Safari Part Two

Before I begin with the second part of our Safari story I want to briefly reflect back on our time here so far. We have been living in Gambia for five months now and I like it here, our house feels like home (most of the time). I think the general ease at which I have settled into the area is thanks to my good friend Jen, who I was lucky to meet within the first week of arriving. She has taught me how to fabric shop without being ripped off, shown me the best tailors for getting clothes made, introduced me to the joys of Coco Ocean and just been an all round good friend. Last night we dropped her off at the airport and to say that I am sad to see her go is an understatement. I am really going to miss the lazy hours chatting by the pool, our hilarious attempts to learn yoga and the hot afternoons haggling over fabric that we really didn't need. With Jen left her lovely husband Doug, her sister Anna (who has also become a good friend over the past month and I am very sorry to see go) and two very cute cats. They are heading to Hong Kong where Doug has been offered a wonderful job and I know Jen will be very happy. Although they will be missed here in Gambia, I look forward to our already planned visits to Hong Kong and I know that we will remain friends despite the distance.

Now to some more Safari talk...

The last post left off just as we arrived at the lovely Kwenga Lodge. We barely had time to put our bags down before heading out on our first safari. Needless to say I was quite excited. Zack and I had been discussing what we most hoped to see and I had decided that although lions and elephants would be amazing, what I really hoped for was a giraffe. I was in luck - well actually our guide Willem told us that it would be impossible to miss them. Sure enough on our first morning there was the giant, long legged, long necked creature bending down to nibble on the top of a 12 foot tree. They are the most

fantastically awkward yet cute creatures I have ever seen, with their looooong necks and funny patterns- what was Mother Nature thinking?! At 5am that morning we had staggered out of our little cabin and into the safari truck. With temperatures during the day reaching up to 40 degrees the best animal sightings are early morning and evening. At about 7am we stopped amongst a family of giraffes grazing next to a heard of zebras for our pre-breakfast tea stop. So there we were sipping our Rooibus tea and eating rusks (a strange South African biscuit) as the giraffes and zebras watched us from only a few feet away and I should make it clear that these are wild animals- I'm not kidding it was fantastic!

With the safari drives in the early morning and evening I imagined we would have plenty of free time. However, once we had eaten breakfast, played some scrabble or pigs, taken a short nap and then ate some more, we had to get back out there! Mostly we would trawl the bush in the truck but a few times we ventured out on foot (with a large gun). Although I was grateful for the exercise I'm not going to lie, it was scary! When faced with a large rhino or heard of buffalo I think I prefer the false sense of security in the vehicle - even if it doesn't have walls.

The second afternoon we drove to a larger reserve that is part of the great Kruger national park. There are no elephants or lions at our smaller reserve so we were extremely lucky to see both on this aft. As we rounded a dusty corner we came across two male lions lounging right next the road. Content and sleepy after a big kill they couldn't care less about us - thankfully. As they began to move one looked right at me and with a scornful look that clearly said "what do you want?" it walked right in front of the car, so close that we could see his whiskers. Later that evening we also came across two families of elephants, both with babies, and a hippo, quietly watching us from the water... Good thing we weren't considering a swim!

On our final evening, after watching a baby rhino learn how to "wallow" in the mud, we stood in a grassy plain watching as huge bolts of red lightning fork across the sky. Forget the fact that there was a known leopard lurking nearby, now I was a little concerned about bushfires in all the dry shrub. After 10 minutes of imagining I could smell smoke, I gave up worrying and enjoyed the spectacular light show.

As the final morning arrived I was surprised to find that I was quite sad to say goodbye. Although we had only been at Kwenga Lodge a few days we felt rather attached to the place and the wonderful animals. In the end we had seen nearly every animal possible, except for the elusive leopard. There were a few times when we knew they were close but remained hidden from of sight. Oh well next time - perhaps when we own our own private reserve (and win the lotto!).

This has been a rather long post so I'm going to leave it here but please stay tuned because I will soon update you on life back in Gambia - it has been an interesting week!

The Journey

It was 2:30am on the morning of our scheduled departure to South Africa. The Safari was booked and we were supposed to be sleeping soundly, dreaming of the animals we were to see. Instead, Zack was lying on the couch drenched in sweat and sporting a 100^oF fever. We had both been feeling unwell off and on for the past week and despite the numerous doses of antibiotics (which in retrospect may or may not have been real) the bug refused to leave us alone. Poor Zack was miserable and I am sorry to say that I was a little cranky at the prospect of missing our trip. Knowing that some people wait for years to go on Safari we could hardly believe our luck when the opportunity arose. Zack’s conference in Johannesburg was scheduled to start on the Wednesday and we were leaving nearly a week early to enjoy the animal reserves north-east of the city... who cares about the conference, I didn’t want to pass up the chance to see a wild giraffe! Neither of us slept much that night but as morning came Zack’s fever dropped slightly and after a good sleep he was ready to go... Hooray!

Despite the fact that we were flying within Africa, the entire journey took about 20 hours. Not only is Africa huge (who knew?) but Gambia is fairly remote and flights are infrequent so we had to overnight it in Dakar, Senegal. We arrived in Joburg at dusk so by the time we finally got out of the airport (3 stressful hours were spent trying to pay the credit card bill online which we had forgotten about) it was dark and we could have been anywhere is the world. We planned an early start to pick up the rental car at 8:30am... by 11am we were finally driving Matilda the Nissan Tilda along M5 and we were on our way.

When Zack first suggested driving in South Africa I had visions of dusty potholed roads, crazy minivans driving erratically and animals all over the road. In reality it is nothing like Gambia and the drive actually reminded me a bit of country Australia. Small rolling hills with grazing cows in the dry paddocks and power plants on the horizon were a bit reminiscent of Gippsland, Victoria. Driving down the main street of the country towns I had an urge to stop at a bakery for a pink lamington. Well that was until we saw the barefoot kids playing on the side of the road and women sitting on the dusty sidewalk selling vegetables off a rug... "oh right we’re still in Africa".

Around dusk we rolled up to gates of the reserve. A small sign clearly told us to call the lodge on the provided radio and they would open the gate. We had finally arrived... well nearly. Upon entering the gate we were faced with four dusty dirt roads leading off into the bush, well what could we do but guess? As we blindly headed off it suddenly occurred to me just how vulnerable Matilda seemed, did I mention it was right on dusk and I’m sure I head a lion roar! After 15 minutes of driving around the scrub, guessing at every fork in the road, we finally gave up when we came to a roundabout.... a roundabout? Gee a sign would have been nice! We headed back to the gate - “Zack you remember the way right?” Back at the entrance everything seems simple, we’ll just get safely out (I’m sure I saw a rhino in the scrub) then wait for the owners to come and collect us. It seemed simple until we realised that they had abandoned the radio. So there we were, stuck with the Big 5 in a cheap hire car, screaming into a useless radio on a post. I was prepared to risk the barbed wire and electric fence just to escape, there were defiantly – maybe – some hyenas around! Just as the lions, rhinos, hyenas and buffalo (did I mention the buffalo yet?) were about to demolish us whole the gate slid open... “We’re free, we’re safe, we’re... in the middle of the bush in a strange country... now what?”

So as you already know we did eventually find the lodge. Our guide conveniently drove up just then and showed us the way – of course you turn right at the roundabout, isn’t it obvious?! After we had recovered we were very happy to see that we had randomly picked the perfect lodge. Until 2005 it was a private holiday retreat for a very wealthy family. Now it is a small 5 room lodge and for the weekend it was accommodating solely to us... our very own private game reserve!

Johannesburg

Well after only 3 weeks home in Gambia I have taken off to South Africa for 10 days, I love my life!

Zack has some boring economics conference in Johannesburg so I am tagging along and we are taking the opportunity to go on safari! After a week at a tiger reserve in India a couple of years ago, we have been anxious to experience more... the cold brisk morning air in the open top 4x4, the rush of adrenalin as we trawl through the bush in search of the illusive big cat and the stomach butterflies as a flash of fire orange passes through the long grass. So a partially paid (for Zack that is) trip to the land of elephants and lions was too much to pass up. After 3 wonderful days I am now back in Joburg, dreaming of owning a safari lodge. The African safari experience has been so much more that we expected - and expectations were high, but this is just a mini-blog to let you all know that when I get home I will post a proper blog with photos.