Day 34 – Safari

Oct 1st

Morning Drive
After a quick cup of coffee and biscuits, we headed out for our first morning game drive. We saw tons of animals, including impala, wildebeest, zebra, eland, baboons, nyala, reedbok and steenbok. The best part of the drive was when we stopped at a cliff looking over a dried riverbed and saw a herd of elephants disappearing into the grass around the bed. Disappointed we missed the elephants, we were standing around chatting when the herd suddenly appeared right in front of us coming up the cliff face! The pack even had baby elephants that were no older than 6 months, so our driver freaked out and yelled at us to get back in the van. We all scrambled for our seats and sat and watched as the elephants trudged past our van to the greenery behind us. Having enough adventure for the moment, we headed back to camp for breakfast.

Meals and Bush walk
Mama Cook made us delicious, greasy French toast, cooked tomatoes and onions and mealie pap (African porridge). Mealie pap tastes like Elmer’s glue, but once you add a touch of syrup it really isn’t that bad. While we were gathered around savoring the meal, Stephen started his legendary, stream-of-conscious bush talks were he talks, jokes and harasses people (with eggs) for about two hours. During a bathroom break, I snuck into our bunk and took a nap. I was a little apprehensive of falling asleep, since no one would know if I were eaten by a hyena, but I couldn’t resist my pillow. When Sara woke me up later lunch had just ended and Stephen was still joking around with students by the campfire. I grabbed a tuna sandwich from what was left and we headed out for a bush walk with Sugar. He explained how different flora meant things to the Zulu culture. Certain plants had healing qualities and others were important to fertility or adulthood ceremonies. I can now also tell you the difference between various kinds of animal dung, including elephants, rhino and hyenas. During our walk we came upon a zebra carcass that lions had devoured. One student, Jack picked it up and put it on his head for a photo op, but I was not willing to go that far for a picture. Our final destination was what they call Pride Rock, which is across the riverbed from our camp and is known for as a lions’ hangout. There were no lions when we went (thankfully), but the rock had a great view up and down the bed.

Afternoon Drive
Once we got back to camp, we stocked up on water bottles and headed out for a three hour tour of the area with Seamore as our driver. We saw tons of more animals, including most of the animals in the Lion King (puma, rafeki, timon’s house etc). We saw an earless black rhino that Stephen endearingly watches out for every time he camps in the park. I don’t know if it was post-mating season, but we saw tons of babies: baby elephants, baby rhino, baby zebra. Each were so cute and we all joked about running out to give them a hug. Upon hearing news of a lion in the area, Seamore sped erratically through the park to the sighting spot and we got to catch the last few glimpses of the male lion before it snuck into the grass. After a little more time of the road, we watched the most vibrant red sunset I have ever seen and headed back to camp.

Nighttime Adventures
Once back at Sontuli camp, we gathered around the fire to chat and listen to Chris sing along with his guitar. He concocted excellent renditions of Sublime and Bob Marley songs by slipping “playing with eggs in Africa” and Stephen’s crazy stories into the lyrics. Stephen made us chant “This is Eggfrica” for a bit before we were finally allowed dinner. Mama Cook made beef stew and veggies over rice with yams and what we lovingly called “soap salad” on the side. Eating in the dark was quite a challenge, since you really weren’t sure if you were sticking beef or a chunk of beef fat in your mouth. After dinner we were keeping warm near the fire when suddenly Amanda started screaming about scorpions on someone’s leg. We all looked at her like she was crazy, while everyone on the other side of the fire started jumping about and swatting their legs. Heather, the girl with the scorpion on her, just stood there and calmed everyone down. Stephen then nicknamed her “Scorpion Queen” as Sugar picked it off her and the others on the ground and took them into the woods. In the meantime, we started to roast strawberry-flavored marshmallows. That’s when we heard a loud roar a short distance from our camp. Stephen predicted it was 3 km away due to its volume and made us gather together on a raised deck for security. Everyone was freaking out as we listened to the darkness and heard multiple lions “talking” to each other. Sugar and Stephen got out spotlights so we could see the flicker of eyes on Pride’s rock in the distance. Eventually, we fell asleep in our bunks to the sounds of lions not to far away.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was spending hours on the game drive turning American sayings into African ones, like Jack’s “Hold your zebras.” My “low” was barely sleeping because the wind sounded like wildebeest trampling our camp... and there were lions.