Safari sundowner

May 5, 2009

After a taxing afternoon of reading by the pool and listening to hippos, it was time for our evening safari into the bush. We departed just as the sun started to set, lighting the sky on fire and creating beautiful silhouettes of the African flora.

We were on a mission to find a rhinoceros – the final member of the “Big 5” we had yet to see. But first, we decided to check in on our pride of lions and watched them continue to polish off the zebra from earlier today. Vultures perched above in trees, waiting for the lions to leave some scraps.

As we hunted for the elusive rhino, we had the chance to see a zebra (alive) and another giraffe. We saw some more deer-type creatures and a few rabbits. But no rhino in sight.

So, we drove around for a while until our ranger decided it was happy hour. He took out a little table and poured us some wine and unpacked some hors d’oeuvres. It was kind of strange to be standing around, nervously waiting for wildlife and enjoying a beverage. In fact, it was kind of annoying because I wanted to continue on our game drive.

Shortly after we broke for drinks, it was pretty dark and our tracker pulled out a high-powered spotlight to shine into the bushes, hoping to catch reflections from animals’ eyes. We managed to see a few more deer-thingys, some hyenas, a whole bunch of zebras and an impala that was dangling from a tree! Apparently, a leopard had dragged its dinner up a tree to keep it from other preadators. It was kind of a weird sight.

Overall, we had fewer animal sightings than in the morning, but it was a beautiful night and driving through the bush in an open jeep was really quite a treat. The African bush was amazingly fragrant (except for the area around the zebra carcass) and the warm air was very pleasant. Not a bad way to spend an evening, indeed.