Africa: Post #5...[Hippo Lakes]-- The Other Big Game Park Visits...

Because the Hippo Lakes property is not yet large enough to sustain some of the bigger species, arrangements were made for us to visit two larger preserves within reasonable driving distance. Mary Jane would drive us the to the park's entrance to meet one of their rangers & board another vehicle to view their animals.

Hippo Lakes is hoping to acquire enough acreage to allow some of the larger & rarer animals of which visuals are sought... there is a bit of competition for marking... Lion, Leopard, Rhino off our list of the "big five".

 

At Entabeni Safari Conservancy, about an hour's drive to what that day was much dryer territory,

we met our new ranger & changed into his rather more heavily built Toyota vehicle. 

 

    

Andy from Vermont is included in this shot I made of one of the larger park's vehicles, as a memo for remembering its name.

 

The landscape is a dramatic backdrop to herds of abundant Wildebeest & Zebra.

Wildebeest is quite a curious amalgam of disparate, almost familiar, parts of other 

beasts... thus they do seem to look like their name. (Also known as Gnu!)

This shot has become a visual reference for the group name of of them... a "dazzle"... just look at that razzle of stripes!

 

Entabene had Hippos as well, but closer to view from the vehicle as they exposed  themselves more while actively moving from land to water with their humorously short legged gait!

[We had another experience later in the trip being even closer to them... that story will be shown several posts ahead... a teaser to look for that in future!]

I'm sharing some videos here to give a better idea of what it's like on these 21st Century safaris...you can fast forward if you want. 

I was not expecting to see the Lion so intimately as happened. The rangers were in frequent contact by radio observing the biology, all over the park land, while sharing information with the fair quantity of visitors also moving... an educational, benign, & sometimes playful version of a"big game hunt". We had our cameras ready to aim!

We listened to both radio communiques & our ranger's explanation as the chase began, sometimes at a clip while other times slowing to track prints or to suss terrain; this becomes a team effort for those closing in on the prey. His explanations about safety centered on our being the single entity of the vehicle, which is familiar to the animals, who live with this curiosity. Which obviously does not look like food... as long as no arms or heads are hanging out! Good & easy advice. This staff is capable, caring,  intelligent & likable... obviously loving their work.

Then there were lions. A pride of them... the females were off on the hunt... which is their skill, having raised these daughters who are now hunting along with them, so as to feed his lazy highness & their sons, whose exuberance & ambition, as the ranger tells us, might mess up the kill! 

When we came upon them, the lot were sitting & lounging in a dusty ragged line atop the ruts of the road... waiting for the anticipated meal. We then had the luxury to wait with them, our cameras already feasting. The young guys occasionally played out their competition by getting up only to saunter to the position just ahead of his brother or cousin 

The radio has brought other vehicles to the sight, so our ranger began easing off the road as a courtesy to share, until the pride slowly loped away, leaving himself to briefly pose for us.

After the "King," the Rhinoceros proved to be a very different sort of contender for bodily power, if not so much of the storied leonine aesthetic. A Rhino is vision of a machine of defense.

But unfortunately its most horrid enemy is a poacher wielding a saw to harvest its horn -- much prized in China as an ancient medicinal potion for various deficiencies... even though it is only the same material as a human fingernail!

Interesting to me was an unexpected grace to them.

Our ranger shared with us...

The most fascinating animal to me, whose zodiacal sign is Leo, has long been the Elephant. We had a fine sighting of two of those beautiful creatures while they walked straight toward us on a road...

 

 

Making these excursions into those two neighboring animal preserves became a rich layer topping-off our safari. I am able now to have such a different opinion of the entire notion of the word than I began this travel with... That silent auction bid of Stephen's became a fine gift... wrapped with a sunset!