Day 2 of our Sabi Sabi adventure
found us with the same morning routine doing the morning game drive at 0630. Kerry
took us to another pond where we found a cackle or clan of hyenas consisting of
2 adults, 2 juveniles, and 3 pups.
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| Hey, let me have that! |
Two of the pups were fighting over a Cape
buffalo skull, while the others were resting. The pups were in a playful mood
and seemed curious about our presence, as they kept approaching the vehicle and
stared at us.
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| Who are you guys? |
Although they are morphologically similar to canines, they are a
separate family of mammals and are phylogenetically closer to felines and
viverrids. Moving on we spotted a lone wildebeest which was the first sighting
of these animals we had seen.
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| Roughhousing |
Apparently other in our vehicle saw many
wildebeests at Lion Sands. We next spotted some zebras grazing next to the road.
It was time for a morning break and we pulled into a cleared opening for some
coffee, tea, and biscuits (cookies).
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| A wildebeest |
Our spread drew the attention of a grey
get-away-bird and a yellow-billed hornbill who came for some cookie crumbs. The
hornbill picked up some crumbs and took them to a cavity in a tree where Kerry
said that it likely had a nest as they are cavity nesters.
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| Chillin' out |
Throwing them
crumbs, they entertained us until the biscuits ran out, and then we were on our
way.
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| Yellow-billed hornbill |
A report went out of another spotted
leopard sighting. It was time to go in, but Kerry told us it was 15 minutes
away and asked if we wanted to stay out and see it.
There were three other
vehicles (one with photographers from National Geographic) following her.
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| Grey get-away-bird |
As it
would be difficult for us to turn around on the bed, Kerry decided to go back
up the bank in case she decided to leave the river bed. And that is exactly
what she did. She came up just about 20 yards from where we were sitting.
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| Our second leopard |
We moved
into position and had a birds-eye view as she went about here preening. The other
vehicles finally caught up to us, so we moved out and headed back to the main
lodge. Everyone agreed and we were
on our way. We arrived at the area to learn that the leopard was walking along
a dried river bed. We got to the edge of the bank and thought, “Oh no, Kerry is
really going to take this down that steep incline.”
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| Preening herself |
It was more than 45°. She shifted
it into low range and down we went. We had arrived at the bottom only 20-30
seconds before the cat passed our point of descent. Any later and we would have missed her.
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| Back on the prowl |
We had signed up to visit the
village of Hundnukazi, a small village of around 4,500 residents, many who work
at the game reserves.
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| Village housing |
This would be a cultural exchange since we would be
visiting an orphanage, preschool, a village shaman, and an African market. Our driver,
Heavyness, took us in a covered safari vehicle, and our tracker, Doc, drove the
remainder in a small van.
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| A rondeval and its owner |
After about a 45 minute drive, we arrived at
Hundnukazi and were immediately impressed by the poverty and bleak living
conditions compared to some of the poorer areas in the states. We saw many rondeval
huts, a traditional African architectural design, with their conical thatched
roofs.
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| Inside the orphanage |
Noticing many partially built homes with no roofs or windows, we asked
Heavyness why these homes were incomplete. He explained that the government
will build the slab and walls to a home, but it is the owners responsibility to
finish the roof and windows.
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| Greetings! |
The homes are unfinished, because the owners are
saving their money to finish construction (notice that no borrowing is involved).
As a partial solution, we found many homes with widows and corrugated metal
roofs.
Our first stop was at the Ona Shwa
Orphanage which provides care for children at risk. The orphanage functions primarily from donations
from sponsers—Sabi Sabi is a major one—and from charitable givers. We were
given a peek at the Christmas presents that will be given to each child and
realized that a even a meager contribution to this cause could impact very
many.
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| Simon says... |
There is a high incidence
of HIV-Aids in children which represents the majority of children taken in by
the orphanage. We were given a tour of the facility and told of their upcoming
holiday schedule. The children were not present on this day as they were
getting ready for the graduation of 5
th & 6
th
graders. the following day.
Our next stop was at the
pre-school and we were not prepared and were overwhelmed by the welcome the
children gave us. Virtually all of the children, ages 3-6 years, swarmed the
bus wanting us to touch, lift, high-five, and hug them. It was a very moving moment
to stare into these happy, innocent faces.
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| HIV-AIDS Center |
We left the bus to enter the school
and the children were grabbing our hands, almost to the point of fighting
others for them, so that they could escort us in. Many of the children would hold
two fingers up which seemed like some sort of salutation. Inside the rather
small classroom the teacher gained control over their rambunctiousness and we
were greeted.
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| Drying clothes |
The teacher provided a short background of the school and the
students which is open around 12 hours a day to accommodate the schedules of working
parents. Most of the students are from the village, but some come from outlying
areas. The school has 3 classrooms and they are crowded with 60, 65, and 80
students in the classes. After the teacher conducted a Simon-says-type of
exercise, the students sang two songs for us.
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| Coming to the "Secret Room" |
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| Heavyness and the shaman |
Singing a maximum volume, the
songs weren’t initially recognizable, but when they came to the chorus we could
pick out the familiar tunes. After their performance we went back outside to
board the bus and were again mobbed by the children. If only our own children
wanted to be with us this much!
Back on the bus we were told that the children
very seldom get to see white people, so that is why we were such a novelty.
Our next stop was too a village
shaman.
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| The shaman's bones |
We entered a walled lot with a rondeval “secret room” attached to what
appeared to be a home.As we left the bus, a woman near the entrance started to
beat a drum and chant. Heavyness told us that as we enter we must show respect
by bowing, clapping our hands twice, and saying something that sounded like “TOO-rah.”
When all had entered, Heavyness told us what the protocol would be and that the
shaman would have to roll the bones to see if we were welcome there. Kneeling on
a mat, she shook the bones in her hand and threw them out onto the mat and
studied them intently. What a relief it was when she announced that we could
stay. Heavyness then told us how this woman had received the “gift” from her
ancestors and how she came to be one of the village’s shamans.
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| Being greeted by the market vendors |
Villagers could
seek advice or healing from the shaman for which they paid 150 rand (~$10) per
visit. After providing this background, we were allowed to ask questions with
Heavyness serving as interpreter. We left the shaman to the beating drums and
proceeded to our final stop.
We arrived at an outdoor market
with local goods and to the women vendors singing and dancing for us. We formed
a circle around them and they broke into song and dance.
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| We sorta got it! |
Each member alternated
in choosing 2 or 3 of us and dragging us into the center to dance with them. After
everyone (except Capt. Larry who wisely kept his video going) had danced, the
drumming stopped, the circle broke, and the market was opened for us to make
purchases. These purchases are an important source of income in these villages
which suffer from very high unemployment, so no one felt compelled to drive a
hard bargain.
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| At the market |
We were running late and hadn’t had anything to eat for over two
hours, so it was definitely time to get back to the lodge. We said goodbye to a
farewell song, boarded our bus, and returned to Sabi Sabi.
Our afternoon drive was rather
uneventful with the sighting of some kudus and elephants. However, Kerry did
show us an unusual bird’s nest.
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| Big nest for little birds |
The nest is massive, but is built by a very
small male bird (the name escapes). When the nest is presented to the female,
she will tear it completely apart if she does not judge it to be suitable. The male
must then try again to build a suitable. Capt. Larry commented that this
behavior is certainly not unique to this species, but parallels can be drawn to
humans. Moving on, Kerry brought us to a watering pond where we could scratch
hippopotamuses of our list.
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| Open wide! |
Two hippos were in the water, but despite our
coaxing, they would not show much more than their ears, eyes, and nose. Kerry
told us that these animals have fairly delicate skin and prolonged exposure to
sunlight can crack and irritate their skin. For that reason, they stay in the
water during the day and come out at night.
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| Hippos |
We had our safari happy hour and
returned to the lodge. No sunset tonight because of cloudy skies.
Our last morning at Sabi Sabi and Jane
awoke to an upset stomach. She decided not to go out on the final game drive. Capt.
Larry got ready and met up with the rest of the crew.
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| Dwarf mongooses |
About one-half hour into
the drive, it began to rain. Kerry spotted some dwarf mongooses that had taken
over an abandoned termite mound. There were several of these cute animals in
the mound and we enjoyed watching them scurry about for a while. Moving on we
spotted a lone hyena just as Kerry received a report of a leopard sighting.
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| Dwarf mongooses in termite mound | |
We headed
toward the location with Doc guiding us off-road. By this time it was raining
pretty hard. We spotted the male leopard and his safari entourage as the animal
was approaching a termite mound with a rain-sheltering tree growing out of it.
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| Beautiful cat |
Being
smarter than the safari photographers (the National Geographic boys again with
their huge camera lenses), the cat perched itself atop the mound and sat there.
Then it laid down and eventually started dozing.
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| Surveying the situation |
This was a magnificent specimen,
much different from the females, and absolutely lovely to look at. The pictures
here will speak volumes. After viewing the animal for a while we decided to
head back to the lodge early and call an end to our safari. It was a really
awesome experience.
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| Snoozing |
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| So regal |
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| Taking a rest | | |
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