The Halls Go to Africa!: Pumba, Simba, and the Gang

It was the big animal event we'd all been waiting for--our first safari in Africa! We spent three nights at Gwalagwala Game Lodge, a private game reserve just west of South Africa's famous Kruger National Park. We arrived Tuesday afternoon and were greeted at the tiny Hoedspruit airport by Dorian, the owner of the lodge. He drove us to the lodge and showed us our lovely tent and the rest of the camp. "Tent" is a bit of a misnomer, actually--the tent was on a wooden platform and included a full wood and stone bathroom, as well as a front porch overlooking a river.

The schedule was somewhat unusual: we were awoken around 5:00 AM by a man softly calling "Good morning!" through our tent walls. We then stumbled out of bed for tea or coffee and headed out for either a drive/walk on the Gwalagwala reserve or a "Big Five" drive on the neighboring Thornybush Game Reserve. [FYI: the "Big Five" are lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and Cape buffalo]. We returned to camp around 9:30 or 10 for breakfast, and spent the middle of the day napping, reading, and playing Scrabble. Afternoon tea was served at 3:15, and then we headed out for another game drive.

Our first evening game drive was spectacular: we spotted four of the Big Five, including a pride of seven lions and a whole host of elephants. We also saw a group of four rhino, including a ridiculously cute seven month-old baby rhino who stuck to his mother like glue. Our amazing tracker Lawrence then led us to a herd of Cape buffalo. We swung around in front of them and turned off the open-top Range Rover. We then just sat there in the twilight as a huge herd (75+) of the buffalo moved around us. We were surrounded by buffalo in all directions. Keep in mind that the Cape buffalo is regarded as the most ill-tempered of the Big 5!

The next morning, amazingly, topped our first game drive. Using all their expertise, Lawrence and some other trackers managed to find an elusive leopard (they are notoriously difficult to find). She was absolutely stunning and superbly camouflaged. Earlier in the day, we had seen a herd of impala sprinting away only to later find just yards away a lion pride moments after the lionesses had caught one of the impala. We parked right next to the dominant male, covered in blood as he gnawed on the impala--the smell was awful and you could hear bones crunching as he worked his way through it.

Other animal highlights included:
* Seeing two hyenas trotting through the darkness on our way back to camp one night.
* An absolutely huge number of warthogs, including one nearly tame one who hung around camp.
* Walking within feet of six giraffes at the same time. They are inquisitive and not all that skittish--they would happily peer at you for a few minutes, then go back to eating treetop leaves.
* The monkeys who were all around camp--we woke up from a nap to find six on our front porch!
* A huge (four foot) monitor lizard just outside our tent.
* Many, many zebra, impalas, water buck, and other antelope

There were only 12 guests at any time at the camp, and two of the other couples while we were there were young honeymooners from the UK. It was great to have people our age with whom to share the experience.

Finally, a comic highlight. We were encouraged to ask questions of our guide about the animals. On our first night, it rained heavily. HEAVILY. It had finally tapered off when we found the Cape buffalo. A South African on safari with us asked the guide: "That wetness on their back--is that some sort of secretion or have they been licking each other or what?" His wife turned around in disbelief and said "It's the rain, you idiot." We did everything we could to not fall out of the truck laughing. Amazing.