Wow! What a day! Even our guides and tracker were amazed at what we got to witness today. We headed out early to the east boundary of Londolozi to track a cheetah that had been spotted. Within a half and hour we found him! Cheetahs are pretty rare to spot, so we spent about an hour watching him move around, mark his territory and then go up a tree to scan the area for his next kill. Cheetahs are active in the day versus lions and leopards which are nocturnal, so it was amazing to watch him go through his routine before he headed off to hunt. What a beautiful animal!
We got another big surprise when we came upon a large male lion which was just settling down for the day. It’s amazing, but the trackers and guides recognize many of the animals from watching them day after day, knowing their territory, and observing their markings, cuts and scars. This lion is a older, dominant male and he roams alone rather than in a coalition of younger males.
After breakfast today we took a “village tour” with Lena, a lady who has worked at Londolozi for 25 years. She is a Zulu member from a nearby village, but lives at Londolozi 5 days a week, then goes home on the weekends. There are about 250 staff members who live in small houses/huts on the property, along with all of the rangers or field guides as they are called. The owners of Londolozi are very committed to providing an education for any of their employees that want one, so they have a digital learning center at the village. There is also a preschool for the staff’s children on the premises. It’s an impressive operation.
Afterwards Mark and I went to the photographic studio. We took our camera chip with the pictures we had taken so far and a staff member helped us pick out about 10 good ones to edit and enhance with an Adobe digital photo program. It is amazing what can be done to a photograph to enhance it! We chose 3 to be printed on canvas and we will get them tomorrow. It was so much fun to our pictures on a big screen.
Our afternoon drive was absolutely amazing. We had not seen any Cape buffalo yet, so our guide headed to a dry river bed where they are seen occasionally. We saw about 10 buffalo coming out of the river bed and they seemed “off” as our tracker said. Like Caro said, “bless their little hearts, they sure are ugly! ”
They wandered off and our tracker saw a lion’s tail flick on the other side of the river bed, so we drove over there to find that 3 female lions had just taken down a Cape buffalo. None of them were trying to tear it open yet – they were all exhausted and panting heavily. A few minutes later, one of them stands up and makes a call and around the bend comes another adult female and 10 cubs from about 1 month to about 8 months old! Evidently the first three females were hunting and the 4th female was minding all of their cubs in the pride. The dynamics of a group of lions are amazing. It was quite a event that even astounded our guides and tracker. We must have sat there for over an hour watching the cubs play and the mother’s beginning to tear into the buffalo.
Of course we couldn’t miss our sundowners, so we found a beautiful spot in a lead wood tree forest and all had a gin and tonic as we talked over what we had just seen! A cute little aside is that when we stop in the mornings for coffee and in the evenings for our sundowners, instead of asking if anyone needs a “rest stop” of which there are absolutely no facilities in the bush, he asks if we need to go “mark some territory.” If so, the guide heads off to find a termite hill or thick thicket of brush to be used for a little privacy! Fortunately Carol and I have not had to “mark any territory” so far!
Soon we were headed back to camp and had dinner in the boma again. After dinner the ladies choir from the village came and entertained us for our last dinner. It was a bittersweet evening.
Our chef dancing withe the choir.
Mark and Freda's Wanderings 