Selected Singita Stories
Chapter One: The Most Fascinating of Creatures
I love the Dung Beetle! Think about it, this rather large
insect flies around until he finds a nice pile of fresh dung. Then he lands in
it and using his specially adapted front legs he separates out a big lump of
the dung to form into a ball. When he is done kneading and sculpting the dung,
he has formed a perfectly round ball of the stuff many times his own size. He
then rolls it around the countryside until he is able to attract a female
beetle that approves of the size and shape of his dung ball and agrees to lay
her eggs in it.
Think about this. If your ball of shit is too small you are
not going to score. But if you have a very large, perfectly shaped ball of shit
you will probably succeed. Does this sound familiar?
The pictures speak for themselves. The lesson is simple, you have to have your shit together.
Chapter Two: Hippo Hike
We did something a little different at Singita. On our
second game drive into the concession, Ian asked us if we were interested in
participating in a little foot-patrol. We both nodded agreement to the concept
but I immediately began to doubt that snap decision. I wondered about leaving
the relative safety of the Land Rover and marching off into the wilderness. I
then remembered that Ian’s .455 caliber Holland & Holland and its five inch
bullets would also be accompanying us. I asked Ian whether his elephant gun
stopped everything in the concession and he assured me that if the shot was placed
correctly then no animal could withstand the armament. I then proceeded in
another line of questioning about Ian’s relative marksmanship skills and came
away from those queries with only partially satisfactory answers.
Some time later, we stopped at the trailhead of Ian’s
planned hike and we all jumped out of the truck, except Daniel who indicated he
would guard the Land Rover. This struck me as odd, until I remembered that I
had seen a troop of baboons earlier and the vehicle had some refreshments in
the back. So off we went down the game
trail, which descended from a flatter area around where our ride was parked and
down into a lower river-course that was parallel to the dirt road. We hiked for
about 300 yards to a narrow opening in the bedrock that lead down to the
bottom. As soon as we came to the roost that Ian wanted us to observe the
inhabitants of the river from, a tremendous racket ensued as the locals noticed
our arrival. We gazed down on what Ian estimated was a population of 150-200
hippos, of all ages, and they were all a little excited about our arrival. Ian
assured us that they would soon get used to us and sure enough the din started
to die down a bit after a couple of minutes. Then Ian calmly told us that more people
die of hippo attacks in Africa every year than attacks from any other animal.
My already racing heart rate shot up a few more bpm as I looked down on the
assembled masses in the water below who were all facing us.
Obviously, we survived and it was a really cool experience
but I felt very much better after I had retaken my seat in the Land Rover and
we continued on down the road.
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| Ian in the lead with the elephant gun, the dear wife, Dick Browne and Gail Browne starting off on the hike |
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| Surprised Hippos |
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| checking us out |
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| not too happy |
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| showing aggression |
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check out those chompers
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Chapter Three: Lions of Singita
At Singita there was a very large pride of female lions with
older cubs. The whole group included about 6-8 adult females and 10-12 cubs
that were older than the cubs we had seen at Londolozi. In total the pride
numbered 18 without the male lions who were around but spent most of their time
off on their own. We visited this group of lions at both of the morning drives
and the one evening drive that we went on while at the concession.
On the first drive, Daniel had wanted to do some scouting on
foot because he had seen some tracks, so off he went into the bush with a radio
and the elephant gun. Not too long after that, Daniel radioed back to Ian to
make his report but I do not think any of us understood what was being talked
about on the radio because Ian and Daniel were communicating in Daniel’s
African dialect. Daniel had indeed found some lions though. Chatting with
Daniel later on, he told me how he had come upon the lions and how he had then
stuck near a big tree so that he had somewhere to seek refuge if the lions
attacked.
The lions were resting in the shade of two trees and a bush
and there was not much movement exhibited by them during this first visit. It
was easy to see though that these big cats had not eaten in a while. Many of
the adults were pretty skinny.
The second visit was at night and we got there about a half
hour before sunset. This was good timing
because the pride was beginning to stir. We had arrived just before they began
hunting. They lionesses took no notice of us as they rose from their shady
day-beds and started to stretch. As the lionesses began to go through their
pre-game motions the cubs watched but stayed put. In fact, the cubs always stayed in the rear
throughout the hunt and watched their elders. There was a beautiful sunset that
night and the lionesses began to fan out and move in a westerly direction. This
obviously makes sense because the predators would be approaching the prey from
the dark. We followed along and watched how intensely the hunters watched the
prey from their positions on either side of the Land Rover. At several points
we had lionesses crouching facing the west on both sides of our vehicle. It was
amazing to be there amongst them and not them not give us any consideration
whatsoever.
Eventually, it was pitch dark and another Land Rover had come
up to join us. They were on the right and we were on the left. We stayed with
the other vehicle for a half hour and then decided to leave because we had
about a 20 km. drive back to the lodge and we did not know if the lions would
even be successful that night. The other group stayed with the hunting party.
After we got back and were getting ready to go to dinner Ian
told us that the other group had radioed back that only a short time after we
left the hunt, the pride had killed a small wildebeest. The other group did not
see the kill but they did witness the feeding. Subsequently, members of the group told
me that they had witnessed the scrap over the kill by the senior members of the
pride and that after that vicious
fight, when the food was gone, all the lions were grooming each other and were
friendly again. Unfortunately, only four of the lionesses ate anything at all
and because the prey animal was small, none of them got much to eat. It was sad that
we had not stayed a little longer at the hunt.
On the last game drive we said goodbye to the pride from a
distance as they had left the Singita concession sometime during the night and
were about 300 yards over the boundary and in the National Park where Ian could
not drive, We noticed that at least one of the male lions had joined the group
of 18. We had to leave Singita that
morning and fly back to Johannesburg so went spent only a few minutes watching
them with binoculars and trying to get some pictures of the pride. The Boss got
a pretty darn good shot of one of the males that had not participated in the
hunt.
First contact:
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| hanging loose in the shade |
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| my tummy is rumbling |
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| skinny cub |
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| skinny mom too |
Second Contact:
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| after sleeping most of the day the pride gets active |
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let's go hunting
|
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| sunset and it is a better time to hunt |
Third Contact:
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| A male has joined the pride but we can't go close because they are over the boundary |
Final Chapter in Singita:
Ian drove us to the Singita air-strip and we shook his
hand and said goodbye to our guide and Singita resort.
We were on our way to Johannesburg to stay one
night there and then we would board a British Airways 737 and fly to Livingstone,
Zambia. Our next mission was to view one of the seven natural wonders of the
world, Victoria Falls.
