Ugh! Being up at 5.45 am is not really my or Victoria’s idea of being on holiday but today we are going on an 8.30 am game drive at a private reserve near George called Botlierskop, an Afrikaans word meaning ‘bottle stop’ and so called because there is a huge rock formation which looks exactly like one.
Unfortunately, it is pouring with rain, and for a while we dither about whether to go or to cancel. In the end, we see some little patches of blue appear in the distance and take a chance that the grotty stuff has passed over and it will turn out nice.
We leave an hour later and it takes nearly an hour and a half to get there. By the time we arrive, it is still cloudy, but has stopped raining and there are patches of blue sky which are getting bigger and more numerous all the time. We have booked the game drive and picnic with the elephants although when we arrive they warn us that it might be too windy and that if it is they will sort something else out for us.
While we wait for another couple to join us, we are served tea by a huge open fire, which, once planted in front of, is difficult to move away from.
We get into the open sided truck with Neil our guide. It is just us three as the other couple who have booked fail to turn up. We first drive by the three elephants who will join us for a picnic later. Mum, dad and baby, although apparently only the dad and the baby will join us as the mum is a bit naughty and can occasionally get aggressive and too close to everything.
Then it’s off to see the lions. While all the other animals are left to roam free, the three lions are kept in a separate 100 hectare enclosure. This ensures that they don’t eat the rest of the exhibits and that all visitors get to see them. We take another game warden in with us who is armed just with a big stick. I think I would have preferred some sort of dart gun or fire arm but in we go.
We are hardly through the double gates and there they are, two 7-year old females and a 4-year old male called Kris – who’s a bit lively and inquisitive, as we find out later!
The lions are all former performance or zoo lions who have got too big, boisterous or ‘naughty’ (the game wardens seem to love this word) for their environment and have been re-homed. For this reason, they are not afraid of humans and do not move away as we approach in our open sided truck like wild ones would if we went this close. For a while none of them show any interest in us, and continue to laze in the sunshine.
Photos: Kris, wary at first, then bored with us, then a little bit too interested
Suddenly, Kris gets up and advances really quickly up to the truck. A look of concern crosses the face of the additional warden as he knows that he has to get between the paying customers and this huge lump of muscle, claws and fangs, armed only with a stick. Mike and I, looking equally worried, slowly edge our way into the centre of the truck, while Victoria sits rooted to the spot and films the event. He prowls around the truck looking in all the way around. The warden bangs his stick against the truck telling this eating machine to go away and not be naughty (there’s that word again) but it doesn’t look as though Kris is going to behave as he hunkers down slightly and looks prepared to jump. At this point, Neil starts the engine and pulls slowly away and through the gates. Phew!
We go back to the day lodge to pick up the other couple who have finally turned up and for us three to go to the loo, probably as a result of close encounter then we are off again.
We pass herds of impala (both the normal ones and the rare black ones) and wildebeest then head further up the hills.
As we climb ever higher it gets windier and windier and absolutely freezing - well, not actually freezing but pretty bloody cold – and the three women on the truck eventually give in and ask for blankets. In the distance three giraffe appear, a male and two females, munching away at whatever they can get their mouths on.
The male is the darker of the three giraffes although this is because he is older. The way you can tell males from females (if the appropriate parts are hidden) is that the horns on females are hairy whereas they are bald on males.
We continue on our way, past countless large, but not giant, tortoises, intent on being road kill victims as they saunter along in the path of oncoming traffic. It’s a good job that they are large enough to be seen. They are all leopard tortoises, shown by the markings on their shells, dulled by dirt but just about discernable. As we pull up and stop, one rushes (quite quickly for a tortoise too) to hide in the shade of our truck, not a very good idea. Neil has to eventually get out and turn him around but immediately he turns back to the truck the tortoise follows him. Eventually Neil picks him up and carries him to the side of the road, then runs back to the truck and starts the engine before he can be followed.
Next stop is a trio of rhinos, all female, the male having cleared off to who knows where. I have never seen such lazy rhinos. They are standing when we arrive, but then lie down and glare at us accusingly, not moving anything except their large Shrek-like ears which are constantly on the swivel. They have very bad eyesight and rely heavily on their keen sense of hearing.
Round the corner we then see Cape mountain zebras, stocky little things, smaller than the Burchell zebras that we saw at the national park near Richards Bay, and with more markings which are browner on the younger ones.
These are roaming around with more wildebeest and bundebok which I have never seen before.
We start to head back to the day lodge, passing more deer-like things that, as they raise their heads from foraging in what looks like heather, makes us feel like we have been transported to the Scottish highlands.
Still wrapped in our blankets, we arrive back at the day centre, to be told that it is far too cold and windy for our picnic with the elephants to be taken down by the river. We agree. Instead, we will have our picnic indoors but first we go to feed the elephants that we saw earlier.
We are taken down to where the elephants are waiting for us. All three are there, although the female is not allowed to come forward. Although free to walk around, the elephants are kept behind a wooden bar – they can get too excited by the fruit being offered and have a tendency to wander forwards and potentially squish the guests (which would not be good for business!). The male is called forwards first. There are two large buckets of fruit and we are told to feed him from the trunk first. As you hold out a piece of fruit, he extends his trunk, and taking it from you, pops it into his mouth. We all have a go but I am a bit squeamish about all the elephant snot that covers the end of his trunk and quickly wimp out to take the photos instead. Once he has been fed via the trunk we are shown how to feed him by mouth, saying ‘trunk up’, waiting for the trunk to be lifted then hanging onto a tusk and popping the fruit straight onto the most enormous tongue I have ever seen. When all the fruit is gone, he is shown the empty pot so that he knows he isn’t going to get any more, then he is sent away and it is the baby’s turn.
The baby is lazy and much prefers being fed directly into his mouth so he doesn’t have to go to the trouble of finding his own mouth with his trunk. Sounds like a child I once knew!
Once all the fruit is gone, we go up to the lodge and are led to the conference room where our picnic has been spread out for us infront of the fire. Out of the wind, the day has turned warm and the staff have decided not to light the fire as it would be too hot. However, our picnic is amazing. They have spread out piles of cushions on a large rug and scattered flower petals everywhere. There is a table laden with fresh fruit and buckets of ice containing sparkling wine (SA champagne) water and fruit juice, and there are three picnic boxes absolutely full of food, everything beautifully wrapped and presented. There is salad, smoked salmon and prawn warps, skewers full of dried fruit, nuts, brownies, rolls, crackers, cheese and fresh figs and biltong! We can’t eat it all and put back what we can’t eat for later.
By the time we have finished eating, it is a truly glorious day and we take our last glasses of wine out outside to admire the views.
Taking our leftovers in their little boxes we head for home. Ann has got a lovely meal of filet steak and sweet potato prepared for us but we are so stuffed that we cry off and she and Terry go out for a meal together leaving us to the contents of our picnic boxes.
What a great day. It’s true that these relatively small private game reserves are not to everybody’s taste, with only small groups of each type of animal and some being in semi captivity or ‘tame’. However, we were able to get much closer to ‘wild’ animals than we were able to at the larger national park and at long last, we came very close, extremely close, to the elusive lions.
