Game Drive 1

Sunday Evening--Pilanesberg

So we went out to the front at 4pm for high tea (but really for cookies) and then met our guide, James, who would be driving our jeep and educating us about the animals. There were 9 people aboard, and no seatbelts. We moved from the lodge onto a red dusty path, which took us into the wilderness. Normally I hate the wilderness, but we had a guide who had a rifle, so it was okay. The first thing we saw was a Rhino, a Drunk Rhino who had been tranquilized earlier that day to have her ears tagged, so the other occupants of the jeep reported. At this point, Lizzie and I realized that everyone on our jeep except us had been together for a day, at least, so we were the newcomers and ostracized immediately. And that’s how we like it. We saw a bunch of Zebras, bush bucks, more (sober) rhinos, and a lovely leopard who was showing off her camo by hiding in some bushes. At first it felt like the Emperor’s new clothes. First one person saw her, and then another, and I was like “FOOLS! THERE IS NO LEOPARD!” but then I saw her, and even got a picture as she bemusedly stared at us, and moved on. The next stop was the watering hole, and yes my friends, HIPPOS! AWESOME! They gaped and grunted at us, and I got a great picture of a yawning hippo. Inside his mouth was marbles, I swear. Lots of them!

The highlight of the drive was around 8ish. It was dark, and the Western Pride of Lions, including 18 Lionesses, were totally trying to take down a Wildebeast. Everyone except for Lizzie and I were excitedly waiting for the crunch of bones, but unfortunately or fortunately, depending on whether you’re the predator or the prey, the Wildebeast escaped, and there were no death throes in the wild that night, at least that we heard. The lowlight was being smacked in the face by oodles of bugs as we drove at 100kph (I don’t know how fast that is in miles. Stupid metric system) to see the lions. James said the worst was when a dung beetle flew into your face. I would agree. (Also, during the drive, James stopped to show us a Mozambique cobra, and then a Red Toad, but then accidentally ran over the toad and felt really really bad. Like excessively bad.)

Now, for facts we learned about animals that we didn’t want to know:

Brown Hyenas mark territory with something called “anal paste”, which starts off as one color, and is used as a timing device. The longer it’s sitting on something (branches, bushes, Paris Hilton) the darker it gets.

When a male elephant is ready to mate (that is, in must), testosterone drips from his trunk. Not the one on his face.