Thornybush Waterside Lodge, South Africa

After very long plane rides (about 19 hours total in flight) we arrived in Johannesburg for an overnight stay where we met up with our friends, Linda and Dan, and 6 others who will make up our group for the pre-extension trip to Thornybush, which borders the Kruger National Park.

The next morning we took a turbo-prop plane to Hoedspruit and then transferred to the Thornybush Waterside Lodge in the game reserve.

A 35,000-acre private game reserve, Thornybush is filled with wildlife; there are more than 500 bird species and 140 species of mammals, including the famed "Big Five".

In Africa, the big five game animals are the African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and rhinoceros. The term "Big Five" was coined by big-game hunters and refers to the five most difficult and dangerous animals in Africa to hunt on foot--when shot, they are most likely to turn and attack the hunter.

It is in Thornybush where our chances of seeing the Big Five while on the game drives is the best.

The Lodge is more like a resort with beautiful cabins, plush furnishings, and delicious food--even heated mattress pads for sleeping.

We will go on game viewing drives each day.  Usually one in the early morning and then another in late afternoon into the evening. Our game-viewing guide/driver is Kyle, and our spotter, Elvis.

Only a few minutes into our first game drive we come to a group of elephants feeding on tree leaves.  There is a big elephant which we learn is the matriarch.  She leads the group to areas to feed and water.  She also protects all the other females.  Their tails were swishing horizontally, which means they were relaxed.

One elephant came out of the trees and walked right by Elvis, grazing him on the leg.

Yes, we were that close!

We continued on driving the dirt trails.  Then we saw the female cheeta...only one on this 35K acre reserve.  She was relaxing, with a full tummy, near her recent kill, an impala.

Linda, Dan, Terry, Joyce

Next, a pride of lions...male, female and cubs...6 total and they were napping, tits up.

I see you!

At a watering hole we watched Cape buffalo and hippos, which were in the water.  Hippos stay by the water all day for protection.  They leave the water at night to graze.

 While on the late afternoon game drives, we stop for "sundowner".  A time to stretch our legs, and enjoy the African sunset while sipping on a little wine.

With darkness upon us, Elvis spotlighted a bush baby, several wildebeests and a lemur and giraffes.

Back at the lodge we checked out the sofa that a leopard had clawed one night.

We were escorted to our rooms and then picked up at 7:30 for dinner.  No walking without a guide at night.  That's fine with us!!

It's only Day 1 and we saw 3 of the Big 5....lions, Cape buffalo, and elephants.  What a great day.

The next morning, the wake-up phone call is at 5:30 am. We meet our guide for a cup of coffee at 5:50 and then ready to begin our early morning viewing ride by 6:00.

We have hot water bottles and blankets in the vehicle.  It's pretty chilly riding in the safari vehicle in the early morning...about 40 degrees.

Just a few minutes in we see a group of 6 giraffes.  Still a bit too dark for good photos.

The hunt is now on for a leopard.  We drive through the maze of trail roads in hopes of seeing one.  Elvis, our spotter, goes on foot a few times with only a pointed stick in his hand, and tries to track the leopard.

Our guys are in communication with at least 2 other vehicles in the game reserve to find the elusive leopard.  It's out there, but we just can't find it.

After about an hour, we give up and Elvis takes us to the cheeta we saw yesterday.  This time she is walking on the dirt trail.  He spotted her tracks and we followed them.

We stop for more giraffes and a small herd of elephants.  One elephant decides he wants to eat from the tree across from us and starts coming directly toward the vehicle.  Kyle quickly puts the vehicle in reverse to get out of its way.

Elvis takes us over to a pack of 7 painted (aka wild) dogs devouring the last of the remains of an impala.

We do not drive near the den of pups because there are lions waiting outside the den.  The pups would have come out when they heard the vehicle approach.

 Seeing the painted (or wild) dogs is uncommon; we are very lucky!

Shortly after 9 am we arrive back at the lodge and breakfast awaits us.  We now have free time to wander around the grounds before lunch at 1 pm.

While sitting on our patio after lunch, we watched 2 nyalas...female and youngster walk through the grounds of the lodge.

And monkeys...they wait for the afternoon High Tea to be served and then try to run and grab something from the plates.

On the afternoon viewing ride we see blue herons, giraffes, more Nyalas, a jackal and after giving up a search for that elusive leopard, we see a black rhino!

So, we are up to 4 of the Big 5...just the leopard to go.

Up early for the morning ride.  We saw wildebeests and then the guides in the park had a sighting of the leopard so the search was on.

As we approached the area, another vehicle pulled in ahead of us and cut off our view of the leopard as it crossed the dirt trail and quickly disappeared in the thick underbrush.  We didn't get a photo but Dan caught one...

So we have now seen all of the Big Five!  Will our luck hold and offer us more chances to see a leopard?  Stay tuned...

We stopped for a coffee break and then Kyle loaded his rifle, as we were about to experience walking in the bush as we headed back to the lodge.

 We were instructed to walk in a single file and to remain very quiet.

We came upon a group of giraffes, which quickly moved away when they saw us walking.  They don't seem to do that when we are in the safari vehicle.  It was great to see how tall they are from this perspective.

Our walk was cut short as some Cape buffalo were spotted nearby and we didn't want to be out of the vehicle around them.

At 3 pm we headed out for the afternoon drive.  Kyle brought us over to the new den of the wild dogs.  Last evening one of the pups was killed by the lions at the old den.  The mother was in the process of moving the remaining pups to this new location, outfitted with a nearby camera.

A blurry photo of the new den as we drove by.  We could not stop.

The camera keeping an eye on the den of pups

Next we saw 2 Cape buffalo, just lazing around, chewing their cud.

We take off to find the white rhino.

Both the white and black rhinos are found in sub-Saharan Africa and look similar to one another, but the major difference is the shape of their mouths. Black rhinos developed a pointed lip which they use to pick fruit from branches and select leaves from twigs; white rhinos have a flat, wide lip to graze on grasses.

 Kyle drove the safari vehicle off road to the rhinos...they kept moving from us and tried to go deeper into the trees.  

As we passed the waterhole, we saw hippos that looked like they were going to spar but Kyle drove by them to chase the rhinos, which fled into the trees again.  I really want to see a hippo with its mouth wide open!

We stopped for the sunset view and a glass of wine before returning to the lodge, where we are always greeted with a nice warm washcloth to wash off the dust.

And dinner!

Up and on the road the next morning for the last game viewing ride with Kyle and Elvis.

First thing we see is a hyaena ...Elvis is spotlighting and it's too dark and quick to get a photo.

Kyle heads out to find the lions.  It's not long and we come to a watering hole...and there, standing across from it, are 2 females.  Kyle says they are sisters.  

We watch them for awhile and then head out to find the male lion.  Elvis is a serious tracker and while he is checking for paw prints, we come to a wildebeest.

Finally Elvis had tracked the lion....another safari landrover gets stuck in the ravine we need to cross.  We let them sit there for awhile as the lion is in our sight.  Magnificent!

We leave the lion and then do a good deed and pull the stuck vehicle from the ravine.

Success...we have some nice photos of the lion.  We head back to the lodge for breakfast and to pack up the duffle bags.  

Then we return to Johannesburg to meet up with 5 more members of our group for the start of the main trip of Ultimate Africa.  We will go to camps in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

To continue reading, scroll up towards the top of this page and click in the right-hand column the entry entitled: Baobab Lodge, Chobe National Park, Botswana