Animal Adventures

Life has been very very busy for us since arriving back in Johannesburg in August after a wonderful July vacation. We have traveled a great deal and taught and trained and visited and we’ve had seminars and conferences and retreats and of course we have done a great deal of entertaining. We have the couple missionaries for dinner as they come and go and visitors from Salt Lake or whomever. We love what we do and we have had some incredible experiences, but with great anticipation we decided to take a few days off (actually it was a Christmas present to each other) to go on a game drive which is one of our very favorite things to do here in Africa .
Early morning last week we left with Dr. Thomas (area physician) and his wife and President Bowden (Johannesburg Mission President) and his wife for the Mala Mala Game Reserve in Sabi Sands. It is about a 5 hour drive but one with incredible sights to see on the way.
It is quite an exciting thing to see a beautiful leopard lounging on a termite mound scanning the area for breakfast. We watched her leap off this 8 foot mound to stroll through the bush. We followed her until she found a beautiful mopani tree to climb. She gracefully leaped several feet and then climbed a few branches to plop down with legs straddling the thick branch. She was there for a long nap. We watched her with open awe; she is one of the most beautiful animals in the bush and one who doesn’t often show herself, so this was an incredible treat. We saw the big five which are elephant, cape buffalo, lion, rhino and leopard. We saw many other specimens of nature which fascinate us. The rhino was wallowing in mud, which is something we have never seen before. He would root around and then plop down in the mud and roll back and forth. He would snort and blow and he was just having a great time. We were only about 10 feet away from him so we had the smells, the snorts and grunts and the whole wonderful view. After about 15 minutes, he jumped up and rambled off at quite a quick pace. They are surprisingly fast for such a huge animal. We were glad his vision was poor as he isn’t an animal to trifle with. We, of course saw hundreds of agile impalas running and leaping and playing. There were dozens of new babies in every herd and they are adorable, especially in such large numbers. The second day it drizzled and rained all day, but we are avid viewers and we weren’t slowed down by inclement weather. We had gone to the safari with sunglasses, hats sunscreens, cropped pants and short sleeved tee shirts only to find ourselves in the rain and very chilly in the middle of the summer, but the guides gave us raingear and out we went to find those beautiful creatures that God created. The rivers and streams were deep but we plowed through at least 20 that day with water spraying us, hanging on for dear life and laughing as we went. We mowed down trees following the animals and searched diligently to see what we could find. We saw another leopard the second day. This was a cub waiting in the bush while momma caught an impala and pulled it high up a tree. It was an amazing sight to see how high that leopard can carry his kill to protect it from other animals. We saw two impala hanging in the trees that day. The elephants are wonderful to watch as they eat and eat and push trees over and as they scratch their rear ends on a tree. We could watch them for hours. We saw several giraffes gracefully walking and striding on their way from treetop to treetop. They are majestic as they walk and they are also very curious as they careen their necks to look at us. Watching a giraffe splay his legs so he can get low enough to get a drink is a sight to behold. We like to analyze the stripes on a zebra. Sometimes they are black with white stripes and sometimes the opposite. These beautiful creatures were mostly brown, black and white. Did you know that a mother zebra will only let her new baby look at her for the first three weeks of it’s life so it will learn to identify his mother by the stripe pattern? Every pattern on each zebra is different, just fingerprints are never alike. They run together and also are fun to watch. We love their crew cuts. We were close to 5 at one lodge (Blyde River Canyon Lodge for those who know), in fact so close that we could have touched them. We are bush savy enough to know that isn’t safe. The lions we saw were up on rocks sleeping which they do 18 hours a day. They are magnificent creatures. They looked so innocent way up above us on those huge boulders. The rocks were probably 30-40 feet high. We were right below them and could see them breathing and twitching and brushing off the flies. There have been many times on other drives that we have been 2 feet away from them in our open landrover. It is an exciting adventure to be on. The kudus were beautiful and quite plentiful in comparison in this park. We saw several huge magnificent males with their curled horns. Some of those horns were 4 feet long with beautiful curves and twists. They are a little skittish so you have to slowly drive upon them. We saw waterbucks wandering around and baboons frolicking on the roads and in trees. The herd of cape buffalo we saw was about 450 in number and we know they are kind of cows, but they too are fun to see. The males have huge helmut like crowns on their heads which they butt each other with. We saw several doing that, but mostly they just chewed their cuds with slow precision. We were 2-3 feet from them as we sat for minutes watching them. They too are amazing and actually very dangerous if they get riled. The hippos stayed in the water which is natural in the daytime. We only saw one crocodile this time and even they have a certain kind of beauty. The brown spotted hyenas were visible too this time. We saw one chasing playfully some impalas. It was funny as he rarely attacks. He simply lets other animals kill and then they scavenge.
On some rocks we saw up close and personal a family of klipspringers. They are a tiny antelope with padded hoofs that enable them to jump from rock to rock. Amazing!!
The birds in Africa are both beautiful and ugly, but we love them all. The different kinds of frogs are numerous and even though we only saw one, we heard the most beautiful chorus of them singing and chirping and calling their mates. After dark our guide turned off his engine so we could hear the cacophony of sounds. Believe it or not it sounded like a beautiful symphony.
The sights and sounds of Africa are glorious. Heavenly Father has created a multitude of creatures that we love to watch. We came home exhausted but renewed and feeling very blessed that we have the unique opportunity to see all of these wonderful creations. Africa is a land of great diversity in landscape, animals, people, sounds, and sights and truly we find every day a great adventure of some kind. My heart simply fills with joy as I think of all the wonderful experiences we continue to have. It is impossible to write about most experiences, but as we carry these things in our hearts we marvel …..at everything.