Our Home in the Lowveld
I’ve always dreamed of going on safari
and this year it finally happened. It was so hard to know which safari lodge to
choose. They all seemed to look great online- and you know that can’t possibly
be the case. So we booked our accommodation
and hoped for the best.
In the end, it was wonderful dumb luck that
got us to Ngala Safari Lodge. The Ngala
Safari Lodge is located within the &Beyond Ngala Private Game Reserve in
Kruger Park. Well, technically the lodge is in the Timbavati Nature Reserve but
they take you out to Kruger for the safaris. The Ngala Private Game Reserve covers about 15,000 hectares (that's 15,000 football fields) and one of the richest wildlife regions in the African continent.
The people at Ngala (meaning “place of the lion”)
immediately put us at ease the minute we walked in. Their lovely manager
Stephen offered us cold drinks and assured us no Ngala guest has been eaten by
a lion to date. I welcomed this piece of news since the lodge is unfenced-
along with the entire Ngala Private Game Reserve, which is pretty cool. In
other words, all the wildlife in Kruger can roam free and the lodge was no
exception for them.
The lodge is comprised of individual guest
cottages, a safari shop, several dining areas and a swimming pool. The charming and relaxed spaces allowed me to ease into this deliciously different world.
We had deer
hanging out near the safari shop (and by hanging out I mean lounging around), squirrels
bouncing across the grass and buffalos that peered at us from across the river
looking so serious and stern with their heavy moustache horns. Warthogs were kneeling on their front legs as
they munched on grass in the garden. Apparently, their eyes are set high
on the head so they can keep a lookout for predators even while they lower
their heads to feed on short grass. As
soon as it got dark though, we were not allowed to go outdoors by ourselves. We had to
call for “security” so we could be safely accompanied to and from our rooms.
When we weren't in our rooms or out on safari, we were no better than warthogs, gorging ourselves with the freshly prepared treats.
On Safari
We went on safaris in the early morning and
late afternoon for about four hours at a time. When I first saw our safari jeep
and noticed how big and completely open it was, I wasn’t sure whether to jump with glee or run to the toilet.
The lowveld seduced us with a chameleon of seasons over the few days we were there.
It was fascinating to watch our tracker and
ranger, Solly and Jaben, do their thing. Studying animal prints in the dirt,
examining elephant dung like it was a prize entry for some pie competition,
looking up from the ground and declaring some elephants were chased away by a
pride of lions sometime this morning. They got me.
I told my family I want to move here and become a game ranger. They pointed out I
wouldn’t last a day without my gourmet restaurants and designer shopping. These beasts asserted the only safari I could lead was a shopping safari! Is this what my hunting and gathering skills have been reduced to?
Hunting discounts and gathering shoes? My friend Karen did come to the rescue
with a silver lining, that Net-A-Porter delivers worldwide.
Safari chic or suffering chick?
How would I survive in the wild? I wouldn't want to kill any animals. I thought maybe I could develop a taste for termites. Afterall, I was informed their total body mass exceeds that of all herbivores in Kruger put together. They're all protein, no fat and 100 grams supplies
you with 650 calories. Probably just enough to run from one termite hill to
to the next.
The Leopard
Our first significant spotting was a female
leopard. The sun was low and golden
orange and reflected the leopard’s beautiful fur. She had settled herself on one of the
branches of a great big tree, just high enough so she can be safe from
predators and scavengers and low enough that we could hear bones crunching as
she enjoyed her meal of fresh impala. Hyenas were skulking at the bottom of the
tree like restless hunchbacks.
Eventually one of them scampered off with a Twiggy impala leg in its
mouth.
That was our first safari and I felt drunk
with luck from seeing my first leopard in the wild. Getting so close to this leopard and watching
her feed – it almost felt intimate. It reminds me of how I feel whenever I watch my
cats Miso and Tofu eat. Like I'm privy to something special. Of being trusted enough to witness them perform the most basic function of keeping themselves alive.
The Other Wildlife
While nothing compares to my first leopard in the wild, the experience of meeting its diverse cohabitants was no less mesmerising.
Giraffes have always looked alien to me and I've often wondered how they've managed to survive considering their freakish height. That was until I saw them disappear into the trees.
I marvelled at how elephants carefully fed on the vegetation, chewing one relatively dainty mouthful at a time and pondered how this rate of eating served to maintain their body mass. I found out they spend about 80% of the day feeding, take power naps to help keep them going and consume about 140-160 kg of vegetation per day. That's a lot of chewing.
The zebras dazzled me with their stripes. At times they didn't even seem real because their contrasting colours were so vivid. However, I was dismayed by frequent intrusive images of seeing them transform into occasional chairs, all neatly lined up in a row. I reminded myself they were just thoughts and that my desire to be a game ranger must reflect my conservationist interests.
Then there were the Lions
Having happily and passionately kept feline company for the last 16 years, my love of cats, big and small, has only gotten stronger. I blame it on the movie "Born Free", one of my favourite movies when I was a kid. I bawled my eyes out when Elsa had to be released back into the wild. My 8-year-old self knew it was the best thing for her but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell.
When you fall in love with your pet, almost everything they do becomes utterly fascinating and adorable. My IPhone and computer are filled with pictures and videos of my cats. I was struck by how my cats and these lions seem so alike in their behaviour. I momentarily forget I can be their venison when I see them stretched out so languidly, ears flicking now and again, eyes scrunched up with sleep and paws tucked under their heads as if they were by the fire in our living room. I am lulled by their graceful languor only cats can ever seem to truly achieve. Fortunately, the open jeep and the 5-meter distance between them and me were more than enough to sustain my fear responses and suppress any urges to roll on the ground with them. It was interesting experiencing fear and softness at the same time.
I never expected we would get as close to the animals as we did. Of all the animals it was actually the big cats that we got closest to and who seemed the most relaxed with our company. I suppose that makes sense given they have the fewest number of predators. Sadly this also highlights how extremely vulnerable they are to our kind. That goes for all the mammals we saw as they all tended to habituate to our presence fairly quickly.
Game Changer Game Ranger
Going on safari in Kruger was undoubtedly one of the best experiences I've had. The wild and vast splendour of the lowveld was inescapable and seared through my city-addled consciousness. It woke up something in me, something I'm slowly figuring out, something that reminded me to dream even though I thought I already knew how. I've started a blog because of it, something I never thought I'd do. I'm voraciously dreaming of being a game ranger.
