Friday, January 22nd - Manyeleti, South Africa

We woke up to drum beats this morning at 5 a.m. - the lodge's version of a wake-up call since there is no phone service here.  No internet either so very peaceful.  Coffee, tea and biscotti were provided to get us fuelled up before our 6 a.m. Game drive.    Breakfast was to follow that when the drive was completed at 10.

The lodge is right beside the entry to the Manyeleti Game Reserve, a private reserve which back up against Kruger National Park.  Apparently there are four or five of these private reserves that opened when Kruger did and eventually they were so successful that Kruger allowed the fences to be taken down between the national park and these private reserves.  This allowed more room for the animals to roam.  The private reserves had to upgrade their fencing and security to Kruger standard of course, but they were willing to do that as they would get more animals on their reserves.  In exchange they pay an annual fee to the park so it's a win-win for both parties.  And if our drive this morning was any indication, it is also a big win for the tourists.

It took all of three minutes to get from the resort parking to the gate of the Manyeleti Reserve, and almost from the moment we drove in we were looking at animals.  We saw the big five very easily.  

- The elephants, which are generally the easiest to see because they are the largest, were the most elusive but we saw a few up on the hill early on and we eventually saw lots of them much closer.  They are always so magnificent to see.  I would have loved to have watched them (and all the others) a lot longer.

- We saw a white rhino down by the damn and that was a surprise to everyone including the driver/guide.  The rhino was just wandering through the field on the other side of the water.  Our other vehicle was on that side so they got an even better view.  However, we weren't to be disappointed thought because later on we saw three other rhinos that were much closer.  

- The lions were being lazy, which I think is the only way I've ever seen them.  There was a female sleeping in the shade about twenty feet from the road so she was easily spotted and photographed.  Another female and three cubs were just behind her and also very easy to see.  A couple of them were sleeping - one totally upside down with his feet in the air - while the front one was a bit more active scratching and cleaning himself.   

- The cape or African buffalo were not sleeping.  They seemed to be everywhere in big groups with some of the younger ones fighting with each other (in play we thought) and some very young calves probably only a day or two old.  When they appeared there were many of them and they just wandered across our path as if we weren't even there.  They never gave us any trouble at all but their very serious looks always look mean to me.

- The leopard was not quite as friendly.  Another guide coming the other way down the road told us that a female leopard was coming our way so we sat very quietly for about 15 minutes and then we saw her between the bushes but she was gone again.  We moved up and sat a bit longer.  She appeared again but just briefly.  Again we moved up and waited quietly.  Some of the others saw her that time but I never did locate her. I didn't get a picture at all with my camera - at least I couldn't find her in the pictures - but others got fabulous shots.

We also saw baboons, impalas, kudus, crocodiles, gnu, hippos, bush bucks, wildebeest, warthogs (even one family), one single giraffe, and probably others that I am forgetting, as well as a lot of birds that I can't even begin to remember the names for.  

The one giraffe appeared at a watering hole as we were on our way out of the park.  There were two gnu with it.  On the other side of the water a group of Buffalo appeared from the left with two kudus in front of them.  Another large group of buffalo was approaching from the right and a third group was coming across the road.  Then suddenly a large herd of elephants with lots of little ones appeared from the back and headed toward the water.  And of course there were hippos in the middle.  We couldn't stay long as our time was up but it would have been wonderful to have seen them all together around the water.

Speaking of water, there is very little of it.  They are definitely in a drought condition right now and there is very little water in any of these holes.  The hippos were always in the middle when we saw them and I'm guessing that is the only place deep enough for them.  One of the dams a bit further north is down to 12% of capacity and I'm guessing this park is in the same situation.  They need some rain right away if they are going to have enough for everyone to share, humans included.

We got back to the lodge just after 10 and had a delicious breakfast.  We were all pretty hungry by then so the delicious might have been relative to that fact but I don't think so.  After breakfast we had just a bit of free time before we left to got to a preschool that GAdventures supports through its Planterra charitable arm   The Hope Africa Children's Day School in Manyeleti has two classrooms and last year had 96 students between ages 2 and 5, and the classrooms were much smaller than any we would ever have in Canada.  They have very few educational supplies and furniture but the staff and the kids seemed very happy.  We arrived just before lunch and it was Friday so they had chicken and rice and it looked delicious and they had lots of it.  As each of them finished they took their plate and fork to the side, scraped off any extra food and put them in the respective pans to be washed.  Some of the tour group and brought balloons which they blew up and the kids liked those but didn't really seem to know what to do with them.  And someone brought bubbles and that was a real hit, although they all wanted to blow the bubbles and didn't really see the use in popping them or catching them.  We were only there for a short time but it was fun.  

After we got back to the lodge we had some free time, which I used to download my pictures and delete a lot of them as most of them were pretty bad.  However, there were also some mighty fine ones.   At 1:30 some of us had a light lunch, which really wasn't needed at the time but was good to tide us over to dinner time.  The afternoon was spent resting, reading, doing blogs (like this one), going for walks or some of the others went back out on another four hour game drive.  I decided against that since the morning one was so good and we saw everything possible here except for a cheetah.

Dinner was outside again and very delicious.  And tonight we had entertainment as some local dancers showed us some of their local dances.  It was another early evening as we have another early morning tomorrow and another long day ahead.