Game On!

We're back! After our 3 week overland trip, reliable internet has returned and we can start updating again! 

After a relaxing and refreshing week in Mozambique, it was time to get back to it! We had a free weekend between our return to South Africa and our flight to Victoria Falls so we decided to do some game driving (or Safari). The area we went to was called Pilanesberg. It's only a couple of hours from Johannesburg. We stayed at a small lodge just outside the park in a private game reserve that had access to the larger, public park. The lodge only had 5 guest cabins and Friday night there were a total of 8 of us. Four people checked out on Saturday leaving only us and another couple the rest of the time.

What a start to the trip

We checked in and had a quick lunch, but before we could even depart, an elephant showed up at our lodge just outside the electric fence that surrounded our small property. What a way to start! We had knocked off one of the big 5 without even leaving the lodge! Seeing the big 5 is the goal of most safari-goers. It consists of leopard, lion, buffalo, elephant and rhino.  It was then time for our first of four game drives. Our game drive leader, Vincent was great. He was very passionate and knowledgeable about the animals.

The rental camera in action. It was quite heavy!

When we had decided to book this, I knew the camera i was currently carrying would be woefully insufficient for game drives. Lucky for me, there were a few places in Johannesburg that would rent you a camera for your game drives. I was able to get very nice Canon 7D and pair it with an amazing 100mm - 400mm zoom lens. It was like having binoculars that take pictures. There was certainly a bit of lens envy from the other participants!

Just a few zebras from the dazzle

The two headed giraffe

The second of our big 5 sightings

Our first drive was very plentiful in terms of variety. There were lots of wildebeests and impala to be had (they are the main source of food for the predators). We managed to see 1 male Kudu drinking from a stream but took off before I could get my camera in focus. We managed a brief hyena sighting as well as it was stalking a pack of impala. There were also nice groups of giraffes and zebras as well as a small pack of rhinos and a few random elephants.  It was a great way to start our weekend and we returned back to the lodge ready to go again!

A red billed hornbill just caught his lunch!

the lilac breasted roller. When it takes off, its wings are a beautiful shade of blue

Cheetahs!

Rhinos out in the plains

It was headed right towards us before walking along the side of our vehicle into the trees

The next morning we were ready to go at 5 am for our next drive. At this point, there was only myself, Jess, and another couple, Douglas and Verona in the lodge so it made for a nice small drive. Verona was an avid birdwatcher with a keen eye so in the moments between the larger animals, she was always pointing out the different birds of the park. This drive added to our animal count with a hippopotamus relaxing in a pond and the highlight of the morning drive, a group of cheetah roaming the plains. It’s a rare sighting as there were only 9 cheetah in the whole of the park! As we were watching the cheetah, the radio that the game drive leaders use to communicate with each other started blaring about a tao sighting. This meant a lion was spotted! The leaders all communicate with each other with the Twana terms for the animals (it’s the main language of Botswana, but as the park used to be part of Botswana, it’s what the majority of the locals around still spoke). By the time we got to the lion sighting, it had taken off into a bush and the only sign we could tell of it’s presence was a shaking section of the bush and the occasional tail. We waited around until we needed to start heading back but the lion didn’t quite want to make an appearance. We also caught three rhinos in the open plain with amazing light. On our way back though we were greeted by an elephant in the middle of the road. We stopped so as not to startle it and it ended up walking right past our vehicle!

After this great start to the morning, we settled into the typical game drive routine which was up early, drive, breakfast, nap, lunch, drive, dinner, sleep.

A happy eland

Baboons

The more wrinkles they have, the older the elephant

A herd of buffalo in the distance

A nursing impala

Our evening game was once again only the four of us, but the sightings continued to pile up. We picked up our 3rd of the big 5 with the sighting of a buffalo herd. We also saw baboons and some eland (a type of antelope similar to impala). We continued to see various giraffe, elephant and zebra as well.  The different lodges on this private reserve had a small hut out in the park so we had a nice stop there for a beer and snacks while being surrounded by impala and discussing our plan of attack for our last game drive. Everyone was in agreement that we were going to go for the cats! We headed back and had a nice dinner with Verona and Douglas. The conversation could have gone much further into the evening but we had to be ready to leave at 4:30 am the next morning for our cat hunt!

Sunrise and the hunt is on!

Jess on the lookout

Hippos at breakfast

They seemed oblivious to each other

Pumba!

Impala and Zebra sharing the space

Sunday morning and the cat hunt was on. We were headed to the main park toady and got in right as it opened up. We got to see a beautiful sunrise but almost ran into a giraffe on our way to the park as it was standing in the road and it was still dark out! No sightings early on so we stopped for tea at a pond. There was some nice hippo action  in the pond so we upgraded our hippo photos from our previous encounter. We got word of a leopard sighting and headed over to join the hunt. We joined up with some other vehicles to maximize our opportunity to see it again. We could see the tracks in the dirt but the leopard proved elusive and no group saw it. While we were waiting, it was a cool sight as we were at a watering hole that was currently home to a crocodile, rhino and giraffe. While the animals are fun to see in species groups, it’s also really cool to see multiple animals in the same environment.  It turned out to be a relatively quiet morning in the park for most all the groups that were on drives. A little deflated we hadn’t see lions (or that leopard), we headed back to the lodge. Only a few minutes in, we got word on the radio that there were two lions that walked right past the entrance to our lodge!! We felt reinvigorated and hurried back to join the search. We took the long way back to see if we could catch a sight but it was not to be. However our keen eyes were able to spot some warthogs and a mongoose while looking for the lion. We returned for a filling breakfast before parting ways with the animal and headed back to Johannesburg.

Our lodge

Vehicles used on the game drives

This was my first ever game drive and I’ve got to say I was hooked! It was absolutely beautiful to see these animals in a large natural habitat (The park was fenced in, but it was massive). It was absolutely thrilling to spot an animal as you constantly scanned  every tree and bush and blade of grass as you drove by looking for that one thing that looked out of place. I had many “lion” sightings of rocks. We have a few drives coming up on our overground tour and I can’t wait for those although I’ll miss having my giant lens and camera. I was amazed at the level of detail I could capture from a distance and the shots turned out amazing.  Not all our time was spent taking photos. Sometimes you just had to sit back and take it all in what you were seeing and experiencing rather than just view it through the eye of a lens. We found a great balance and left wanting more!

-nick