Howlands' African Adventures: The Big Five

The Arathusa Safari Lodge in Sabi Sands park, near Kruger National Park in South Africa where we spent the last three days, was gorgeous. We are all going through withdrawl now that we have left. I have just been able to get back online to update this blog and realized that, for some reason, my blog that I entered from Wednesday is no longer posted. It was posted long enough for Victoria to read it but then disappeared. This entry will be a summary of the amazing time we spent at Arathusa. The lodge is small with about 18 guests. All meals are served outside overlooking their lake make from a small dam. The main lodge is all open and overlooking the lake where lots of animals hang out. We go on two safaris a day, one from 5:45am to 8:45am and the second from 3:30pm to 6:30pm. We didn't have a lot of down time as we were on the go with other activites mid-day, including a helicoptor ride for Victoria's 21st birthday where we saw Blythe Canyon and God's Window), spa visits for the girls (where the girls signed me up for an anti-aging facial... so nice to be though of...), and a bush walk where we ran into a family of warthogs. The safari drives were surreal... almost like our current version of Jurassic Park. The animal sightings were incredible. We saw the Big Five: rhino, elephant, leopard, cape buffalo and lions including 6 week old lion cubs, a 2 month old elephant and lots of baby rhinos and cape buffalos. We got to see a lot of fresh kills also - a leopard feasting on an impala in a tree with his head and leg bones dangling, 6 month old lions cubs feasting on a wildebeast and a rare, sad sight... a big bull elephant kept venturing into one of the camps and causing a lot of damage. The authorities were called in and determined the elephant should be put down. To discourage poachers the elephant's head was cut off... and over 300 vultures descended around the body for a meal. The buzzing from the flies was so loud. Not something I was thrilled to see before dinner but it was definitely interesting. One of the coolest things we saw was a herd of elephants. We were positioned well when we saw a couple grazing on a tree. Then all their friends kept coming and coming and soon we were surrounded with elepahnts on all sides of us, going about their business destroying trees in the process of eating them. The leopards were so beautiful and so easy to stare at. We lucked out and were asssigned the best guide and tracker in the area, Ryan (24 years old) and Debeer. I had read about them from tripadvisor.com. Also in our truck was a lovely English couple who was visiting Arathusa for the third time and coming again in September. The best part of the day was the 'sundowner' break during the afternoon game drive. This was a cocktail hour with drinks and snacks set up in the middle of a field (anywhere the ranger wanted to take you) to see the sunset. We didn't want to leave Arathusa this morning but needed to make our way to Victoria Falls in Zambia. Instead of driving the three hour drive from the lodge back to Nelspruit airport we chartered a 'light transfer' (ie, a 4 seater airplane) which only took 25 minutes. When Brad sat down in the back seat the whole airplane tipped up :-).