Day 87 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 2

Day 87 – Kambaku River Sands – Safari Day 2

Here is a 1 minute 21 second video that shows some highlights from the second day of our safari:

Here is a video animation that shows the route of our safari game drive.   The total distance covered was 22 miles in about 3 and 1/2 hours

And now, the rest of the story….

Game Drive Rained Out

I woke up at 4:30 AM, without an alarm, but to the steady sound of rain drizzling on the roof. Peering out the window, puddles were everywhere with raindrops splashing making it easy to see that yes, it was raining. Rain wasn’t in the forecast and we didn’t know if the game drives went rain or shine. That was a question we forgot to ask. A continental breakfast was served at 5:30 AM in the main lodge and we were to receive a wake-up knock on the door at 5:15 AM. When the knock never came I wasn’t sure if they were simply late, or whether the game drive was canceled. Since we are already up, we put on our rain ponchos grabbed the umbrella and headed off to the lodge. Rick, Margaret and Susan were already at the Lodge. We learned immediately that the game drive was canceled because the roads during the rain will be difficult to drive on not to mention our personal discomfort of being rained on for three hours. While we were disappointed that we wouldn’t have an opportunity to see animals, we weren’t particularly looking forward to getting that much more wet.

A variety of cereal, fruit and yogurt was laid out on the buffet along with some pastries, bagels and English muffins. Coffee was available from a machine that offered a variety of selections including cappuccinos and lattes. Another table had pitchers of juice along with hot water.

The main lodge is open on one side, overlooking the surrounding area. There is a deck and swimming pool attached. Our guide, Nick, told us that from time to time elephants would wander up to the lodge and drink out of the swimming pool. We wondered if drinking chlorinated water was bad for the elephants but Nick reminded us that the water they normally drink from the water holes is filled with a lot more nasty contaminants that a little chlorine.

Off in the distance, but easily visible, were two giraffes munching on some leaves of nearby trees. What was striking about our trip so far, was that the terrain seemed so familiar, much like Southern California, but then these amazing animals would appear with little warning.

Breakfast

After chatting for a bit, the manager announced that breakfast would be served at 9:30 AM rather than 10:30 AM. Grabbing our umbrellas we headed back to our cabin to relax or nap until breakfast.

Back in the Lodge, there were several tables set up for breakfast with serve yourself pastries, fruit juice, toast and other sides from a buffet. Waiters came by and took our order for eggs. Service was prompt and the food was quite tasty. Light rain continued as we lingered over coffee and tea gazing at the horizon hoping we would see an elephant or some other animal come close to the Lodge.

While I headed back to the cabin, Judy went off to the gift shop to see what was available. She spotted a male Nyala wandering past one of the cabins. They both stared at each other before continuing.

The lodge offers game walks during the day at no additional cost, but we never took advantage of them since we were always tired from our early starts. We did learn that the guides carry a high-powered rifle with them on the game walks in case an animal becomes a threat. They don’t take rifles in the safari vehicles because it’s easier and faster to simply drive away if an animal becomes threatening.

We had free time until 3:30 PM when we would assemble for the 4 PM afternoon game drive. Back in the cabin, we took a nap until early afternoon. We went back to the main lodge for a light lunch and then returned to our cabin until it was time to leave on the afternoon game drive.

Inside the cabins

Here are some photos of the cabins and their interiors

Game Drive #2

As we headed off our second game drive, the roads were still wet with some puddles, but the drainage was pretty good. Since it had rained recently, we weren’t going to be able to drive off the road.

When you’re on the game drive, there is no program as to which animals you’re going to see or when. You can drive for 20 minutes and not see anything and then right around the next corner is a small herd of wildebeest. There’s probably three or four vehicles from the lodges driving around at any time. The drivers are in constant radio contact with each other so if any one of them sees an animal they alert the other drivers so the rest of us can join them. When we do get a tip from another driver we will typically stand off until they have finished their observation before we move in for us to take a look. Drivers from adjacent lodges use the same radio network sharing information and will cooperate even though they are technically competitors.

The daily routine consists of two game drives. The morning leaving around 6 AM and afternoon game drive leaving around 4 PM. The exact time varies throughout the year depending on sunrise and sunset.

The rain started up again after about 30 minutes into our drive. Our driver showed us where the rain ponchos were stored in our vehicle and we quickly put them on. The rain let up after about 15 minutes and was dry for the rest of the day. In fact it wouldn’t rain again for the rest of our stay.

We spotted some impala and zebras, before we got word that there were some elephants a couple of miles away. We raced off in that direction. By the time we arrived the small herd was moving across the road and off into the distance. Since the ground was still wet we couldn’t follow them. As we headed toward the spot where we would take a break we came across a tower of giraffes. We had to look up the names for groups of African animals as they are all not that obvious and usually a little humorous. Oftentimes the only place you might have heard of these names was as a trivia question. For example, elephants can be referred to most commonly as a herd but the term parade or memory is also listed as an optional term for a group of elephants.

A just before sunset we stopped for a late afternoon snack. The snack consisted of trail mix, nuts, soft drinks or beer, and dried fruit. This is always a good time to chat with the driver and guide about what we have seen and what we are likely to see over the next day or so.

Once the sun goes down, we continued to drive for about half an hour looking for predator animals: Lions, cheetahs or leopards. The tracker, sitting in front of our vehicle, scans the trees and road in front of us with a bright searchlight hoping to pick up the reflection from an animal’s eyes.  We never saw any significant animals after dark.

As we pulled up to the main lodge entrance the staff was waiting with hot towels and cold water.

Dinner

After we had a chance to freshen up in our room, we returned to the main lodge for dinner. The dinner choices this evening were mushroom soup, followed by either a filet mignon or a local fish, with pudding or chocolate salami for dessert.

After we finished our coffee and tea we headed back to our cabin to get some sleep as once again we are looking at alarms going off at 4:30 AM.

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This entry was posted in 2018 Grand World Voyage, Africa, Kambaku River Sands, South Africa

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