Game Drive

Hungry for a mid-morning snack?

 

Today we visited the Fairy Glen private game reserve for a morning game drive.  The game reserve was fairly small but they had some large animals.  They have 6 lions which they have to feed (they don’t want the lions to eat the other animals in the game reserve).  The lions are in their own enclosure which we drove through on the safari jeep.  While we were in the lion enclosure a truck came in with a calf that had died on a neighboring farm and was donated to the game reserve.  The lions were very attuned to the truck because they recognized that it was the one that always delivers their food. The driver of the truck slid the calf to the ground and we watched the male lion run to pick up the calf and drag it into the bushes to eat.  It was quite an interesting sight.

We saw a variety of animals including Cape Buffalo, wildebeest, zebras, ostrich, eland, baboons, a tortoise, rhinos, springbok, elephants, and lions. With the safari jeep we were able to drive very close to many of the animals. 

 

The elephants were quite impressive.  When we first saw them they were eating small trees.  They wrapped their trunks around the tree trunk and broke the trunk off about 5 or 6 feet into the air.  Then they moved on and were eating small brush.  The ranger told us that the elephants have learned how to throw stones in order to break the exterior fence so they can escape into the neighboring farms and eat the grape vines or vegetables.  The game reserve employs two elephant trainers who stay with the elephants and use carrots and other food to “entice” them to stay away from the farms.

The game reserve has two white rhinos.  Unfortunately, 3 years ago poachers attacked the rhinos and cut off their horns which will never go back.  Poaching is a huge cause of the declining rhino population because in the wild rhinos bleed to death when their horns are cut off or the poachers kill the rhino first and then cut the horn.  In this case, the poaching plan was quite elaborate.  The poachers set a fire on the mountain behind the game reserve and then while everyone was trying to fight the fire they came in by helicopter, tranquilized the rhinos, and cut the horns.  They poached several game reserves on the same day so it was a large operation.  Tranquilization immobilizes the rhinos but they still feel pain so the poaching was very traumatizing to the rhinos.  It was sad to see these immense animals deformed.

The game reserve was small enough that we could see fences so we were not truly "out in the wild".  However, it was still great to see the animals and the girls really enjoyed it.  Thandokuhle said that the elephants were her favorite.  Miranda was very excited to see the lion grab the calf and drag it into the brush.

Following the game drive we went to see Khoi San Rock paintings that are painted on a rocky overhang on one of the mountains on the game reserve.  The Khoi San Rock paintings are found throughout South Africa and date back 6000 years.  The dates of the ones we saw are not known and the paintings were not in great condition but you could see a jumping eland and some dancing people. It was intriguing to see a faint trace of the people who had lived on this land years before.