One Heck of a Day!


I think I can say with certainty that this morning I experienced the most exhilarating — with a touch of fright — moment of my life.

Gerrit and I joined our guide Eugene for a three-hour bush walk. We set out around 7 AM. For the first two hours and forty-five minutes, we wandered through the African bush, taking in the most remarkable variety of animal tracks, birds, dung, insects, and even a tarantula.



The real purpose of a bush walk isn’t necessarily to look for large game. The slow pace and the chance to spot things on the ground open up a whole new world that a regular game drive doesn’t allow. We saw everything from the tiny tracks of a gerbil to the massive prints of elephant, hippo, and rhinoceros. We even came across the nesting hole of a hornbill.

Just minutes before we arrived back at the lodge, Eugene heard twigs snapping off to the right. We stopped to listen. It was definitely a large animal — or a group of them — making their way through the dense growth. We’d recently passed fresh buffalo dung, so we braced ourselves to see African buffalo emerge.

What actually appeared were two rhinoceros, crossing the path from right to left.



They stopped and stood about 25 yards ahead of us, planted in the middle of the road, staring in our direction. You might recall that rhinoceros don’t see very well. The rule, if you encounter them on foot, is to stand perfectly still — which we did, for what felt like an eternity. In reality it was probably five to seven minutes that they stood there, trying to work out exactly what we were. Every snapped twig, every shift of their massive heads sent my heart racing, yet none of us dared to move a muscle.

I do have a nice video of it that I posted on Instagram. I definitely added music to cover up what you can hear underneath — me breathing like a buffalo and my heart pounding like an African drum. 😆

They finally moved on in the direction they’d been heading, which thankfully was not toward us. I’m not going to lie — once we were back in the truck that came to pick us up, the adrenaline hit, and it stayed with me for a good hour afterward. I have never felt anything like it.

After breakfast and a chance to clean up, we headed out around noon for a midday game drive to a boat dock on the Olifants River, where we’d scheduled a three-hour river cruise for the afternoon. The water was like glass, not a ripple on it. We had a lovely cruise and spotted elephants, crocodiles, various kinds of antelope, and hippopotamus. It was a very welcome change of pace.




The drive to and from the cruise gave us a plethora of sightings. We saw plenty of animals we’d seen before and added a few new ones: the grysbok (one of the tiniest antelope species, at about 18 inches high), the African wild cat (it looks just like a house cat), and a water monitor.

And…we saw another leopard!



We also saw so many elephants on the way home, including babies — and many of them were a little too close for my comfort.

When we returned to the lodge, the staff was preparing a traditional barbecue, called a braai in Afrikaans. It was my favorite meal of the trip so far.




This is Elly pouring our after dinner drink: Amarula


It was a packed day, to say the least.



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