Baboons and Lions

Baboons and Lions

This morning I awoke to the sounds of baboons. Could life get much better than this?!

Yesterday we arrived at Shiduli Lodge, Private Game Reserve. From the moment we entered through the guarded gates we knew we had arrived in paradise. This lodge is 5 stars in every way possible. We were greeted at reception with an icy cold exotic juice and it was at about that time I fell in love with the place. I would like to purchase all the furniture and decor and place it in my own house. I love it all.

As soon as we unpacked, we were loaded onto a four seater open four wheel drive. On board was Morris our guide, Lewis our tracker and five other tourists. My first question was, ‘Where are your guns?’  When Morris told us that they don’t carry guns as they won’t hurt the animals, it was at about this time that I panicked. It was about five minutes later when I panicked again.

We could smell the dead animal before we could see it and lying right beside the dead zebra was a very full lion. We drove within ten metres of the lion, the engine was turned off (no fast escape for anyone) and we sat and watched him for about ten minutes. I don’t think I could have been more scared if I tried. Thoughts of death and being ripped to shreds went flashing through my mind. Who would the lion kill first? Would it hurt? Is it worth it? What were we thinking coming here? Morris explained that the lion is a very lazy animal and that it won’t move much for a couple of days after making a kill. Lucky for us then!

I don’t want the next few animals to seem any less important than the lion, but if I wrote in detail about them all I’d have to write a non- fiction book on African animals. We then saw wildebeests, white rhinos, giraffes, zebras and impalas. The zebras and giraffes are often seen together as they protect each other from lions. All animals were breathtaking. Morris likened Max to an impala as he was the smallest in the group and would most likely be picked off first by a lion. Comforting! He therefore placed Max in the front seat next to him for protection. I don’t know how he was going to protect him as he doesn’t carry guns!!!

Next, Louis our tracker spotted cheetah footprints on the track; he jumped out of the car and disappeared into the bush. Five minutes later, we were all summoned out of the protection of the car and in a single file line, we followed Louis’ bird call to where two cheetahs were lazily lying in the grass under the shade of a tree. This is probably the third time in one hour I was visualising being eaten alive by an African animal. Especially after Morris insisted on carrying Max so that he wouldn’t be attacked and eaten as an afternoon snack. (Mum if you’re reading this, remember, we’re still alive, it’s Ok.)

We are participating in a three hour safari each morning and evening. The morning safari commences at 5.30am and today went for four hours. The evening safari commences at 4pm. We will all be having a nap in between. Last night we had hardly any sleep as we were still trying to decide where to travel to instead of Egypt. Today we have decided to extend our stay here longer and maybe hire a car and travel more through Kruger. This means less flying (Yea) and we are all happy about spending more time here. Thanks Kinkers for all your suggestions and thanks to everyone for your messages, we are reading them but computer time is scarce so it’s hard to comment too much. We type all blogs onto our computer, save to a USB and then download them quickly onto the net when possible. Nat x