Phinda

Phinda is a private game reserve in Kwazulu Natal - a bit south of the big national park: Kruger.  There are a few different resorts within Phinda and we stayed at Vlei lodge.  This place is top to bottom awesome.  It is very small, only 6 bungalows and it has a very personable feeling.  You have a lot of time with the staff...plus there is an amazing chef staff!  I had an amazing 3 days in Phinda doing what people have been waiting for me to do - see the big 5.  To break down the time I spent in KZN I'm going to give you all a low-down on the animals I saw.

Marc and Chris

Marc and Chris were our guides through this excellent adventure.  Marc was our trusty ranger.  He was amazing.  Super knowledgeable, nice, fun.  He was great.  Chris was our Zulu tracker man.  He sat on a chair on the front of the vehicle and just watched the whole time for tracks.  He also held the flood light at night and found animals.  He found a bush baby and a tiny tiny chameleon from the light shining off their eyes.

Bungalow

Luckiest moment of my life.  The bungalows were 2 person per room.  Jess already had a friend on the trip with her so he parents got me my own room.  This place was spectacular.  I had a huge bed, a pool in my porch which overlooked a field that animals would graze in, a big bath tub with salts and oils, a stacked complimentary mini-bar...everything basically.  I can never thank the Borislows enough for what they gave me this weekend.  It was amazing.

(pants)

Nyala

Nyalas are the white tailed deer of South Africa.  They are EVERYWHERE and aren't very exciting.  The males are actually quite cool because they have cool horns and look like they are wearing pants, but the females and little ones are boring boring boring.   In other words- they would probably be my dad's favorite animal here.  No matter how many times he has seen a deer in his life - even if we are on vacation in the UP and see them every half hour, he ALWAYS stops the car and watches while he waits for them to run away.

Impala

Impalas are a lot like Nyalas except the males are lamer.  They do however have black stripes outside their butts which have been hypothesized to attract more heat from the sun, thus drawing ticks to the sides of their butt cheeks where their tails can fling them away.  So, if you watch an Impala its tail will be clenched real tight over its butt crack and then suddenly flick side to side and go back clenching. 

On Friday afternoon I was laying by my pool and a bunch of Impalas were grazing just in front of my porch.  A couple came and drank from my pool.  One was really cautious of me though and kept eyeing me up so I had to pretend to be asleep before he would drink.

Elephants

Jess's friend Ashley is obsessed with Elephants.  For this reason the elephant was the first animal we requested to see from our lovely ranger.  We weren't driving long before someone called in a sighting at a watering hole nearby.  We dashed through the woods along the bumpy two-track, past elephant dung and multiple Nyala, to the modestly sized watering hole.  We pulled up to find a group of elephants in the road taking dust baths.  There appeared to be a baby in the middle of all the shimmying and rolling.  When some decided to break off and head towards the lake we pulled off the path and parked along the banks of the pond/lake.  At first there was just one elephant who seemed interested in drinking from the water, but eventually others came (including the baby) and the situation turned into an all-out bathing frenzy.  They were playing in the water, splashing each other, and rolling around.  Ashley was loving it. 

One of the elephants seemed to be wearing a collar and Marc told us that South Africa was trying a new contreception on elephants.  The one wearing the collar was the matriarch of the herd and she was the testing subject.  I guess that a gooey sack forms around the eggs so that they can't be fertilized.  It only lasts about a year though so that is what is being worked on.  I guess there are too many elephants in South Africa and they are destroying a lot of habitats including farmland and sand forests. 

Later in the week, on our last game drive, we saw the elephants again, hiding in the woods.  It was raining and they were someone fitting between the trees.  One came out and gave us a show scratching herself on the trees.  We watched for a long time before the elephants were tired.  As the moon rose another animal began to grab our attention.

Hippos

There were 3 or 4 hippos in the lake as well.  We were aware of their presence, but they were staying mainly under water.  Hippos have really sensitive skin and are extremely susceptible to sunburn so they stay underwater until they can feed at night.  This is why the hippo is the deadliest animal in South Africa.  People go down to lakes at dawn to fish, or wash clothes, or whatever, and end up getting between the water and hippos returning from a meal.  The hippos get nervous and skittish and charge the observed threat. 

As it got darker the hippos came more and more out of the water, scenting (read pooping), stretching their jaws, and moving about in general.  It was quite cool and their little ears are so cute when they shake.

Lions

We got to see the lions quite a bit.  Our first sighting was our first night.  The sun was almost down (it actually completely set while we were watching).  We came upon two lionesses and their cubs in the middle of the "Marsh" or the big stretch of grasslands in the north of Phinda.  They were sleeping except for one cub who walked a bit, looked at us, and suckled.  As Marc told us, Lions are "communal sucklers" so he took turns at both lionesses.  We watched for a while, but there was really little action.  Supposedly they had made a kill that day and already eaten so they were being lazy. 

Check out the flies on his body

On our first morning drive we were out driving,  just after tea, and watching a black rhino.  As we were there we received a call that a male lion was walking right towards us.  We drove off to locate him.  This single male lion was walking in the broad daylight between zebras and wildebeest.  Marc said that he was sending locating calls and the fact he was walking like he was showed he wasn't in hunting mode.  This, supposedly, gave us a pass at getting too close for comfort to this lion.  We would literally drive our vehicle right in front of him, in his path, and he would just walk around us and keep going.  It was the craziest thing.  After following him for a while he led us right to the pride.  They were escaping the hot sun by laying under some Acacia trees.  The two males slept together under one and the females and cubs slept under another.

Cheetah

Phinda is known for its Cheetah sightings and we saw a few.  The first thing we did when we went out Friday morning was look for Cheetahs.  It didn't take us long to locate two males in the marsh.  They were waking up and moving around scenting a little bit.  Phinda is covered in termite mounds (the reason Phinda, as an old seabed, exists as a game reserve is because termites brought clay up into the sandy top layer so that life could grow) and the cheetahs move from mound to mound looking for prey.  They were so beautiful, but showed no signs of actually hunting so eventually we moved on.

Later, in the afternoon, we were just leaving for a game drive when we heard monkeys alarming near one of the bungalows.  We turned the vehicle around (notice I keep referring it to vehicle because I really don't know what to call it.  It was like a dune buggy/jeep/convertible/safari vehicle thing….I don't really know.  Vehicle will do) and went to investigate.  We found the monkey in the tree, but didn't see anything else.  Marc and Chris went walking to try and find tracks, but turned up with nothing.  We learned as we were leaving that a cheetah was in the field just outside the resort and this was the cause of the alarm.  So many vehicles were already looking at it so we couldn't join, but we saw him as we drove by.  This cheetah stayed in the area and the next morning he walked right by the main cabin where meals were served during breakfast.

Rhino

So, we were lucky enough to see two of the five types of rhinos during this trip.  We saw a black rhino (the tree eaters) hanging out with a wildebeest, a black rhino chilling with its baby, and a white rhino (grass eater) with its baby.  They are so crazy looking.  I love their eyes in relation to the rest of their heads.  So cute.  I kept thinking of Babar during this trip and how elephants are good and rhinos are evil, but I really liked the rhinos.  It was extra cool because South Africa is having so many issues with poachers of rhinos now.

White Rhino (Notice the neck is built pointed down for the grass-eater)

Buffalo

We saw one buffalo the whole time - one male.  He was just laying next to the road so we were lucky to catch him.  He just laid and stared us down.  Marc explained that he was super dangerous because, as a lone male, he had been kicked out of the herd he ran with and now had no lady so he was mad, lonely, and sexually frustrated.  Poor guy.

Giraffe

The Giraffe was the last animal we saw.  Saturday morning we drove south, rather than north, and finally saw Giraffes feeding.  They are the coolest animals - graceful and clumsy.  How they feed though seems crazy.  They wrap their tongues around the end of acacia branches and pull.  The leaves comes off and they eat.  However, Acacia trees are covered in big thorns.  Crazy giraffes.

Zebra

The zebras were pretty, not super interesting.  But I like zebras.  We saw a couple pregnant zebras who were about to "drop it like its hot" in the words of our wise ranger.

Wildebeest

Another weird animal.  Seemingly a mixture of all the animals it is like a horse, but with a sloped back and stripes...i dunno.  Why a Wildebeest was hanging out with a black rhino?  I don' t know.

Dung Beetle

Dung Beetles are the big thing I will take away from this trip.  They are the COOLEST!  Right when we arrived we were being shown to our bungalows and we came across a bung beetle rolling a ball of Impala turd.  It was crazy how fast it was moving, running backwards and rolling a ball. 

Friday morning during our tea break we were by a huge pile of rhino dung so we were checking out all the different types of dung beetles in it.  There are hundreds and hundreds of different kinds (I think actually thousands, but don't feel like checking right now).  They are so useful though.  They help spread out the poo and fertilize land and even out nitrate distribution.  PLUS they eat and lay eggs in poo - a substance that almost everyone else avoids.  Good for them. 

Marc told us a story about dumb Australians and dung beetles.  So, to start, dung beetles all have parasites that feed off of them and serve purposes.  Some are hygienic, some help to cool off the beetles (like those who live in deserts) etc. etc.  So anyways, Australia has a problem with cow dung so they thought importing dung beetles would help with this problem.  They spent MILLIONS of dollars to import dung beetles from Africa, but are dumb so asked that all parasites be removed first.  All the beetles died and Australia wasted millions.  Ha. Ha.

Golden Orb

Gross.  We were driving back at night and saw this GIANT spider in its web off to the side of the path.  This thing is seriously huge.  Marc said he had a guest once who would put Golden Orb spiders in his mouth and open it at people to freak them out and think it was funny.  I guess the Golden Orb isn't super aggressive, but gross.  Seriously dude...

Bark Spider

Chris casually removing the Bark Spider's web from our path

The Bark Spider didn't look as big as the Golden Orb, but just as gross.  I also hate this spider extra because it hung its web across the whole road and Marc threatened to drive though his web and the spider would thus be on my face.  If we hadn't seen it in time this would have actually happened.  For this, I hate the Bark Spider.

Chameleon

Boring creatures which look cool.  We only ever saw them at night.

Alcohol

I drank more on this vacation than I ever have before I think.  Whenever we came into the lodge after 2:00 we were fixed a drink.   Besides this, our mini bar was complimentary so I felt the need to make use of that.  Wine at night, gin and tonics during the day...plus, our tea break, in the morning, in the bush, involved spiked coffee and hot cocoa.  It was excellent.