November 15

November 14, 2018

Olifants Rest Camp

Three in the afternoon and sitting on deck at river view bungalow at Olifants.  Olifants is situated on a high bluff overlooking the Olifants River.  The river consists of a very wide river valley and this time of year the river is made up of many small channels cutting through the rocky, sandy river bed. Some of the channels appear to be barely moving but others move enough water to create small series of rapids and generating a sound of flowing water that we hear even up here at the top of the bluff.  The river flows due west and directly under our bungalow takes a 90 degree left hand turn, heading south.

As I started to write, a large family group of elephants crossed the river right to left. The matriarch seemed to be in a hurry and wouldn’t let them spend time in the river, rushing them through the bush on the other side.  I noticed a large bull trailing along behind and thought that maybe that was the reason – bulls can be troublesome as they trail a family group trying to determine if there are mating opportunities.  And now, I see, way on the other side across the bend, a very large herd of elephants literally running across the sandy river bed into the bush.  Something is up – something very upsetting to them – but not something I can detect from here.  Maybe there are lions down in the river bed.  Lions aren’t generally a threat to elephants but if the family has many young, they won’t be at all comfortable remaining in the presence of lions.  They’re gone now, and in the middle distance I see a bull slowly walking through the channels of the river, unbothered by whatever drama the breeding herd was experiencing.  

There’s the usual bird drama down in the river – I can hear Egyptian geese squawking about something and way down at the bottom I see a fish eagle standing in the water, that unmistakable speck of bright white in the river.

It’s warm to hot, but not unbearably hot, and there’s a gentle breeze blowing.  Barely the whisper of a cloud in the sky.  No hint there of the rain that’s badly needed here. Just below me, on our side of the fence, there are a couple of female bushbuck, eating grass in the shade. Maybe 10 meters away.  Bushbuck are commonly found in camps – they seem to adapt to being around people easily, and they figure that hanging with people improves their odds of surviving Mr. Leopard and living to an old age.  It is, however, a little acknowledged fact that Mr. Leopard does come into the camps to shop for a bushbuck from time to time. Still, their odds are better and it’s best not to tell tourists everything.

Last night we took a drive before gate closing and had a nice sighting of a herd of buffalo with extreme backlighting as the sun was dropping toward the horizon.  It was hard to work – the bush was thick with scrubby mopani and buffalo just keep moving, meaning that you have to work fast. But I’m hopeful that I got some useful shots.  Then we came back and had a huge, delicious and slow dinner at Letaba.  You just can’t be in a big damn hurry here, the way we all seem to be at home.  Or, you can I guess, but it will be a miserable experience and every day we see people who seem to be intent on having a miserable experience. For our part – screw that.  We’re in the coolest place on earth and the days are counting down and we’re not going to get upset over slow service for a great meal.  My strategy, actually, was to just make the gin and tonic a double….

We got up early this morning and actually got out the door at 0445, which isn’t exactly early, but it seems like it’s good for us.  We headed west on the paved road toward Phalabora, taking a couple of beautiful loops on unpaved roads, encountering a very relaxed elephant family group and eventually rejoined the main road.  Some distance down, there is a dam, with some water in it and a pullout (I forget the name of the dam, and the map is in the car and it’s SO many steps from here…). Folks often stop there to watch hippos or birdlife, but we noticed more cars than usual so we pulled in.  Looking down from the overlook, into the sandy bed of what is this pond when it’s full, there was a dead buffalo (one of the dagga boys, I’m afraid) with a large male lion feeding.  It was a very fresh kill. The carcass was barely disturbed and the lion’s face was covered in bright red arterial blood.  It was very far away, but with the 600 and the cool air (meaning minimal heat haze), I was able to get some shots (I think).  We stayed for a while and then this massive lion got up and walked off out of sight to the right, still a great distance away.  Some of the folks there then pointed out that there was a lion very close to the car park, out of sight from where we were parked so when traffic cleared out for a moment, I repositioned to find a sleeping young male lion – not the same lion who was at the kill – this one much younger. We waited for quite some time for him to get up, or at least lift his head.  Eventually he did, and I was able to get some tight portraits of this boy. I don’t think it’ll be great stuff – his face was in dappled light as the sun came through the bush – but it was something.  We were getting ready to go, when another young male showed up and sat down near him. Eventually a few vultures showed up (it’s also evidence that the kill was fresh, because it was right out in the open and for sure there will be a mob of vultures hanging around by now), and the prime male came back out in the open to feed more on the carcass and to also run off the vultures.  While he was feeding, a large herd of buffalo came down to drink.  It was interesting to watch from our high vantage point because they moved as a group in the direction of carcass and lion, but pulled up and stopped dead – I assume when they suddenly smelled lion. After assessing the situation for a while, they abruptly changed direction and exited stage right.

Eventually we decided we created enough images of a young male lion sitting in dappled light for the world to get by, plus we had to check out of Letaba, so we headed back, packed and hit the road to Olifants.  Breakfast on the deck overlooking the river, a short drive and another encounter with a very hot family group of elephants, and then check in at 1330.  And now here, with Gina napping, me tapping and hippos bellowing in the river below.

In a bit, we’ll load up and go for a short, end of day drive.  The time in the car is physically confining, and there’s certainly discomfort in that. But it’s nice to have the time to be apart from daily drama of real/home life/what I do for money, to think and appreciate being observant of the world.  I try to see and hear and smell and sense what’s happening around me and that focus on the present is for me very healthy.

I have many changes ahead of me.  I’m leaving an honorable, long time employer and I’m noticing pain in that for me. I’m going to a new job, with new challenges and strains and undoubtedly new dramas yet to come.  I don’t actually know how I’m going to pull off the next few weeks.  It sounds pretty awful if I think about it too much. I just know that I’ll get through it and that I’ll end up working with a new set of honorable people, doing work we all care about.  I’ll have a new opportunity to explore an outside world there.  I guess I have to think of the next few weeks the way I think about the flight over here, right?  It’s just going to be hard and uncomfortable and awful for a time, but then look where I am and what I see and hear and smell right now…. Like way, way off in the distance, way out there, I can see a family of warthogs working their way to the water.  Behind them, a group of bachelor elephant bulls. On the near bank a waterbuck. Black-capped bulbuls are flittering round my bungalow and somewhere out of sight, an Egyptian goose is making a fuss about something she doesn’t like.

I hear Gina stirring so time to get to it….