GAME DRIVE 5

 Bittersweet.

Its our last drive with Gabriel and Cliff.  Its been amazing and we've thoroughly enjoyed it.  

So let's see if we can have a good closing.

First stop . . . Down by the river where the leopards roam.  Today we have our first sighting of RavensCourt, a big male leopard.  RavensCourt was described to us on our very first day as "the epitome of what a male leopard should be".  Yup, its true.  He is magnificent.

RavensCourt is probably the biggest leopard in the area.  He's a gorgeous specimen.  And as you can see, he is not uncomfortable with us, he walks right by the Land Rover and never hesitates for a second.  In fact, if you google "male leopard inyati" you will see him walking through the resort.  Evidently, since the resort is part of his territory, he patrols it from time to time   To my knowledge, this did not happen during our stay, but maybe?

It wasn't far from RavensCourt's place on the river to the 3 lions.  The older female and the 2 males were just resting, while the younger female (who is skittish around these guys) was nowhere to be seen.  Its apparently a pretty good life as the apex predator.  Just another lazy afternoon on the Sands River.

We were blocked by these sleeping beauties and sat a little longer than I for one would have wished, but if that is the worst part of your day, you're having a pretty good day.

Eventually we moved on and ran across a fairly large herd of elephants.  There were a number of great moments.  After a brief eye-to-eye with Cliff (not shown), the elephant moves down the right side of the Land Rover.  Yes, she is really that close.  And she's pretty big.  You know, in that hard to judge "3-4 ton" range.

Sue also got a good look.

And then things got just plain cute.  This baby elephant is probably only 1 week old.  Bigger than any dog you ever owned, but as cute as can be.  She was never more than 3 feet from Momma, who was completely consumed by the need to eat her 200 kg of grass and greens.  She is eating for two, after all.

Finally, we drove a bit to find a herd of giraffes.  John wanted to take a bush hike and evidently giraffe make good supervisors for rookies like us.  They stay aware of interlopers, so we weren't likely to be attacked.  (This did not stop Gabriel from carrying a rifle, but the odds were reduced by the giraffes).  They also don't mind us too much, but do keep a healthy distance.  

There were some great shots, such as 

But the classic moment of the day was when two young males started play fighting.  Evidently, mature male giraffes will battle each other with their powerful necks for as much as 1 1/2 days, if they have to.  They knock each other about, trying to gain the upper hand and win the battle . . . for breeding rights of course.  

Well, you can't start at the top, you have to practice.  So, these guys had us very well entertained with their sparring match.

Indeed, everybody was Kung Fu fighting !

By the time the giraffe wars had ended, it was time to go back to the lodge.  But even then, we weren't done.  We even saw two hyenas (here is the first) on the way home, along with the female leopard Khokevele marking her territory.  No pictures of her, as she rather quickly lost us in the dying light.

That ends the GAME DRIVE portion of our South Africa visit.  We had 5 drives from Inyati (which means buffalo in Zulu) and saw at least all of the following

Cape Buffalo

Crocodile (only 1 and sort of puny)

Dwarf Mongoose

Eagles (2 types)

Elephant

Giraffe

Hippos

Hyena

Impala

Kudu

Leopard

Lion

Nyala

Owls (2 types)

Rhino

Vultures

Warthog

Waterbuck

Wildebeest

Zebra

I would have to say, if you're thinking of a safari, consider Inyati.  It was fantastic.