Today was a travel day – we had a maybe 5 ½ hour drive from Johannesburg to our safari which is on the Manyeleti Reserve, just outside Kruger National Park. We arrived around 3:30pm, and were promptly served lunch, complete with white wine from, you guessed it, Stellenbosch. I think it is fair to say that everyone was pleasantly surprised that the safari is inclusive of alcohol as well as food – oh and the food is just fabulous. We were told that Manyeleti is a more authentic safari experience than Kruger – apparently in Kruger the roads you drive on are paved, and you can pretty much see the big five (lion, water buffalo, leopard, rhino, and elephant) every day because years ago people would kill impala and put them out as food for the predators so that they got used to seeing humans. So Manyeleti is the actual habitat for these animals. Apparently also during the days of apartheid Manyeleti was where the blacks went on safari, since they were not allowed into Kruger.
After settling in for a bit we went out for a quick drive with our guide Dries who goes by the name D. It happened to be both his birthday and the Fourth of July, and since it was getting dark and, later, was raining a little bit our ride mostly consisted of a sundowner by a pool with some hippos. We did learn that on a night safari the spotter flashes the light to look for the eyes of animals – diurnal animals have yellow or green eyes, and nocturnal animals have red eyes. We saw neither, however.
Dinner back at the lodge was fabulous – I had the oxtail pie. I really must start cooking this at home, I bet it would be pretty cheap from the place where we get our meat CSA.
After dinner we drank some more in celebration of D’s birthday, including tequila shots (since that is his drink of choice). As they say here, “tonight we drink for tomorrow we ride.” I went to bed relatively early though, in preparation for the 6am wakeup call.
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