Big Five Safari Day Three: 16 June 2009

Scored the final one! This morning was very, very, very cold. Good thing we brought hand warmers with us! The drive started out slow, but we got into a pride of lionesses on the hunt.


They were stalking zebra. It was awesome to watch them work as a team – they synchronized their movements, surrounding their prey in a slow, silent march. The male lion hung to the rear, so we got another good look at him as well. We didn’t stay for the kill – the rangers felt it would upset the lionesses and potentially scare the prey if we continued to track them.


We then set our sights on the final unchecked box on our list – the rhino. Rexon had to leave the vehicle several times to follow fresh tracks into the bush but his hard work paid off –we met up with a herd of five white rhinos. They were enormous and built like tanks. The front horns are all business as well. Incredible!


After breakfast we left Thornybush for the Sabi Sands area to the south. We are now staying on the Savanna Game Reserve in the most luxurious tent you have ever seen. The bathroom is bigger than our master bath at home and the amenities are even nicer!

The topography here is a bit different. The grasses are taller and there are larger open areas. There is less scrub and more trees. There are also more water holes.

Our tracker is Nordic and our driver is Mike. They really came through with some exciting sights tonight. Our first sighting was a pride of lions, a male and four females, beneath a small tree. It looked staged – they were so beautiful in the afternoon light.


After leaving the pride, we tracked a small female leopard as she marked her territory at dusk. Female and male leopards mark the same way: they rub their scent glands against trees or rocks and then urinate. The excitement continued after we left her, though. We came upon another female with her cub in a different part of the reserve. She had fresh kill (impala) and was busy eating it.


An interesting sight to see. She didn’t finish her meal, however, because a really large, really hungry hyena chased her off. The cub had great instincts – it climbed a nearby tree and watched the hyena devour the rest of the carcass. For table manners, the leopard wins, paws down. The leopard was dainty and quiet. The hyena was disgusting and loud as she crunched the bones and pulled apart the viscera. Waste not, want not. Scott got it all on video.

Our dinner was a bit tamer, but just as delicious. Cocktails on the open veranda. Didi and Nadine had filet of beef and Scott had duck. All followed by a cheese plate and fruit.