Skukuza, Kruger National Park

Thornbush and woodland

cover the Lowveld, the vast granite

African basement formation around

Skukuza carved by the Sabie River.

I didn’t know it would be that flat.

Like the belly hide of a giant crocodile.

Didn’t know it can be cold in the morning.

It was July, mid winter, the coolest month.

And dry; mostly skeletal trees and bushes

except for the big trees along the Sabie River

where we hoped to see leopards

sprawled on branches like house cats.

The Shalati Lodge, also known

as the Train on the Bridge, has

twenty-five rail cars on an abandoned

railroad bridge over the Sabie River

that have been converted into

luxurious hotel rooms. Not ours,

our rooms were next to a garden.

With vervet monkeys and singing birds.

A lovely reception area, lobby,

bar and restaurant, all the meals

are included. There are a couple of

swimming pools in huge corrugated

steel circular tanks. If itt were warm

enough tto swim, which it wasn’t. We

were there to see animals. The so-called

Big Five of course, elephants, lions,

Cape buffalo, rhinoceros, and leopards.

That’s what they promote, almost

guarantee at Kruger National Park.

Each day there are two three-hour

game drives, one at 5:30 a.m.

before sunrise and one at 4:00 p.m.

a couple hours before sunset. The drives

are in high-riding  Toyota trucks with open

sides and three rows of bench seats

and a canvas roof. Excellent views

into the adjacent bush. The drivers

cruise along at a modest pace, mostly

on paved roads with occasional detours

onto gravel roads. We saw an elephant

a giraffe and a couple of lionesses in the

first five minutes on the first afternoon.

Then, a small herd of impala, a family

 of hyenas. Kudu antelope, warthogs.

Just before sunset, Lawrence

our guide, stopped at an overlook

of the river and set up a small bar

with spirits or champagne, wine or beer,

soft drinks, savory snacks. A good time

to get to know him, his life and family.

We had already heard his impressive

knowledge about the animals and plants

of the region. I asked him where he had

learned so much. He learned many things,

especially the plants, from his grandfather

who was a natural healer. And some from

the wildlife training school for guides

 he'd attended. Before he became a guide,

he'd started in the anti-poaching program.

Watching out for the rhinoceros mostly.

They are much sought after for their horns.

Raw rhino horn sells for an average

$8,600 per kilogram. And who knows

better than the anti-poaching guys

in the bush where they are? So they

are targeted by criminal kingpins.

Lawrence was contacted by one such.

And he didn’t want to tell them where

the rhinos were so he told the kingpin,

I love the animals, I don’t want them

to be killed. And the kingpin said,

I understand, you love the animals, it’s ok,

you don’t have to help us kill the rhinos.

You love them, so we’ll kill your family instead.

Before we kill you. Lawrence was

very frightened of course. He asked his

superiors what he should do. They said,

give them false locations, play along.

And he did that. But at a certain point

the poaching gangster became very

suspicious and threatened him again.

This time he had to give them real

locations. Twice. Then a propitious

thing happened, Grace! An Australian

author who was writing a book about

poaching and anti-poaching got in touch

with Lawrence and he was able to help

him with his book. And get out of the

clutches of the kingpin. The Aussie helped

him get into the wildlife school so that

he could become a guide. That’s how

Lawrence became a guide at Shalati Lodge.

He grew up about thirty miles away.

Has two children, a son, 18, who wants

to become a pilot and a younger child.

We found this over and over in our 

time in South Africa and Zimbabwe,

people who rise from difficult situations

with determination and find at least

some degree of stability and modest

financial security. Something they can

pass on to their children. Parents! Right? 

Along with the usual drama too of course.

Okay, so what about the animals?

We’re at at a game park, what did we see?

Lots of lions, lots of elephants, so many

impala that Lawrence didn’t bother to stow.

Two hippos who had just fought, one was

wounded and his blood was in the water.

When night fell, the game drives change

their technique, swinging a hand held spotlight

from side to side as they drive, looking for

the reflection in the eye shine of creatures,

blue or green are herbivores, yellow or red

are the predators, leopards are what we

are looking for especially hard. And not

finding them. But we see genets and

a civit cat, a jackal, pint-sized predators.

Shall we call them the Small Five?

The next morning before chilly dawn, we

climbed into the truck, bundled up in thick

blankets wiith hot water bottles in our laps.

Caught in the beams of the headlights,

several lions were sleeping on the paved road

which retains some heat through the night.

Like a house cat on a fiireplace hearth

or in a patch of sunlit floor. With a slow

yawn and stretch, the big males began their day.

I knew that the lionesses do the hunting,

and assumed that the males basically just ate

what the lionesses caught, slept,and made babies.

But they actually do have a job, lion prides

have defined territories, with borders.

As we drove slowly along, following one of

the males, he was spraying urine markers

and clawing the ground with his back feet

every thirty feet or so along the edge of the road.

Not a difficult job in the dry winter conditions,

a lot more required in the wet summer.

As the sun rose, still no sign of a leopard.

Lawrence pulled off into an open area and

set up coffee and snacks. It was good to feel

the sun without the breeze in the open truck.

As we headed back to the lodge, we saw wart hogs

and more of the plentiful impala, nyala and kudu

the diminutive duikers, Africa’s smallest antelope.

Cape buffalo in the bush and more elephants.

Mid days were mild and warm, not quite tempting

a for dip in the pool weather but very pleasant to sit

in the sun watching the vervet monkeys steal sugar

packets off the outdoor dining tables. Until

the staff chased them away with a sling shot

and a pebble. Our waitress for our three days

at the lodge was named Happy. All the African

people we met had names that mean something

of significance. The lodge manager was named

Justice. What a great name his parents chose!

Another driver on this trip had a baby boy

who was named “We are Grateful”,

in one of the many tribal languages of course.

He and his wife chose that name after her

previous pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage.

Names like Hope and Grace and Faith are popular.

I had hoped to see some reptiles, there were

a few crocodiles as still as stone statues, but the

snakes and rock monitor lizards were still asleep

until the season warms up. There is an old

saying, “more fun than a barrel of monkeys”

I don’t think, in fact I'm sure, that I’ve ever

 seen any creature having more fun

than a half dozen young baboons, cavorting

on a branch, hanging by one hand, dropping

onto each other, chasing and wrestling,

over and over without cease. An adult female

sat watching them play while another slightly

older youngster groomed her back. It

was interesting to see all these social animals,

the baboons, lions, elephants, hyenas, impala

and monkeys. Strength in numbers. And love;

Lawrence said duikers, the housecat-sized

antelope, pair bond for life or until death

do them part. They are like little toy deer

and that just makes them cuter. What I

did not expect to see, I don’t know why,

were bunny rabbits. I’m sure they are not

the same species as the ones back home

but they sure look like cousins.

When asked what animal he would want

to be if he were an animal, Lawrence

said “An elephant of course, or my favorite

the Marshall eagle.” When we saw that one,

perched on the a bare branch of a tree, its

feathered crest clearly visible, he was very

excited to see it. Lawrence is certainly

in the right job, he loves the animals

and when he sees one that is rare

or not often seen, he expresses that.

Like the eagle and the jackal we saw

one evening, first he’d ever seen in the area.

On the second morning game drive, he was

dtermined to find a rhino. The place to look

was about an hour south, so after a drive

through leopard habitat in the dark

without seeing a leopard, we headed south.

Stopped to watch some young hyenas

tussling and playing, cracked all of us up,

Lawrence kept laughing and calling them naughty.

One side of the road had been a controlled burn,

miles of scorched bush and bare stony ground.

The terrain became more rocky, and with

scattered trees that resembled our native oaks.

We left the main road and rattled  along a gravel

track until we came to an overlook where some

other vehicles were stopped. A conversation

in Xhosa informed him that there was a big rhino

about two kilometers back down the paved road

and then a kilometer off on the next gravel track.

So we turned around and tore back to the

tar road and then out the gravel road and spotted

the 4,000 pound bull slowly awakening down in a

small draw. They don’t arise quickly in the morning,

they take their time to get their circulation

and breathing going. Only his ears were moving.

His horn had been removed. This is an effort to

protect them from poachers, but it isn’t working

as hoped, because the root of the horn is still

valuable and the poachers will kill them to get it.

When hornless rhinoceros compete for mates,

they struggle ineffectively for days in combat

which fails elicit the normal mating response

from the females so there are fewer offspring as well.

I have read that in some places, each rhino has

an individual guard armed with an assault rifle

to protect the them. Something needs to happen

or they will all be gone forever. There was only one

member left in the Big Five that we hadn’t seen,

the leopard, but we were seeing so much else and

enjoying our time with each other and Lawrence

and the kindness and generosity of the lodge.

Maybe we’d see a leopard this evening. Meanwhile

we saw our first zebras, and more lions, giraffes

warthogs and four kinds of antelope, another Marshall

eagle. We weren’t there for the checklist.

That night the dinner was special, a buffet of

so many things, too many to try them all. I was

very happy to finally get some of the fiery flavors

I like, which had not been on the regular menu.

There was one last 5:30 a.m. game drive before

our departure to Johannesburg. We bundled up

as usual with blankets and hot water bottles.

Drove on the road that parallels the river.

Lawrence swept the trees near the road with

the spot light. No telltale red or yellow eyeshine.

Two people in a private vehicle said that they may

have seen a leopard down in the bush near the river.

We drove back and forth along a one kilometer stretch.

Nothing, and the sun was now up so we went to a rustic

roadside picnic area to warm up and have a welcome

cup of coffee. Some folks pulled into the parking lot.

They had video of a leopard right on the road.

we quickly packed up and took off down the road

to where another lodge truck was parked. There was

a leopard and her year old cub up in a large tree

about a hundred feet away. She had just dragged an

impala up to her perch and was proceeding to eat it.

Her cub waited patiently for its turn. After a few minutes

she climbed down to drink. We had been witness

not just to a sleeping leopard, but a mother with

a one year old and she had just made a kill. Getting to

see something like that is apparently pretty uncommon.

I think Lawrence was as thrilled as we were.

And how forever grateful we will be for the hours

we spent with his kind and loving soul.

What a wonderful finale to our visit to the Park.