Game drive, day 1

I'm a big kid

I saw elephants. And a leopard, jackal – even a giraffe – but the elephants were the most fun. We stopped in the road, and bull came to face us. He flapped his ears a few times – maybe to cool himself, but it really looked like a warning or at the very least like he was deciding whether we were a threat. He then turned to the rest of the herd, which flowed into the path and around the vehicle – kids, baby and all.

This morning our guide said you often see different types of animals grazing together, as doing so allows better scanning for predators. Maybe they thought we were extra eyes because they just hung out with us for a bit, munching away, before moving along.

I arrived at the lodge around 3 pm yesterday after flying into Hoedspruit Airport and being driven another hour and a half into the Balule private reserve. It’s right outside Kruger Park and the fences are down to allow animals to roam in and out. I’d had just enough time to unpack before the game drive began.

Orchid in a tree

The first hour was pretty tame. We stopped at a watering hole to see bird and frog nests in a bush (the tadpoles drop from the white nest into the water), we looked at an orchid growing on a tree, we saw three eagles dancing in the air. Obviously the new girl, I gasped over shades of green, guinea fowl, impala and a giraffe. I was dumbstruck. “We’ll see more giraffe,” said the guide who drove us along after a brief pause.

So as you can imagine, being surrounded by elephants of all ages blew my mind. The smallest, a baby, held the tip of his awkward trunk in his mouth much of the time. With forty thousand muscles in that appendage, I guess it takes a few months to get the hang of it. Another little guy, slightly older, showed off by using a toe to push sand in his trunk and then spraying the red dirt all over his back. I was just a few feet away. Caught it on my phone.

After the lot of them tiptoed off (yes, tiptoed – they move so quietly), we drove to a large flat rock formation to see the sun set over the Drakensberg mountain range. The guide informed me it’s one of the oldest on Earth, emerging from Gondwanaland when Pangaea broke apart. That would have been a thing to see. After a break and some nibbles, we climbed back into the truck to return.

The sky on fire

Having grown up on the benches of the Wasatch Front, I’ve seen the sun set over Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake countless times, and it is spectacular. But I’ve never seen anything as brilliant as the sky last night. The ride back to the lodge was alight with a smoke-free wildfire that spanned the horizon and a backdrop of far, faraway mountains, broken by silhouettes of trees and bush and brush-stroked clouds.

Cheeky Boy, the 2nd leopard

And then it got dark. The scout, perched on a seat mounted to the front of the vehicle, pulled out his flashlight and scanned the terrain, sweeping the light consistently back and forth. After about an hour of this, with lots of bumps and not-so-subtle tosses into the air, hands held firmly to the roll bar, I found my inner child whining “Are we there yet?” Ready for lodge and food, a drink and some sleep. The universe answered. “Nope. Not even close.” Our guide – a man who grew up on this land (you should see his photos) – was onto a leopard, our first of the night.

But I didn’t know we were in for two when we went off road.