South Africa - Day 8 - A surprising 4.5/5 and a magnificent herd
For our last day at nThambo, we were trying to work out how to take the morning ride and a walk, and yet be ready to head to the airport. Isaac also had to be back for the afternoon ride, so he suggested a half ride and half walk - the four of us, plus H and Clare who love the walks - the French contingent chose to ride the whole way.
One more sunrise:
So off we went. And pretty soon, we got to see another antelope we had not seen - a water bok. They are not common this far from water, so it was a great sighting. It's interesting how the different animals have such distinct markings this one has a white ring around its butt :) We also saw impala and steenbok as usual.
Matt left off us with Isaac and we started walking. While walking we spotted impala, and came very close to a giraffe that just calmly looked at us while we snapped pictures and walked on by.
One thing about our walks -- we walk single file and silently, following hand signals. The guide carries a big rifle. We occasionally stop and gather round when it's clearly safe, and we learn something about tracking, plants/trees, birds, etc. As we headed off a trail onto the dirt road, it happened! Isaac suddenly softly said, "leopard", and there it was crossing the road a hundred yards or so away. No time to shoot a photo. In varying degrees, we saw the entire cat, or at least the mid-section and the tail as it crossed the road into the bush. Isaac made us all stand still while he radioed Matt to pick us up. They aren't allowed to have us out in any danger. Once the rover got us, we searched for the leopard from the rover, as other land rovers joined in the search, but did not find it. Had Isaac not had to stay with us, he probably could have gotten a better idea where it went. But this sighting made it 5/5, or at least 4.5 -- lion, rhino, buffalo, elephant, leopard. We did walk up to one of the prints it had just left.
So back for breakfast and a shower and packing.
All packed. One last shot of the room and the camp.
After goodbyes to all, we left with Isaac in the rover to head back to the airport. And the fun continued. We stopped to take a picture of a stork.
As we came to the garage where we switch from the land rover to a minivan, an enormous herd of elephants came to the large watering hole nearby -- we counted over 50 elephants! We drove within 100 feet or so, and watched them frolic for quite a while. This picture just shows a small number of them.
And to the right of the previous picture, here are some rolling in the mud like children. The big elephants actually got down on their hind legs, and the little ones actually rolled over.
Then after switching to the minivan, we drove on, passing other reserves, one of which had a large watering hole near the road, where we got a goodbye treat of giraffe, zebra, and warthogs.
We said our goodbyes to Isaac, starting our journey home from a dream vacation.
NThambo is really the perfect place -- intimate, just rough enough to feel we are really in the bush, and with incredible staff. Oh, and forgot to mention that the place is solar-powered — no noisy generators.
Eileen got her first A380 flight from JNB to FRA.
--Eileen 22-Aug-2014