I was woken this morning by the hotel phone, the unfamiliar beeping dragging me reluctantly from the deepest of sleeps. Turns out my phone battery died during the night and the alarm didn’t go. Not one for patience in the morning, Jan got the hotel receptionist to call my room to find me and though she was far more polite, she was undoubtedly channelling the braai master. “Get down to breakfast right now or we’re leaving without you,” was coming through loud and clear.
In the end, they ordered an omelette for me in absentia, and it was just being laid on the table when I arrived, all packed and ready to go 10 minutes later. The Premier Hotel Knysna, The Moorings, has excellent, spacious rooms, interconnecting lounges and a great breakfast. Would have been nice to have a little more time to savour my omelette and coffee, but there you go. Time is always short and we had a long way to go to take in the heritage of South Africa’s big five: lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo and elephant.
Our hosts for the day and braai tonight were Aquila Private Game Reserve, a luxurious game lodge just outside Touws River on the N1. The truly outstanding Van Rensburg Foods in George, who also catered our braai in Knysna yesterday, also provided the meat for today, with Aquila kindly opening their ample salad buffet to get some greenery on our plates.
The highlight for the day was, and will be I suspect, at my expense.
We were all sitting in the open safari cruiser and checking out some lions, the vehicle parked back about 30 metres from a lone lioness who seemed sleepily unbothered by our presence. I guess we’d been stationary there for about 10 minutes, and were probably just thinking about heading back to get the fire going, when the lioness decided that she’d had just about enough of us and was in a mind to do something about it.
It’s funny how the expression on a lion’s face can go from docile, sleepy, pussy-cat to stalking, yellow-eyed assassin in a less than a heart-beat. I had an experience in Mana Pools last year (just weeks before a Zimbabwean visitor was killed by a lion there), with lion’s around our tent at night and that was pretty scary I can tell you. Today’s little run-in wasn’t quite on the same level, but it sure freaked me out there for a few seconds, I won’t lie.
Within seconds she was up and moving towards the vehicle. The driver started up and we pulled forward to move away, but the flat area we’d stopped on didn’t extend much further and he was forced to make a narrow u-turn back around towards flatter ground. By this time the lioness was behind us and she hadn’t stopped or slowed down, now just 10 metres away and looking up intently as she kept coming. I was right at the back of the vehicle, between Frans and Craig, and at this point all three of us were on our feet, Craig still rolling, me still snapping (they were all blurred unfortunately), and Frans pulling back to the far side of the suddenly very cramped back seat.
The last I saw of her as she went out of sight underneath the side of the vehicle was what seemed an extra burst of speed and a coiled, hungry look in the eyes and it was enough for me. I hopped back up onto the high seat back and would have landed on Jan if he wasn’t also pressed back against the seat behind him. Everyone at the back of the cruiser was scrambling at this point, with the ranger up on his feet waving his finger at the lion though I’m not sure how that was going to stop her.
In the end, the driver got us pulled round and moving away again, and the lioness was again back in view and though still padding after us, no longer seemed intent on getting up really close and personal. Jan of course, safely shielded by the four of us in front of him, thought it all incredibly funny and couldn’t stop laughing as we went back over the footage on the way back to the lodge. I don’t know if it’s going to make the final show, but look out for it if it does. Funny stuff in retrospect, but I can assure you my heart was in my mouth for the two or three seconds I lost sight of her under the side of the open topped cruiser.
