A Kapama Safari – Part Three

It’s the afternoon of our second day at Kapama Private Game Reserve in Limpopo (Day 4 of our South Africa garden tour). The calendar says October 12th and the temperature is very hot, in the mid-30s or 90F+ with humidity. It is the first and only time our bathing suits will emerge from our suitcases, as we take the opportunity to cool off in the swimming pool at River Lodge. Leaving our room for our third game drive (I also blogged about our first and second game drives at Kapama) I come upon a few nyalas browsing in the brush adjacent to our suite.  Shy by nature, they have nevertheless learned to be calm in this safe environment.  As we head into the bushveld in our vehicle, we slow to watch their lookalike cousins, the greater kudus.   But the word on the radios is that a leopard has been sighted in the vicinity so Willis and another tracker head off into the bush on foot. Clearly, they know their job, but um……

Rangers-tracking-Kapama

Part of the fun of being on an animal safari is the occasional insight you gain into the plants that grow in the bushveld.  The shrub below is the magic guarri bush (Euclea divinorum) and Dino points out that the leaves are so rich in bitter tannins that it is not browsed by wild animals. Those tannins also provide a dye for traditional basket-making (in Durban a few days from now, I’ll buy four beautiful Zulu baskets for my children).  Parts of the tree are also used by the traditional sangomas in “divining” problems (thus the botanical name) with the body or mind; the bark is used to fabricate ropes; and a decoction of the fruit is used in making an alcoholic beverage.  It has many other uses as described on the plantzafrica site, including treatment of coughs, diarrhea and stomach problems.

Dino & magic guarri bush-Euclea divinorum-Kapama

After a lot of driving and radio communication, we finally come upon the leopard (Panthera pardus) resting in the bush; alas, well camouflaged by shrubs and grasses.  Some people are bothered by the collar around its neck, thinking this somehow makes it “tame” and not a valid part of a “wild animal safari”. In fact, Kapama is a conservation oasis for cheetahs and leopards that have been rescued, often in dire circumstances, either trapped in a farmer’s snare in the wild or in locations where they have been caged to amuse their owners.  This leopard was likely rescued and collared as part of Fred Berrangé’s Leopard Conservation Project which has saved more than 150 leopards since its inception in 2000.  But catching them and bringing them to animal reserves is not the project’s main goal; it is educating farmers in how to deal with leopards as predators of their domestic animals, rather than removing them from the ecosystem in which they play a vital and natural role.

Leopard-Kapama It’s a quiet game drive after that, and we head to the clearing where Dino transforms himself from expert game ranger to cocktail waiter. Cheers!

Dino-serving sundowners-Kapama And as we stand chatting and sipping our “sundowners”, the sun appropriately goes down and the sky over the Drakensberg range is suffused with colour. Tree silhouette&Drakensberg-Kapama

Then it’s time for our second night drive. Willis’s flashlight sweeps the bush on both sides of the road. Night-drive-Kapama

And somehow he sees them: a pair of female lions sleeping on the far side of the waterhole. Dino turns the vehicle and we drive the 4×4 down the slope to the water’s edge. Gulp. But these cats are fast asleep and we are able to study them quietly for a few moments. Female lions sleeping-Kapama

The lion sighting, after seeing the leopard, puts us in a great mood as we drive back to the lodge under the stars for dinner.

4th and Final Game Drive Day 5 of our garden tour “dawns” early and we get a start on packing our bags, since we’re heading to the local airport right after lunch to fly to Durban. Soon we’re climbing into the vehicle for our final three-hour game drive. Last game drive-Kapama As often happens, our tracker sees tracks! Dino and Willis get out and study the footprints by the side of the road.  Fresh lion tracks is their conclusion.

Animal tracks Kapama And a few minutes later, Dino gets out to follow a drag mark in the dirt:  a hyena has dragged home dinner through the bush.  Dino points out the white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus) waiting in a tree for the thermal winds that will aid in its airborne search for food. White-backed vulture-Gyps africanus-Kapama

And then we find her, a female lion down by the watering hole – likely one from last night now looking wide awake but not in the least concerned about us watching her. Female lion-Kapama

We drive on, and Dino gets out and tells us a little about the silver-clusterleaf tree (Terminalia sericea), a common bushveld species.  According to Plantzafrica, “The leaves and roots are boiled in water and the infusion is taken orally for the treatment of coughs, diarrhea and stomach aches. the leaves can be used as an antibiotic for wounds. In case of bleeding, a paste can be made by cooking the leaves in water and placing them on the wounds. The wood is used as a source of energy for cooking and boiling water, for construction huts, for fencing material and for solid structures. Leaves are food for caterpillars during the rainy season.” Silver-cluster leaf-Terminalia sericea-Kapama

Driving on a bit, we come upon a female white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) and her calfforaging in the grasses.  Here is a little flavour of the atmosphere in the bush (and the sound of ranger’s radio communications) as the rhinos feed.

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And our last mid-morning coffee break at Kapama, with Dino and Willis sharing the pouring honours. Coffee-break-Kapama

Caffeine and biscuit under my belt, I’m now wide awake and in focus….. Janet Davis-Kapama safari

Our last lovely sighting of our South African safari features two male giraffes “necking” at a water hole.  Giraffes move in loose herds, the females sticking together and the calves playing in groups. At around 3 years of age, the males leave their mothers and become part of “bachelor herds”, often standing side-by-side and using their necks like boxers’ arms and their heads like fists to show dominance.  This pair is just sparring, says Dino, while assuring us that the real thing is much more vicious. Giraffes-necking-Kapama

And then it’s time to leave Kapama. What a wonderful two days we’ve had here, but it’s time to get back to garden touring.  We leave Limpopo province and re-enter Mpumalanga.  Here are houses in the small town of Bushbackridge, so named in 1880 for the number of antelopes that roamed the slope. Bushbackridge-Mpumalanga

We pass a typical fruit vendor’s stand selling bananas, oranges, onions and tomatoes. Fruit-Vendor-Limpopo

And this fabulous jacaranda tree spangled with weaver nests. Jacaranda & weaver nests-Mpumalanga

And farm pickers working beneath the Drakensberg foothills. Farm-workers-Mpumalanga

Then it’s time for a short shopping stop at a smart little mall in White River where I find this lovely “made in South Africa” beadwork necklace. (Yes, I do like gaudy costume jewelry, now that you ask!)

Beaded-South-African-necklace

Finally, we’re at the airport for our 1-hour flight to Durban. Stay tuned for more on this city, including the lovely Durban Botanic Garden.

A Kapama Safari – Part One

Although our South Africa trip is essentially a garden tour, happily for us Donna Dawson has included a 2-night safari stay at Kapama River Lodge a 20-room eco-resort set in the 32,000-acre Kapama Private Game Reserve outside Kruger National Park. (There are three smaller lodgings on the property as well.)  There are many private game reserves near Kruger

Since we arrive in the early afternoon of the day we tour the Blyde River Canyon Reserve area nearby, that gives us four game drives (this afternoon-tomorrow morning-tomorrow afternoon-following morning) before our flight to Durban from the local airport servicing Kruger.

Entrance to Kapama River Lodge

Arriving at the lodge, we have a quick buffet lunch and head to our rooms for a rest before our first game drive, scheduled for 4-7 pm.  The landscape here is natural savannah with a few added indigenous plants, like the beautiful Euphorbia ingens and the aloe.

Euphorbia & Aloe-Kapama

It’s a lovely room — spacious and close to the spa, if that’s your fancy.  I look through the bathroom window and browsing in the bushveld just outside is a female nyala  What a treat to be so close to the antelopes! (No worries: lions and leopards are not allowed in this area.)

Nyala from bath-Kapama River Lodge

Our little balcony allows us to sit and get a closer look at the nyala, quietly browsing the vegetation.  I have been on one other safari in Kenya and Tanzania (2007), and it is by far my favourite kind of vacation:  to be in an entirely natural place in the midst of wild animals and plants, where we are the ones in a kind of zoo, and the animals are watching us. (It’s not too off the mark to say it’s like Disneyland for grownups.)

Nyala angasii-male-Kapama River Lodge

Shortly before 4 pm, we walk out into the parking area and (knowing our assigned vehicle is the one we’ll have for our stay) I ask the first guide I see a rather leading question. “Whose vehicle should we choose?” With a wry smile, he points to the one he’s standing beside: “This one.” We have now met our wonderful tracker, Willis, who sits on a jump-seat mounted on the front of the vehicle.  Soon we also meet our ranger and driver, Dino, a 26-year old ball-of-energy who’s been at Kapama for just 9 months and is an enthusiastic font of wild animal knowledge and dry humour.

Before long, our open-topped vehicle is driving out into the bushveld. That’s the name for the savannah landscape in this part of South Africa, where scattered trees and shrubs stud dry grasslands.  It’s not all flat, since it also includes part of the Drakensburg escarpment in the north. Though we are here in African spring (October), the summer rains (December is peak rainy season in the Kruger region) have not yet started so the landscape is mostly brown and parched looking.

Dino draws our attention to a marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea) whose bark has been browsed away by elephants. He tells us they often find the marula berries in elephant dung, which helps to spread the trees. Paradoxically, female marula trees (marulas are dioecious and fruit forms only on the females) are often destroyed by elephants, which puzzles evolutionary biologists.

Marula tree-Sclerocarya birrea-elephant browsed

Our first game drive animal sighting is a female impala browsing on a tree.

Female impala-Aepyceros melampus-Kapama

Then we see a female giraffe in the road ahead. Mature adult giraffes stand 5-6 metres tall (16-20 feet), making them the tallest animals in the world.  I love these graceful animals.

Giraffe on road-Kapama Game Reserve

Throughout Africa, there are nine subspecies of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), each with its own spot pattern and other differences, such as the median lumps of the males.  Linnaeus assigned the specific epithet because of the similarity of the animals to camels with leopard coats. The South African sub-species, native also to southern Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique) is G. camelopardalis giraffa, with an estimated wild population of 12,000 and 45 more in zoos. New DNA evidence suggests that at least six of these sub-species may actually be species, with genetic drift resulting in reproductive isolation (inability to interbreed).

Giraffes-Kapama This giraffe below is nibbling on a knobthorn acacia (Senegalia nigrescens), her rough tongue carefully negotiating the succulent foliage around the thorns.

Giraffe-eating-knobthorn-acacias-Kapama

Kapama features more than 350 bird species.  Here is a red-billed hornbill (Tockus sp.) in the grass by the road.

Red billed hornbill-Kapama

 And some helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) peck about for seeds.

Guinea fowl-Kapama

A pregnant plains zebra (Equus quagga quagga) is browsing in the grasses.

Zebra-pregnant female-Kapama

Dino knew from the time he was a young boy on safari trips with his parents that he wanted to be a ranger, so he worked in the mining industry long enough to earn a nest egg that allowed him to switch to this less remunerative but (for him) more rewarding profession.  Here he is explaining the symbiotic relationship of some of the acacia species, aka African thorn trees (Vachellia sp.) with stinging ants that nest in galls in the thorns and can repel the animals that attempt to browse them by emerging to sting them. He breaks off a thorned twig so I can inspect it, but after I stab my hand with it for a second time, I toss it out of our vehicle.

Paperbark acacia-Dino-Kapama

Then we see a small group of female greater kudus. To the untrained eye, the nyala can be easily mistaken for a kudu – not surprising, since both are South African antelopes.  But the males are easily identified, since kudus have twisted horns and nyala horns have just one angular bend. Dino points out the large ears of the kudu, noting that their acute hearing is a sensory compensation for poor eyesight.

Greater kudu-Tragelaphus strepsiceros-Kapama

Dino points up into a tree and we see a Verreaux’s eagle owl (Bubo lacteus) fledgling peeking over the edge of its nest. This is the largest African owl.

Verreau's Eagle Owl-fledgling-Kapama

Our next sighting is a very thrilling one, and begins with a “hands-on” lesson from Dino.  He has spotted a pile of fresh rhinoceros dung and some small antelope droppings.  So we know that the rhinos are in the area.

Rhino dung & Impala droppings-Kapama

We drive on, past a tall termite mound.

Termite Mound-Kapama

Trackers are always alert to animal tracks, and Willis and Dino follow some fresh ones for a few minutes.  The direction helps them decide which way to drive.

Willis & Dino follow tracks-Kapama

It’s not long before Willis signals quietly for Dino to stop the vehicle, pointing to the left. There in the brush is a mother and juvenile white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum).

Willis spots rhinos-Kapama

Dino carefully manoeuvres our vehicle in order to improve our view. South Africa has a strong conservation initiative to protect rhinos from the horrendous poaching crisis that has decimated their population in Africa, but no jurisdiction is immune from the unspeakable and vicious hunting of these animals for their horns. In fact, a few days from now, we’ll visit the Natural History Museum in Durban where we see a big display on rhino poaching and what is being done to curb it.

White rhinoceros-Ceratotherium simum-Kapama

We stop in the bushfeld for sundowner cocktails as the sun sets.  And before long, we’re wending our way back in the dark, with Willis’s flashlight scanning back and forth across the road for cat’s eyes..  Nothing tonight, alas.  Dinner (the tame kind at a delicious buffet) awaits back at the lodge, followed by an early bedtime, for tomorrow’s first game drive means a 5 am wakeup call.

Night game drive-Kapama