Map

In case you're curious, here is a map that outlines our trip....

Day 11 (Part 1) - Goodbye to Ngala

Our last day at Ngala began with another wake-up knock on our tent door from a member of the security team, holding a tray of hot French-press coffee and granola chunks.  We bundled up in some warmer clothes and ventured out into the cold, dark morning toward the Range Rover, our security escort scanning the pathway and the trees with a flashlight along the way to make sure that no leopards had wandered into camp overnight.

The rest of our drive mates were already waiting – bundled up under blankets with hot water bottles on their laps.  This would be their last game drive as well – they are continuing on to Cape Town and we to Victoria Falls – the exact opposite of each others’ journeys. 

We went out into the bush with Lee-Anne leading the way, Richard, our tracker, sat propped up on the seat mounted to the front of the vehicle, only his eyes showing through his mass of scarf and tightly-pulled jacket hood.  These early morning drives in the season that is still technically winter down here have to be the coldest for Richard – his presence on the front of the vehicle essentially acts as the initial piercing of the brisk air for the rest of us drifting behind him.

We went out into the bush – the blackness slowly giving way to dark grays and purples, and then to lighter grays and browns, until finally the sun crested over the distance and the full spectrum of African yellows, dry greens, tans, rusted reds and chalky grays could be seen.  Our search this morning was the same as last night’s: the white rhinoceros.

We circled back to the same area we had left yesterday, where there were fresh tracks and other fresh… evidence, let’s say, of two bull rhinos.  Richard hopped off and took a radio to track the animals on foot – we drove around looking for tracks on the road and scanning the horizon for seemingly easy animals to spot given their size, but which when standing motionless against the background of identical color are almost perfectly camouflaged.  After nearly two hours of fruitless searching, we came upon a clearing and off in the distance stood the two bulls – looking straight at us, one with a massive, spear-like horn curving upward toward the sky.  They are unlike any other animal you will ever see.  They are enormous and truck-like and look as though they fell out off the pages of a book on pre-historic times.  They are like elephants, but with a sturdier frame and shorter legs.  Yet despite their hulking size, they are nimble on their feet, timid at times, and playful with one another. 

Around the same time that we approached them, the light-weight anti-poaching plane did a low fly-by, which made the rhinos a bit more skittish.  They rumbled across the road and into a very rocky, thick section of the bush.  We pushed after them into the bush, Lee-Anne navigating paths where there were none, avoiding immobile mahogany and ledwood trees and trying to by-pass rocky outcrops that were too jagged for the tires.  We were able to approach them and snap some photos for a moment, then they would wander off deeper into the brush.  

We would follow them a bit more and the same would occur.  This cycle repeated several times until the brush got too thick and the terrain got too rocky for the vehicle.  We turned around and tracked back through the brush – carving a new path, but which the bush would almost immediately reclaim with shrubs and grass so that you almost cannot tell that a massive vehicle with seven people had just driven through.  Evolving in this terrain over millennia tends to make the flora very hardy and robust.

As we came back to the road, we tracked our tracker for a bit, until we saw him straight ahead sitting on a fallen tree, appearing as though he saw us several minutes before we saw him.  Lee-Anne quickly let Richard know that we had successfully tracked the rhinos without him, to which Richard, among the most stoic people while on the job, smirked and said “You tracked them, or you hit them with your car on the road?”

We drove on, continuing our morning drive.  Coming up a hill on a straight portion of road, we were surprised to see an electric yellow helicopter jolt up from the ground about 500 meters ahead of us.  Lee-Anne quickly recognized it and noted that a team of professionals was going to do a rhino notch on the property today, and the action and location of the helicopter indicated that it was likely just ahead.

This next section requires a bit of background.  Rhinos are being poached at levels that will quickly extinguish the species within the next decade.  They are being poached because there is a belief in certain parts of certain southeast Asian countries (i.e., China, Vietnam) that traditional forms of “medicine” can cure cancer, impotence and illnesses – and that powder made from a rhino horn is one of the key ingredients in many of these types of “medicines.”  There is, of course, no scientific basis for this belief – and it’s not true.  But traditional medicine is widely practice in many southeast Asian communities and there are many, many people in that part of the world (see my blog entry from 2007 when I toured a traditional Chinese medicine factory in Shanghai).  The economic laws of supply and demand take it from there: there are many people who want to purchase rhino horns for this ludicrous purpose, and there is an extremely limited supply.  Hence, one rhino horn can provide enough income for a poor South African to feed his family for at least a year, maybe several years.  Coupled with poor enforcement of anti-poaching laws and a lack of leadership from top levels of the South African government on the issue, and you have a recipe for extinction.

Fortunately there are small factions of people with a brain on their shoulders who are trying to do something to reverse (or at least slow) the regression of this species, and Lee-Anne is one of those people.  Her efforts have raised tremendous amounts of funds, which had lead to the purchase the helicopter and the light-weight plane and other persons and technology necessary to prevent and police poachers. To learn more about her organization, visit Our Horn is NOT Medicine.

Rhino notching is one such effort, but an unfortunate one.  In a rhino notching exercise, a ranger rides in the helicopter while a skillful pilot maneuvers it over the bush and around a crash of rhinos and with pinpoint accuracy, the ranger darts the rhino exactly in the location where the dart needs to hit to be effective, but will not harm (or even kill) the rhino.  When the rhino begins to show the effects of the drug, a team of professionals swarms in on jeeps and begins to stabilize the rhino making sure that it lands in the right position so that it can be fed oxygen and that its blood will circulate.  If the rhino starts going into the thick brush, the helicopter swoops down to 20 or 30 feet and directs it back into the open.  Once the rhino is out, the team – looking like a pit crew at a Nascar race – takes DNA samples, cuts a pattern into the rhino’s ear so that it can be identified, and inserts a chip into the rhino’s horn using a drill and an epoxy resin.  Sadly, this is not to track and protect the rhino so that it can lead a safe and healthy life, but instead is a complex system being put into place to prosecute those caught with rhino horns to the fullest extent of the law with insurmountable evidence linking the horn in their possession to the carcass of a murdered rhino – and hopefully act as a disincentive to other poachers.

We watched the notching from a distance.  This one was even more special because Ivan Carter, a hunter, conservationist (yes, those can be consistent with each other) and documentary filmmaker was using this notch for part of an upcoming US television series.  So cameramen and a small camera drone also complicated the scene. 

When they were done with their work and filming, the crew motioned to Lee-Anne (about 500 meters away) to bring us over.  We pulled up next to a jeep full of staff from the lodge (which the company brought out to include in this important event and give them an experience that they can orally pass along to others in their villages).  And then we, in small groups, were allowed to walk up to this majestic, sedated beast.  We touched the rhino’s thick, warm skin.  We felt its side swell with air as it breathed.  It was one of those experiences for which words and pictures fall short of relating to another person.

We pulled away from the rhino and watched the team administer the anti-serum to wake it up.  It took effect quickly and within 2-3 minutes the animal was up and stumbling around, then started jogging away from the clearing (its ear surely in discomfort) and smelling the air for its companions, which were chased away by the helicopter, but which stood atop a neighboring hill about 750 meters away, watching the entire time out of concern and compassion for their friend.

We rode back to the lodge, each of us slightly different than when we left on the drive that morning.  This was an experience that people don’t get to have.

On the way back to camp, we were surprised to come around a curve and find underneath an ancient mahogany tree Richard, from the lodge, with a full outdoor breakfast set up.  The six of us, Lee-Anne, and the Richards (our tracker and our cook) enjoyed a last meal together as a group and discussed the portions of our trips together and the portions of our trips yet to come.

After breakfast, just 500 meters from the camp, we turned the corner and stumbled into a group of about 20 old bull Buffalo, which had been pushed out of the herd by the younger more dominant males and themselves formed a boys-club coalition to graze in relative safe conditions until their lives came to an end.  This was the last remaining species of the Big 5, named after the five historically hunted species in southern Africa that are the hardest and most dangerous to kill: lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino, elephant.  To find and photograph all of the Big 5 in just two days time was an impressive feat.

In a stalling fashion, we packed up our bags.  Lee-Anne hung out at our tent as we packed and we chatted about how great it was to see one another and when we might cross paths again one day.  There aren’t a lot of people like Lee-Anne – certainly not enough of them.

(Richard, not Lee-Anne)

We took our transfer car, along with our Singapore friends, to Hoedspruit airport, passing a few animals on the way.  The airport is tiny – there is one check-in counter and three flights a day, but with a number of local men hanging around to help you take your bags the 10 feet from your van to the check-in counter in exchange for a tip.  The main guy at the kiosk weighed each of our bags and then said “Your bag is overweight,” but never followed-up on the comment with a penalty or repercussion for our American-style packing job.  I watched our bags be thrown into a pile of similar-looking bags and I separately watched four tags print out – but I couldn’t be sure that those four tags made it to those four bags.  We’ll see on the other side.

Inside the airport there is a little food counter with a small woman.  You can buy little cheese and tomato sandwiches, candies, chips and a number of drinks, including several kinds of beer.  Jen had a Windhoek lager and I had a Castle (Nambian and South African, respectively) and we each had a cheese toasty.  Our Singapore friends boarded their flight to Cape Town and we wished each other a good rest of our respective trips.  After a while our flight to Johannesburg boarded and off we were to our next leg of this adventure.

Day 10 - Second Day at Ngala

Our second day at Ngala was full of tremendous wildlife.  In our morning game drive, we came across another young male leopard (the brother of yesterday's) laying in a tree with an engorged belly - having just finished a meal of bushbuck, the carcass of which lay hanging from the same tree, several branches above.

Leopards are incredible animals - they are relentlessly strong, but also stealthy and have a superior intelligence.  After they kill an animal, they surgically remove its organs on the group before dragging the carcass into a tree - knowing that without the organs hyenas, vultures and other scavengers will be less likely to smell the kill and try and steal it.  Lee-Anne said she has even seen older leopard use their claws to slash the throat of a kill while it is dangling from a tree so as to remove the blood from the body and preserve the meat for longer.  Truly an incredible and ferocious animal - no wonder it is the favorite and most respected predator of nearly all of the trackers at the camp.

This tired guy kept adjusting himself to find a comfortable position on the branch.

Leftovers

We came back from our drive, had a quick breakfast of eggs Benedict and passed out in our lodge for an amazing nap.  We woke up around 1 pm and cleaned up to head to lunch.  Lunch - consistent with every meal at Ngala - was delicious.  I had a vegetarian linguine with a tomato sauce and Jen had a Moroccan-style lamb dish with pita bread and humus.  Our lunch was interrupted by a group of elephants coming up to the lodge to drink from the pool - which is about chest-level for them from the riverbed below - and for this reason does not use any chemicals.  It was unbelievable to be so close to the humongous bull elephants as they took several liters of water up their trunks and then sprayed it onto backs or into their mouths.

IMG 5747.MOV from Jen Lutz on Vimeo.

We then met up with Lee-Anne and our drive-mates for our evening drive.  We started the drive through the dried riverbed where a herd of elephants was digging for water

From there we went back to the watering hole, where we enjoyed our sundowner the night before. We watched the massive heads of hippos periodically surface for air and jostle for position.  We were able to snap some pretty spectacular photos of the ferocious teeth that protrude from a hippo's mouth seemingly without any pattern or evolutionary reason (remember, they only eat plants).  Add their aggressive, territorial nature and it should be no surprise that these animals cause more human deaths than lions or crocodiles.

There's a 2-4 month old baby hippo hiding in the middle of the group.

But the pinnacle of this drive was the remainder of the lion pride, of which last night's male belonged.  We rushed through the park after a call came in on the radio that the females and the 9-month old cubs of the pride had been spotted crossing the property, heading to its boundary with Kruger Park.

We had just dropped off Richard, the tracker, (normally sitting on the folded down chair) to follow rhino tracks...he missed all the fun!

We set up at a proper location relative to the other cars and then waited.  Over time, the grayish-yellow coats of enormous female lines started to emerge almost ghost-like from the flat colors of the bush.

As they proceeded across the ground, the other females and the cubs followed behind.  Within a brief period of time, there were about a dozen lions creeping through the forest and once they all made it to the clearing where we had posted up, they sat down - as a group - almost knowing they were being photographed.

After a brief amount of time, the females stood up and smelled the air, then continued their stalking procession with renewed focus ahead - their young cubs seemingly mimicking the serious tone and purposeful stride of the elder females.

Lionesses and Cubs from Jen Lutz on Vimeo.
On the way back to the lodge, we also ran into a solitary hyena (the first of our trip) and a group of zebras (also a first).

Our last sunset with Lee-Anne :(

We then had a surprise stop out in the bush, where the camp staff had set up a bottle of champagne and a birthday cake for Soowan (another one of our drive-mates) who was celebrating her birthday.  (We definitely lucked out on the pairing with drive companions - two nights: two birthday cakes!)

Back at the lodge, Jen and I had a nice dinner with Dylan and Lee-Anne - accompanied by the ferocious roars of the male lions in the not-too-distant background.  They had, apparently, found each other and were now marking their territorial boundaries against outsider males that may be tempted to move into the range.  It was another great night with wonderful people and tremendous food.

Day 9 - Farewell to Cape Town, Hello to Ngala

We got up early and packed and Gow gave us a ride to Cape Town International.  It was so great to hang out with Gow and her friends and see her amazing place.  The airports here are set up much more efficiently than in the US - perhaps because the labor is cheaper.

We had a quick breakfast at Wimpy's (a fast food joint here) and then headed to the gate for our 2 hour flight to Hoedspruit.  We took a pretty small plane which was full of tourists going on safari.  Hoedspruit airport is in the middle of nowhere and is surprisingly massive - it has several miles of wide runways all for three flights a day - because it was formerly a military base.  Once you get off the plane, you walk across the runway to the tiny little airport, which is full of tour guides and transport drivers with little signs with lodge logos and handwritten family names for the folks they are picking up.  You meet up with your driver and after a while a tractor pulls around to the parking lot towing a two-story wagon loaded up with suitcases and bags.  Everyone is totally stoked, because they are about to go on safari and embark on the whole point of their vacation.

We met up with our driver, a tall, lanky native of Hoedspruit named Piet, who loaded up our bags and chauffeured us 50 minutes through the eastern gate of Kruger National Park and down the windy, bumping road to Ngala Tented Camp.  Our friend Dylan, now playing the role of camp manager, was there to meet us - it was tremendous to see him!  We checked in, had a glass of wine and a little lunch, and headed over to our tent to rest up a bit before heading out on game drive.

An hour or so later, we headed back to the lodge to meet up with the one-and-only Lee-Anne Davis for our game drive.  But she met us on the path before we could even get to her.

I would need about 9 blog entries to explain to you what a tremendous, unique, special individual Lee-Anne is.  She exudes energy and is full of life; she just seems to "get it" in a way that being around her makes you feel like you do too.

We met up with our other four drive mates for our stay - two young couples from Singapore (three lawyers and a banker) - and Lee-Anne gave us the download on the property.  Then we were off.

Within the first kilometer we spotted a Southern Ground Hornbill - a massive, dinosaur-like bird that is extremely endangered as a result of deforestation (because it is a tree nesting bird).  This species mates for like and only lays two eggs every seven years - and if the first eggs seems to progressing healthily, it destroys the second eggs because it cannot support two young.

Southern Ground Hornbill

A bit down the road we spotted a young male leopard camped out under a tree.  We were able to get really close to this very relaxed leopard and spent a good amount of time observing his characteristics.

We moved along on our drive, seeing various animals along the way...

Kudu

Impala

Wildebeest

Giraffe

We eventually came to a rest above a watering hole, with the heads of several hippopotamus breaching the surface like round, flat stones in the water.  Hippos are very bizarre - they live in the water all day, but cannot swim and do not eat fish.  They need to come on land to eat, but only do so at night because their skin is very sensitive to sunlight.  There is no good evolutionary reason for them to still be around - but here they were - looking at us looking at them.  Occasionally one of  them would let out a massive burst of air after surfacing.  While we had a sundowner at Clara Dam, we watched a small family of elephants - including a baby - make its way down to the water to drink. (*We also gave a small toast to Clara Lutz!)

(We captured much better pics the next day)

The baby elephant was always in the middle of the group to protect it from predators. 

The "log" in the water is a group of hippos

Ranger Lee-Anne with Ranger Smart Ass (you can guess which one of us earned that title).

Then Lee-Anne got a call on the radio that one of three male lions that has been roaming the park had been located by another vehicle.  With sky getting dark, we packed up the sundowner table and sped away across the camp - flying up and down across rocks or where rain had washed holes in the road, and dodging branches that came into view at the very last second.

As we came upon a clearing, we saw another vehicle with an infrared spotlight on an enormous male lion that was laying down in an upright position.  We pulled up alongside the other vehicle - only about 10 feet from the lion! - and watched him smelling the night air and listening for her murderous companions so that they could coordinate their night of hunting.

This would have been plenty close for us, but we got much, much closer!

After a few moments, the lion took in a deep breath that resulted in a slight rumble and then let out a series of deafening roars that streamed a dozen kilometers across the park.  A few moments later, a return roar was heard in the distance - slightly masked by the cool night breeze.  The lion got up and started heading to its brother - as if the roar had transmitted strict and clear instructions.  Each step of the lion's paw on the sand below made a slight, but deep, thud into the ground that was, to be honest, intimidating.  At any moment, this beast could have jumped into either of the open-top vehicles that were just feet away and had a human buffet - but our rangers and trackers were totally calm - they've known this lion (and his brothers) since birth.  They knew this lion had much bigger plans for its evening after meeting up with its brothers.


IMG 5711.MOV from Jen Lutz on Vimeo.

After the lion made its way past our vehicle - just feet away - and into the thick brush, we went back to the lodge - all a bit giddy by the rarity of the spectacle that we had just encountered.

Jack taught Richard how to make a "bush" Manhattan to celebrate. (We toasted to  you,  Dad!)

Lee-Anne had dinner with the six guests in her car - it was especially noteworthy because it was Brian's birthday and also Brian and his fiance Cheryl-Lynn's honeymoon.  The lodge butlers surprised Brian with a birthday cake and an impromptu serenade of "happy birthday," which led into a South African version of a "happy birthday" song that featured the lyrics "turn around and show me your figure."

Dylan came down after a bit and had some drinks with us - it was great to catch up and we talked late into the evening (perhaps not the smartest idea for the night before a 5:30 wake-up call for the morning game drive, but worth definitely worth it!).