Matt's Blog Day 9: The Big 5

The 6.30 alarm call was a bit of a shock this morning!

Whilst there is little to no rainfall in this area, the cold air at altitude and the clear skies lend themselves to really cold nights and frosty mornings. Our rangers turned up in thick coats and scarves whilst we all wore trousers and jumpers. All, that was, except for our langoustine crunching Irish farmer who turned up in a t-shirt and rugby shorts.

Following a quick bite to eat, a dozen of us loaded up in Land Rovers and set off for a game drive. Eric Miller and John O'Neill enquired whether we might see tigers, only for the rangers to point out that they didn't live in Africa - prompting the sarcastic ones amongst us to ask whether polar bears were common too.

During our pre-drive briefing, which went something along the lines of "don't leave the vehicle and get eaten by a lion" the ranger stopped mid sentence, looked at the farmer, laughed and exclaimed "Jeez man, you're going to freeze your nuts off!" Sure enough, by the end of the drive, we were chiselling the ice off him. Fleece ponchos were provided on the Land Rover and, following a full frontal blast of cold air as we set off, they were all immediately donned. Some ponchos were plain brown and others had animal prints. Team manager Steve Boyle (who played for the Lions in the early eighties and, looking at the size of him, has enjoyed a few Classic Lions tours since!) wore a zebra print. I'm not sure whether the predators in the park could believe their eyes - they thought they were going to feed the family for weeks if they caught that one!

Whilst the Pilanesberg does hold the Big 5, we were warned that buffalo and, especially leopard were very elusive. Having seen elephant, giraffe, hippo zebra, wildebeest, wart hogs and a number of deer species (including springbok, which encouraged numerous smug, rugby orientated comments from our rangers!), we were advised that lions were in our vicinity. Unfortunately, the wildlife here seem not to care that people have paid good money to come and see them and they hid behind a bush, occasionally raising their heads, as if to say "are you lot still here?"

Next up, we heard a leopard calling and raced off to see if we could locate it. After a bit of tracking, we were treated to a half hour viewing of a male leopard traversing a hill in pursuit of a female - good on you boy! Our ranger said he'd not seen a leopard for a couple of months (there are only approximately 50 in the whole reserve) and that was probably the best sighting he'd ever had - although the cynic in me says that might be what he tells every group!

Back to the lodge for lunch and a chance to get properly settled in.

This place is phenomenal. Nestled on the side of the volcano wall, the scenery is amazing and the facilities at the hotel are exceptional. We're all based in our own personal lodge - although, it does seem somewhat wrong that I'm not sharing it with the wife - with its own balcony and outside shower cubicle, overlooking the savannah. The staff can't do enough to help you and, with different meals or 'snacks' appearing every other hour, the food is first rate.

Some of the lads headed off to play the John Player Golf Course at Sun City - and raved about it on their return. Those that stayed at the hotel, enjoyed an afternoon lazing around, target shooting and quad biking. We nearly lost one member of the squad though. At one point on the quad bike trek, the lads were let off the leash in a small clearing. Whilst thrashing about, Peter Rogers managed to wipe out and flip his bike. The bike rolled a couple of times with him still attached. Following a couple of seconds stunned silence, the dust settled to show an upside down bike and a very shaken Peter, caked in dust, hauling himself up off his knees, welcomed by hoots of laughter from the on looking bikers. 

After the golfers returned, we all climbed back into the Land Rovers and headed for a short game ride, on which we saw white rhino too, and ended up at a camp in the middle of the park. When I say a camp, I mean there was a large fire, a huge barbecue, a few buckets of iced beers, some very well laid tables and our rangers patrolling with rifles in case of any unwanted visitors. Obviously, the rifles were for shooting into the air to scare any visitors off - a ranger would lose his job immediately if he shot an animal.

It's amazing how quickly the light completely disappears up here. We arrived at 5.45, in nearly broad daylight and, by 6.00 it was completely dark with, what seemed like ten times more stars in the sky than we get in Britain!

After yet another great feed, we climbed back into the Land Rovers to head back to the Lodge. Less than 400 metres down the dirt track from our 'camp' the lead vehicle stopped and turned off its engine and headlights. As we pulled up behind it, the silhouette of a huge bull elephant could be seen, standing on the track, eating branches from an adjacent bush.

Following suit and turning off the lights and engine, our driver told us that elephants have 'sub-sonic' hearing, meaning that they hear very low frequencies much louder than humans do. By all accounts, an idling Land Rover engine would sound more like a helicopter landing on your head if you were an elephant. To make matters worse, with their eyes being so finely tuned towards seeing in the dark, headlights would be blinding to them. Now, I would be pretty scared and jacked off if I was blinded whilst a helicopter landed on my head, so imagine what this great thing would have done! Believe it or not, we were more than happy to oblige, cut the light and noise and wait for him to move.

It really was an amazing sight to behold. He slowly turned and faced us pricking his ears wide, almost as if, by feeling threatened, he was trying to look as big and threatening back as he possibly could. It certainly worked on me! Against the pitch black backdrop, he almost appeared to glow silver - you could almost picture David Attenborough whispering a commentary to it on a BBC 2 documentary. Eventually, he turned back to his bush, pulled off a few more branches, ate them and lumbered off to find some more food elsewhere, allowing us to make our way back to the Lodge to settle down for the night.

View links to all Matt's blogs here, and see the picture gallery of his tour here.