The lions starting roaring at about 7.30pm last night (after dark) at Ngala Tented Camp, and were still going at 5.30am this morning when we went searching for them. Elliott and Norman very quickly established however that the pride had crossed into Kruger National Park, where we are unable to follow them. We decide to see if the leopard cubs that we were unsuccessful sighting earlier in the week have decided to show themselves. Along the way, the sunrise today is spectacular.
When we arrive at the last known location of the female leopard and cubs, we find she has made another impala kill, and has dragged it way up a tree.
We are in luck, we spot one of the cubs resting on a fallen tree near the kill, however he moves off quickly when disturbed by the vehicle.
The virtues of sitting quietly in a vehicle again pay off quickly – both cubs are present, but sometimes all you can see is an eye….
Both cubs start to relax and rest in the long dry grass. One is bolder than the other, and is willing to approach to within 2 metres of the vehicle.
They are both so relaxed some play time is in order.
A very short video of the cubs wrestling…they hear me laughing quietly in the background, stop to look, and one cub delivers a playful kick to the head of its sibling and playtime is over!
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Elliott and I start a Grade 2 ‘nature walk’ at 7.15am, to spend a couple of hours walking through the bush before the heat of the day kicks in. The early morning light is slimming, don’t you think?
It’s classified as a Grade 2 walk due to the presence of rhino and or buffalo. About an hour into the walk, we catch sight of this white rhino, with a trio of oxpeckers on it’s back.
The wind suddenly changes, and we are in danger of the rhino smelling us. Sure enough, it catches our scent and turns tail and runs. Off to our left, monkeys are alerting in the tree, and a kudo is snorting a warning behind us. Somewhere in the dry creek bed, a leopard is moving. We don’t manage to catch sight of it, but see from the tracks on the game trail that it is an adult with a subadult cub.
Today it is time to leave Ngala Tented Camp, and to head to Zuka Lodge at Phinda Private Game Reserve. North of Durban, Phindo is a 1.5 hour charter flight from Ngala Airstrip to Phinda airstrip. I catch sight of the plane from the vehicle on it’s descent into Ngala airstrip. OMG that is a small plane. It’s a four seater – the good news I’m the only passenger. The bad news is that there’s been a mad scramble to get to the airstrip nearly an hour early as the plane is arriving earlier than scheduled. The reason is to avoid bad weather en route to Durban. Uh-oh, fair weather flyer alert. The obsessing I had been doing over baggage weight for this flight (12 kg check-in, 6 kg carry-on) is a non-event. My duffel and camera bags are stowed in the nose cone, and I take my handbag onto the plane. Like I said, it’s a SMALL plane. Four people on this plane would be very cosy indeed.
The scenery from the plane is interesting on the way from Ngala – it changes from the tinderbox dry scrub of the Kruger environs to a more green and lush landscape as the coast nears.
As the coast nears, the plane starts to hit some hard turbulence. Hard turbulence I can deal with. The sudden increase in cabin temperature (it’s unpressurised) on the descent has me in trouble though…I can feel my stomach trying to escape through my ears. I mentally run through my options: (1) throw up in the esky of cold drinks; (2) throw up in my handbag; (3) throw up in an airsick bag…no wait, there aren’t any. Option 2 isn’t a good one – there is at least $2.5k of electronics in there between an iPad, phone and compact camera. Option 4 emerges in the form of a new shirt I’d bought at Ngala… folded up it should be fairly watertight. Down, down, down, deep breath and we’re on the ground. Command stomach to recognise that we’ve stopped moving. Try to look glamorous scrambling out of my ‘private’ plane. Excellent.
Zuka Lodge is managed by andBeyond, the same company that run Ngala. It is a different habitat, with a different array of animals, namely cheetah and black rhino. Our first game drive finds zebra, jackal and a family of 4 cheetah – a hard-working mother cheetah that has raised 3 cubs almost to adulthood. They are basking in the open grassland in the late afternoon sun. We are incredibly lucky to have this cheetah family in the one place and to see the demonstrations of affection between the mother and offspring in the form of grooming each other.
