Day 4 – Safari Zone

I was a little bit too enthusiastic this morning and I decided to get up at dumb o’clock to see if I could see the Milky Way. So at 3.20 this morning, I pulled on some trackies and headed towards the waterhole. This upset a few animals though, which meant I made my way there with the soundtrack of spotted hyena calls and lion growls. I also managed to spook a small group of zebra who were stopping by to have a drink. It was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying, sitting alone in the dark. I watched the sunrise over the Waterberg mountains listening to the chorus, and then headed inside to wake Drew and start getting ready for our 6am departure for our morning drive.

Marataba’s history starts in 1994, when Nelson Mandela purchased the land from the original farmer owners to convert it to a nature reserve, and our first stop today was to visit the cemetery that holds the graves of those farmers. They have had to erect fences around it to protect the site from the elephants who make a mess of everything, but it was interesting to see.
This morning we have met:

• So, so many Warthogs
• Baboons
• Impala
• Crocodile – This is the only croc in the park that Stef found in a puddle of water in the middle of the road a few months ago. He’s very young and small but it likely to grow to be 2m in length
• Yellow Billed Stork
• Black Winged Stilt
• European Bee Eater
• Hippo
• Elephant
• Kudu
• Spur Winged Geese
• Egrets
• Water Buck
• Zebra with Foal (adorable)
• Roan at the Breeding Centre across the road
• Bush buck with baby
• Sable
• Nyala

Stef seems to be on a mission to find us more lions, so we spent the day hunting them and learning about tracks along the way. I found it so much fun to decipher the tracks and work out which animal they belonged to, particularly seeing the difference between similar looking tracks. During our lessons, Stef took the time to show us a rhino midden. Essentially it’s a big pile of poop, but what the animals use it for is so interesting. Basically a dominant bull will defecate in the middle and open up the nuggets, spreading it into a circle of powder-like poop. While doing this, he will get his scent in the cracks under his feet, which allows him to spread his scent while he walks. Other bulls will come and go doing the same thing competing for territory. This is also where we learned to tell the difference between the droppings of a white rhino verses a black rhino – they are different colours since the white rhinos are grazers, eating grasses on the ground, and the black rhinos are browsers who eat leaves and branches from bushes, but also, since black rhinos have pointed beak-like lips, you will find parts of branches that look like they are cut uniformly at 45 degree angles in their droppings. It’s a strange knowledge for me to know, but it’s some I have now!
Since we’ve been looking at tracks today, I was on the lookout on my side of the car while we were looking for lions, and I was lucky enough to spot some fresh lioness prints! This was immediately after we watched some spooked Kuru spring away, so we think that she must have been close by.
We soon stopped for our coffee and refreshment break next to the river, and were joined by a solo bull elephant. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being amazed when I see elephants, no matter how many we meet. We stopped off at a breeding facility across the road from the park, where we were able to see some antelope breeds that have not been introduced into the park yet. I do enjoy seeing the different types of antelope, with their different shaped horns, sizes and coat colouration. They are all very impressive animals!

Once we were finished with the antelope, we headed back to camp for breakfast, where an elephant was waiting to greet us at the waterhole. With another delicious meal in our bellies, we went our separate ways to make use of the few hours we have before our night drive. I think I finally caught up with my blogs – until tonight at least.

Tonight’s drive was unexpected, but honestly another epic night. Today had been the first day we’ve seen a single cloud in the sky, and as the day went on, more and more appeared, and the darker they got. We still went out with the ominous skies, but with the warning that if there was any lightning close to us, we would have to turn around and skip the rest of the drive. It had started raining, lightly by Australian standards, but pretty significantly for South Africa, which dropped the temperature quickly. We aimed to roam near the lodge, so we could make a quick dash home if need be. But nearby we found the Cheetah Boys! They were lounging together in the shade, enjoying the drop in temperature. We stayed awhile, but we saw a couple of lightning strikes after we had moved on – as refreshing as the rain was, this unfortunately meant we started to head back to the camp.

But this is where our drive got super interesting! We had moved on from where the cheetah boys were for maybe 10 minutes, but when we returned to pass where they were originally, they had already headed off. We thought nothing of it really until we turn a bend further along and one brother is sitting in he middle of the road, and the other just in the brush intently watching some impala. We would have honestly sat there with the boys for close to an hour, if not more, watching them plan a hunt. It got tricky when a few other vehicles turned up on Stef’s sighting, and really just got in the way. We navigated our interactions with the other vehicles for awhile, but when the boys started moving after a false start hunt, Stef assured us that we could go have our coffee break and catch up with them where he thought they would be headed next.

We had our drinks and snacks in the most picturesque setting with a gorgeous red sunset, until a big bull elephant started walking up the road towards us. Honestly the teamwork and speed that was shown while packing up was impressive. Shows what a little motivation can do hey? But with no incident to report, we headed towards Monkey Plains, where Stef was certain the boys would head after a failed hunt. We have been pretty lucky with Stef honestly, but with his extra experience with the big cats we have an advantage, because they were precisely where he said they would be. We spent a little extra time with them quietly, without the hubbub of other vehicles, said our goodbyes and headed back to camp for dinner.

Tomorrow is our last full day here sadly. This has been the most magical experience! Marataba Conservation Camps are amazing when it comes to experiences. With 3 more drives left for us here, I’m going to make the most of it!