The Birmingham Pride

We started off Wednesday morning‘s drive with our goal of seeing a rhino, specifically the white rhino. Black rhino are also in South Africa, but they are critically endangered and therefore extremely rare to see. Daniel heard of a rhino tracking about 30 minutes from camp so we headed that way. A few minutes into our drive, we passed a lone hyena – our first sighting – running through the field. 

One way to track rhinos is to follow the oxpecker. Where you see oxpecker, you typically will find rhinos. We saw a few of these birds and, a short time later, we came upon a mother white rhino and her baby lazily sleeping along the edge of the path. The sound of our vehicle woke her up, noticeable only by the slight movements of her ears. Interestingly, rhinos will use both ears and opposite directions to listen to things in front of them and behind them simultaneously.

We spent some time watching the mother stand protectively in front of her baby. Once she became more comfortable, they both proceeded to graze on the grass right in front of us. It was incredible watching the two of them.

Our next goal was to proceed to the far north end of the reserve on the edge of the greater Kruger National Park, where several trackers on foot had been following a large pride of lions, notably from the Birmingham pride. This pride includes a dominant female white lion. As we drove the long distance to this section of the reserve, we passed through entirely new landscapes, ranging from vast open grass lands to dense dense bush filled with with the thin, short Mopani trees. These trees have distinctive leaves in the shape of butterflies, ironic since these trees are filled with mopani caterpillars in the spring.

We passed a group of wildebeest, a foreshadowing of what was to come next! A drive through the dense bush led us to a shaded spot under some trees, where we found members of the Birmingham pride – around 17 lions devouring a wildebeest. Yet another incredible kill sighting! The sounds of these lions growling and fighting over their kill was something we won’t soon forget! The “queen” white lioness had the head of the beast all to herself and none of the lions, many of them cubs, wouldn’t dare challenge her. They were all huddled together on the ground, under the canopy of trees and bushes, so getting good photos was challenging.

One particular lion had hold of the wildebeest’s tail, while two younger lions each made away with a hind leg and scampered a few feet away to try and eat their prize in peace. Other lions continued to fight over pieces of the beast. All of them were clearly exhausted from either the hunt/kill or the eating, or both! No doubt this pride will have a lazy afternoon and evening of sleep after their morning! We sat and watched for 15 minutes or so, then made way for other guides with their guests. By then, three other vehicles had shown up (the guides notify each other via radio when a big sighting occurs).

As we journeyed back south toward camp, we passed a large, open space filled with wildebeest, zebra, and impalas. The baby zebra was a delight to see; it was playfully running around and kicking its hind legs. 

The Ngala staff surprised us with a stop at the most serene spot under a huge tree for a bush breakfast, complete with our butler MK and the other guests from our camp (there are only nine tents in all at Ngala Tented Camp). With full stomachs, we returned to camp for a time of rest and relaxation poolside until our afternoon drive.

Back at camp, I had a visitor right outside our tent – a gorgeous kudu.

We began our last afternoon/evening drive on the hunt for African wild dogs. Our goal was to drive to the far edge of the game reserve in an area we hadn’t yet been, and where the trackers had discovered a den. On the drive, we ran across three massive bull elephants. They allowed us to get surprisingly close!

After about an hour of driving with little no animal sightings, we came across a lone hyena relaxing in the middle of the road. While hyenas are pack animals, sometimes one will be sent to scout an area for possible prey, or will stand guard while the pack rests in the distance. This little guy was just hanging out, looking quite cute!

Sadly, the wild dogs eluded us. With darkness fast approaching, we stopped for cocktails to enjoy the colorful sunset views across the savannah one last time.

On our way back to camp, we spotted two jackal running across the road in front of us. My focusing skills weren’t fast enough, especially with the darkness, to get a good pic.

Tomorrow, we’ll head out with Daniel and Harold at 6:00 am, with our luggage in tow, on our final game drive. Then they will drop us directly off at the Ngala airstrip, where we’ll take our charter flight to the Kruger National Park airport, where we’ll connect for our flight to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.