Singita: Part Two

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.    

Ian in the lead with the elephant gun, the dear wife, Dick Browne and Gail Browne starting off on the hike

Surprised Hippos

checking us out

not too happy

showing aggression

check out those chompers

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:

hanging loose in the shade

my tummy is rumbling

skinny cub

skinny mom too

 Second Contact:

after sleeping most of the day the pride gets active

let's go hunting

sunset and it is a better time to hunt

Third Contact:

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.