We went on our second game drive around 3pm. Our new game driver’s name was Alfie. He’s an interesting character. Apparently he lived in America for 10 months or so, working in the carnival there. Told me that he’d bee all throughout the southeast and Texas, and up into Canada. He was a great guide, as he would stop the Land Rover and actually taught us stuff, instead of just pointing at an animal and going, “that’s a giraffe, they eat this.”
So, yeah, the second game drive was excellent. Right off the bat, we got to see some water buffalo at, where else, water. We watched their herd move down this hill and then engulf this little lake. After a few minutes, they became agitated by our presence and started to make their way back up the hill. Alfie thought that they were going to a nearby, different lake to drink, so we backed the Land Rover up to move to that location. As we were heading there, we saw that the buffalo had really just tricked us into leaving, as they were now quickly returning to the original watering hole. We were lucky that they did.
Why were we lucky, you ask? Well, because we decided to leave them alone and move on, we got to see some lions. Kwandwe has a pen where it is currently housing two young lions (a brother and sister), who they are preparing to ship off two a different game reserve. As we drove by this enclosure, we saw three wild lions outside the fence (one male, two females). Alfie told us that this pride doesn’t like the two enclosed lions because they are on the pride’s territory. After watching the lions nap for about 20 minutes, they got up and went to the fence to heckle the other lions. Had we followed the buffalo, we would’ve missed seeing these lions up close.
Anyway, the three lions were amazing. They were mostly napping while we were there; Alfie told us that it appeared that they had recently eaten. The male lion was awesome. He finally woke up and started moving around, allowing us to take some awesome photographs. The one that you see in this blog post is my favorite. Hanging out and watching these lions sleep and then wake up and do nothing may sound boring, but it has been far and away the most incredible part of this trip.
After we left the lions, we drove around a bit more, and then came upon a cliff where Alfie stopped the car for some “sundowners.” This was basically a chance for us to get out of the Land Rover, drink some hot chocolate with Amarula, and see the sunset. It was nice to get out of the Land Rover and stretch the legs for a bit. This also provided the opportunity for some photographs to be taken, as you can see in the album I’ve posted.
After our “sundowners”, we continued on our game drive, now looking for nocturnal animals. We didn’t really see all that much, save for a few porcupines, which were rather large. Aside from those, we saw nothing else of note, and returned back to the Ecca Lodge for dinner.
That pretty much sums up my day. If I were to describe my day in one word it would probably be: wowwhatanawesomef’ndayican’tbelievei’monsafari. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Totsien, my friends!
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