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Wednesday 12 October 2011

The Kill!!! (Second Game Drive)

WARNING: GRAPHIC KILL PHOTOS!!

21st June 2011
As we rode the track towards the north we saw a number of vehicles parked up, all quietly watching the zebras in the long grasses to the east.
Salvatory brought us to a stop next to another jeep, and leaned across the Patrol to chat to the guide. He then moved us back a touch, to ensure that guides view was no longer blocked, and told us what he had learnt.

He whispered...

"A lion has been spotted. She is hunting the zebra..."

Making wide eyes at each other, Phillipa and I jumped up, she with her binos, me with my camera. I cracked the zoom to full extension and pointed towards the area Salvatory had gestured toward. I quickly prepped the camera for continuous shooting, and looked through the viewfinder with a dry mouth.

And literally that quickly, it happened...

Salvatory had put us immediately right in front of the action - there was not a better spot than the one we occupied - we were not the first there, nor the last, but we had the best spot without a doubt!

I heard a harsh, "there she goes" from Salvatory, and then intakes of breath all around me. My finger depressed the shutter button even before I had seen movement. The camera started taking shot after shot, 3.4 every second... We were extremely lucky, and we got the whole story:


Pow!!! Here she comes, out of nowhere...

Lions will attack like this as zebra's backs are weak - it's the easiest way to bring them down...



Zebra nearly getting away...


But the lioness is too quick... Notice the unconcerned zebra in the background!!

Amazing...


The beginning of the end... The lioness's back legs have shredded the zebras stomach...






She gets the throat...


Horrible to see the other zebra watching on...

This zebra was phenomenally strong... Even hurt, with the lioness biting her throat, still she fought...

It's over...

Hind quarters dark with the blood of the kill...

There was very little time from the lioness's first pounce, to her bringing the zebra down, but on the ground the zebra fought for maybe 15 minutes before dying. Salvatory said that the zebra must have been very strong, and that the lioness possibly did not get the correct grip on her throat...

Phillipa and I were giddy... Salvatory was jumping up and down happily chanting, "I did my job, I did my job!!". You see, Phillipa, from the moment we met Salvatory, talked incessantly about her desire to see a kill. 
Salvatory was pretty quiet about this, commenting only that it is the one thing everyone wishes to see, but that you have to be very, very lucky. He told us afterward that he was really worried we would not see one and this would disappoint him - he genuinely cares so much about the people in his charge. As you can imagine therefore, he was as pleased as we were to see the kill :-)

After some deep breaths, I turned to Phillipa to see her tearing up. She had begun to empathise with the zebra...

My wife (fiancĂ©e at this stage of course) is a woman of extremes - she can hanker for and cheer on a lion with the vigour of a gangster on the front row of a Vegas prize fight, and two seconds later cry like a lost child for the zebra who gave its life for the pride. I gave her a hug and we then spent a good while conversing in 'wows' and 'did you see that's?'.

We hung around for some time, as Salvatory watched the skies. He told us to keep our eyes out for vultures. If they spotted the kill, their circling would then bring others... We excitedly peered around, looking for vultures, hoping that they would bring hyenas and jackals...

Nothing.

We waited...

Still, nothing.

In the end, Salvatory decided that we were better off moving. It seemed doubtful that anything was going to discover the kill anytime soon. There was daylight left after all, and plenty more to see in the crater. 

And Phillipa and I would soon take the most exciting toilet break of our lives, right out in the bush!




Tuesday 4 October 2011

The Second Game Drive...

21st June 2011
Another early start... We had hit the sack pretty quickly after dinner and after the days excitement sparked out as soon as our heads touched the pillow, but we woke pretty easily, both of us as giddy as school-kids at the thought of a new day on safari.
Our room was a veritable hive of activity as we showered, changed and packed. All of the camera batteries and phones were fully charged and good to go; all we needed now was a little fuel for our bodies and we'd be off.
Leaving the room we walked into a dark, cold dampness that told us the morning mist was back on the ridge. Phillipa and I were yawning like hippos but bouncing on the balls of our feet as we walked. We must have looked like children on Christmas morning, tired, but too excited to slow or sleep!
We hit the restaurant and wolfed down eggs, bacon, tea, toast and jam. Bloated (and still tired) we happily waddled down the stairs, taking our time past the log fire and into reception.
There were a few people already there, waiting for their guide to pull up at the front and get them loaded. There was a proliferation of gadgetry in the room - cameras, lenses, iPads showing the previous days photos, Kindles (well, mine anyway) and even GPS units. Those waiting were excitedly jabbering about the previous day, or about the day ahead. We sat down on the settees by the small open fire and Phillipa closed her eyes while I fiddled with the camera, making sure I had my AV and TV settings ready for quick shots.
Salvatory was the next to pull up outside and so I woke Phillipa and we jumped into the Patrol. Salvatory asked us how we slept (wonderfully!) and we asked the same (good, good!!). He asked if we were ready to see some more game and we went a bit American and blurted out a mix of 'Hoo-Ahh' and 'Hell-Yes'!

We descended the crater as yesterday, through the cold mist and onto the caldera floor.



We spent the morning viewing secretary birds, jackals, buzzards, a few cokes hartebeest (very like our own deer), a black rhino and even a flock of geese (my trigger finger itched at this...)...





















Geese!



We also spent a little more time with a young elephant male (maybe ten years old). The elephants were quickly becoming our favourite animal and we would happily sit there watching them eat and listening to them rumble. We would see an amazing display of how they communicate with each other, but that would be a few days later in the Serengeti, and we still have a lot to cover here in the crater!








The sun was burning brightly now, and Phillipa and I could feel the heat even this early in the morning. Phillipa still comments to this day how fussy I was with my hat (Indiana Jones replica Fedora!); taking it off, putting it back on, pulling the brim down, touching the crown - then not being happy and starting again... She said it drove her crazy and I didn't have the heart to say I wasn't being fussy insomuch as the hat band was getting extremely sweaty and I was struggling to sit it comfortably on my head :-)

We broke for lunch and spent a pleasant hour or so munching on tender beef, cheese sandwiches, yogurt and fruit. Kilimanjaro tea washed it all down and I'm very pleased to say that the black kites kept away from us again.

Now, the afternoon... I'm going to split this into two posts because it was 'lion-tastic' and I want to do it justice. After lunch Salvatory decided, after chatting with other guides (if we came across another jeep the guides would give all the occupants a hearty 'jambo!', and then have a good chat with each other, comparing game already seen and what others had told them) and listening to his CB radio, to journey over to the other side of the crater.

The sun was blazing, but we moved at a slightly better pace and so some breeze came in through the roof, though we had to keep the side windows closed due to the deep red dust. The landscape was so beautiful, and the game so abundant that Phillipa and I spoke not a word to each other; each of us gazing out our own window, our heads occasionally darting around as we caught a glimpse of those animals we had already come to love.

Spotting some warthogs (which Phillipa adored because Angela did when she was in South Africa - bloody twins!) Salvatory slowed so that we could watch them for a time. Whenever warthogs run or trot, their tails flash straight up in the air. This is so the young are still able to follow their parents when they run in tall grass - they can still see the dark bobble of hair at the end of the tail showing up high above the grass. They reminded me of the tour guides with the lollipop boards at the Vatican :-)

We then had a visit from a fairly indifferent hyena and a female ostrich:




Female ostrich

Awesome neck

We drove down a long stretch of dirt road and saw three other safari vehicles parked up.


Salvatory cruised in slowly and cut the engine. A brief crackle of Swahili on the radio told Salvatory that there was a pride of lions here, and a number of wildebeest coming towards them. We excitedly stood, Phillipa crossing to my side of the Patrol, shrugging off her shoes and hopping on the seat behind my own. We struggled to spot the lions. Before us the red of the road gave way to the yellow of the dry grasses. Beyond that, a deep defile, the other side of which rose much higher. And then we saw her. She was sat, head up, alert, but our eyes had missed her at first as she blended in so well with the background. It was only as the lioness moved that our feeble eyes caught her.

Hard to see huh?




She slunk through the grasses, towards a large tree. As we were following her so intently, it was only when she reached the tree that we saw the other members of the pride. More females, and a couple of cubs...
They sat in the shade of the tree, tongues lolling. We could see the wildebeest approaching from the other side of the defile, and were told that there would be some water in there. We hoped for a clash between the wildebeest and the lionesses, but it was not to be. The angle the wildebeest approached at kept them at a decent distance from the lions; added to this, the very steep profile of the defile on the opposite side negated the possibility of a rush attack. Our hearts were still racing, but the wildebeest passed safely by.

You can't see it, but there is a deep defile between the tree and the wildebeest




The lions good naturedly allowed photos for a time, before one of the cubs hopped to his feet and sauntered off. The lionesses watched him for a time, before standing, stretching and following. 'I Just Can't Wait To Be King' was playing in my head at this point and I may have been guilty of humming it too judging by Phillipa's expression...




I thought these photos were better... Sorry!

 The other vehicles headed off, and so did we, but in the other direction. I loved it when this happened. Salvatory consistently took us where no-one else went, and we saw amazing sights as a result. It was like he had a sixth sense about the the game. Thinking about it more, I think it was more down to his passion for his work. I have never met anyone so passionate about what they do, to the point that his spare time is spent learning more about the animals - in some cases by testing out theories first hand... Luckily they have all panned out so far and so this great man is still with us!

We caught up with the one other vehicle that had gone the same way as we had, and it was a little stuck crossing a small brook. The driver was gassing it up and and spinning the wheels... Salvatory and I both tutted.




We were thinking of a way to assist when all of a sudden the jeep got traction and shot up the far side. Salvatory eased us forward, let the Patrol get some momentum on the down slope and then gently accelerated up the other side. Like a boss!

After the road snaked right then left we saw perhaps six vehicles parked up. Camera lenses the size of bazookas protruded from every available orifice of every jeep. Our spidey senses told us something was about to happen!

What was about to happen was a lion kill. And Salvatory had put us in the exact perfect position to see the whole thing...

The next post will be all about the kill, start to finish. If you are squeamish I warn you now that there will be graphic photographs...