Christmas Day at Kruger

Monday December 25th 2006

At 3:45am the alarm rang as we both groaned and slowly got up for our 4am, Christmas morning, game drive. We were in the truck again, spot light once more in hand to sweep the dark landscape for nightcrawlers. We only spotted the usual impala and springbok, but as the daylight arrived, we saw some zebras once again, a white rhino racing through the brush, more kudu, a warthog and mama baboons with their babies clinging tightly around the belly. Then, just as we were about to start the trek back, we came upon a lion laying languidly toward the side of the dirt road, gazing around (what appeared to be) aimlessly. As we approached in the truck, he continued to lay there, so we pulled up right beside him and stopped. Remember, we were in an open truck, and pulled up right BESIDE a lion. I was a bit nervous thinking about all of the worst tales of what happens when humans encroach on wildlife's space where seemingly placid animals attack in a split second. Actually though, it turns out the lion wouldn't have had a chance to smell us as the diesel from the truck would override any human scent. Had we disembarked, that would be a different story.

After a few moments, the lion yawned, stood up and sauntered off as if to lead us to a better view. We followed him where he joined two other lions and a lioness at a waterhole, chasing off the other lions from the waterhole to drink beside the lioness. As they all left the side of the waterhole, I remembered my digital camera's video capability, which I almost never think about for the best footage. I started taping what I thought was an innocent walk together, but within a few seconds, the two subordinate lions had moved off to the side to wrestle a little and the dominant lion moved in for some morning love with his lioness. What can I say, got a great video of The Call of the Wild. Unfortunately, when I needed to transfer the memory from my memory card to cd through a Kodak kiosk to clear room for more pictures, I didn't realize that videos didn't get saved on the automated cd maker. Well, guess even lion's love should be given a bit of privacy.

After the very early morning game drive and an open schedule for the remainder of the day, we were all too happy to use the rest of the morning to get some more sleep. By the time we got up, we had a late lunch of hoagies with chicken and sausage cooked on an outside grill, (understandably) not too happily by a man stuck in the hot sun standing over the heat of coals on Christmas Day. As we finished eating, for no good reason, I happened to look up at the ceiling of the round pavilion we'd been sitting under. There were probably 100 large brown bats dangling from the peaked center. I hadn't previously noticed that tables were placed only on the perimeter and just outside of the pavilion. The bats must have been regulars. As we sat a bit longer, children started clustering around one particular area where we then saw a few adults taking pictures of the newly visiting baboon. Soon there were five or six with their babies jumping through the trees, holding my attention from my chair just as well as the children who repeatedly shifted and then crowded together at the most accessible view.

Later we visited the pool, though there was little sun left, so we read and enjoyed the children's fun in the water. One tiny toddler was notably adorable, standing at the edge of the pool and then falling into his daddy's arms with a big splash and squeal of delight. After I could no longer deny that the mosquitos had launched a serious war on my ankles, toes, elbows and wrists, we headed off to make another bbq with the second portion of chicken, lamb and veggies.