Safari

What a time we had on safari.

We arrived at the Bush Camp in the early evening and were greeted by Nkombi - the resident cheetah.  She had been hand raised, along with her two brothers after their mother was killed.   She is not afraid of humans and would let you pet her head, but was still wild and hunts for her own food.

Each day we would get up at around 6 to go out on a bush walk where we learned about tracking the animals and how to tell the difference between the animals by the footprints they left behind.  By the second day, the sttudents were experts.  They learned about erosion and how the extremely dry winter they are having is effecting the bush and the animals.

After the walks, we would come back to camp to have breakfast ready for us.  The students got to try a maize porridge, some liked it, some didn't.  After breakfast it was off for a bush ride in search of animals.  We saw giraffe, rhino, Cape buffalo, zebra, hippo, impala, kudu, bush babies, 1vultures, cheetah, leopard, hyena, wild dogs, all sorts of birds, caracal, and servel to name a few.  On the drives, our guides gave us lots of information about each animal, their environment, and if there are any issues related to them, i.e. endangered, etc.  After about 2-1/2 hours in the bush it was back to camp for lunch and an enivornmental talk about preservative versus conservation and how the bush camp fits in the concept of conservation.  They learned about the plight of the rhino and the terrible trouble they are having with poaching and far the numbers have dropped.  Can you imagine a world without rhino??  We also learned about the venous snakes of South Africa - the types of venom - and how to protect yourself from that.

After all the excitement of the morning, we had some free time around camp before our afternoon ride in search of more animals.  At the end of the 2 days, we had seen just about everything there except the elusive elephant.

We did have some excitement on the second morning when the second group left camp and noticed that Nkombi's brothers were stalking around the camp.   The group went back to see if the brothers would walk with them.  We tried unsuccessfully to get them to follow us, as they wanted to get at their sister.  They students learned that brothers will either force their sisters out of their territory or kill her when it comes time for them to mate and that is the stage these three were at.  It was pretty interesting.

After dinner, they students were able to have some down time - sitting around the fire, playing drums, making smores, talking...or playing cards or dominos - or watching an evening feed.  

After our time here, it was really sad to leave, but Cape Town here we come.