i spy… something that begins with an e!
Traditionally I blog about my food experiences, particularly those related to aphrodisiacs but just this once, thanks to about a dozen email requests, I feel the need to diverge from my usual topic.
I’m writing this blog from an airplane somewhere over South Africa, where I just indulged in a few days of exotic animal tracking. (I hope you’re visualizing me in a Jane costume swinging through the trees next to Tarzan. In truth I was bumping along in the back of a Land Rover—and the guide and I were both wearing pants.)
Actually, the animal odyssey began in a Chevrolet, in South Afirca’s Wine Country. My first animal encounter happened on my very first morning when I drove the car out of the town of Franschhoek and a baby baboon raced out in the road in front of me. What a shock!
Next came ostrich, a steenbok (a relative of the antelope) and jackrabbits, lots of jackrabbits. I drove my Chevrolet to the town of Oudtshoorn to track meerkats, an obsession of mine since the premiere of Meerkat Manor. I joined leading meerkat expert Grant McIlrath on his afternoon study session, a three-hour tour of a meerkat tribe’s territory after which I felt as though I had a college education. As for the meerkats, from his hide, (a beat up white BMW), Grant whispered that he’d spotted one. But as we walked toward the burrow, Grant sighed. It looked as though what he’d spotted was a rogue, not his tribe returning for the night. He pointed out a fresh track and proved that yes, indeed, there had been a meerkat scrambling along only moments before but my meerkat spotting was not meant to be.
From there, it was on to the Eastern Cape for some serious animal spotting at a private reserve called Kwandwe. Here I traded in the Chevy for that Land Rover and guide. But before I could even surrender my car, I encountered a herd of zebras blocking the road. These were the very first of Africa’s signature beasts I’d ever seen. I immediately slowed the car and insisted that my mother, who was traveling with me, snap photos of me driving with the zebras. (Mingled among the zebras were a collection of sprinkbok and a wildebeest, (which you’ll know if you read my previous Africa blog is my new favorite game meat).
Kwandwe boasts Africa’s “Big 5” but also has dozens of other beautiful animals as well as a fascinating variety of plant life. I won’t bore you with a play-by-play but suffice it to say that in less than 48 hours at Kwandwe, I laid eyes upon:
warthogs; elephants; buffalo; black rhino; a white rhino attempting to hide behind a 4’ tree; giraffe; a cheetah and cub; kudu; eland; hyenas; an ardwolf; black backed jackals; tock tock beetles; more baboons; 4 young male lions and a lioness and her cubs feasting on a warthog.
As if that wasn’t enough, I left Kwandwe for Addo, a national park that was established to help save elephants. If you like elephants, you must go to Addo.
In Addo, I checked into a gracious inn called Riverbend Lodge, that looked like a quiet estate in Sonoma or Provence—until you realize the animals scuttling in the trees aren’t squirrels but vervet monkeys! Our guide had been tracking a herd of elephants earlier in the day and suggested that we go straight out join them. That guide read me like a cheap novel. Elephant is my favorite animal.
Not only did we see a herd of 50 or more elephants but watched them stroll right past our open jeep, parting to pass on either side of the vehicle. One elephant got so close I thought it was coming to join my mother for a tea party! After the crazy parade, (which also included one elephant so young its feet were still pink), the guide drove us to an overlook where we watched the family continue on their journey while we enjoyed sundowners. What wine do you pair with elephant? That would be Brut Rosé! (Knew I could slip a wine reference in somewhere.)
In addition to elephants, Addo offered:
2-month old lion cubs; a porcupine; a puff adder; terrapin and turtles; more kudu and eland; a very handsome lion; dung beetles and—finally—meerkats! They were the last spotting of the entire safari.
I thought the animal experience would end with my departure from Riverbend, but back in Cape Town, there were more baboons, a rock hyrax (the African version of a groundhog) and—those of you who know my fiancé will understand my excitement for the last one—jackass penguins!
In fact, South Africa is so full of fantastic, exotic wildlife that I saw new and enthralling things right up to this very plane ride, home to the chickadees and squirrels.
