THE ANIMALS OWN AFRICA. But it’s hard to explain how totally unlike a zoo the wildlife-parks are. What you can’t see in a photo or on TV is the foreverness of those landscapes, the endless golden grasslands, the clumps of vivid green that signpost a stream or waterhole, the zillion thorny acacia trees. And what you can’t hear are the grunts-rumbles-shrieks-growls-and-birdcalls that suddenly break the silence. I kid you not: there are moments that feel almost sacred …
1. HOLD ONTO YOUR HAT!
At the heart of a safari is the game-drive. Sometimes early morning while it’s still darkish, sometimes late afternoon when the air is cooling down, we pile into waiting 4WDs and bounce off along the dirt roads that criss-cross these wildlife parks. The ‘lids are up’ (allowing us to stand) and the search is on for amazing wildlife. We have no idea what’s around the next bend, and photo-ops come thick and fast. But there’s lots you can only appreciate by being there: the endless movement and sounds and dust and smells and hold-your-breath excitement …
2. LEOPARD AT LARGE
Few people go on safari without wanting to see the big cats. And, while leopards aren’t the smallest African cats, they’re the hardest to spot. Masters at stealth and camouflage, these solitary hunters are barely visible when stalking their prey. And it’s often a tell-tale tail hanging from a far-off tree that first alerts a sharp-eyed safari guide. Which is how we got to meet this beautiful female. She had climbed high onto a handy branch, dragging her dinner (a gazelle) with her. And when we arrived, there she was, looking altogether stunning …
3. BIRDS OF A FEATHER …
Oh, the birds! You’ve gotta see Africa’s birds! Fluffed-up ostriches all in a flap … pink flamingos, their heads in the soup … saddle-billed storks wearing red/yellow stripes … ground hornbills with scarlet, turkey-like necks … ugly marabou storks with pink airbags under their chins … hornbills honking from the highest canopy … the tiny, multi-coloured pygmy malachite kingfisher, barely 10cm long, that I spotted clinging to a reed with a just-caught fish in its mouth … and how about this gorgeous crowned crane, just back from a hair-salon and hunting for a tasty snack?
4. A GIRAFFE- AND-A-HALF
We spent two nights under canvas at the luxury Sweetwaters Tented Camp. It overlooks a popular waterhole, and we watched as lumbering elephants, grumpy buffalos, yipping zebras and screaming baboons came and went – drinking and bathing, foraging and arguing just across the ditch from us. An elegant ‘tower’ of giraffes drifted in at one stage, nibbling sweet shoots from the tops of tall acacia trees. Then, as if on cue, this lanky youngster stepped forward, spreading his legs like a giant tripod so he could reach down and quench his thirst with the life-giving water …
5. GIRL IN THE ORANGE SHIRT …
I’d seen these solitary nomads in the far-off distance, draped in bright red blankets and carrying a fistful of spears, with a few scrawny cows for company. And, today, we stopped off at a remote Maasai village or kraal. Their mud-and-dung huts were encircled by a thorny fence to protect them from lions and hyenas. And I felt strangely humbled as the men showed us how they make fire from sticks, the women showed off their colourful beads, and this shy wee girl with chocolate skin waved at me from her hiding place …
6. ELEPHANTASTIC!
If you’re allowed favourites on a wild African safari, mine would have to be elephants. I mean, nothing beats the spectacle of jumbo-sized families standing up to their armpits (legpits?) in a muddy swamp while shovelling trunkfuls of lush green salad down their throats … or plodding patiently across the dusty plains, rumbling away at each other while the youngsters frolick around their mothers’ sturdy legs. We watched these guys for ages, but eventually, at a signal from the matriarch, the elephants dragged themselves away – single-filing across the road in front of our 4WD, off to destinations unknown …
7. KING OF THE JUNGLE
We came to an abrupt halt early this morning alongside three very large, heavily-maned male lions … plus a lone lioness over whom they’d obviously been squabbling. She never once took her yellow eyes off us. But this big guy was relaxing in the grass on the dusty roadside, just metres from our open-top Land Cruiser – yawning occasionally, stretching every now and then, and sending a low threatening growl whenever a rival got too close to his girlfriend. King of the Jungle – that’s what he was, and our presence didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest.
