My First Game Drive Ever

The next morning was a very early one. We had to wake up at 5am to eat breakfast and take off at 6am. The early morning (and late afternoon) hours are usually the best to spot animals. Today, Given from the Balule Lodge would be our Safari Guide. We jumped on the open game drive vehicle and started my very first Game Drive. The sun was climbing higher and higher as we drove on the bumpy gravel and dirt roads around the bush land. There were way more trees than I've expected. I thought it would be mostly open savannah, however, in the Balule Reserve there was a lot of bush land. That didn't matter though, as we spotted some White Rhinos very early on. The White Rhino is one of the Big 5, whereas the Black Rhino is within the Big 6. The Rhino's names actually have nothing to do with their colours. The "white" comes from the Dutch word for flat/wide and was just transformed to white over time. So in German it's called a Breitmaulnashorn which tells you that White Rhino's have flat, wide mouths whereas the Black Rhinos (in German Spitzmaulnashorn) have a pointier mouth. They are a little bit smaller as well. White Rhinos eat grass, Blacks eat branches. Therefore, the first ones' dung is very light and literally just grass and the latter ones' is thicker and darker. Speaking of shit, Given is a real "Scheiße" - Expert and explained us the communication system of the Rhinos. They shit to speak to each, e.g. if they are ready to mate or of they are challenging some other Rhino. I would have never thought shit to be that interesting.
After we left the shit behind us, we got stuck in some Buffalo traffic. They were at leat a herd of 50 animals. You can differentiate the males from the females when you look at their horns. The males usually have a much bigger forehead covered by horn to protect their brains whilst fighting with their competition.
We drove further in our Toyota and crossed a dry river bed. On the banks were Elephants playing. They're actually becoming a huge problem in SA as they multiply too fast and destroy too much. They often push down trees to get to the delicious top part of it. And they also create "Dead-dog-Trees" (because they lose their bark - joke by Given). When the Elephants scrap off the trees' bark with their tusks, they remove the trees' inner structure to get all the water and nutritions everywhere. So it eventually dies. Poor trees.
Speaking of trees: Sometimes you could spot very bright, green spots inbetween all the dried out yellow. But when you were very lucky, you could spot a lilac tree - the Wisteria. This sudden colour change was a nice variety.
Driving further, we could spot some wild dogs from afar. As a dog owner, I instantly liked them a lot and hoped to see more of them. We also saw some Zebras which were much more beautiful than I've expected then to be. Being in South Africa, we obviously had to see a Springbok sometime. When we saw it, it was much smaller and more delicate than I thought. Nevertheless, it's the national animal of SA.
Before we drove back to the Lodge, we spotted a water hole with lots and lots of Elephants bathing within. I would have liked a water hole as well, as it was getting really hot with the African sun on us. Fortunately, we've had a roof over our heads to protect us. The one other car that we saw wasn't that lucky to have a roof. Besides this one car, we've been completely alone in the Private Reserve which meant we could spent as much time with the spotted animals as we liked. In Kruger NP it would be different, Given told us.
Standing at the water hole, we could watch the herd of Elephants bath, cool off and play. Two of the guys came out of the water and we're suddenly right behind us. They were playing with each other and didn't notice us, coming closer. Luckily, Given reacted just in time to drive forward, out of the way so to not be hit by an Elephant bum. And I partly have it on video.
That was enough adrenaline for us all to drive back to the Lodge, sit at the pool and cool off a bit ourselves.Read more