Our Trip to Amakhosi Lodge

   On Monday morning we began our journey to the wild game reserve. The lodge was named AmaKhosi, (something like "many kings"). First we stopped at St Lucia, about 2 hours from Durban. This is an estuary, or an inlet from the ocean. The water is brakish or half salt and half fresh. Because of drought in Africa the water level has fallen to the point where the mouth is dry. It began in 2007. Now the water is slowly desalinating.

   We saw hippos and crocodiles lazing in the water, and a highlight, a Leopard on the shore. I have been told this is very rare, as they are solitary and shy animals. Some people have come to Africa several times and never seen one. The ironic thing was I accidently had the film camera paused when I watched it walk across the screen. Oh, well, Valdene got an average picture of it. That was the first animal that has been named "The Big Five" The Leopard, Elephant, Lion, Rhino and Water Buffalo. The last picture   is me holding a hippo tooth. Even though their herbivors, Hippos have killed more humans than any other African animal. They become monsters when their threatened. They can run 30 km an hour on land and run 15 km through water. They don't swim, but run along the bottom of the lake. They have no sweat glands and sunburn easily, so they spend most days in the water and graze all night.

   After St. Lucia we drove another couple hours north, Eventually we were driving along a river that seperated South Africa from Mozambique. Here the landscape changed dramatically. It became what I see when I dream Africa.

    From there we turned inland for another hour and made it to the lodge. The lodge sits on 12,000 square hectares. At one time it was a cattle farm. The entire thing is surrounded by electric fence. The lodge was beautiful and I can honestly say we were treated like kings. On our first game drive that afternoon we saw three lions. They were close enough to reach out and touch, if I was stupid enough to do that. Our guide was an expert tracker, and showed us prints that led him to the "three boys" as he called them.

   Kudu, Nyala, Zebra, Wilderbeasts ,Warthogs and Water Buffalo wander the reserve living in there natural habitat. They all suffer the same fate.  The food chain is very evident.  

   Our guide's name was Phillip and his helper was Jeremy. For 3 hours twice a day, first at daybreak and then in the afternoon, they would take us out in a converted Toyota land cruiser through  the bush, through rivers and gravel roadbeds to dried roadbeds, in search of animal tracks, broken branches, any sign of the wildlife that seemed to abound in this place.

   The next morning we tracked four Cheetas. One of the highlights was watching them attempt to make breakfast out of a group of Kudu. Later we parked down by the river and watched them wander by, and then drink out of the river.

   The afternoon drive found us watching baby Elephants and Giraffes.

   So many things happened in the course of several days. This will take me several posts to recount. At this point I can honestly say that I have come away with a deeper appreciation of African wildlife, and a deeper desire to see more wildlife in other African countries. Until later.