August 26 – 28th
Over the past several years, camping has become a large part of my life. Every summer I attempt to fit in a few trips. This summer, what with the whole changing my life thing, I was unable to camp in New Hampshire prior to my departure date. I was extremely disappointed, but I reminded myself that in a short time I’d be camping in a world I’d never known before. Where I had once been aware of raccoons and bear, I was now prepared to be on the look out for scouring monkeys! Pilanesburg promised to be an incredible experience – and it didn’t disappoint.
The sun sets fairly early here in South Africa this time of year. Chelsea and I managed to set up our borrowed tent in plenty of time to grab our camping chairs, a beer, and socialize with the others before darkness settled in. My stomach was feeling better, and relaxing in sweatpants and a sweatshirt increased my contentment. A total of nearly 90 people attended the retreat, and all of them were gathered an hour or so after sunset in the Boma area for a braai (local word for BBQ). The food was delicious; the fire was decent (I’ve seen many high quality fires in my days! I’m hard to impress J ); and the company was excellent. After some lame excuses for smores (SAfrica is not home to graham crackers), some reminiscing of hiring stories, and tales of safaris past from the returning staff members, I decided to call it a night early with the hopes of feeling even better by morning.
My alarm woke me from a surprisingly solid sleep at 5:30am. The park opened at 6:30 for the first drive. From the warmth of my borrowed sleeping bag, I could hear the now familiar calls of birds mixed with a new hollering sound – a sound I could only assume came from the monkeys lurking in the trees on the outskirts of the camping area just waiting to raid our tents. We brushed our teeth, dressed in multiple layers, grabbed a box of Honey Nut Cheerios for sustenance, and climbed into Kaitlyn’s car with cameras in hand. Chelsea had scored us seats in our new friend’s car the night before – an incredibly lucky win! This meant we each had a window to roll down and look out of as opposed to cramming onto a bus with only a few windows that opened and at least a dozen others vying for the spots. With the sun rising above the ridges of the mountains, we passed through the gates and into the wild.
Not long into the drive I realized I had not brought my extra batteries and my camera was not far from running out. I was overcome with disappointment and had to force myself not to miss the incredible views around me because of my lack of battery life. This was not an easy task being that I truly enjoy taking photographs. After some wildebeest sightings and a stop off at a hide overlooking a watering hole, which gave no opportunity for pictures, we drove by a general store (the one and only inside the park) and I eased my troubles with some double A batteries! Now, I was free to snap away.
Over the course of the next five hours, the four of us drove around a large portion of the park. Kaitlyn, who happens to love game drives, was an incredible guide with lots of useful information about the animals we were seeing. I learned many things, but particulary enjoyed finding out that when you see impalas and wildebeest alone, it is because they have been ousted by their herds. Apparently, male impalas travel with a harem of around 12 lady impalas. The males will all but starve themselves to ensure they protect their “belongings.” The lack of food makes them weaker, and consequently, other males (looking for harems of their own) will attack and try to steal the females. In addition, wildebeest will be found separated from their herds when they have “messed up.” Males can be kicked out of the herd and left alone if they fail to perform or cause problems. Nature is a wonderful thing!
Although I took many pictures of the wildebeest at first glance, they quickly became the squirrels of South Africa, and no longer was I desperate to capture their boney, black and grey bodies on film. We saw many impalas and bucks of varying kinds grazing in the dry grass. Giraffes were all over the place, but with their awkward bodies and beautiful markings, I never grew tired of seeing them. We saw a very limited amount of elephant from a far distance, as well as a few rhino from afar, which was very disappointing. However, the small group of hippos we saw resting alongside a watering hole made up for that, and the elusive leopard we happen to witness stalking near a tree just about topped the weekend! Apparently seeing a leopard is not likely. Thanks to Corinne and her fantastic eyesight, this moment easily goes down as one of the top.
Pilanesburg Game Park is actually set within the caldera of an old volcano. The land we explored rests among gorgeous mountains and is scattered with vegetation and water spots. Although the land is very dry and brown due to the winter season and lack of rain, it was extremely breathtaking. As far as you could see, nature showed itself in the most gorgeous of ways. Whether it was the blue sky juxtaposed with the brown rolling hills or the twisted and mangled trunks of trees I’ve never seen before, Pilanesburg was a welcome change from the developed, traffic-laden land of JoBurg.
A shower was first on my agenda after returning from our 5 and a half hour game drive (I am not a fan of showering while camping, but if the facilities are there – I’m not going to deny it!). Some downtime filled the next few hours, during which I was able to chat with some women I hope to become better friends with. At about 3:30, Chelsea and I, equipped with some more snacks, climbed into the back of Marcus and Beth’s Pugeot and took off for Round #2.
Our goals were to see elephant and rhino up close, and for Beth and Marcus to catch a glimpse of the leopard. No leopard sightings, very little progress in the search of close encounters with rhinos, but we checked off close sightings of elephants! As we were snapping pictures of a young elephant eating some grass just off the side of the road, we inched the car forward – right in the path of the mama elephant and another baby! “Should I back up? Should I back up? Should I back up?” Marcus repeated as the three of us scrambled to take pictures out the window of the massive creature about 30 meters away from us! With giggles, delight, and excited exclamations, we left the Pugeot right where it was and snapped picture after picture of the (now) family of 5 elephants grazing less than 200 feet away – who could care less that we were near by.
Fueled by the high of such an incredible experience and motivated by the less than half an hour we had to exit the park, we took off down the road back toward the front gate. We stopped to take some pictures of giraffe and zebra foraging alongside the mountain. Of course the better shots always come from outside the car, but since a park official had spoken us to earlier about getting out of the car, we decided the next best thing was to sit in the windows! As silly as if we were running on no sleep and nitrous oxide, Chelsea, Beth, and I rode nearly the rest of the drive with our butts resting on the doors and our upper bodies taking in the clean SAfrican air. In that moment I forgot I had only just met Beth and Marcus 3 short weeks ago and become closer with Chelsea – I was among good people having an incredible experience, with majestic mountains and wild African animals as the backdrop to it all.
Another braai, a substantially better fire, and even more quality conversation filled the time between our return and my bedtime. Seven hours later, my alarm woke me again to a new day and one final game drive with Marcus and Beth. Our mission today was to find the lions. Apparently, the night before while we were hanging out car windows, another group witnessed a lion attack on a young elephant. Three lionesses attempted to take a baby down, but to no avail. The adult elephants surrounded the lions and eventually made it away safely. However, it was easy to assume that as darkness fell, those lionesses were going to attempt their attack again, and we hoped to spot the remnants of it that morning. Also on our goal list was to get up close and personal with some rhino and that hidden leopard. Although we managed to find the tree the leopard was said to be resting in, we were not successful in spotting it again. Without binoculars it’s hard to say I saw them, but the three lionesses were prowling far off in the distance along the mountainside. Four hippos were sound asleep in a watering hole we passed. “Are those rocks? Nope! They’re hippos!!”
The highlight of the morning, aside from the incredibly delicious breakfast buffet we partook in at a local lodge, was our close encounter with a rhino. We almost drove by it originally but managed to spot its enormous leathery body snacking off in the trees. Marcus backed up to allow for better pictures, and as he did, the rhino meandered through the trees and tall grass – right toward our car. It was not in a threatening way, but rather in a “I don’t care if you staring at me – I have places to go” kind of way. With windows rolled down completely, we chronicled its journey out of the trees, onto the road directly behind our car, and across to the awaiting grass. It’s grey, leathery skin wrinkled as it lugged its massive body across the dirt road. It’s tiny, beady eyes watched us as it’s tusk led it in the direction of food. As quickly as the rhino had approached our car and passed it, he was gone. That just happened!
Our journey to Pilanesburg ended as the busses pulled away at 10:45am. The campsite was empty and void of all AISJ employees. Our retreat was over but it had certainly proven to be a most incredible experience. Thinking about my weekend, filled with three of South Africa’s BIG 5, loads of other wild animals, and the makings of some great new friendships, I felt content. My life is exciting and slowly filling with experiences I will never forget!
