Today we are going out on the fortnightly night drive to try and spot nocturnal animals so the day is disrupted somewhat. We are not heading out until 11am but I am up because I need to do more work on my presentation for tomorrow. I have chosen my subject because remember learning a little about medicinal plants on a jungle survival course while in Belize and I was fascinated at just how much use could made of what you could find.
Three hours later, and my presentation almost ready, we set off for the reserve. I sat in the front with Jamie the ranger so I could pick her brains a little and maybe also pick a few exhibits for my talk. We travelled slowly south in the reserve and had a good morning: we saw a lioness laying in the shade of the brush but at just the wrong angle for us to recognise her; we spotted two rhinoceros without horns that had been transported to Shamwari as the last two survivors from a high risk poaching area; and we saw an elephant watering himself down in a muddy water hole. We also spotted the usual zebra and antelope and quite a few leopard tortoises. It was then time for lunch which we again enjoyed at a high spot overlooking the hilly landscape before heading off on a slow drive to a nice seating area by a river where the pre night-drive barbecue takes place. We came across a group of five white rhinoceros and sat for several minutes watching and identifying them as they grazed, moving slowly
towards us and then right past our vehicle. Not long after we were parked watching a herd of impala and a lone baboon keeping lookout for the rest of his troop, which we could not see but were somewhere out there feeding in the shrub. Suddenly they all took off for no reason that we could discern. Looking down the hillside away from the direction of flight we caught glimpses of a lioness moving through the acacia bushes a hundred yards away. We headed down and followed her as she strolled purposefully out of the shrub and along the dirt road that parallels the river. Jamie reported the sighting and we continued to follow to keep an eye on her until the five-star vehicles could arrive for a viewing and we could continue to our barbecue. We tried to identify her but couldn’t. In the absence of obvious scarring or other marks, lions are identified by their whisker patterns; the top row pattern of whiskers for any lion is very distinctive. It’s harder than rhinoceros notches but far easier than tears in elephant ears and it does require a good view and ideally a photograph from the right angle - which is definitely not from behind.
We followed the lioness for about five minutes before she headed into the bush up a game track where we could not follow. Not long after another vehicle arrived and we headed off for our barbecue supper in readiness for the night drive.
At supper we were joined by five members of the Shamwari anti-poaching unit who patrol the reserve with the aim of protecting the rhinos. There is still a thriving trade in rhinoceros horn and earlier this year Shamwari lost a rhinoceros to poachers. They gave us a talk on their role and demonstration of their dog's ability to bring down intruders before it was time for us to head out to see what was out there in the darkness. It was an overcast evening and as a result so much warmer than last time I did this. We shone torches into the darkness from both sides of the vehicles, swinging them from side to side, but it was to be a disappointing evening. We saw a few hares, the occasional jackal, some antelope and giraffes but very little else and none of the bigger beasts we would like to have seen. I guess that’s just part of the game when looking for wild animals in one hundred square miles of bush and grass plain.
We returned to the lodge to find the other vehicle had not returned. An hour late they arrived with such a different story to tell: a sighting of an elusive black rhinoceros, elephants and giraffes and the two lionesses and their eight cubs - that I had seen in my first week but not since - playing together. One of the lionesses was also seen stalking a baby rhinoceros although the outcome of that was not known. What a contrast. But for me, so much better to see hardly anything in the wild than to see everything in a zoo...
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