Sabi Sabi
I’m happy to say that in the last 24 hours, I’ve made substantial progress toward finishing the require-ments for “Nature Merit Badge.” On the two game drives, following habits of the big game, mostly, we join our ranger and tracker at 6 am for a three hour jaunt, and again at 4 pm for another three hour ride; that gets out of the head of the midday sun. It may be fall here, but it’s in the 80s in the afternoon. In the process, we completed seeing the “big five”–the leopard, lion, rhino, elephant, and buffalo.
The excitement yesterday was partly by accident (the animals don’t follow a script, but our drivers talk to one another); we saw another Land Cruiser and realized it had spotted a killed impala in a tree, and looking around, spotted the heavily camouflaged leopard which had s
cored it; and close by, equally well hidden, her 2 year old cub. We watched for a while, but our ranger told us that if we went for coffee (the vehicle contains a chest with some goodies) and came back, we’d likely see the leopard in the tree having dinner.
On cue, when we returned, sure enough, the leopard was ensconced in the tree, with a hyena grousing for grub beneath it for any leftovers. Momma 
was pretty assertive when the young cub came to get his share, and anyone with a sensitive night camera lens (not me) got some great photos of an angry interchange. I hope you and your mom got along better on mother’s day than those two. Momma grabbed the impala and ate chunks. The hyena took whatever fell to the ground.
This morning, we actively sought the buffalo herd (not the American bison!), which involved our tracker actually tracking. We stumbled on the pride of lionesses, who again amused us by their cleaning and caressing of each other as they managed a ménage a quatre. But we still had not located the buffalo, who have a reputation–deserved–as being the most dangerous of the animals in the wild partly because they are the favored treat of the lions.
Ironically, we found a big herd (our tracker said they have around 400 in a herd), which travels in a defensive square led by the ladies (!) sitting at the airport on a slight hill, looking maybe for the next flight?
The other sight at the air strip (it really is a strip, but there is a small building so I suppose it’s an airport) that was a little different was the herd of zebras there were literally chased by the elephants. Our ranger pointed out that the elephants usually get what they want; when they came into the water hole yesterday, they chased everyone else out. We didn’t mind, the little ones cavorted or showed off testing each other, but they do seem to take whatever they want.
Our ranger talked about the overpopulation of elephants and the harm they are causing. Kruger National Park no longer “culls the herd” because of the outcry against the killings, but we read that Botswana, home of about a third of the continent’s elephants, has banned hunting–with the result that the elephants have been trashing homes and crops. The ranger said they had to kill an entire herd, because if they thinned it out, the survivors were likely to become rogue elephants. I think I recall seeing an article that elephants are no longer part of circuses, but it has probably been 40 years since I’ve been to a circus.
They truly are magnificent to watch, with their own punka wallahs flapping as they strip branches.
When we got back this morning, I learned that the “community tour” had been cancelled. I think I will be having a similar experience with the business faculty later, but I was looking for something interesting to do in the nonce.
I asked the program director for ideas. “Have you been on a bush walk?” And I thought–I bet that’s one of the requirements for Nature Merit Badge here–and jumped at the chance to go with my ranger (who put four shells in the 357 before we left; that gave us a better than even 
chance at stopping an enraged elephant). “Walk in single file,” he informed me; “and don’t run. If you run, animals think you’re prey”. We walked an hour around the lodge. As soon as we crossed the wired fence, though, he showed me leopard tracks and elephant tracks…. He showed me some nature signs that we hadn’t seen and wouldn’t on our big game trips. One was a smooth trunk, which he said was caused by buffalo and elephants caking themselves in mud, partly to cool off, and partly to rid themselves of ticks. They then rub the mud off on a trunk, and eventually, the trunk (or rock) becomes smooth. Another was a tree that he said has a fruit popular with people and animals; locals turn it into a Bailey’s like drink….
I should mention food. I was told South Africa exports meat, and we’d have a lot of choices here. That’s so far been the case. The lodge set up a barbeque in the bush last night that included roast lamb (a whole lamb), and an impala stew that was certainly a lot easier to digest than the carcass the leopard was chewing!
I had a chance this afternoon to work on a “fitness” badge, too. I had a deep tissue massage that I wish I had had last week after the 12 mile backpack in Wisconsin. I’d said this morning that I wished I had been pampered like the lions had been and could spend the rest of the day purring. Well–I was and I am.
Happy Mums Day.
Fred