We were up again at 5:00 a.m. for our morning game drive in Thornybush. Once again we were greeted by an outstanding African sunrise. Because the weather has been so dry and hot there is a lot of dust in the air creating bright orange sunrises as well as the orange moon at night. We met with our guide (I can’t remember his name but he was a very nice young guy) and our tracker, Leonard. Julie and I were the only ones in the jeep so it was our own private game drive. We set out in search of the Rhinos, but, once again, we were foiled. It’s amazing that such large animals can disappear so easily. We abandoned the search and turned our attention to the lions. Our guide said that we would be seeing the same lions as we had seen on the previous drive as they were still in the same general area in the southern part of the reserve. The three (two females and the male) had split up and the guide told us that the male would head back to his mother. Although he is four years old, he is still quite attached to his mother. She has a second litter of cubs now that are 35 days old and as such the rangers are not allowed to go near her unless she brings the cubs out where they can be seen. But, he was certain that our male lion would go back to her and we had a pretty good chance of seeing him if we went in that direction. So, he began following the lion’s tracks, which were heading in the predicted direction. The guide advised us that the lion we heard roaring every night and early morning was this male. Although he is young he already has a roar that can be heard up to 32 kms. away! When we got near where the lioness with her cubs were the road split into three and the guide lost the tracks. He drove up one road, then turned around as there was no sign of him.Shortly after we turned around, Leonard spotted him laying just off the road in the bushes. It is amazing how these guys can find them!
As we were viewing the lion we could hear thunder starting to rumble in the distance and saw the clouds starting to roll in. We suspected that we were about to get wet. The guide knew of a place where we could take shelter from the rain under a roof and he started to head there . . . quickly! All Leonard could do on the front of the jeep was hold on! It started to rain just as we reached the round house and then it poured. We stayed under the shelter for about an hour, chatting and watching the rain. The round house was built at the side of a river and there were at least five hippos in the river that we were watching, so it wasn’t a total rain delay. We chatted with the guide (I really wish I could remember his name) about the qualifications to be a Game Ranger. He told us that he had to take two years of schooling and testing. They learn about every plant, bird, animal and insect in Africa. They learn identification, their social behaviours and patterns, conservation, etc. He told us that Rangers usually start out as trackers, they move up to game guides. Eventually they can climb up to managing a reserve, which was what our guide was aspiring to. He is very passionate about being a Ranger.
When the rain finally let up a little bit we decided to head out again. As we were going back to Pezulu, we had to head right back into the rain and we were quite wet by the time we finally made it back to the lodge. We had planned to drive the Panorama Route, through the Blyde River Canyon, but due to the weather we decided to stay home. The guide advised us that the dirt roads there become extremely slippery with the rain as they are a clay base. We decided that we did not need to get stuck in an ugly rented Toyota Avanza in the South African bush so we opted to sit on our balcony, Amarula in hand, and watch the rain falling.
As we were viewing the lion we could hear thunder starting to rumble in the distance and saw the clouds starting to roll in. We suspected that we were about to get wet. The guide knew of a place where we could take shelter from the rain under a roof and he started to head there . . . quickly! All Leonard could do on the front of the jeep was hold on! It started to rain just as we reached the round house and then it poured. We stayed under the shelter for about an hour, chatting and watching the rain. The round house was built at the side of a river and there were at least five hippos in the river that we were watching, so it wasn’t a total rain delay. We chatted with the guide (I really wish I could remember his name) about the qualifications to be a Game Ranger. He told us that he had to take two years of schooling and testing. They learn about every plant, bird, animal and insect in Africa. They learn identification, their social behaviours and patterns, conservation, etc. He told us that Rangers usually start out as trackers, they move up to game guides. Eventually they can climb up to managing a reserve, which was what our guide was aspiring to. He is very passionate about being a Ranger.
When the rain finally let up a little bit we decided to head out again. As we were going back to Pezulu, we had to head right back into the rain and we were quite wet by the time we finally made it back to the lodge. We had planned to drive the Panorama Route, through the Blyde River Canyon, but due to the weather we decided to stay home. The guide advised us that the dirt roads there become extremely slippery with the rain as they are a clay base. We decided that we did not need to get stuck in an ugly rented Toyota Avanza in the South African bush so we opted to sit on our balcony, Amarula in hand, and watch the rain falling.
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