The Last Roundup

Viewing wildlife was my prime reason to visit Africa. I don’t know how anyone can resist after watching National Geographic nature series, especially those narrated by David Attenborough. So when my last 24 hours of Kruger NP came around, it was with some sadness that I watched the elephants, giraffes, zebras, kudu, lions, hyenas, and all the animals that had become familiar sights during my time in Africa. This would not be the end of wildlife, but this chapter was getting ready to close.

After visiting the rehabilitation center, we returned to Marc’s Treehouse Lodge. Late in the afternoon, we were invited to an evening game drive around their private reserve, one of a couple dozen reserves that give Kruger NP a larger area for animals to roam.

We boarded a game drive vehicle. These are ubiquitous in the parks of Africa – usually a ten-seater with benches or seats arranged in tiers that allowed the people in the rear to see over the heads of people in the front. Once settled, we went off to see who was out for an evening meal.

Photographing animals is challenging. I counted twenty-eight photos of this mother and baby rhinoceros in my photo collection, and that doesn’t even count the ones I had already deleted because of blurry focus or just bad photos. Of the twenty-eight I kept, a lot of them look very much like this one, except the mother is in front of the baby, the mother is behind the baby, the baby is further away, the photo is darker because the sun was sinking, or other variations. I was always driven to keep pressing the shutter because animals move, sometimes suddenly, and I always hoped I would get that “National Geo shot.”

I learned along the way from an actual NG photographer I met in Botswana, that those shots are often staged by crews who locate the animals, can get closer than the average tourist, of course have all the equipment in their vehicle(s), and know from experience how to approach the animals to (generally) get a good setup for a professional photographer or high-paying amateur. Plus, because they are not part of a tour, they can be patient for opportunities.

Still, the photos I have been able to collect give me a lot of pleasure, looking back over the places I have been and things I have seen, and they jog my memory. I am able to play the scene again in my head, and that’s the best part.

Photographing in the dark and around nine other people also trying to photograph the subject was challenging, but I came out with “genuine” photos of a leopard searching through the dark for a meal.

After following the leopard for about twenty minutes, he disappeared into an area where our vehicle couldn’t follow, and we called it a night and returned to the lodge. I never had any trouble sleeping. Riding in the vehicles over rough ground and the excitement of spotting the animals took up a surprising amount of energy, and made for a good night’s rest.

Early the next morning, we were off to a game viewing drive in Kruger NP, the final drive.

HOW DO YOU SPOT A LEOPARD? With difficulty. This was one of my two favorite leopard finds. In my travels, I was lucky (and my guides were good) in seeing a leopard twice in Kenya, and once in Kruger NP in South Africa.

We arrived in Johannesburg where I spent a couple of days before flying away. I was sad to leave South Africa, but I was excited to be going to Madagascar, which was a decision I made in Rwanda.