Africa - Days 1-3 - (Chicago/Germany/South Africa) - "Neck Deep in Buffalo"

The first few days of this African adventure have been a whirlwind 3 days of flying, eating, flying, sleeping, and flying.  And eating.  With a little bit of African adventure thrown in at the end of this post just to keep things interesting.

Days 1 & 2:  Flying & Frankfurt

We left Chicago at about 6pm on Thursday night and flew direct to Frankfurt. 

As this was our second major long haul adventure, we were well prepared with noise canceling everything, eye masks, sleeping pills, comfortable clothes and a single minded purpose of going to sleep immediately after dinner and getting in 6-7 hours of sleep on the plane.  No movies.  No movies.  No movies.  We are lucky enough to be able to fly first/business with the miles I’ve acquired from my job travels, so we were in pretty good shape.

First 9-hour leg to Frankfurt was luxury; but with luxury comes a very long drawn out big delicious meal, and like idiots, we indulged in every course.  Lights finally went out around 8:30 or 9.  Sleeping pill never did kick in, but somehow we managed to get in a few hours of sleep before we woke up at 1:10am (8:10am Frankfurt time) for breakfast.  We landed an hour or so later for an 11-hour layover.

We met my friend, Liz, from college at the arrivals gate (she lives with her family in Frankfurt) for a quickie tour of the city.  Unfortunately, Damon wasn’t feeling well so we let him sleep while we walked her town, Kronberg, aka “Hansel & Gretel Village”.  When Damon felt better, we dragged him out to explore with us.

Kronberg has a forest with walking paths, cobblestone streets and buildings that are exactly how you would picture German architecture. 

We covered about 8 miles (measured 20,000 steps on my Fitbit!), which was awesome after a long flight, and then we just enjoyed the spectacular day; ate delicious German/Italian food for lunch, and took much needed showers before heading back to the airport around 7pm for our leg to Johannesburg.  Damon had gotten in a much needed 4 hour nap, but I was running pretty close to empty.

Our flight left at about 8:45pm and they wanted to serve us a full dinner but this time I passed on dinner and went right to sleep – or at least tried.  I don’t know if they were re-locating a plane full of tuberculosis victims or what, but I have never heard so many old men with hacking coughs before.  Thank goodness for noise cancelling headsets and white noise in the form of crashing waves.  Fast forward 10 hours and a fairly fitful night of on and off dozing and we got up to a very fast breakfast as we had made excellent flight time and they literally took the ½ full coffee out my hands so we could land early.

Day 3 - Johannesburg, South Africa

We were met at the gate by a guide who helped us to cut to the front of the customs line and get through in less than 5 minutes (shout out to Eyes on Africa for organizing our amazing hassle-free vacation!).  We found our luggage and were shuttled to a driver who took us to another airport about 15 minutes away where we awaited our next leg that would “hop” us to our first game park.  We had about 3-4 hours to kill in what was quite possible the cutest “airport” ever.  It was like a little ski lodge where they had food and drinks out, couches and chairs plus an outdoor seating/viewing area.

We were the first ones there and found “outlet corner” and hunkered down.  We realized very quickly that we had brought the wrong adapter, so Damon caught a ride back to the main airport so he could buy one while I “watched” our luggage.  And by watched, I mean that a lady brought me a fleece blanket and I curled up on the couch and took a nap. 

The lodge/airport filled up over the next few hours and then the flights started taking off around 11am.  I was sort of cracking up at all of the people in the airport – you have never seen so much head to toe khaki in your life.  People who likely have never stepped into the wilderness were decked out from hat to hiking boots in safari gear.  It was hilarious.

Moving on, our flight left at noon.  Damon could not have been more excited that we were flying a Cessna Caravan – capacity: pilot, co-pilot and 12 passengers. 

We had 9 people loaded in there.  We had an hour and a half flight to our first of three passenger drops without a toilet.  And anyone who knows me knows that is cause for major panic.  Spoiler alert – I made it just fine.  The flight was pretty cool – luckily, very smooth for the bulk of the trip.  The small planes fly low, so we had a good view the whole way.  Leaving Johannesburg, we flew over a number of what I guess were shanty-towns – I could see large clusters of corrugated tin roofs.  We very quickly left the populated area and got to more wilderness – flat lands and then ultimately wilderness, canyons, and bluffs.   I expected to see herds of Wildebeests running wild everywhere – but not the case.  FYI – I call any animal I don’t know the name of a Wildebeest.

As we were beginning our descent, we had a much better shot at actually seeing animals.  We were scanning everything looking for movement.  The woman in front of me got really excited and was pointing at a river – “look at all of those elephants” and I’m yelling “where, where!!!!” and she is pointing and I see nothing.  And then she says, I think there are hippos, too.  And I’m in full panic because I can see nothing and I’m literally missing everything.  Then she says (understand we were still sort of high up).  Well, they could just be rocks.  Really lady?  Yes, they were rocks.  And this was her sixth safari. 

As we got lower, I did actually see an elephant!!!  Damon saw a herd of them around a watering hole.  So pretty decent flight in, I’d say.  I also saw a lot of rocks.

Motswari Lodge, Timbavati, South Africa

Our landing was on a dirt strip and our “airport” was a tin roof with 4 posts. 

Four of us hopped out and got in the two waiting vehicles and the plane took off again.

It was about 5 minute drive to the lodge where we checked in to our room and I finally got to a bathroom.  Whew.

We are staying at the Motswari Lodge (recommended) which is in the Timbavati private game reserve attached to Kruger National Park, otherwise known as “Greater Kruger”. 





Now the fun stuff begins.  I have no idea how our lodge compares to anything else since it is our first one and there is literally nothing else around – the airstrip is just for our lodge.  They allow a maximum of 30 guests.  There is a reception area/hut where we were welcomed with homemade lemonade. 

All of the staff are so nice – they all introduce themselves and ask our names.  People could not be friendlier.  The rooms are all free standing “huts” (I’m sure there is a better term but I don’t know what it is) and blend into the surroundings quite well.  They are all named after animals – our room is Leopard so we are referred to as Mr & Mrs Leopard.  Roar.  There is very little landscaping here – they try to keep everything as natural as possible so if a tree falls, other than clearing the walking paths, they leave it.

We walked to our room and we have a fence with a bunch of bones on it and I asked our guide if that was the remains of prior leopard guests.  I’m guessing he heard that before because he informed me that it was just decoration.  I think I heard him roll his eyes.  Ha ha. 

Our room is so cute – giant 4-poster bed with mosquito netting that makes it super fancy looking; decorative flowers laid out on our bed and a thatched roof. 

We have a back door that leads to a little tiny courtyard that fits a giant stone bathtub with an outdoor shower.  Of course I’m like “wow, cool, an outdoor shower” and at the same time like “oh, crap, an outdoor shower”.  The courtyard is about 6’ wide and leads to an indoor fancy bathroom with another huge tub and shower.  Apparently we are the only room with an indoor and an outdoor bathtub and shower!  Score.

Our guide is explaining everything as he is showing us around – a few things that stick out.  There are no fences around the property.  We are in the middle of a game park with wild animals.  We are free to walk around on property during the day, but we must be escorted by an armed guide when it is dark out.  Sweet.  Then he opens our armoire and shows us a whistle.  He explains that there are no phones, so if there is an emergency, just keep blowing the whistle until somebody shows up.  Of course I have to ask, what is a whistle blowing emergency?  I imagine if I’m in a stare-down with a lion at my all glass front door, that might qualify.  And I also wonder if 15 huts area blowing the whistle because there is a herd of elephants in the property, who do they go to first?  Minor details.  He also pulls out a jump rope.  Yes, a jump rope.  So, what is the jump rope for?  “Lots of food, can’t go anywhere – this is for exercise.”  And on that note, he tells us lunch starts in a few minutes, so off we go.  Time for jumping rope later.

Spoiler alert, more on animals roaming the property in days 4 &5.

There are three common areas – open air hut type buildings, (Damon said they are called “Bomas”) - primarily for meals, lounging or socializing.

and there is a small swimming pool that overlooks a (now dry) river bed.  Damn that must be a sight when the water is flowing!  Hanging off the edge of an infinity pool watching the animals.  Oh well – it is dry season.  The lounge area with wi-fi is right across from us, so we get it in our room – nice benefit.

We headed to the lunch area and saw a big animal chomping on a tree and hanging by the pool.  We later determined it was a Nyala.  It just sort of meandered through the property chomping away, walked by the pool and sauntered off. 

Lunch started with the staff of our lodge walking in single file singing an African song while balancing dishes and bowls on their heads.

They set up a buffet while singing and then invited us all to eat.  The food has been excellent! 

After lunch, we had a few minutes to prepare for our first game drive.  At this point, we haven’t had a full night of sleep or been in an actual bed in more than two days.  With adrenaline kicking in, off we went.

Day 3 (Still) - First Game Drive

We met our assigned tour guide, Richard, (aka African Google because he literally knows the answer to any question we ask) and our tracker, Jacky, at our tricked out Range Rover Defender.  We were joined by two other couples for our first 4 hour game drive.  One amazing thing about this lodge – no Americans!  Our vehicle mates today are from Switzerland & China.  Jacky sits in a little chair attached to the front corner of the Range Rover – they said it was easier for him to spot animal tracks and wildlife. To me he looked like the first thing an animal will eat before it gets to us.  Works for me.

We had no idea what to expect but quickly got the hang of it – sit and look for stuff.  We started easy with a bunch of Impala & Water Bucks. 

We quickly learned how to spot males and females (one big male to 30 little females).  We learned that the reason Water Bucks have a bright white circle around their butts is NOT because they were the first on the Ark and sat on toilets with wet paint (ha ha), but actually when animals have unusual butt markings it is so other animals can follow them when they are under attack in a panicked run and need to stay together. 

I’m now obsessed with looking at animal butts to see their different markings.

At one point, I tried to be helpful (not realizing at this point that Jacky is the most impressive tracker on the planet) and I excitedly pointed out that I saw something that “looked like a tiger”.  We drove backwards a bit and everyone humored me until we realized it was a female Nyala.  It is reddish in color and has white strips and all I could see was its rump – which looked very much like a tiger,  When I say that everyone humored me, it is because tigers are not found anywhere in Africa.  I just assumed lions and tigers and bears all go together.  Whatever.  They didn’t really start making fun until later.

We were in search of elephants that had been seen in the area earlier that morning and boy did we hit the “elly” mother load.  We came across a herd of about 50 elephants of all sizes – babies galore, which are too cute to even describe.  We saw them from across a dry riverbed and eventually made our way across into the thick of them.  We stopped and watched for a while and several young males came within a few feet of our vehicle.  I’m a sucker for elephants, so this was a pretty good way to start.  We noticed that as the males got closer, Jacky gave a flick of the wrist to stop them and they did back off – they got within a few feet of the front of our vehicle.  We took about 150 pictures of elephants, but I've narrowed it down to just a few.

Mama and baby

Family leaving + hilarious baby trying to walk up embankment

We saw two male bull elephants lock horns in a mock battle.  We saw moms with babies everywhere.  They are just so fascinating to watch I could have stayed for hours.  Eventually the herd moved on, so we kept going.  Hopefully we will get to see more later.

Preggers mom - expected to give birth any day

The poop eaters

A few interesting factoids about elephants – they eat their own fresh poop to get nutrients – apparently most of what they eat goes through them undigested, but as it passes it picks up intestinal enzymes.  We got some nice pictures of that! 

Aggressive bull approaching truck

Also, elephants are really destructive – they topple trees to get to the roots, which are also a source of nutrients for them.  We did see one take down part of a tree and you could hear trees breaking all around us.  Despite how cute and docile they seem, elephants do have a bit of a temper and our guides were very watchful of any change in their body language which gives warning when things are about to go south.  Keep in mind there were dozens of them around us and they can get up close and personal.

We drove around a big lake and saw a crocodile, a group of hippos (mostly underwater), some giant “ninja” turtles and a lot of colorful birds and geese.  Another thing that we passed regularly were GIANT termite hills.  These things are all over and some are the size of cars – they can be upwards of 8’ tall.  NOTE:  The abandoned ones make a great shield for those bio-breaks.

Our next big find was giraffes.  Throughout the afternoon, we saw several different groups of giraffes – seems they usually travel in groups of 5-6.  We even spotted a few babies – one that still had the umbilical cord attached, so it was pretty young.  We noticed that the giraffes had birds stuck to them –apparently a certain type of bird will eat the ticks and other parasites off of animals, so a win-win for both species.  They just sort of lumber along at a very slow pace – we have noticed most animals are like that.  We have yet to see them run from anything.

As the sun started to set – the sky turned an unbelievable pink and the stars came out.  It gets pitch black around 6:00pm and so we drove around with headlights and Jacky used a spotlight to look for things.  Richard stopped to explain a number of constellations – the number of stars was unbelievable.  We could see the Milky Way AND another galaxy that I can’t remember the name of.  Apparently the only other galaxy it is possible to see with the naked eye.

Without any big animal spottings, I think the adrenalin rush wore off, both Damon and I started to doze off.  I kept worrying about falling out of the Range Rover, so stayed just awake enough.  Then we truly hit the mother load.

We hear Richard say “watch your heads, we are going off-road” and we drive through these bushes and brambles to where two male lions were feasting on a buffalo they had killed earlier that day.  Someone had seen the kill in the morning and so there was a watch for when the lions would return.  As this is a private game park, there are very few vehicles around, they all talk to each other, and they are very respectful of no more than 2 vehicles at any sighting.  We were the second vehicle to arrive and had an unbelievable viewing experience of the lions literally neck deep in the guts of a buffalo chomping and grunting and snorting as they ate it.  You could hear the ripping and tearing as they chowed down - pretty gross (we do have video for the not faint of heart).  We were only about 40-50’ from the lions and they completely ignored us.

We watched the lions for a good 20 minutes and eventually had to make room for other vehicles to come in and take a look.  We headed back to the lodge for dinner in a common area where we sat with our safari group.  Before the meal, Damon looked at my head and said “don’t move”.  Never a good sign in Africa.  He pulled a giant albino mantis out of my hair.  Sweet.  At least it wasn’t a spider because there are spiders half the size of my hand around here, with webs that would trip an elephant.  Eventually we sat down and enjoyed another delicious meal that we shared with our safari mates and Richard, then headed back to our room, finally, at 9:30 for our first good night of sleep for several days in an actual bed.