Day 12:

We spent three of the best days and nights of our lives in and around Kings Camp in the Timbavati Wildlife Park in northeastern South Africa. I am writing today's blog on our flight from South Africa to New Delhi with strongly dissonant emotions. I'm excited to explore New Delhi and Agra where we will visit the Taj Majal. And I'm sore-hearted at leaving behind the wonder and beauty of Africa. We had the opportunity to do safari drives in three different parks, one private and two public, in two different countries.

Comparing the drives is not like the apples and oranges comparison we often use. Kings Camp and the Timbavati are on a whole different level from the other parks. A better comparison would be carrots and karats. If I have a dozen carrots of Kruger or Chobe (more on those in later blogs), it would be a tasty treat for several meals. Kings Camp and the Timbavati are a dozen karats of diamonds. Big sparkling gems of dazzling light adorning a queen’s crown or a brooch worn by the Marquess de Magnifique. A lifetime of memories in three overly short and yet so very fulfilling days.

A brief shout-out to Patrick Siebel and Luxury Africa Safaris who arranged Kings Camp, our lodging in Hermanus, our lodging at Perry’s Bridge in Hazyview (more on that in our next blog), our in-country flights, car rentals and multiple airport meet/greet/transfers. They made this trip the phenomenal experience that it was for us and were superb to work with. They offered one-in-a-lifetime memories, and it truly was. Patrick and team were referred to us by Tasha and Alan Withers, our friends who grew up in South Africa. Tasha was an advocate for our Garden Route trip which was terrific.

Our plane was 30 minutes late getting out of Johannesburg on our flight to Hoedspruit (normal airport traffic stuff for our layover from Port Elizabeth). I had it in my mind that we would be arriving too late for a safari drive on our first day in camp. So, I enjoyed the sight of warthogs and impalas all around the taxiway at the small Hoedspruit airport.

After landing at Hoedspruit, we waited along a short side taxiway while another jet landed and then we back-taxied on the runway to the terminal building. That means we taxied on the landing runway the opposite direction of any jet traffic that would land on that same runway. Yikes!

Duane was our driver from the airport to Kings Camp in Timbavati and educated us about the parks. In the early years of the Kruger national park, the park was fenced off and separated from other private lands. It seems that the park was not big enough to support its animal population. The population was being stressed by insufficient food and range. Meanwhile, various landowners had their own smaller fenced off sections of land where they, too, had roaming game.

The landowners recognized an opportunity for more impactful safari experiences for guests and a better life experience for their resident wildlife. Some years ago, they got together and agreed upon a set of rules to share the use of their properties among consortium members. The fences between their lands went down within what came to be the Timbavati private game reserve.

Seeing a larger opportunity, the Timbavati owners and Kruger national park management officials came to an operating agreement, and subsequently the fences went down between Kruger and the Timbavati as well. The result is a diverse range area that encompasses over 7,576 square miles (20,373 kilometers) of land for many of the most awe-inspiring animals to roam the earth in our modern times.

We arrived at Kings Camp right at 3 PM. Our hosts went overboard to ensure that we were able to join the 3:30 game drive! They gave us a quick explanation of the camp facilities as they guided us to our rooms where they had lunch already prepared for us (tasty Asian chicken wraps in to-go bags filled with other goodies). In 20 minutes, we had freshened up, changed our clothes, eaten a quick bite and arrived at the meeting room for our safari prep where we met with Grant, our guide and a master of the Timbavati game drive.

We talked with Grant about our goals for the drive (we wanted to see everything, no surprise there). Grant talked about how the afternoon's drive would work. We would be out on the drive from 3:30 until around 8 PM. We would have a break in the late afternoon for snacks, hot and cold beverages (including yummy South African amarulla and other over-21 drinks), and to mark our territory (one of our later drive companions called it using the lavatree). We would finish the drive with a short segment in the dark looking for the far more elusive nocturnal game. After our brief, we went out to our jeep to meet Goodman, our tracker and we were on our way.

In Kings Camp, each guide and tracker work as a long-term paired team. They get to know each other and have their own language. It appears to be a mix of hand signals, various South African languages (including English) as well as knowing glances, telepathy and perhaps a touch of inspired magic. These fellows were phenomenal. It seemed that Goodman could spot lion tracks on hard rock and Grant could tell us the exact name, behavior, dining and mating habits of every bird, insect and animal we saw both in the far distance and right there on the road in front of us. Where I would see a dark blob in a tree, Grant saw a specific species of eagle and had us educated on its hunting behavior long before we were close enough for decent pictures.

The safari vehicles we took had four rows of seats in pairs plus a single seat off the front of the jeep (using the word generically to mean ORV--not sure of the brand of the vehicle) where Goodman sat watching for tracks and game sign. Grant sat in the front row, driving and guiding us along tar streets (asphalt for us American folk), gravel and dirt roads, dry riverbeds and the occasional jaunt out into the raw bush.

The jeep had no top. It had no side viewing obstructions. There was nothing but the thinnest of air between us and the lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Well, no tigers and bears but I'm sure you take my meaning. The most important instructions we received were to say seated and not to speak too loudly. As Grant explained it, the vehicle is neither predator nor prey to the game. The game largely ignore it. The occupants become part of the jeep and are equally ignored, even Goodman sitting way out past the nose of the jeep. So long as they remain seated. When an occupant stands up, they become a separate human being and no longer part of the mechanical beast.

We witnessed one time what standing up would do. An occupant in one of the jeeps from another camp decided to stand to get a better picture of the lions. Yes, the lions. Yes, that is a Darwin-nominating and potentially award-winning maneuver. The lions immediately sat up and took an interest in him. And with equal speed, his guide gave him the what-for and he sat back down. No human lunch for the lions that day.

One of the key differences between the Timbavati and Kruger is that so long as the ground is reasonably dry, the guides are free to drive offroad into the bush (really, between the bushes so as not to damage forage for the animals) so we could get up close to the game. Not so close as to stress them. And yet much closer than one might imagine in a lumbering metal machine, clanking and chugging its way through the brush and the scrub. Just about the only animal to give us more than a sideways glance were the impalas--the walking protein of the game-park food chain.

We had six separate game drives over the course of our three-night stay. On our first drive we saw two of the big five plus the two most elusive members of the magnificent seven. The big five are the animals that are considered to be the most dangerous to hunt on foot. They include elephants, lions, buffalo, rhinos and leopards. The magnificent seven include the five plus cheetahs and wild dogs.

Day one's magnificent seven included elephants, lions, a cheetah and a pack of wild dogs among a host of other wildlife. Our drive companion, Julie (there were just three of us in the jeep other than Grant and Goodman), said they had been looking for the wild dogs all week. They are some of the toughest to find, ranging here and there continuously. Our first day we were gifted with a pack of close to a dozen beauties mottled with splotches, stipples and flows of beige, black, white and brown. They played on the tar street right there beside our jeep. Then they headed off into the bush for the hunt.

Less than 30 minutes later, we encountered the fastest land animal on earth, the cheetah. Only that day, it was a lazy, panting beauty, its stomach distended from gorging on some recent kill. It basked in the grass, luxuriating in the glow of a successful hunt and a pleasantly over-full belly, no doubt.

That first drive we saw kudus, impalas, giraffes, zebras (properly pronounced in South African English with a short e as in Ned or Zed--I love those little, nuanced differences we find around the world), elephants, rhinos, steenbok (the smallest antelope in the park), blue wildebeest, warthogs, the aforementioned wild dogs and cheetah, a variety of predator and prey foul including a bateleur eagle with its distinctive orange beak, along with a hyena after dark.

We took a break shortly before sunset to have various South African treats, and hot chocolate with Amarula, a liquor made from the fruit from the marula tree which covers the park landscape. Tasha and Alan introduced it to us during our last visit to the Seattle area. Imagine Irish cream only smoother and sweeter. While lacking the punch of Irish whiskey in Irish cream, it remains a delightful drink made phenomenal when added to the richness of dark, frothy, hot chocolate. Yum.

I mentioned the hyena we saw after dark. When we finished our snacks and our territorial markings, we headed out again. The night was cloudy and super dark. Goodman sat in the front as usual, only now he was armed with a high-intensity flashlight. He made rapid flashes with the light all around, into the trees and bushes, along the road and out into the brush. He was looking for nocturnal eyes. Per Grant, nocturnal eyes reflect a different color in the flashlight. On the occasions when he spotted an animal that was not nocturnal, Goodman would douse the light, and Grant would shut off the headlights. This allowed the animal to preserve its limited night-vision, so it was not at a further disadvantage versus nocturnal predators. Alas, while we saw several nocturnal animals, my camera was not up to the task of photographing them while being held in my shaky hand.

After our drive, we freshened up again and enjoyed an African boma dinner. A boma is a traditional fence enclosure used to protect livestock. It is also used as a community gathering place. The boma dinner is usually a braai (a barbecue for us Texican type folk) held within an enclosure (i.e. a dinner within a boma). It often includes drums, singing and dancing. I had grilled ostrich in an Asian grill (similar to the Mongolian grills we often find in the states). It was super tasty.

Day 13:

Each day had a well-planned set of routines. We would awaken at close to 5 AM. We would meet at 5:15 in a gathering room for a snack and to discuss the morning’s drive. We would head out on our drive by 5:30, returning around 8:30 AM. We would have breakfast cooked to order around 9:00. Then we would be free to enjoy the day in the camp until we gathered for the afternoon drive at 3:15 PM with lunch available cook-to-order in our own timeframe starting at 1:30 PM.  The afternoon drive would go from 3:30 to around 7:00 PM.

Less than 30 minutes into our morning drive on Day 13 and were in the thick of a parade of elephants (parade = herd for these towering beauties). Julie, our companion from the prior day, decided to take some personal time and relax for the remainder of her trip. She had already been at Kings Camp nearly a week and her time was winding down. It was just the two of us. I sat way in the back (the seats are higher with slightly better visibility) while Faith sat in the row behind Grant (the ride is smoothest in that row and her broken arm was sore that morning).

We saw a pair of female kudu foraging. We knew they were female because they lacked horns. Kudu are, as noted, foragers. As Grant explained it, the mail foragers have horns while the females do not. They rely on stealth, camouflage and stillness within the dense brush for protection while the males rely on their horns. Horns are a liability within the brush which puts the males at a disadvantage such that they are typically the ones the big cats take out for dinner (take out as dinner, really). Mother nature heard their sad plight and responded in its own callous manner. Rather than helping the males not to be eaten so much, she doubled their birth-rate versus the females. All the ladies nod their heads and glance at each other with their wry, knowing grins.

Kudus were the second most common sighting throughout the trip following the impalas. The impalas were so common that we saw them dozens of times every day. Around 6:30 the morning of our second game drive, we came upon a pride of lions lounging about. In the Timbavati, the lions tend to hunt in the cool of the evening or at night. During the day, they laze about nursing fat stomachs, nibbling on the carcass of a recent kill, or playing and sleeping before sleeping and playing. 

Later in the morning we saw a pair of nyalas, shaggy, dark-brown antelopes. They were the only two we saw during our drives. They are distinguished by their dark coats and beards that trail from chin to chest. We saw steenbok (the smallest African antelope), dwarf mongooses (mongeese!?!?), spotted hyenas, giraffes, blue wildebeest, shaggy waterbuck with their distinctive white follow-me on their rumps, zebras and a hawk eagle.

After the drive and breakfast, I made my way down to the blind. This is a recent addition to Kings Camp. The blind sits mostly subterranean with a view of a watering hole. During dry periods out in the bush, game frequent the watering hole. Being a cooler day, no game came to drink though an elephant passed nearby.

I walked around taking pictures of the camp, went for a swim and worked on our Garden Route blog while Faith took a well-earned nap. 5 AM is mighty early. Worth the effort, but still early. I saw a warthog near the front drive, a dwarf mongoose between the walking paths, the resident monkeys (scheming little lunch thieves), an Egyptian duck (they are very common), a startlingly red dragonfly, and a red-billed hornbill (Zazu for Lion King fans).

They were all upstaged when I was sitting in the blind after lunch working my way through pictures of the Garden Route. A tower of five giraffes stopped by for an all-too-brief visit. They cozied right up to the edge of the pool, staring intently into the blind as though to say, “I see you sitting in there hoo-mon.”  

Lunch started daily around 1:30 PM. This day, the velvet monkeys (also known by their official Latin names of scheminus thievalot) were on their game. They managed to steal a handful of fries and later a roll from one table, and some mango from another.

They did, however, prove to be exceedingly useful that day. Toward the end of lunch, one of the monkeys raised the predator cry. I was the first non-monkey (alright! No comments from the back of the room!) to spot her up on the hillside just outside of the camp’s eastern edge. Not that I knew she was a "her." To me it was a blob roughly the shape of a cat. But to one of the guides, she was readily identified as a leopard.

That evening’s drive had a first and singular goal, to find the leopard. And find her, we did, very near where I had seen her hanging out during our lunchtime. She walked around a bit before flopping down on top of a small dam in a dry creek bed.

We went on to see more giraffes, zebras and elephants. Then we came across the Timbavati’s resident herd of African buffalo. Not water buffalo. They do not have those in Timbavati. These are the last member of the big five we were waiting to see. The herd was counted to have over 900 members. They made their way to a mud bed that would have been a huge watering hole if there had been more rain in this atypically dry spring.

We finished the evening drive watching a pride of lions. At first, they lazed about, some playing, most sleeping. Then they caught the scent of the buffalo. In an instant the whole pride excepting the cubs and one lone guardian were on their feet stealthily stalking the herd. We were privileged to watch the hunt for a while before the herd caught sight of the lions and beat foot further south. The kill was made, we would learn the next morning, sometime after we left.

That evening, we had a private, candle-lit dinner catered at our suite. They had even drawn a bath sprinkled with rose petals and bath salts. It was a lovely, romantic and delicious repast.  

Day 14:

Our last full day in Timbavati saw a light start of the long-delayed spring rains. We saw a rhino cow and her young offspring of maybe two years. The calf cozied right up to the jeep and just sauntered past while mama grazed nearby.

Next, we saw some elephants and a yellow-billed hornbill (a close relative of the red-bill), what I believe was a wooly-necked stork (Grant would have told us the name though I missed it that time), the big bull rhino stomping around in search of the female, and we saw some zebras.

Shortly before we returned to camp, we got to witness a termite emersion. There must have been 100,000 of them if there was one, flying off to form their own colonies or to become snacks for the birds.   

After breakfast, the rains came in earnest. I took the time to complete the Garden Route blog while the rain steadily fell on the camp and the park. The afternoon drive was wet and we were forced to stay on the roads. No more treks out into the bush. However, it seems that many of the animals don’t like the wet brush anymore than we do, making their way to the open areas around the roadways.

That evening we saw more zebras, a big, wet bull elephant scratching himself on a tree, a white-headed fish eagle quite similar to the American bald eagle, a baby crocodile and some hippos in the distance. We told Grant that we had a river cruise booked for our time in Zimbabwe so he and Goodman spent little time hunting those for us.

Oh, let’s not forget the giant snail. The snail’s shell was about as big as the palm of my hand. The rains brought out all manner little creatures, even a terrapin made its way out onto the road.

Day 15:

The morning game drive, our last at Timbavati, was both wet and productive. We were joined by Dom. She was visiting a friend at the camp and road with us. As noted, the animals seemed to make their way to the road so long as the rain was falling. We saw more elephants and giraffes, as well as the buffalo herd we had seen on Day 13.

The highlight of the morning was the pride. And how proud they were. During the night between days 13 and 14, they had taken down three buffalo. We found one of the carcasses, nearly licked clean. Grant talked about how it was atypical to see a carcass so well-cleaned in such a short time.   

Our primary purpose for safari was, of course, to see the game. But I would be sorely remiss if I did not speak about Kings Camp (https://www.kingscamp.com/) and our hosts. Picture a classic safari lodge built deep in the heart of a game park surrounded by every conceivable African bird and beast.

Now turn that lodge into a six-star experience—above five-star like a straight-A student who earned honors credits achieving a grade point average above perfection—six-stars with modern amenities, massive suites each with their own private mini-infinity pools looking out into the park, indoor and outdoor showers, beyond Cal-king beds pulled straight out of a king and queen’s bed chamber in a mythical palace, and staff that treated us like we were a visiting princess and her newly espoused prince.

Kings Camp and the Timbavati exceeded my most expansive ideas of what a safari lodge and associated game drives could be like. And our guide and tracker, Grant and Goodman were in the rarified skill and knowledge class of master gamesmen.

- See you next time in Kruger Park for our self-drive safari -