In the Bush: Chapter 2: The daily routine & game drives

I apologize for the delay in getting this post up, but last week has been very busy as I focused on collating the findings from this trip and producing a recommendation.  The feedback we got today from the presentation was very good so that makes me happy.

I think the next logical topic as I document my adventures in the bush is to tell you a bit more about game drives (or as it is known to the rest of the world - and myself before I got here -  "safari").

As a guest at the these lodges in the game reserve, your daily activities are largely already planned for you.  Of course, there are options to deviate from these plans and other adventures and options that you can take, and I mean ultimately, the choice is yours if you decide to just take it easy and spend your time by the pools.

The schedule

Your morning usually begins at around 5am, when your ranger gives you a wake up call, either by phone or by knocking on your door (if your lodge's phone is not working).  The ranger is a very important person to you at the game lodges.  They are your guide for the game drives which means they drive the vehicle and provide information to you. He (or sometime she) is very important to your wildlife experience. (I must say, my ranger at Phinda made my experience =)).  They are very well trained and extremely knowledgeable, from animals, to birds, to trees, to plants, to bugs, to tracks, to dung and of course the reserve since they have to drive and guide you around to observe different things.

Then at around 5:30am, you're expected to be at the "deck" which is usually where you get tea or coffee and a quick snack (my usual is black tea with honey with cookies - hmm *drools*) After your little eye-opener (unfortunately not like curling, there is not baileys at that point.. yet), you will meet your ranger and the fellow guests who shares your vehicle at your vehicle

@ Kirkman's Kamp - on my first game vehicle with my coworker sekoati and a single visitor from NYC Eric

@kirkmans, Ralph, our ranger and Richard our tracker asking us what we wanted to see , and then realize that he just needed to find me "something with 4 legs that moves" (since it was my first drive - i must say the standards rose for awhile and then it went down again by the end of the two weeks)

Then your morning "game drive" starts and last for about 3 hours until around 9 with a refreshment (at this point you can bring out the baileys-equivalent - the Amarula and have that with hot chocolate)  and bush toilet break. (More on game drives later)

Richard and Ralph organizing our coffee/tea (and amarula) with the cookies -yum

A nice spot at kirkman's with the biggest tree in the area

For one of our drives at Phinda Forest, Wayne and Nsika took us to the mountain area (on the other side of the reserve) and it was beautiful.  It was only my coworker and I and by that time we've seen a lot of things, so we were happy with the change of scenery (no one else spotted anything that morning anyways).  Wayne was excited to drive on new roads and we heard a lot of new bird calls in that area.

Upon return to the lodge from your drive,  breakfast is served.  After breakfast, you can choose to either have a nap, take a dip in the pool (which you have to do then, since you can't do it in the dark) or go for a nature walk (bush walk - again more on that later). For me and my coworker, we spent most of these time doing real work and visiting the communities to conduct meetings and seminars.  Then lunch is served at around 1, and sometimes depending on the lodge they might skip that and serve high tea instead a bit later (e.g. Phinda Forest).

At around 3:30pm to 4pm, you meet at the "deck" again for tea/coffee/cake/snack/afternoon refreshment and chit-chat before heading off for your afternoon drive. There is again a break for sundowner - where you stop and have a drink and snacks and use the facilities ("find your own bush wisely" bush toilets, i usually ask for a recommendation just in case something decides to come eat me...)  And your drive wraps up with the night portion where you can observe night animals.

@ Kirkman's , it got a bit chilly so Ralph made himself a blanket skirt! - You can see our selection of drinks (alcoholic too) with the snacks - usually nuts, cornuts, dried fruits and biltongs (jerkys)

@ Ngala - Tracker Ernie putting a cool metal table together 

@Ngala - that was right after Peter, our ranger, destroyed a dung beatle's day of work by stepping on it

@ Phinda Forest, on my last drive, one of our vehicle-mate Justine convinced me that I must try the Amarula - given that it was the last drive (i was getting a bit upset about leaving), i figure might as well - and had it on the rocks.  It was quite nice! (I checked the LCBO, we sell it in Canada which means I don't need to bring one back).

@ Phinda Forest with the amarula in hand - the weather was getting worse and rain was coming.. it was so memorable though because when there was lightning, the entire sky was so clear that the whole thing lit up like an endless movie screen.. 

@ Phinda Mountain - they had a nice table with sparkling wine (our vehicle mate from cape town spotted it earlier, and the ranger tried to tell us it was a census table that counted the number of rhinos in the area... i actually believed him... geez... i'm so gullible) - more stories on gullibility later 

ranger Brett at Phinda Mountain, trying to open the sparkling wine

we found a nice spot for it =)

@ Phinda Forest, this was what Wayne was trying to organize for us (because it was the last drive for 4 of our vehicle mates) and of course there was the whole " oh look at those on the trees, i wonder what they are!"

It was a beautiful area for the surprise...but

Unfortunately, it was not for us... (none of the names on the glasses meant anything to us)... Apparently wayne's request was never confirmed and another vehicle beat us to it.. booo

so we took pictures instead! =) and then went somewhere else for our drinks

Once you return to the lodge, it's usually dark and you have to be escorted to your room by armed security (yes, because the lodges are not fenced off, you could get eaten).   Then you get to be escorted back by security for dinner.  They usually host dinner at different parts of the lodge to make it different everyday.  Sometimes, your ranger and the rest of your vehicle-mates joins you for dinner.  Other times, you can have it with your own party only.

I must say, usually by dinner time, I'm exhausted.. and then the day ends with the final escort back to your rooms.


Game Drives


I must say that after my dream experience at these private game reserves, I have now been spoiled with the way game drives should be conducted.  It will be very hard to experience it any other way.

At these lodges, you are assigned a specific ranger and tracker team and have a specific vehicles (their vehicle) that you go on every time you're scheduled to go on a game drive (yes, you can choose not to go on one if you want to skip it, that's entirely at your discretion.. but really? it's the highlight activity for going to the game reserves! So why would you skip it?!?!)

I've already told you the role that your ranger plays.  The tracker is the other person who plays an important role in your game drive experience.  He (and mostly he this time), sits in the front of the vehicle and is responsible for spotting animals, as well as tracks (hence, the name tracker), and sometimes helping with directions for the ranger.  The tracker and ranger usually work in partnerships (that don't change) and will largely direct/provide guidance to what you will see on a game drive.

Me trying to be a tracker.. I remember asking Richard (from kirkmans) whether he's ever fallen off before, and he said not yet... I mean if you see where the vehicle goes, you'd be impressed at how strong the tracker's arm strength is to keep themselves on the seats

Advantage of sticking with the same ranger/tracker for your stay

1) Continuity:  they know what you have seen and what you haven't seen. They also know where you've been which is helpful if you're there for a long time (in my case, I was at Phinda Forest for almost 7 days)

2) You always have space on your assigned vehicle: There is no need to race other people in order to get into a vehicle (which is the practice at some other reserves as you are not assigned)

3) You build a relationship with your tracker and ranger and your fellow vehicle-mate (until they check out and get replaced  by new guests). It's just that much more enjoyable when you can refer to the last drive where you saw X,Y,Z and the one before that when you shared a moment watching A, B, and C

4)  There is a limit to how many guests they assign on a vehicle: Usually you never have more than 6 guests in a vehicle so it's very spacious (The landrover has 3 rows for guests - which could squish in 3 per row.. but that's too squishy)


Other things to note

You are also very well taken care of during these drives.  Not only are you asked what you would like to see (at the beginning of the drive, and then the ranger/tracker try to "track" what you want to see for you - as long as it's not unreasonable demands like the lochness monsters), you're provided with drinks and snacks as well as blankets to sit on (which I think is a mechanism to add grip so that you won't get thrown off the vehicle when you go off road).

As well, you get blankets that you can use when it gets chilly at night/ or because of the strong wind (when you're gunning down at high speed trying to spot that leopard).  There are also ponchos that will be provided to you if it looks like it will rain/ is raining.

Me in a poncho

Orientation & Rules

In order to make the experience even more enjoyable, you're given an orientation before your first drive by your ranger which includes the following:

1) Where you are in the world (Africa -> South Africa -> Reserve area)

map of kirkmans'

2) Orientation about the company , about the foundation, etc
3) Star birds (there are usually 10 special ones that they pick for each reserve) that you can try to spot
4) Then you also get the etiquette and rules:
i) Don't make too much noises when observing animals
ii) Don't stand up (The animals perceive the vehicle as one metal block, and they get quite comfortable with it, the minute a person stands up, they will spot a human, and the cats will think they can try to get to it... then it's not good)...
iii) Don't jump off the vehicle, etc..

Peter showing us the map of Ngala (it looks like an upside down zebra head)

Because these are private game reserves, there are strict rules that ensures you respect the animals and also the land.  At any observation sites, you're allowed a maximum of 3 vehicles only.  All the vehicles are connected by radio such that if something interesting is spotted, that information is shared.   However,if you're the 4th vehicle (also sometimes depending on the landscape, maybe only less vehicles will fit), then you will have to wait on standby.  This is a way to provide space for the animals and not to stress them out (Apparently at Kruger national park - the public park, there's no such rules, hence cars will drive closer and closer to the animals to make sure they get a good view, it's quite bad).  We had an experience where we found all the Big 5 in one drive and we were the ones to discover them all - first viewer advantage =)   Our ranger and tracker did well that day (Big thanks to Wayne and Nsika, and we said that everyone else owes them drinks for the night)

Wayne and Nsika - we were on the field area looking for cheetahs/ or lions or something

best team ever!

:D

In addition to the number of vehicle rules, there are also strict rules about going off road.  Typically game drives occur on roads (sand roads) and to go off road means you drive into the forest/bush/whatever.  Because some areas are burnt for regeneration (they burn it all down, then regrow the area), some of the grass are too new to be trampled over by vehicles.  Hence you can't go off road in those areas (I think the rule is it has to be half the height of the wheel to qualify).  Also - depending on what you're viewing you can also be permitted to go off road.  For example at Sabi- you can go off road for the Big 5, other cats and the wild dogs.  At Ngala it was only the cats and the wild dogs.  At Phinda (because it's closed system and does not have wild dogs), it's only for cats and the black rhino (since they are rare).   This is why sometimes, the ranger and tracker go on walks to confirm what it is that they think is there, before we go off road to find the animals.

That was Ralph in his rain suit (I think that was when they found the 3 male lions at kirkmans' attempting to stalk a giraffe but failed)

Peter and Ernie going off to look for something

looking at tracks

I think we were in the dry river looking for leopard tracks

Driving off road - sometimes you drive right into the marsh (to see water buffalo's) that's someone else's vehicle

Or right through the river (@ Kirkman's) traversing the Sand river

And again! richard had to make sure to lift his legs up to not get  splashed

Or you drive into the dry river (Thembavati?) @ ngala which is significantly drier - prob the sand river would be more appropriate

Or through the Sand forest (in one of Phinda's areas) @ Phinda Forest

Spotting animals

To be honest, I quite cool to be in an open top vehicle and to be able to see the animals up close (i guess i just never did my research to know what i was going to get)

On rides, you're also encouraged to spot things, and the ranger will explain how they are tracking the animals (by looking at tracks). I realized by the end of the 14 day adventure that my eye sight is really bad for spotting animals.  The only thing that i managed to do in the end is to recognize some of the bird call (only "coffee, tea or me" - more on birding later).  I was always amazed by the things that the tracker and ranger can spot.Even at night time, the tracker's eyes are so great and we are only able to see some of the night animals because of it.  The tracker wears glasses (to avoid the bugs that fly into the spot light) and uses a spotlight to look for eyes of the animals that will reflect (I will have a post on night animals later).

Husband of a lovely older couple from durban - Lawrence - they were veteran wild life watcher. And Dave from boston (his wife lisa was off the shot)

You know you're seeing cool things when your ranger takes out his camera to take pictures ;) (wayne and his giant camera) I think he was taking a picture of a cute reedbuck (good cheetah food in that area)

The tracker comes in when you're near cats (partially because they are too distinct of a human figure to stay at the front - and the cats will see that, and also because when you go offroad for the cats, you run down trees - so it's not that safe to run the tracker into a tree) - we were observing two gorgeous male lions at this point

Being a ranger

As I've mentioned above, the ranger makes your experience at the game reserve but being a ranger is not easy.  I am so impressed at the level of professionalism and the amount of knowledge that the rangers have.  In my attempt to find a way to stay behind in my favourite place in the world, I really thought long and hard about becoming a ranger.  Hence, I asked wayne what it took to become one.

To start, you must apply, then you go through a selection training period that is kinda like a boot camp (basically if you can't do it, you'll self select out).  Then you are moved to the game reserve that you'll be working at and begin training there.  Finally when you're about to graduate, you have to do a 14 day bush walk unarmed.  Each day, the ranger trainee will just go walk to a specific route without a rifle and retrieve something to prove that they made it (?).  They need to learn the roads and what to do if they get near certain animals.  It's actually quite scary if you think about it.

Life as a ranger is also not that easy.  (Actually it's the same with the rest of the staff).  You work 6 weeks straight and then you get 2 weeks off.  You work long hours and you're always serving guests.  You might sometimes have to deal with difficult guests or guests with difficult questions (or the same questions all the time).  I think you must really love the bush to work like this.  People say that Consulting is not a job,it's a lifestyle, and a tough one that is.  I think that working out in the reserves is much tougher lifestyle than consulting.

My closest attempt at being a ranger @ ngala.. and yes i was wearing a skirt because i was in meetings all morning and had no time to change

with coworker sekaoti and our host - lotus

@ kirkmans

apparently phinda vehicles and the other vehicles from kirkmans and ngala are different.. do you spot the difference? (coz i don't) Toyotas versus landrovers... hmm?

So anyways, i really thought i could do this, until I remember how much I didn't like it when the beatles attack me... so maybe I can't be a ranger... but maybe i can find another way to stay there ;) ...

Now, some teasers to the animal pictures that are to come - I think i'm going to start with the ... dum dum dum - one of the big 5 next time ;)

The animal and their zulu names! :D I learned them ;) 

Its a bit hard to see - but i like a crash of rhinos and a dazzle of zebras ;)

To be continued...