Matthew’s Dairy
17/10/2013
My first experience in the wild with dangerous game was when
i went to go chill with a friend. I knew this girl that i wanted to go and
spend time with and finally plucked up enough courage to ask her out. The plan
was to go to Sondela and go for a walk with her and hopefully impress her. So
the time came and i put my walking shoes on and was off to go and see her. When
i arrived she asked me where we going so i decided we were just going to go for
a walk and said where we end up. The stupid thing we did was not wearing proper
shoes and we didn’t have any torches with us which goes against everything that
my Dad had tough me but this is the only way we learn and being a guy i guess i
was thinking with the wrong head which our guides warn all the guys about. So
we went off into the darkness and the first thing that happened which i got a
huge fright was walk into a little thorn bush which came out of nowhere.
Because it was so dark my senses where extremely heightened and when i walked
into this little bush i felt the little thorns scrap against the side of my
foot which made me jump 2m high which seemed to make this girl laugh so much so
it actually helped me to make her smile without even trying. So we carried on
walking deep into the conversation not paying much attention to what was going
around us but when we heard something we managed to shine a light onto it with
my cell phone light. About an hour and a half into the walk on the way back to
the reception area we were walking and talking when all of a sudden we heard
this snarling noise come from 3m next to us and we both just stopped
immediately in fright. I was closer to whatever was making the noise and being
a good guy made her get behind me before anything happened. I slowly got my phone out of my pocket to
shine the light on to the animal to see what was snarling at us and turned to
see if Anesca was still with me or had left me by myself and didn’t see her
anywhere and then all of a sudden felt these cold hands grab onto my arm and
got more of a fright then when the animals was growling. So i told her to stay
close and keep still like my initial guiding skills had taught me and then
proceeded to shin the light which was difficult with the touch screen while
shaking. I managed to get the light on fast and pointed it towards where the
noise came from and immediately saw the green eyes reflect back from the light
which is a sight i will never forget. The first thought that popped into my
head was brown hyena because i knew that they were in the area because we had
found the tracks that week. As i moved
the light away from the animal i managed to see the outline of the animal with
the unmistakable long slender tail of the leopard which made my heart sink and
i thought this was it for us. I stood extremely still and wanted to move the
light away and as i was panning it off the leopard to the right hand side of me
i caught a glimpse of another one about 5m behind the first leopard. All we could do was stand still and waited
two minutes for them to move off and every time we even thought of moving it
snarled in till it finally moved off into the bush allowing us to move off. I
turned to Anesca and asked if she was ok and then we had to carry on walking to
reception which was still another kilometre. I think this was the scariest part
because every part of you just wants to run but i knew if we did then we become
prey so rather take things slow and live. Thinking back afterwards we knew it
was a breeding pair because you never see two leopard together except for
mating purposes and was happy that the male leopard was also thinking with his
other head otherwise it could have turned out a lot worse for the two of us but
got her home safely and i went to my friends house after and got hopelessly
drunk but it didn’t help because that type of situation will stick with you for
life.
Day two in the wild
Was woken up by the sounds of all the crazy birds in the
trees outside my room, it was so loud i wasn’t even able to identify the
different calls that were being made. Jumped in to the shower and got read for
the six o’clock game drive. We waved off to my parents and we were off to go
and see what we could see for the day. As we were driving Johannes stopped and
said we had picked up the lion spoor which was in the area. We carried on
driving but lost the spoor but we managed to pick up the buffalo spoor and then
we were off again. We heard the previous day that the buffalo heard was 800
strong which was huge for a heard but even if it was so big we just couldn’t
find the stupid buffalo. We drove and drove for what felt like hours and had to
keep turning around to go and choose a different direction. Finally we drove into the bush and just like
that we were in the middle of the herd. Just to look at all the different
buffalo was incredible; there was big ones small ones, calves and fat ones,
ones with big horns and small horns or small bodies or fat bodies. There was
buffalo with one horn but most with two. My favourite sighting was the buffalo
standing on top of the termite mound thinking he was a leopard or something. We
drove through and were incredible to feel part of the herd. If we wanted to we
could have put our hands out and touch the buffalo. Everything that we learnt
taught us that as soon as you get close to the buffalo then they should run
away but it just shows you that they are very confident with big numbers. We
passed through and eventually moved out and left the herd to do its thing. We
stopped after a while for the famous coffee break and as we climbed out my aunt
said there was something in the bush which was watching us. I honestly thought
she was just joking but much to my amazement when i looked there was an hyena
staring at us about twenty five meters away probably thinking wow these people
are making life so easy for me. After we had had our tea and coffee we were
tested on a few tracks by the guide Johannes which didn’t go very well for me
but my cousin Kendal managed to get them all right. We didn’t see too much on
the morning drive except the buffalo so it was time to leave and go home after
four hours of tracking. We were on our way home when all of a sudden the breaks
were slammed and the arm went out and the finger pointed into the tree just off
the road to our left hand side. I looked up and was amazed to see the leopard
standing in a tree using it as a vantage point. This had just made my day
because my favourite cat was the leopard which was much respected in my eyes
due to previous experience. It was a male leopard and you could see immediately
by the size of the cat. It had looked like it had just woken up and was
stretching and yawning and was happy to get photo of the leopard with its mouth
wide open and could see the canines in the front of the mouth sticking out.
After time we moved the vehicle around the side of the tree to try and get a
different angel on the leopard but as soon as we started the car the leopard
decided he had had enough and jumped down and started to mission on to find
some breakfast. This made me so happy to see but guess there was more to come
due to the fact that this place is famous for its leopard. As soon as we got
back to the camp we had an amazing breakfast prepared by the ladies of the
family and then went for an ice cold refreshing swim which would soon become
tradition. As soon as i finished i put in my ear phones and went to lie down
next to the pool which afterwards i was told was very brave due to the fact
that there are always hyena in the camp. Time came for the next game drive at
four and we prepared the snacks and drinks and climbed on the cruiser and were
happy that my parents were going to join us for the game drive because my mom
was feeling a bit better. As soon as we drove out the camp we saw the first
elephant with her baby which was very weird to just see the two of them
missioning around by themselves. We watched them for a while and was amazed to
see that they came so close to the cruiser about fifteen meters away and
watched the baby trying to reach the good leaves at the top of the branches and
what happened was when the mother pulled the leaves off the top and gave it to
her baby to eat which just showed me how much love they have for their babies
and look after them so well. We carried on with the drive after the elephants
moved off into the bush and drove on watching the birds and telling my aunt
interesting fact or just talking. We went down on to the river bed and saw a
male elephant drinking water which was on musk. I remembered that these guys
are dangerous when they on musk and aggressive. When they older they generally
more relaxed though so i could see he was chilled but just to be safe we kept
our distance because we didn’t have an escape and neither did he. How you
identify this is the urine is dribbling down the leg so the inside of the back
legs are stained with a yellowish colour. The smell is also a dead giveaway and
what happens is the sheath of the penis starts going green from the continuous
dribble of urine which is what we call GPS (green penis syndrome) and this is
also a sign of the elephant on musk. He carried on with his journey and as he
did so did we. We carried on down the river bed and in the distance we could
see three elephants yet again so it did not seem like they had a shortage of
elephant in the area. We drove around to them and went down in 4x4 to the side
of the river bed where they were walking towards us grazing and browsing
(eating grass and leaves which I learnt they can only digest 40% of the food
that they eat). Johannes turned off the car and we waited watching 3 of the
biggest mammals walk towards us with not a worry in the world. The one walked
past us coming within ten meters which was close for a wild animal to get to a
cruiser but didn’t even seem to notice us and just carried on walking into the
distance and then the matriarch came closer and closer and i felt my heart
sinking deeper and deeper but was just feeding. She came along the side of the
cruiser and this was close. It was so close that when i tried to take a picture
of the elephant it was to close to capture in the frame. It walked behind the
cruiser and i was sitting in the back seats so everything from then on out was
extreme close up. It turned its ass to us and started reversing towards the
cruiser and i thought she was going to hit us but then she stopped and lifted
her tail and heard the belly rumble and she let out a huge fart which in fact
smelt worse than any of my best farts and made me quite happy that i don’t eat
grass otherwise i wouldn’t be able to handle my own farts. This was incredible
for me to get so close to this animal but wouldn’t be the last time that i had
one of these experiences. Over time they
moved off and just like that it was over again. I realised i now have a front
row seat to nat geo wild and i must enjoy the ride because it will be over
before i knew it. We carried on with the drive and eventually pulled over for
sun downers which were nice to relax and look back on the day’s events but then
we heard that there was a kill on the run way so we packed everything back into
the cooler box and we were off again. We drove reasonably fast to get to the
kill which was two lionesses which had taken down a male impala. As we got to
the top of the run way i remember looking at the herds of impala and could see
they were startled and were busy still re-grouping after all the commotion. It
always amazes me that the look in the herbivores eyes looks like they about to
start crying in a way and the impala on a reserve without predators look so
relaxed so i think they are a lot more clever then we give them credit for. We
drove down and off the road to the other cruiser and there they were. Two
female lionesses as promised on top of an impala busy eating. This was amazing
to see and as we watched with big eyes i was admiring the strength of the one
lioness in the forearms. They were fighting over the kill and the less dominant
female was trying to pull it away and the other was just lying on top of it
holding on to it with all of its might. All of a sudden there was an explosion
and the smaller lioness had managed to pull some of the carcase out and ran
with it to the side but sharing is caring so they lay down eating their
portions by themselves. Just as i thought it couldn’t get any better Mr hyena
decided to poke his nose around the corner to see what is going on because he
could obviously smell the kill and heard the commotion. The bigger lioness just
let off one snarl at him and i think he understood loud and clear that if he
came to close she would probably kill him without hesitating. We decided that
we would let them carry on eating in peace and moved on. The decided that we
have seen enough for the day and headed on home where we had a hyena relaxing
outside the camp waiting to welcome us home. That night we sat and watched the
elephant come and drink at the water hole about 50m away from the braai area
and it was so close you could hear the water pouring down the throat into the
stomach kind of like if you pour water into a huge drum one bucket at a time. I
got walked to my room where I slept by myself which was ok i was brave and fell
straight asleep. I woke up to a thump on the roof at about two in the morning
and could hear something walking up and down the path outside of the room but
the whole brave thing had flown out the window by this time with good reason. I
blame my lack of sleep that night on my Dad because he gave me a book to read
called death in the long grass which has stories in it about lion and leopard
attacks. I knew they said that we safe in the rooms but all there was is a
mossie mesh and I knew for a fact that if it wanted to it could jump through
there with no ease at all so I was pissing my pants I didn’t even let my toes
hang off the side of the bed. About 20 minutes later I plucked up enough
courage to go and peak through the window and whatever it was got startled and
just saw the ass end of something head into the bushes on the side of the path.
That was it for me it took about 2 hours after that to fall asleep out of pure
exhaustion.
Day three- things escalate
Up at the usual 5 o’clock in the morning (believe it or not
I was always the first one up even before my dad) packed and ready to go. We
were going out but weren’t ready for the best sighting of the trip so far. We
all climbed up onto the cruiser and we were off. It was a bit of a slow start
to the day but we were still having a good time just being with my family which
is always a good time. We stopped in the river bed for tea and coffee and
Johannes took my Dad and I for a bit of tracking which was getting better than
the previous tracking and less embarrassing if you could say. I asked him when
was the last time that he saw wild dog and he had said it had been a while
since he had seen them because they crossed over into somebody else’s farm. So
i was quite bummed but as I usually say shit happens so just be happy with what
you get to see. We all climbed back into the cruiser to carry on with the day
and he stopped and told us to hold on because he is going to drive and kick
things into too over drive a bit so we asked him what we going to see and he
said Madash which I wasn’t too sure what it was but if we driving fast to go
and see then it must be worth it so what the hell let’s do it. We drove quite
far out from the camp to go and see this mystery animal but it sounded like we
had missed all the action because the guide looked disappointed when we got
there and nothing was going on anymore. After looking for fifteen minutes or so
we decided to turn around and go back and as we turned to go back it crossed
the road. !!!!MADASH!!!! I was so happy that I got to see the wild dog cross
the road even though we had just missed the hunt and all the action we got to
see one of the rarest mammals in South Africa and wouldn’t know if I would ever
see this animal in the wild again. It was really special and made my day so
special and couldn’t even begin to describe how happy i was to share the
experience with the family. The wild dog moved off after the pack and just like
that it was like nothing had happened. We drove a few kilos down the road and
then heard the guide speaking on the radio and could see that he wasn’t sure
where to turn off and then all of a sudden heard a cruiser from a distance rev
loud and there we were following this random sound into the bush. Ingwe. The
female leopard was standing in the tree in front of us just looking around at a
height point. As soon as we got close she jumped out of the tree and started
moving through the bush on a mission to where ever she was going. We followed
her through the bush getting amazing photos and for the untrained eye kept
losing her because of her cameo but then she would just emerge like a ghost out
of nowhere. I was sitting at the back of the cruiser again which was my
favourite seat because you get to see the best angles of the animals. Johannes
positioned the cruiser in the path of the leopard i think deliberately to get a
good photo and as he did this she came out of a bush and looked at us and
paraded towards the cruiser with the sun shining off her elegant coat of fur. She
came closer and closer and i was bust taking photos as she got closer to the
cruiser when i put the camera down and looked under my seat for a memory I will
never forget. She walked straight under the back seat of the cruiser and as she
came out on the other side i was ready to get amazing photos to capture her. We
followed her back to the road where we watched her cross over where the
stupidest people ever came past. They came up with a speed then slammed breaks
not really sure what they were looking at so we told them that there was a
leopard so they reversed their car almost jack knifing the trailer in the
process and then I don’t know if they were all retarded or just stupid but they
decided they couldn’t see the leopard so they all climbed out their car to see
the leopard. I was amazed and it took everything in me not to shout at them
probably swearing all different types of words at them but i figured they were
old so it wouldn’t be a loss if they got killed but i sure as hell wasn’t going
to help them. This was the first time it happened the next day driving into
timbivati my parents were driving and saw a leopard walk around the side of the
car and this idiot was standing outside his car with his phone trying to get a
picture of the leopard about 3m away for him. There is no medical aid for
stupidity which I got to see with my own eyes but lucky for all the idiots in
the area the leopards were relaxed and didn’t attack anybody. Any way then we
went home and i went straight to bed because of the lack of sleep from the
previous night and then up again at flourish for the next drive, what a
difficult life I have. We went out and the last of the big 5 to see was the
rhino which we looked for and looked but like most woman in my life it was
giving us one hell of a difficult time and made us work for it. Eventually
after an hour or two of tracking we managed to see the rhino which was
incredible to say the least. It was two males fighting over territory which I
can’t even describe. The noises coming out of this huge animal was amazing
which I have never heard before and they kept pushing but you could see
immediately which rhino was dominant and which rhino was being submissive. The
ones ears was cocked back and the tail was up and the head was lifted off the
ground which showed that this rhino was less dominant and was being pushed out
of the territory and the others ears were up straight and the head lowered to
the ground which meant he knew what he was doing and was relatively relaxed in
comparison to the other. This was an amazing sight to see and the video has to
be seen to understand how amazing this sighting was and very rare.
Day four- Shit just got real
This morning was really interesting and filled with fun. I
woke up early and was very relaxed but ready for the day. We escorted my Aunty
Gail and my Mom and Dad to the reception area where they went off to the doc
for the morning to help my Mom get better. We drove through and saw a few
interesting things such as the Chameleon and a Huge snail but Johannes really tried
hard to find the lion but had no success. What was interesting was when we
stopped close to the water i was testing the hippo which i could do because my
parents weren’t with me (my Mom, my Dad probably would have joined in) I was
just testing the Psychological zones of the hippo and wanted to see where he
was comfortable and were he didn’t want me to be. I walked straight into the
open where he could see me and moved forward, when he went under water i
stopped and walked back because i really wasn’t interested in getting charged
so if my mother ever reads this i am still alive because i don’t push the
boundaries like i used to do with my sister. The most fun we had was the golden
orb spiders which make their webs across the roads and as you drive the fling
into the cruiser or you get the web in your face which is not very fun. So i
was put on spider duty where every time there was a web i had to catch it with
the stick and let it off the side of the cruiser. We got home after and heard
from my parents how things were going and sat and watched the nyala come into
the camp and sit under the shade and sat for a while watching a squirrel
running around and trying to cool down on the cold tiles on the veranda which
amused me somewhat. The time had come which i was ready for all day. The
afternoon drive, we had been really lucky with the afternoon drives so far and
i couldn’t wait for what we were going to see next. We drove and saw a few
elephant again and then stopped to look at a bird and then Johannes stopped and
reversed and pointed at a snake. We managed to see it for a glimpse and then it
“ran off” as Johannes said. We identified it as a Mfesi which was the
Mozambique Spitting Cobra so we were lucky it didn’t put on its display or spit
at the vehicle. Then we carried on down the road looking for more rhino when
the breaks slammed and we drifted around the turn. A silent gasp of air came
from my cousin sitting in front of us and my other cousin almost jumped on to
my lap. Black mamba! This gave them a huge fright but we got away lucky. What
had happened was the Mamba was trying to cross the road but still had its tail
in the tree and as we turned the corner it basically got a fright and did a 360
turn back into the bush. When doing this it doesn’t just turn around it
basically turns its head upside down “jumping” back which was at least a meter
and a half off the ground about the same level Johannes was sitting at. All
animals are welcome to come close to the cruiser but this was not one of them,
unfortunately i didn’t get to see it but got a huge fright in the process. We
carried on driving and came across rhino in the road which was lovely but the
rhino wasn’t to sure about us. I know they have really bad eye sight but what
happened is it would relax and then look at us and get a fright but not run
because it didn’t look sure what we were. This happened about four times and as
it crossed the road i think it decided it had been enough and ran off into the
bush tails up and tree’s falling in its path. We drove for about three more
minutes and in the distance saw a cruiser stopped so got the camera ready but
wasn’t sure what i was in for. I was shell shocked; I couldn’t believe it at
all. Not one leopard but not two leopards but three with a kill and seven
hyenas under the tree. This was amazing and according to the guide he said this
was the same leopard that had walked under my bum the previous day with her two
cubs. You could see that all the females were nice and fat and the male was
still eating letting pieces of meat drop one by one. The photos look like it
had come out of a magazine or documentary even though i took them i look
through them and couldn’t believe it. The funniest thing was a pour squirrel
that was trapped. He had made home in this tree and came out to see what was
going on and looked up and saw a leap of leopards and looked down and saw a
clan of hyena and i think he just decided fuck it and went back into the hole.
Then the male leopard cub finished feeding the hyenas and went to go bond with his
mother, this was weird because she was comfortable and he liked her seat so he
climbed on top of her to get to the other side of the branch. He made himself
comfortable and lay down on the branch which was so thin you could hear the
branch cracking under the weight of both of these leopards and we were waiting
for this leopard to fall out the tree onto the hyenas at the bottom waiting for
more food. After all the action we went for sun downers where the guide told us
a few stories to keep our blood pumping and then drove around were we saw a
civet cat and impala and then went home to eat a nice dinner and call it a day.
Don’t know what to expect for tomorrow keep thinking how could this holiday get
better but it just does each time.
Day 5-small things count
Things slowed down for us today but still managed to have a
nice day. We went out this morning early as usual but didn’t get to see
anything out of the ordinary. We saw our 20th chameleon for the trip
which is always special because you don’t get to see them often in the wild due
to the fact of their amazing cameo. We drove in the river bed instead of
driving through and saw our first fish eagle which is always so beautiful to
see and majestic. Then as we were driving my Aunty Gail spotted a duiker which
had been dragged up a tree and i explained to my Dad how lucky he is to see
this because it isn’t often you see a tree climbing Duiker but i didn’t get a
very positive response to this remark. I wanted to wait for the leopard to come
back but Johannes said that he is watching us and won’t come back in till we
leave so we left to carry on with the drive. As we went around the corner we
spotted an elephant come out of the bushes walking towards us which was lovely
to see but this one was on musk as well so we kept our distance. I have always
heard of elephant and giraffe which use bushes to scratch their tummies but
have never seen it before, in till today. To be frank it looked like the
elephant was raping the bush to be honest. He walked out and his penis was out
and he had been in the mud and he walked straight to this pour tree and that
was it for the tree. He walked straight on top of the bush and started moving
back and forth scratching his tummy. This was so funny to watch but i got a
video so i can always have a laugh. After he was done the tree didn’t look
green anymore but brown from the mud of the elephant. Another thing that
happened later that day which i know dagga boys do but have never seen was
wallow in the mud or in shallow water. We drove past the watering holes and two
buffalo bulls were lying in the water cooling down. These guys amaze me because
when you look at this animal and you can see that this animal is old put has
brute strength still. You look in the eyes and it gives you the look that it
really couldn’t give a shit anymore but if you try and mess with him you going
to end up on the bad side of this animal. In the afternoon we drove down to the
big dam and saw saddle bill stork, hippos, large amounts of water buck and
another fish eagle and a huge herd of elephant which was cute to watch a 6
month old calf running around with a stick in his mouth. Otherwise it was quiet
and didn’t see much else but still loved the day because anything is better
than being back at work even though i love my job so much. Off to bed to get a
good night sleep so i can be ready for tomorrow and was brushing my teeth after
walking to the room by myself were something caught my eye in the window, it
was a hyena and as i walked into the room and went to the bathroom the hyena
walked down from the opposite side i was walking so i was happy i didn’t leave
to go to my room 20 seconds earlier.
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