Africa Day Six - Afternoon Heli Drive

When we returned to camp for lunch on the sixth day of our vacation, the other half of our group accosted us at the table to ask why we hadn't answered their radio calls, and where we'd gone when we all split up. After a bit of discussion a consensus was reached - we had never RECEIVED a radio call, because we'd managed to short out the radio driving through all that water.

Whoops.

Anyway, we told them about the bull elephant we'd found, and they told us about a group of 8 lionesses and adolescent lions that THEY had found. They were a bit smug about it. Bummer. We'd missed out on an entire pride of lions all lolling about in the grass. Gavin, who had been driving our vehicle and who had taken us to see the elephant, felt this a bit keenly, and made a personal vow to find us those lions again the next morning, no matter what. None of us felt an objection to this scheme, since we knew that the afternoon would be spent on the helicopter and of course we wanted to see the lions. The truth of the matter was, as a group we had experienced a schism. A little less than half of us were content - ecstatic, even - to ride with our A&K guide, Gavin, and learn everything that he wanted to teach us. The other half were more aggressive, were largely interested in the big animals, and therefore had split from the rest of us and went with the other driver. They got a bit tetchy about it, frankly. A few times one or the other of them were encouraged to ride in Gavin's vehicle and did so, but they groused a bit about the necessity.

In all honesty, I took some of the responsibility for this myself. Even under ordinary circumstances my husband's brothers and sisters tend to faction off, but I had not improved anything by telling our guide that I was an amateur birder. Gavin has a passion for...well, EVERYTHING in Africa, but he certainly knows and likes his birds, so he tended to stop to point them out to me...for some of the folks on the trip who wanted solely to see the mammals, the frequent bird explanations were tiresome. So our tour groups had become ossified, and we were all becoming just a bit competitive about our respective vehicles. All of us were feeling defensive of our chosen guide/driver, and willing to expound upon the wonders we'd seen in order to swell their skill and relative importance. This set the stage for the kind of post-battle boasting that used to be the province of hairy chested vikings alone...

"Well, you may have seen a pride of lions...but WE saw a Bull Elephant in must! And he menaced us!!!"

It was a little juvenile and ridiculous, but it certainly added an element of especial interest to each game drive. *laughing*

Anyway, after lunch and the break, we set off to meet up with the helicopter pilot. The afternoon group consisted of Sandy, his youngest brother Wyatt, myself, and Sandy's eldest sister Nora. Smile for the people, Nora!

Nora took the front seat next to the pilot, who was, incidentally, a born-Russian who had lived for a long time in New Zealand, and looked exactly like an extra from Top Gun. Amazing.

The helicopter had the pilot's seat and another seat in front, and then a three-person bench seat in the back. Two of the people would be sitting with one foot basically out of the sides of the helicopter because the doors had been removed, and one person would sit in between the other two, sort of tucked comfortably in the middle but without much of a view apart from what they could steal to either side past the other two people.

Next to Sandy, Wyatt had the best camera and lens, so they took up positions in the rear of the helicopter on the two door seats, and I offered to ride in the middle. I mention this positioning only because it makes my eventual triumph of visual acuity so much the greater...but again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Africa is GORGEOUS from the air! It looks like it just goes on forever. FOREVER. It's just mind-blowing.

A note about helicopter safaris - I'm sure it depends upon how responsible your pilot is, but ours made a significant point about telling us that if any of the animals appeared to take fright from our presence, he had to move away.

So, for example, the only reason I have so many photos of these running giraffe is because both Sandy and I were taking pictures of them, at the same time, as the pilot was taking the helicopter away from them.

If you're very good, you'll spot the animals in the photo below that I spotted about ten minutes after this photo was taken. I took the picture of the impala and the birds, and didn't see the other animals. Then ten minutes later as we were circling over a different area, I spotted them - they must have moved that way because it's definitely the same group.

Later on, when we'd gotten home and I started reviewing the photos, I realized that I'd actually taken a picture of them by accident ten minutes before I spotted them bursting out of the underbrush!

Excuse me for the squee, but...BABY ZEBRA!!!!!! AAAAAAAUGH SO CUTE!

The below giraffe was probably pretty advanced in age, since its spots are so very dark.

And then it happened guys. I was leaning past Wyatt, looking down into the brush because our pilot had told us to let him know if we saw anything and wanted him to move in that direction. I saw a grey shape moving through the bushes, and leaned further across Wyatt - I was assuming it was an elephant. But something about it caught my attention, and I watched. And before my brain had even caught up with my mouth I was reaching through the divider between us and the pilot, and screaming, and pointing, and screaming some more.

"RHINOS!!! RHINOS!!!!"

That's right, y'all. I'd f*ing spotted the White Rhino from 50 feet in the air, while stuck in the middle of the helicopter bench seat, stealing a glimpse of the ground from past Wyatt and his huge freaking lens. TAKE THAT, OPTOMETRIST!

This was a particular triumph because the rhino were a gift I was able to give directly to my husband. Sandy had talked of very little else but seeing a rhino since we'd gotten to the first game camp, and Gavin had told us it probably wouldn't happen...the areas we were in HAD rhino, (they'd actually had to be re-introduced to the area because they'd all gone, either from poaching or who knows what - anyway the point was they HAD re-introduced white rhino to the game park), but they weren't near the camps we were visiting and the chance of finding them was slim. Sandy was hoping and hoping and hoping, and for me to spot them, and show them to the pilot, and have him find them so that Sandy could take some pictures of them - well that was just awesome.

p.s. Also, being able to say, "I spotted the rhino," was totally bada$$. Hah. And yes, I bragged about it. I'm only human.

In my last post, I mentioned that we had cause to be grateful to those members of Sandy's family who jumped on the morning flight with both feet, and relegated us to the afternoon one - this was what I was talking about. We got to see RHINO...one of the Big Five! In point of fact, seeing the white rhino completed the Big Five for the four of us on that helicopter. We'd already seen the lion, the cape buffalo, the elephant, the leopard, and with the rhino it meant that we'd seen all five. And although I'm sure the morning group asked the helicopter pilot the following day when it was their turn, to bring them back to the area where we saw the rhino, they didn't happen to see them. Of course, they'd seen the baby lions, so it was totally a trade off.

Rhino have the most powerful looking butts in the world. Well, second only to the behind of a Bassett Hound, anyway. Once the rhino started to run, we left them and circled away.

We visited the hippo we'd taken photos of the day before from the ground.

We saw a Greater Kudu buck...

And then we landed. Once we were on the ground we were picked up by a driver, who was charged with bringing us out to meet Gavin and Tim. Gavin had gone with Tim to do the Mokoru paddle trip, and they were headed back our way, so we'd meet them out at a halfway point and then continue the afternoon safari from there.

But before we'd even really left the landing site, we spotted a Steenbuck. Wee itsy bitsy handsome little thing!

We passed by a bit of the wildfire, still burning on an isolated hillock**.

I had my second spot of the day then - I spotted a pair of Black-Backed Jackals. I. Am. Awesome.

Humorously, on our way to meet up with Gavin and Tim, we crossed paths with the over vehicle, containing the morning flight folks, and they shouted out, "did you see anything neat on the helicopter???" And we were able to yell back, "Rhino!"

Below, two Ground Hornbills. They are awesome.

We met up with Gavin and Tim, and not long afterwards we got a call on the radio from the other car. Sandy's sister Dakota had spotted a lion under a bush, and when they got closer they realized that the lion was eating an impala! Gavin said, "would you like to go see a lion on a kill?" and we all said, "YES!" Unfortunately, the lion had horked the entire impala down by the time we got there, and was busy sleeping it off. But the other group had gotten to see it, so that was okay.

Seriously full tummy, that man. This lion was well known to the rangers and guides in the area - as one of the Mambo Boys, and a veteran of many battles. He was missing his left eye.

It got dark. Rather than drive off to find a spot for sundowners, Gavin pulled the vehicle about 6 feet away from Left-Eye Lopez there, and we had sundowners in the jeep with a replete lion for company snoring and rumbling nearby. Then it was back to camp for dinner. Since it was our last night at Chief's, we had dancing and singing from the staff!

That woman's cheekbones ought to be illegal. They're just gorgeous! And of course, because that's just how he rolls, Sandy somehow wound up being the poor sap she dragged out of the audience to dance with her.

**People don't use the words hillock or hummock enough. Bring hillock and hummock back people!