final evening in the bush
Ezulwini Billy's Lodge, greater Kruger park, September 25, evening
The New Zealand ladies had left for another Ezulwini lodge around lunch time, so I was the only guest left at Billy's Lodge. I asked a staff member, Lauren I think, how many people they had here, and she said eight normally, plus one extra for now. The place only has lodging for eight guests, but just then I was here alone. No wonder the service is exaggeratedly attentive: nine people and one guest.
Anyway, this afternoon I went for another game drive, the lone guest in the vehicle with driver-guide Patrick and spotter Conrad.
Our first animal sighting was impala. They're cute, but they're so common that I didn't even reach for the camera. We also saw some guinea fowl; they're cute, and although they're common I'm not sure I have a good picture of them. I reached for the camera, but the vehicle was bouncing around too much for a good shot, and I wanted to see something more interesting than a bird I'd seen lots of times before.
But besides the impala and birds, the bush was pretty quiet for quite a while; we had been out about an hour before we saw any large animals. But the first big sighting was good: the same very large herd of buffalo we had seen last night, but this time we still had daylight to see them.
One of the buffalo had a nasty wound: one of his horns had broken off. The wound was still looked fresh. Patrick said that it was a serious injury, and when I got a good look at it (using my camera's telephoto lens as a spotting scope, as usual), I agreed. I offered the guess that the unfortunate bull would end up as lion food before too long, and Patrick agreed.
Much of the afternoon was pretty quiet - we didn't see a lot of large animals, although birds were plentiful. The other guides on the radio weren't reporting much either.
But finally we got something good: a herd of elephant. We had heard some reports of them before the New Zealand ladies had left, and spent some of our time on game drives trying to find them. I wasn't clear whether Patrick had heard another report on their location, or just happened to wander into the right place, but we turned down a road (with another road running parallel to it a few meters away, which puzzled me) and spotted them crashing through trees. Then Patrick stopped. He explained that the parallel road had been the border road for a property that doesn't grant access to others, so we couldn't follow the elephants. He did manage to maneuver through some tricky terrain to the corner of the accessible property for a better view, but I don't think we managed to get closer than a hundred meters or so.
Anyway, I still tried to get some pictures. While we were approaching on the road, I caught a picture of them, with a tusk clearly visible. After we had stopped at the corner of the accessible property, I got a few pictures of them smashing around in the trees. None were particularly clear, but I had at least seen truly wild elephants, in addition to the wild but confined elephants at Zulu Nyala. I think I also caught some video, but I haven't reviewed any of my video yet.
After that, we headed down the road, hoping to spot something else good, but we hadn't found anything by near-dark. We stopped for tea and conversation. I took my time, trying not to aggravate my burned tongue.
After tea, we headed down the road in the dark. Patrick drove, and Conrad scanned the bush with his spot-light. One of our finds was a kudu cow. She was easy to see in the spot-light, but she was moving around too much for a time exposure, and too far away for the spot-light to illuminate enough for a quick exposure. My best picture was blurry and barely recognizable.
We visited a dam along the way back, and with the help of the spot-light we located a crocodile, floating close to the shore. I got a couple of blurry pictures of it, but I thought it was pretty cool to see a crocodile at all, given that it was maybe forty meters away and dark. At the same stop, there were some plovers. I observed them through the long lens, and took a few blurry pictures. I observed that there was one with three or more chicks. The mother made calls to keep the chicks close.
The last sighting of the night, before we got back to the lodge, was impala, but I didn't think I needed a blurry picture of impala by spot-light.
On the way back, Patrick and I talked socially for part of the drive, temporarily breaking through the usual wall of deference between lodge employee and guest.
Back at the lodge, they had good news for me: my bags had arrived. They were waiting for me at the door of my cabin. Finally I would have clean clothes again!
New guests had also arrived; my bags had come from Nelspruit on their transfer van. Their arrival was pleasant news too, because I'd have company at dinner and on tomorrow morning's game drive. The staff are nice, but the wall of deference makes them somewhat less interesting as dinner company than other guests. And as it turned out, they were people I had met before, at Zulu Nyala - and they were from the Seattle area.
I briefly greeted the new arrivals, and excused myself to shower and put on the clean clothes. The shower felt good after a dusty day in dirty clothes. But when it came time to put on clean clothes, I found that I had left myself a surprise: the jeans in my newly-arrived bags were dirty too. I had worn all of my jeans at Zulu Nyala, and had only one pair washed by their laundry (which charges). I had planned to get the other two washed at Ezulwini Billy's Lodge (where it's complimentary). I ended up wearing a nice shirt to dinner with exercise shorts. The other guests were amused.
Anyway, dinner was delicious as usual; I chose a tasty salad, a pot of lamb stew, and an apple tart. The other guests were pleasant company. They told about their adventures since their stay at Zulu Nyala (Victoria Falls and a few other places), and I told about my stay at Ezulwini Billy's Lodge and my luggage adventure. After dinner, they showed what their rooms were like and I showed them mine; one of theirs was just like mine (circular), and the other was rectangular but similar in size and features.
Back at the room, I packed everything I could, except what I'd need for the next morning, then settled in to bed. I left out the very dusty jeans I had worn while my luggage was astray, and the two dirty pairs that arrived with the luggage; I was told they'd be washed in the morning while I was out on the game drive.