Are You Game for an African Safari?
/Deciding where to go and how was quite involved, with a wide range of locations, safari operators, and types of accommodation. Kenya or Tanzania, whose wide savannas form the setting of many David Attenborough and National Geographic wildlife documentaries? The Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo? Mostly elephants or gorillas? The great wildebeest migration?
Drive yourself and pitch your own tent which a lion might scratch in the middle of the night? A private safari with luxurious accommodations? I settled for fully guided group packages in comfortable lodgings, which were still a splurge by my standards. Because those in the know consider southern Africa as a better destination than East Africa for safari first-timers, I picked three days in South Africa and one day in Botswana and went with two friends last June when I was already 71.
Chobe National Park, Botswana
Compared with the wide plains of East Africa, southern Africa’s wildlife parks have more trees, thornbushes, and tall grass. While both areas are classified as savanna, the term bushveld is used for southern Africa to signify its denser vegetation. Chobe National Park in Botswana covers a wide area of bushveld, wetlands, and the Chobe River.
Our day in Botswana was spent on a river cruise and a game drive. The river cruise was a good way to get our feet wet, so to speak. I wasn’t anxious about animals charging at us, somehow feeling protected by the water, even after we came close to crocodiles and hippos.
For the game drive, we had a little briefing. The animals recognize a safari vehicle that smells like a human as a non-threatening object in their environment. Stay in your seat. Don’t stand or make sudden movements. Be quiet. No flash photography. Don’t interact with the animals. Or else what? Or else you alter the familiar shape and behavior of the object and trigger an aggressive response.
My added rule: Even if you’re shaking when an elephant walks within a few feet of you, stay! Don’t even breathe!
Chobe River Cruise
Top row, left: A boat on a game cruise on Botswana’s Chobe River. Middle: Two old male African buffaloes – called dagga boys or lonely bulls – and a cattle egret. Buffaloes move in herds, but older bulls are kicked out by the herd and become solitary. Right: On a boat with my friends Cathy and Nadja, with three hippos sunning on the bank behind us.
Bottom: A pod of hippos and a gaggle of Egyptian geese feed in a shallow section of the Chobe River.
(Photos by Odette Foronda)
Chobe Game Drive
Top left: The vehicle we used at Chobe National Park. With all its nine passenger seats filled, it felt a bit cramped.
Top row, middle: My very first lion sighting, this lioness is just waking up from a nap by the roadside, close enough for us to see the flies swarming on its nose. It lets out a mating roar a few times but when no one comes, it gets up and walks away.
Top right: A clumsy selfie with Mabuta, our Chobe guide.
Bottom: A parade of elephants drinking from the river.
Chobe Wildlife
Clockwise, from top left: A hippo naps on a bed of wildflowers; An elephant walks past my face so close I can hardly fit its head in my camera’s frame; hippos nap on the riverbank with some birds on their backs; A crocodile sleeps with its mouth open as a way to regulate its body temperature.
(Photos by Odette Foronda)
Mabuta had turned off the engine to allow us to observe a giraffe snacking off a tree about eight meters away. Before I could snap one photo of the giraffe, I saw an elephant running in our direction. The giraffe saw it, too, and started running in front of the elephant. Then another elephant came running, and in a flash, all three giant animals sped on the roadside three meters from me. All of that happened in 22 seconds. As soon as the chase was out of our sight, Mabuta said that the male elephant was needing to mate.
Top row: A giraffe notices an approaching elephant and starts running. You can tell the elephant is female based on its angular forehead. Another elephant appears behind the first one.
Bottom row: The giraffe quickly runs outside of my camera frame and I’m able to snap only the front part of the female elephant running past our vehicle. The right photo confirms Mabuta’s story: that the elephant giving chase is male (curved forehead) and is indeed all good and ready to mate. Maybe the female isn’t in the mood, or is this foreplay?
(Photos by Odette Foronda)
Karongwe Private Game Reserve, South Africa
A part of the bushveld, Karongwe Private Game Reserve is in the Greater Kruger area and has the same wildlife species as does Kruger National Park. Because it’s a private reserve, there are fewer tourists and the safari guides are allowed to drive offroad in order to come close to wildlife.
For three days, we stayed at the Shiduli Game Lodge, one of Karongwe’s five lodges. It is not enclosed with a full perimeter fence, so you need to call one of the guards to escort you if you want to be outside your cabin at night. A day at the lodge covers four-star accommodation, all meals, afternoon tea, plus two three-hour game drives in open 4x4 vehicles, one at daybreak and the other in mid-afternoon. After sunrise, you get off the vehicle for a coffee break in the bush. During the afternoon drive, you stop around sunset for a sundowner with cocktails and biltong (jerky). Need a washroom? During such breaks, ask the guides where you can go find a bush nearby.
There are no game drives at midday because many animals would be asleep. You have the biggest chances of catching them in action when it’s dark, but for practical reasons, the standard drives are done around sunrise and sunset. It’s winter in June down there, so morning drives will be chilly, like eight degrees Celsius, but there’ll be a hot water bottle and a blanket waiting in your seat.
Between game drives, you’ll have the option of going on a two-hour bush walk to look for wildlife with two armed guides who would shoot to kill an animal in case of danger. When I was researching for the trip, I quickly knew I would never dare go on such a walk even if you paid me.
Top row: The cabin where my friends and I stayed. My room, with a mosquito net artfully tucked over the bed.
Middle row: Our tracker, Rex (left), and guide, Peter, both highly trained and with extensive experience. Rex has a special seat at the very front of the vehicle. He observes tracks and spoor and suggests to Peter where to find game.
Bottom left: Our safari vehicle meets two others on the road, all trying to spot a very elusive leopard. Right: Braai (South African barbecue) dinner around a campfire at the lodge.
(Photos by Odette Foronda)
At Karongwe, I was happy to find only six of us in the nine-passenger safari vehicle –we three friends plus an Italian family. And it felt more reassuring to have two park staff looking after us (versus only Mabuta in Chobe): Peter, our guide, and Rex, our tracker. Peter briefed us on the rules just like Mabuta did at Chobe. In essence: Do as I say and no one gets hurt.
Within four minutes of our first drive, we saw a pod of hippos soaking in a pond. After another 20 minutes Peter stopped the vehicle and said, “Anyone scared of taking a short walk to see some animals?”
Very quickly I said I was. I surveyed the others and they all said they were fine. Turning to Peter, I said, “What if one doesn’t want to go?”
“Then no one goes. It’s a controlled environment, though. Rex and I will keep everyone safe provided you all follow the rules.”
Not wanting to be the party pooper, I said I’d go.
The rules: Single file. Total silence. Don’t crouch. Whatever happens, never run! You can outrun only three animals here: the tortoise, chameleon, and African giant snail.
What sort of animals we were after Peter didn’t say. He walked in front. Rex guarded the back and, knowing I was scared, he had me walk in front of him. We walked in utter silence for some 150 meters until Peter signaled to stop and pointed to a spot five meters away. I first sighted a cheetah sleeping on the grass. Oh, my God! Peter didn’t say not to jump for joy but I knew better, so I stood stiff. Rex pointed to the right. Two more cheetahs! I clicked away, grinning from ear to ear and forgetting all about being scared.
Top left: My very first sight of a cheetah in the wild. Right: The same cheetah just waking up.
Bottom: The first cheetah’s two brothers refuse to show their faces.
(Photos by Odette Foronda)
All the guides have radios to share with the others what they find. On the second game drive, after some radio chatter, Peter said he was going offroad and started driving through five-foot-high thorny bushes. Everyone was dying to know what it was, but we already knew how Peter and Rex wanted to surprise us, so no one asked. We arrived at the scene with two other vehicles waiting for their turn. When it was finally our turn, what we saw topped the thrill of the previous day’s cheetah walk.
Two female and two male lions were resting near a partly consumed zebra, a fresh kill. A younger lion was walking away in front of us. Thump-thump-thump went my heart as I tried to get the best shot I could within the confines of my seat.
Top left: With blood on her chest and front legs, this lioness is either in a food coma or is plain tired. She’s lying close to what’s left of a dead zebra (right). She and the other lioness (middle left) would have done the hunting and killing, with the males coming in when the feast was ready and getting to eat before the females. (Hey, girlfriends from near and far, what say you?) The lion at bottom right is the pride’s dominant male.
(Photos by Odette Foronda)
Peter stopped a few times at the pond where we had first spotted some hippos. This time, he had us observe a giraffe near the water, clearly wanting to have a drink. He said that because of its height, a giraffe needs to splay its front legs and bend its knees to be able to reach the water, rendering it vulnerable to predators. It’s not worried about the hippos, because those are herbivores. It’s crocodiles, who are ambush attack experts, that the giraffe is wary of.
The giraffe lowers its head a bit, then stands up straight, looks at the water again, and then walks away. A few moments later, it comes back with another giraffe and they both pace on the water’s edge, clearly eager to drink but not doing so. They then disappear behind the trees. After a short while, one giraffe appears, and then the other. When we left the scene after five minutes, they were still standing there, not daring to get down for a drink.
Two thirsty giraffes hesitate to drink from the pond, wary of crocodiles. What crocs, where? Look for the birds on the ground, not the ones on the inset. Next to the heron is a croc lying still and facing the water, and next to the Egyptian goose is another quiet croc with its back to the water.
Inset: A Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (top) and a Grey Lourie (bottom), more commonly known as a grey go-away bird for how its call sounds.
(Photos by Odette Foronda)
Some drives brought more excitement than others, but even on stretches where we mostly saw impala and kudu antelopes, we had a lot to learn from Peter and Rex–about the vegetation, the giant termite mounds, the smaller animals scurrying by, about whose dung is which, how and why dung beetles roll up fresh dung into plum-sized balls that eventually become bowls. Both men had encountered big game alone, too. Peter soberly described how a friend of his got mauled by an elephant, his body horribly dismembered in the end. One morning, Rex said that some lions had gone up and down the road the night before, indicating a hunt, and a bit later, Peter learned that the lions had been found.
We spent a lot of time chasing a leopard to complete our Big Five checklist. The closest we got was when Rex and Peter spotted one behind some thick bush, but none of us newbies managed to see it. Such is the nature of wild game, they decide where to go and when, never bothering to tell the guides of their plans.
My added rule: Even if you’re shaking when an elephant walks within a few feet of you, stay! Don’t even breathe!
The scenery was always stunning, especially with the Drakensberg Mountains in the distance and in the golden light. On our first evening drive home, I was focused on where Rex trained his high-powered flashlight, eager to see what might be lurking in the shadows. I got a quick glance of a hyena for a reward. I couldn’t help but notice the star-studded sky and felt sorry for not having the proper camera gear for it. On the second evening, I asked Peter if we could see the Southern Cross from where we were. He stopped the vehicle and told us about the African heavens like an astronomer might. Based on his little talk, I was able to locate the Southern Cross. (A constellation visible only in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the North Star’s counterpart.) Peter brought his laser pointer the following night and showed us more. Too bad we couldn’t clearly see the Magellanic Clouds, two small galaxies outside the Milky Way. What a neat bonus, something I didn’t expect from a safari.
The Big Five minus one (a leopard): Lions at rest, a young elephant and its mother, a white rhinoceros (more common in South Africa than the black rhino), and an African buffalo.
(Photos by Odette Foronda)
Karongwe Sunrise
Left column, from top: The sun rises on the bushveld during a morning game drive.
Middle: Rex fixes us some coffee and muffins on a pop-up table.
Bottom, from left: Peter, Cathy, me, Nadja, and Rex.
Right: A muster of Woolly-necked Storks lays claim to a dead tree on the bank of a river. The Drakensberg Mountains are in the background, and in the water are some hippos.
(Group photo courtesy of Catherine Torres; the rest by Odette Foronda)
Karongwe Sunset and Dusk
Top and bottom middle: We have our last sundowner at the hippo pond. The hippos are still in the water. The giraffes are out of sight. No idea where the crocs might be. My friends and I go and pee behind some bushes but don’t find them there.
Bottom right: On the drive after sundown, Peter’s headlights and Rex’s bright flashlight cannot obscure the stars in the magical African sky.
(Photos by Odette Foronda)
Eye Contact
Clockwise, from top left: Hippo, lioness just getting up from a nap; Nile crocodile; giraffe; Nyala antelope; baboon; zebra; impala antelope (the meat tastes like venison). Middle: My morning coffee next to a dung bowl abandoned by a dung beetle.
(Photos by Odette Foronda, Chobe National Park and Karongwe Game Reserve)
Should you make eye contact with wildlife? I wouldn’t. But against the advice of the Peter Pan song, I smiled at a crocodile, thinking it was asleep anyway. However, my lens shows the croc’s eye wide open (above photo). Crocs may sleep with one eye open in order to stay alert for danger or prey. And they can sleep with mouth wide open, too. What you see isn’t always what you get with them. I beat one croc, though, by tasting its meat. Bland and not as chewy as expected.
Here's looking at you, my friends. With my dung bowl raised, here’s to more safaris! No more captive wildlife tourism, especially those that force wild animals into doing stupid tricks. I’m guilty of treating my kids and grandkids to those, unwittingly teaching them that it’s okay to use magnificent wild animals for entertainment. Let’s pick other ways to educate them, and ourselves, while planning and saving for a conservation-based and safely operated way of observing wildlife in their natural habitats.
So then for East Africa, are you game for a bush walk? Night game drive? Evening bush walk!
Odette Foronda is a mother of four and grandma of four. Based in Toronto and now retired from years of working in the numbers field, she’ll travel as far as her Ilocano purse will allow. She publishes books of her travel photos and stories (https://www.blurb.com/user/odettef).
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