three cheetah on the side of the road.  That slowed us down a bit.  There are only a few cheetah in the Park (maybe 200?) – I’ve never seen one here – so we watched for a bit before proceeding down the road toward the kill.  We were the second vehicle there, positioned ourselves and then waited for the sun to come up finally giving me an opportunity to do a bit of lion shooting with pretty backlighting.  It was cool and never did become oppressively crowded (must have been lions elsewhere…).  Once the sun was truly up and covered by the rolling overcast, we pulled stakes and went back to the hide.  Not much happening there but was able to shoot some hippo fun as a tiny baby hippo played with its sibling.  Then here, breakfast, got the car washed (hopefully Hertz won’t have a clue what this vehicle’s been up to), shop, a short nap and now write a few words before heading back out in the next hour or so.  That’s life here.

And we’re wrapping up.  Tomorrow we move to Orpen for our last day here.  Next morning we’ll be up early and on the road to Jo’burg and the forever flights and tight connections back to Bend.  Don’t want to think about that though.  We still have some road time available and still have squawking starlings to listen to.  So much life here.