Viva Safaris - days five and six

Day Five - 19/09-2007
We started the day with a visit to the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Centre. This place is amazing! I have never seen a place oozing with such dedication and passion, where the people working there truly believed in what they were doing to the extent I saw it here... it was fantastic... inspiring...


Moholoholo is a place filled with sad stories. The first eagle we met, a black eagle, lost its wing after flying into a power line. Fortunately, it did not lose its life. It was one of the lucky ones. There were lots of stories like this. Too many...

The story that really made my blood boil was one about one of many eagles that can never ever be released into the wild again. It had been captured by some waste-of-space people who had pinned it down; one guy was cutting off its wing with the intention of keeping it as a souvenir! WTF?! I had tears in my eyes. And I was angry, as in shaking-with-rage angry. I wanted to find that useless bastard and pin him down and slice off his arm. And smack him with it. Oh, and keep that as a souvenir of course, sheeeeesh!

A bittersweet story that really touched my heart was the story about this beautiful female eagle (don't remember the species, crowned eagle I think) that was imprinted to think it was a human. When we first saw her, she was chirping really sweetly. Like a cute little songbird would chirp. One doesn't think that a big raptor can chirp like that, but wow! Our guide told us that she was chirping like that because it was mating season. And the object of her affection? Brian Jones, the man who founded Moholoholo. He told the story of this eagle and many others. Everyone on the tour just stood there, captivated, as he spoke. He's one of the most passionate people I have ever come across, which makes it understandable why this eagle fell in love with him...

It's very interesting to see how affectionate raptors can be, not just this one but a few others that we saw! They're really quite cuddly!

Brian and the eagle have been a "couple" for quite some time; being his mate she would lay eggs for him during breeding season. Duds, of course, but still. This and many other species of eagle lay two eggs – one that is going to be raised and the "spare." What happens is that the first bird hatches, and the second usually hatches a few days later. The first chick, who has grown considerably in that short amount of time, kills the second. The parents can only afford to raise and feed one chick. Someone got the idea that it would help bring the eagle population up if they took the second egg from a wild eagle's nest and switch it with one of the dud eggs in this eagle's nest. They had to get special permission to do this, but in the end it worked... the eagle managed to raise something like 6 or 7 chicks that were able to be released into the wild. That's so cool...

The best part of the whole Moholoholo experience, at least for me, was "playing" with the vultures. We were in a vulture enclosure with lots of Cape vultures, and our guide asked if anyone would like to hold a vulture. Immediately, I raised my arm and was all like "me! me! me!" So I got to put on a big leather glove, and the guide gave me a bit of meat to hold. Then suddenly, a bunch of vultures flew up on my arm to try to get the meat! Wheeeee!



The next best part was "cuddling" with a baby rhino. It liked being scratched under the belly and it had a rather soft belly! Our guide was the one who raised him, and in the process had to be with the baby rhino 24/7 and even sleep with the baby rhino. This resulted in facial injuries and the such (when the baby rhino rolled over on top of him in the middle of the night). Nonetheless, our guide was "mom" and when we approached the enclosure where the rhino was being kept, it started running over to our guide, like a puppy. Very cute :-)



Finally, we saw a some honey badgers and one of the workers gave a little talk about them before heading out...

We spent a lot more time at Moholoholo than planned, and had to inhale our lunch to keep on schedule. After lunch, we went on a bush walk in Kruger. With two armed rangers. We drove out to this remote area, and the moment we got out of the jeep, we heard rustling... looked around... and saw two big bull elephants! We walked some more and encountered fresh rhino dung (but no rhinos), giraffe, and a big herd of buffalo...



The buffalo were interesting. They noticed us, and at first kept their distance. Then one big male moved forward. And as he did, the rest of the herd moved forward. He moved forward again, and the rest of the herd followed. This went on a few times, while one of the rangers explained that buffalo can come as close as 10-15 meters to you. He said that while they can be quite dangerous, they were also the easiest animal to scare away. And he demonstrated this by jumping straight up into the air. The buffalo turned around and ran about 20 meters away. Good fun :)

Tonight's dinner was soup (oops, didn't write down what kind) and a braai (chicken and woers).

Day Six - 20/09-2007
Today was our last day at Viva Safaris. It was sad to be leaving (I was getting very attached to the treehouse and the nyalas), but at the same time we were ready for new adventures!

We started with an early morning bush walk. We didn't see much other than dung and lots of birds (yay!). Including a woodland kingfisher (double yay!). But no matter, it was nice to be up early and walk around. After breakfast, we headed back to Johannesburg.

We had a scheduled stop at the Blyde River Canyon, where we could see and photograph the river, canyon, scenery in general, and the Three Rondavels. It was very beautiful there. There was a bunch of vendors where we stopped, and I ended up buying a necklace. The vendors were somewhat pushy, but not obnoxiously in-your-face like in Thailand or Egypt...



We had lunch at The Flying Dutchman again, and we got the duck and cherry pie this time (one of their specialties) – also very tasty! We encouraged one of the other travellers to have the pan-fried trout, and she too thought it was wonderful :-)

We finally got back to Johannesburg around 4 pm or 5 pm and were dropped off at the car rental area at the airport... now it was time to get our rental car and drive to Harrismith!

Viva Safaris - days three and four

Day Three - 17/09-2007

Another full-day game drive on the agenda! This wasn't on the original schedule, but no big deal. As long as we got to do what we paid to do (or more) then we were open to schedule shifts...

It was cooler and windier this time, and in addition to most of what we saw yesterday, we saw lions – a big male and three lionesses. They were 50 m.away from our vehicle, lying under a tree being lazy. I don't blame them one bit. They were probably wondering why we weren't chilling out under a tree...

Today's theme was "animals crossing the road."



There were elephants crossing the road. And impalas. And zebras (zebra crossing hah! I'm so original!). And impala. Can't forget the impala ;-)


Speaking of impala, they were nicknamed «McDonald's» because of the "M" on their bums...

Tonight's dinner was pea soup and then spaghetti with salad. It was very good.


Day Four - 18/09-2007
We started with a morning game drive. I was excited as I saw several eagles and some mystery owls (not sure what kind they are – perhaps scops?), but as for other animals, there weren't too many out. The park itself, a private game reserve, was very nice...



We then had lunch at Cheetah Inn, which is the conference center part of Viva Safaris. The decor was, well, "interesting," and played on a cheetah theme. We all just had to chuckle. My lunch – piri-piri chicken with vegetables and rice, washed down with Windhoek Draft, was quite nice.

After lunch, we went to the Cheetah Project at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre. They rehabilitate cheetahs and other animals. We started the tour watching a 20 minute DVD about cheetahs in general, with a few blurbs about the center. There were some blurbs about poaching. This really upset me. People really suck sometimes :-/


After the DVD we drove through the park to see cheetahs close-up, as well as a few other big cats. We also drove to a "vulture restaurant" to observe the action; this is an area where the big cats' scraps are thrown. The vultures (and Marabou stork) are guaranteed a poison-free meal. Unfortunately, a lot of people put out poisoned meat to kill predators, and then vultures eat the dead predators and get the poison in them :-( Anyway, I like how nothing is wasted – the scraps from the cats go to the vultures, and then the resulting bones are ground into powder to mix into the cats' food, to give them extra calcium.


One of the neatest things we saw was the interaction between wild ground hornbills and two captive hornbills. The wild hornbills would give the captive hornbills food, in exchange for rocks. Or was it the other way around? No matter; I just found it quite interesting. Ground hornbills make a really interesting sound by the way... just listen!

Other cool things that we saw – a spotted eagle owl (and I saw it first!) and a baby nyala that was no more than a week old!

When we got back to our treehouse, it was still daylight, and the others at the camp were still out on their game drive. We spent the rest of the afternoon washing clothes; we only took clothes for 5 days or so to cut down on luggage weight/clutter. So we borrowed a big plastic wash tub from the treehouse staff, and with Biotex and water from the shower we were in good washing action. We had to hang things up to dry inside the treehouse, even though it would have been preferable to hang them outside and get that «fresh air» smell. If we hung our clothes up outside, the vervet monkeys would have had a go at everything. Imagine – the alpha male running around with my underwear on his head OOH OOH OOOOH AAAAAH!

Anyway, while the clothes were soaking, I went out of the treehouse to take a peek, There were giraffes in the vicinity! How cool is that?! And of course, as usual, the camp was crawling with nyalas...



Tonight's dinner was butternut soup, followed by chicken with potatoes, rice, salad, and sauce. We learned that another group who were out on their full-day game drive saw, among other things, lions mating!

Viva Safaris - days one and two

Day One - 15/09-2007
Finally... on our way to Marc's Treehouse Lodge for our six-day safari with Viva Safaris!

We were taken there in a mini-bus, together with four other people – an Irish couple, an Australian, and a Pakistani. We drove past several insteresting little places, but our first actual stop was for lunch, in a city called Dullstroom, at a restaurant called The Flying Dutchman. Boyfriend of feitpingvin and I ordered the pan-fried trout, along with some mango juice as a sort of "starter" and some white wine to go with the fish. This particular area (Highlands Meander) is a touristy area focusing on trout fishing. And the trout was... mmmmmdelicious!



When we finally arrived, we were first greeted at Viva Safari's more "upscale" lodge. It had electric fences to keep the animals out. I guess some people prefer that. Anyway, we were given some guava juice, and then we all hopped into an open jeep for a night game drive in a private game reserve.

The first thing we saw was a dead giraffe, killed by lions. But we didn't see any lions around. We did see some giraffes (living ones), various antelope, a big porcupine, a hyena, and a rabbit. After the game drive, we were taken to the treehouses where we were going to spend the next five nights.



Now, the treehouses were the reason why we chose Viva Safaris in the first place. We wanted a close-to-nature experience and hey, we got it. In the treehouses, you could hear the river and all the animals, day and night – frogs, birds, vervet monkeys jumping on the roof, the mooing of African buffalo. You also ran the risk of frogs in your bathroom and lizards on your walls. One couple had bats in their treehouse. Another left the door open, only to return to a treehouse invaded by vervet monkeys. The monkeys took this poor guy's anti-diarrhea pils and ate them. And the whole camp was crawling with nyala. They were everywhere. You literally get up early in the morning, sit on your treehouse balcony, and watch the nyalas...



We loved it! It was the next best thing to sleeping in a tent. Who needs a posh luxury lodge... this is luxury! Animals, birds, fresh air... who could ask for anything more?

After dumping our luggage into the treehouse, we had dinner. We were really hungry by then, and the meal was very welcome. We started with a nice carrot soup, followed by a lovely potjiekos (meat stew) with rice and salad. This was washed down with red wine purchased at the cash bar. Yum yum...

Everyone staying at Marc's ate dinner together. Not everyone started their safaris together, nor was everyone doing the six-day safari, so it was interesting to talk to people from all over the world about what they've experienced, to get/give tips (mine was "take advantage of all toilet breaks" and "sit close to the food buffet table"), to discuss things in general. I really enjoyed the social part just as much as the animals and nature. I've promised several people to e-mail them the address to this blog. Hopefully they're reading ;-)

Day Two - 16/09-2997
After a nice breakfast of fruit salad and eggs and bacon, we were off on an all-day game drive in Kruger (Orpen Gate).


We saw: giraffes, elephants, zebra, wildebeest/gnu, impala, kudu, waterbuck, warthogs, one almost-submerged hippo, crocodiles, spotted hyenas (including a mother with her pup), ground hornbills, yellow-billed (flying bananas) and red-billed (flying chiles) hornbills, leopard tortoise, African fish eagle, steenbok, African buffalo, springbok, tons of birds... I'm sure I missed something...

Our guide, "King Charles," was really cool. He had lots of stories about how stupid and stubborn some tourists could be. For example, he had a group that insisted that warthogs were baby rhinos and that wildebeest were buffalo...

He also told us some interesting animal facts. Like how the kudu got its name. Kudus can jump two meters high from a standing position, and they're otherwise known to jump away from danger. They got the name kudu because of the sound they make when they land after a jump... *ku* *du*

It's a true story! Really!

It was really hot and sunny today. Except for at the end of the day; it suddenly got very windy and cloudy.

Tonight's dinner: vegetable soup, braai (chicken and woers) with pap and salad, and some dessert (I didn't eat that or dessert any other day for that matter), washed down with Windhoek. Very lovely.