[Note: Sorry I haven't been posting. Mike & I were both afflicted with a mean tummy bug for a couple days - Mike while at the lodge & me after arriving in Cape Town. That's a first for both of us on an international trip. I blame airline travel. Fortunately, we both felt better before our epic travel day home.
So buckle up & join us on the final part of our journey ...]
Game drives are so incredible!!! They genuinely care about the animals. Although we got pretty close, the animals were given the greatest respect and are never touched or harrassed in any way. The animals go about their business & we had the privilege to watch.
The meals were top notch - the best we had in South Africa & that's saying a lot. We actually ate impala one night and warthog another night. Yes, they were both delicious. Impala is very common here - and tastes like very lean beef or buffalo. Warthog is - well - a funky-looking hog. Leaner than pork tho' and the meat was a little darker - very tasty wrapped in bacon. =) And don't worry neither is an endangered species - we were just exercising our rights as carnivores. We weren't the only ones eating impala & warthog ...
We had examples of carnivores all around us. We visited the momma leopards and their cubs each day. Each had a fresh kill. They eat to their full the first day & then each momma put both her cub and her kill in the tree tops to keep the meat safe from the hyenas & other predators. Of course the hyenas would be under the trees to catch anything that fell and looked very hopeful that the whole kill would fall down. Hyenas do kill cubs on occasion when they are small but these cubs were getting big enough to care for themselves and they can run very fast. Then after a few days - to keep her cub safe - momma moves away from what is left of the kill. The leopards will be full for a few more days and then momma will have to hunt again.
The Kirkmans Kamp lodge where we stayed was a manor house back in the day. A rich Englishman tried to raise cattle there but ended up spending most of the time killing the lions who ate his cattle - ummm - duh. Later they turned it into a hunting lodge - rich people would come & spend a lot of money to kill a lot of animals for sport. Now it is park of the Sabi Sands Game Reserve and all the animals are protected. The game reserve is right along the boundary with Kruger National Park and there is no fence between so the animals can roam freely everywhere. They are working very hard to keep poachers out of the game reserve - our car was thoroughly searched when we entered the area. But sadly poachers kill hundreds of rhino each year for their horns. One horn is worth $300,000 on the black market, and with the average wage for a poor family at $30 a month, you can see the incentive.
One afternoon there was an abundance of animals right out our back door. We just sat on the patio watching monkeys, bushbaks, elephants, warthogs and more.
Our stay there was very relaxing (except for the 5:30 am wake up knock on the door for the early morning game drive) and we would have liked to stay longer. The service was impeccible and every game drive was a real adventure. Must come back here someday when our granddaughter is older.
So buckle up & join us on the final part of our journey ...]
Game drives are so incredible!!! They genuinely care about the animals. Although we got pretty close, the animals were given the greatest respect and are never touched or harrassed in any way. The animals go about their business & we had the privilege to watch.
The meals were top notch - the best we had in South Africa & that's saying a lot. We actually ate impala one night and warthog another night. Yes, they were both delicious. Impala is very common here - and tastes like very lean beef or buffalo. Warthog is - well - a funky-looking hog. Leaner than pork tho' and the meat was a little darker - very tasty wrapped in bacon. =) And don't worry neither is an endangered species - we were just exercising our rights as carnivores. We weren't the only ones eating impala & warthog ...
We had examples of carnivores all around us. We visited the momma leopards and their cubs each day. Each had a fresh kill. They eat to their full the first day & then each momma put both her cub and her kill in the tree tops to keep the meat safe from the hyenas & other predators. Of course the hyenas would be under the trees to catch anything that fell and looked very hopeful that the whole kill would fall down. Hyenas do kill cubs on occasion when they are small but these cubs were getting big enough to care for themselves and they can run very fast. Then after a few days - to keep her cub safe - momma moves away from what is left of the kill. The leopards will be full for a few more days and then momma will have to hunt again.
The Kirkmans Kamp lodge where we stayed was a manor house back in the day. A rich Englishman tried to raise cattle there but ended up spending most of the time killing the lions who ate his cattle - ummm - duh. Later they turned it into a hunting lodge - rich people would come & spend a lot of money to kill a lot of animals for sport. Now it is park of the Sabi Sands Game Reserve and all the animals are protected. The game reserve is right along the boundary with Kruger National Park and there is no fence between so the animals can roam freely everywhere. They are working very hard to keep poachers out of the game reserve - our car was thoroughly searched when we entered the area. But sadly poachers kill hundreds of rhino each year for their horns. One horn is worth $300,000 on the black market, and with the average wage for a poor family at $30 a month, you can see the incentive.
One afternoon there was an abundance of animals right out our back door. We just sat on the patio watching monkeys, bushbaks, elephants, warthogs and more.
Our stay there was very relaxing (except for the 5:30 am wake up knock on the door for the early morning game drive) and we would have liked to stay longer. The service was impeccible and every game drive was a real adventure. Must come back here someday when our granddaughter is older.