Day 9 - Sabi Sands, South Africa, Zambia, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe - Three countries, two flights, one dead impala

Day 9 – Elephant Plains, Sabi Sands, South Africa

“What do you want to see today?”  There was literally nothing left on any of our safari lists (so I thought) that we had missed, so we let Dawie choose for us.  He said that he hadn’t seen a leopard in over a month due to his malaria leave of absence and was excited to see one again.  These guys truly love the bush life and even after thousands of game drives, there is still a thrill for them in seeing certain animals.  So off we went. 

Morning drive - 5 layers, 2 blankets, 1 hot water bottle

How does one find a leopard? 

Step 1: listen for their calls to try to figure out roughly where they are.  If that doesn’t work, listen for the sound of their prey (impala) or their arch nemesis (hyenas) giving a warning or other indication that they are nearby. 

Step 2: go to that area (preferably with other vehicles) and start looking for tracks.  Find any set of tracks and then start to “triangulate” roughly where said animal might be.  Drive back and forth in a grid pattern with other vehicles until you can guess general location and then head into the bush either in vehicle or (trackers) on foot to find animal.

Step 3: repeat until you find animal or give up and bump into something more interesting (this never happens)

Following the above mentioned steps, we had gotten roughly to the point where we guessed a leopard had turned off the road and into the bush and we were about to turn in when our newly crowned "leopard spotter", Aimee, spotted a leopard sitting pretty close to us hidden in the tall grass.

Aimee spotted this lady leopard from our truck

We went off road and started following slowly behind her.  She didn’t seem to mind that this loud lumbering thing was crashing around behind her taking down trees and bushes in the process.  

Dawie said that he thought the leopard was stalking some impala in the distance and we stopped because we didn’t want our noise to scare them away.  I believe there were 2, maybe 3 vehicles crashing around trying to follow the leopard when we were joined by some hyenas, also looking to get in on the action.  The hyenas basically follow leopards for 2 reasons – either kill and eat them (hard) or wait for them to kill something and then try to steal it (less hard, but still very difficult).

Hyena in grass stalking leopard

Eventually the hyenas chased our leopard up into a tree and we waited to see what would happen.  We got some nice leopard butt shots but Dawie was convinced that she would turn around so we positioned ourselves where we had perfect morning light.  And we waited.  And waited. 

Leopard in tree.  Hyena below.

And then she turned and gave us a big yawn.  It is hard to get tired of seeing these animals – they are beautiful.

The guides are so in tune with animal behavior that they are typically correct when they predict upcoming behavior. Dawie gave us a “wait for it” she is about to get out of the tree, and because of how it is slanted, she will come our way. Sure enough, she turned, debated, and then climb/jumped down and started her hunt again.

 

Video: Leopard running down tree

We followed lady leopard through the grass but had to make room for other vehicles and moved on. 

Dawie really wanted to see a “predation” (kill), but the odds were low (as if that has ever stopped us) because it was hard to keep a visual on a leopard in the tall grass.  Leopard spotter Aimee was able to find our leopard one more time in the grass before we left the area.

We did some bird watching, stopped for our morning coffee and with only about 30-40 minutes left in our last safari, I asked if we could swing by the hippos one more time.  We started out to the hippos and then seemed to change direction at one point and circle back but I didn’t pay much attention.  What else could there be to see in our last 30 minutes?  We have learned that in the bush, there is always something.  We had made our way back to the leopard area when Dawie told us that we had missed the leopard make her kill only 20 minutes earlier, and the leopard was now in a tree, with her kill - an impala.  

We pulled up to where two other vehicles were parked so we had to stay back.  The trees were really thick so we could barely make out anything.  Eventually the other vehicles moved on and we saw the leopard sitting on a branch with an entire impala dangling in the tree with her because the hyena were still near by.  How she got that thing up in the tree must have been a sight and I was bummed we missed that, but the final result was amazing.  I was surprised by how little blood there was – just a puncture to the neck of the impala with a small dribble.  The leopard was thoroughly exhausted from the haul and hadn’t started feeding yet.  She wasn’t facing us and was unlikely to turn given how small the tree branch was, but we did get a good view regardless.

Dead impala in tree

Visual on how tall the tree was

At this point, it was about 8:55am and we couldn’t stick around too long as we had to be back at the lodge by 9am to check out, pick up our luggage and head to the airstrip – our plane was landing at 9:20 and we needed time to chase the animals off the dirt strip.  Our 6 days of safari ended on a high note – an amazing experience from start to finish with amazing guides and wonderful vehicle mates.  So now, it is on to our next adventure as we head to Victoria Falls on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border.

The crew from left - Dawie, Me, Damon, Aimee, Darrin, Emma, Simon

As nothing in the bush is ever without a story, we did the quick 3 minute drive to our airstrip and saw our plane (ten minutes early) approaching.  We saw the plane come in, do a very low fly by and then bank up quickly to circle back - wait!  Come back!  Or don't - we'd love to stay... and then we saw a bunch of wart hogs running for their lives.  Little buggers were hanging out on the air strip. 

We headed to the opposite end of the air strip to make sure the wart hogs stayed away and also to scare off a herd of impala that were hanging around just before our Cessna Caravan touched down.  As we drove the length of the runway to meet the plane, I excitedly pointed and yelled “zebra, zebra” and Damon and our driver are like “where, where” – and this thing is literally four feet from us and I’m saying “right there” and pointing.  And they are like, “um, that is a giraffe”.  Then our driver says, “I think you need a few more days in the bush”.  Yes, I do.

Video: Clearing impala off the runway

We got in the plane for a 4 minute flight to the next lodge to pick up more people (I saw a family of elephants from above) and then a 15 minute flight to the main Kruger airport where we would catch another flight to Zambia.

Video: Taking off from Elephant Plains in little plane

We actually had a real live jet for that last leg.  I've lost count of the number of planes we've been on at this point, but I think we are up to 8.

Approaching the main Kruger area was kind of a bummer because we had really become accustomed to the quiet and solitude of the bush and immediately there was so much civilization.  Oh well.  Just a different kind of adventure. 

Kruger International Airport

Close up of Kruger airport

Day 9 - Victoria Falls, Zambia & Zimbabwe

The flight to Livingstone (Zambia) was about an hour and a half.  The pilot was able to get permission from the tower to do a 360 circle around Victoria Falls on approach and we were lucky enough to be on the good side of the plane to see the everything – Vic Falls from a jet is spectacular.  We will have other viewings of it over the next few days, so more to come.

Circling above Vic Falls 

We got through customs quickly, met our driver, and headed from Zambia to our hotel in Zimbabwe.  The border crossing from Zam to Zim was madness.  The road was only 2-ish lanes, one in each direction and for at least a mile before we got to the entry point, there were big trucks lined up on the side of the road – sometimes on both sides.  The trucks were waiting to get across the border and we heard that it is usually a full day process and occasionally can take up to two weeks.

Trucks on both sides for miles

In the one lane that was actually open for moving traffic, there were cars trying to go in both directions, people walking – many carrying bundles or stuff on their heads from Zambia to sell in Zimbabwe, and there were men on bikes that were piled with giant sacks of potatoes.

We stopped at one small building and our driver took our passports and got out to do something leaving us in the car – with the car running.  Our car was immediately swarmed by men trying to sell us old worthless Zimbabwe Dollars (inflation basically made their currency worthless and now they use American dollars as their main currency).  The bills were ridiculous – Damon saw a 20 trillion dollar bill.  There was a 500 billion percent increase in inflation in the late 2000’s and money became worthless.  I’d like to bring a bill home, but I’m not paying $20 US for a piece of paper.  Our driver came out and we went to the next building where we had to get out of the car for our immigration paperwork.

It is difficult to describe this next part without having the ability to convey the smell via a blog posting, but here goes.  There was a small customs/immigration building with about 20-30 people standing in line.  We waited and waited and waited.  The smell was over powering – even outside the building.  A combination of dead fish and the worst BO you can imagine.  Everywhere.  Most of the time it was just horrible, but every now and then you got down wind of someone whose smell made your eyes water.  Mostly men with a few women thrown in.  I think Damon was about to have a heart attack from the bureaucratic inefficiency of the whole process.  Eventually we got to the one person handing simple border crossings, we got stamped and got the heck out of there.

Our hotel, the Ilala Lodge, was only a few minutes drive over the border.  At first glance we were a little worried as it is on the main road and right across from a bank and next to a strip mall.  But once we drove onto the property, it turned out to be a beautiful little oasis where the bulk of the hotel faces backwards with a view of the Vic Falls mist, and manicured lawns merging into wild bush land.  And while we did not have any major warnings about baboons or leopards breaking in, we have seen plenty of monkeys and wart hogs running around in the back.  No predators, so that is a bonus.  This lodge is much more like a hotel – we have a great room and a huge balcony that overlooks the falls (well, the mist anyways).

We settled in for, oh, about 7 minutes before it was time for our evening activity.  A shuttle picked us up at 3:30 to head for our sunset cruise on the Zambezi River.  There are baboons running around all over the side of the road, and there is elephant poop along the main roads.  So, I guess that means that elephants wander in town from time to time.  There are also a lot of people walking – many of the women are carrying baskets on their heads.  After being in the bush for a full week, it is strange to be back in civilization.

We reached the launch point for our river cruise and saw the now common wart hogs running around.  We were loaded on a small open boat with about 10 people total – we each had our own little table with unrestricted viewing and we were served unlimited booze and some light hors d’oeuvres while we cruised the River.  Some interesting sightings – there were hippos everywhere – we still haven’t seen one fully out of water, we really only get to see the tops of their heads, but there were a lot of them and they were all on the move as evidenced by their little wake of air bubbles.  

We also saw a bunch of crocs – from huge scary ones to little baby ones (apparently they can live 120 years, so the baby was supposedly about 14 years old).

Up close and personal with a huge old crocodile

And, as has been our custom, we had one of those rare totally cool viewings off in the distance, so we raced toward it to get a better view, get this, an elephant swimming across the river.  Not walking on the bottom, actually swimming.  We could see its trunk and every now and then the top of its head would pop out.  Eventually it made it to the Zambia shoreline and got out to snack on some trees.  I've heard of elephants swimming, but to see it was pretty cool.

Video: Elephant swimming in Zambezi

Video: Elephant getting out of water

Our last hoorah was a most spectacular sunset, and then we headed back to the lodge.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant - we are trying as much game meat as possible and have already experimented with ostrich stew (delicious), so tonight we tried crocodile and wart hog – both tasty. We wanted a quick dessert so decided to run to a little store across the street.  Big mistake.  The second we left hotel property, we were literally accosted by a group of men trying to sell us stuff.  They do not let up – they followed us all the way to the store and we kept saying, “no, no, no, no” but they do not let up.  It was not pleasant and I could see this was going to be a challenge if we ever wanted to walk around.  With a Twix in hand, we finally headed back to our room to watch a movie and crash early.