Kruger National Park-Lions!-Saturday, September 13th, 2008

We were supposed to go on a sunrise game drive this morning, which meant getting up at 4:30am.  But the cold and rainy night drive has left us pretty stuffed up, and Fred has taken a cold medication to sleep.

So we sleep in to awaken to a beautiful day-blue skies, warm and sunny.  It's the first really nice day we've had here.  We get a slow start as Fred needs to go the bank onsite and Skukuza is PACKED!  You can tell it's a Saturday.  There are monkeys everywhere. Don't tell me these little guys don't know the days of the week.  They were nowhere to be found earlier in the week and now they are acting as busboys. I chat with a man and his wife who have come up from Lower Sabie. The woman tells me that there were lions just down the road S-21.

When Fred comes back, I am anxious to eat our breakfast and get on the road.  Each morning, we get breakfast at the cafeteria and find a table near the river.  It's so crowded today that we grab a table in the little seating area, under a native hut roof.  I see a woman with her camera taking pictures of the inside of the roof, which I think is odd.

Until I look up.

Hundreds of fruit bats are hanging right above our heads.

For a moment I'm shocked.  Then for a moment I'm scared.  But then, this one  little fruit bat puts out her itty bitty pink tongue and begins to lick her furry little wing.  Little pink tongue, licking her wing, over and over.  OK, I thought that hyenas were adorable.  This tiny bat is edging out kittens and puppies on the cute factor.

But Fred is stuck in grossed-out mode. He grabs his plate and says, "We're leaving!" Which, ok, maybe eating directly underneath bats is not a smart thing, but they were so cute! Unfortunately, I'm so busy grabbing plates and condiments that I miss getting their picture. You'll just have to my word for it-cute!

We keep our eyes peeled on the route S-21, but there are no lions to be seen. It's as if they know our car make and model.  "Quick, it's the Americans. Hide!"

In Kruger, the main animals are known as The Big Five: Lions, Water Buffalos, Elephants, Rhinos, and Leopards. We have lions and leopards to go.  Leopards are the most elusive so I'm hoping to see some lions today. It's really starting to get frustrating.  It seems as if everyone else we pass has seen them. "Lions? Oh, sure, tons of them.  What? You haven't seen any?!" 

GRRRR! (That's me, not a lion.)

We stop for lunch again at Lower Sabie restcamp and watch the hippos for a while. In the parking lot, I see a private safari game driver.  Has he seen any lions? 

"What?! You mean, you missed them?!  Go back up the road, no more than 1 mile, they've just killed an antelope and are eating right by the side of the road."

Impossible! We passed that way not more than 30 minutes ago.  We race down the road and there we see them.  Not lions, but cars everywhere!  This must be the place.

The lion are there, eating by the side of the road, but it's on the other side.  We get a peek at them while passing but we need a longer look and some pictures, so we drive a half mile down and turn around and get in line.  Now, there are people who have lined their cars up right in front in both directions and they are not leaving. It takes us about 90 minutes of inching forward.  Other cars come up and make three lanes and zip in right in front of the line. 

Finally, I can see we are close, about four cars away.  Then, the woman two cars in front of us either doesn't know what's up ahead or she's a total moron because she GETS OUT OF HER CAR! She walks up to the car in front of her who promptly told her what a moron she was.  She walks back to her car and then stands there with her door open on the footrest.

Lionesses are about 20 feet away.  Unbelievable.

It's finally our turn!  We're next, so I get the video camera ready, and I'm all set because the lions are on my side.  Now, maybe Fred was feeling antsy at having waited so long, or maybe he felt we should only take a nanosecond and give everyone behind us a longer turn.

I swear, this is the actual narrative from our lion video:

Jeri: "Here are the lions. Honey, stop driving."

Fred: (While inching forward) "I'm not driving."

Jeri: "You can see the lions...honey, stop driving, I'm not getting it."

Fred: (Still driving forward) "You are getting it."

Video camera: ( Turning around and around in circles) "WHEEE!"

Jeri: "STOP DRIVING!"

Fred: "I DON'T HAVE TO STOP DRIVING!"

Lion: "Look! A talking lunchbox!"

We do end up seeing three lionesses lying in the grass and the male lion and the cubs eating.

Finally, lions!  We're so excited that we soon forget our argument and we drive on.

That's what 29 years of marriage and a lion will do for you.

We turn onto a road which is part of the "Magic Triangle." It's supposed to be a great route for all kinds of animals so we are hopeful for more sightings.  The drive is lovely, and the day is beautiful.  About ten minutes on this road, a van coming the other directions pulls us to the side. "Lion-just up the road."

We drive a few minutes and sure enough, there is a big male lion underneath a tree, with his lionesses and cubs nearby.  It's fantastic!  We are all alone on this deserted road.  The cubs are playing and they rub against mom and then they  begin to nurse. We get great video footage.  You can hardly hear me narrating but it's because we are so close! I don't want to disturb a lioness with cubs.

The drive on this route is great.  We see wildebeasts crossing the road in front and behind us. We see wild ostriches. There are more giraffes, zebras and warthogs. At a waterhole, we see two rhinos across the way. Now, most of the animals we've seen are very used to cars.  But as soon as Fred rolls down his window, these two rhinos turn and run.  We believe they are the rare black rhinos, smaller than the white.

We then take a great picture of another black rhino hiding behind a tree. It's pretty much twelve feet of rhino behind one foot of tree.

But who's going to tell him?

It's getting towards late afternoon.  Due to the circus of cars at our first lion sighting, we will not be getting back to camp in time for our last night drive.  At this point, we need to think about making it back to camp before the gates close. We speed up a little but then a bull elephant crosses the road and stops to eat a tree right in the road in front of us. There's nothing to do but stop.  I think.

Here is our actual conversation:

Jeri: "Stop the car.  You're getting too close!"

Fred (Inching forward) "I'm not getting too close."

Jeri: "Seriously, stop the car!"

Fred: "I don't have to stop the car!"

Elephant: "And they call me Dumbo."

Are you sensing a theme to our arguments?  As pre-marital counselors, we've found it's so much faster to argue when you stick to one topic over and over again! 

The bull elephant finally moves on and we need to really get going.

But a full moon is rising and the sun is setting and it's truly magical.

We take pictures of the full moon over the treetops and Fred gets some of the sunset over the river.  It's getting darker now but lastly, we see a hyena in the twilight, loping down the road.

We reach the gate to camp just as the gate keeper is closing it.  Seriously, he sees us coming and continues to close the gate.  We cry out, "Wait!"  He stands there and points to his watch, shaking his head.  He finally relents and opens it for us.  We shrug our shoulders. "Bull elephant. What could we do?"

We decide to go to the train restaurant further down into the camp.  It's built around the actual train that used to go through this area.  The story goes that one night, the conductor didn't see the people waiting for the train and drove on past.  The people had a terrible night, trying to stave off a group of lions.  From then on, there was a station built here, and now a restaurant.

Back at our hut, we begin to pack for our long journey home tomorrow.  But the gorgeous night and full moon pull us outside.  We wander over to the river and then we hear it. "CRUNCH, MUNCH, THRASH."

Elephants across the river, making their way, pulling branches off of trees. We're content to listen to them and due to the full moon we can just see them making their way.

And then we hear the scariest sound of all.

SPLASH!

The elephants are in the river, crossing over to us.

Another man joins us with a big flashlight.  He shines it on the group.  They land on shore about 20 feet down from us.  Now, we are on a wooden walkway and the electric fence is about four feet away from us.  There are two big elephants and a junior and a baby.  We can clearly see the one large elephant slowly begin to walk towards the electric fence, which, of course, she can easily crush. She stands still, though, and doesn't come any further forward.  The baby and junior are trying to literally climb this tree to get to the branches.  It was something else to see an elephant get up on its hind legs.

But now we can't see the other large elephant.  The man with the flashlight shines it back on and there she is, directly in front of us. At this moment, a hyena runs past, moaning and crying.

We could hardly break away. It was one of our best experiences.  Fred spends some time trying to locate the Southern Cross in the clear night sky.

Then, sadly, we have to go in and finish packing.

One of our favorite days ever.