Happenings of the week April 26 - May 2

Enjoying the beauty of nature and animals, being able to accomplish so much PEF work that didn’t seem likely it would come to pass, being in Swaziland and then being an observer of Patriarch Courtney as he so lovingly served, no matter what , made for an unforgettable week. The air is definitely turning towards autumn, cool and crisp and we even had some rain.
Before the sun came up on Monday P-Day morning, the Piers and Mickelsens were wide awake and heading up the highway to Imfolosi Game Reserve with high hopes of adding enough animal sightings to last us forever. The Piers live close enough to the game reserve that they make regular trips on P-Day, since they like us, truly love spending time amongst the animals in their native habitat. Probably the first stop of the morning was at a lookout at the top of a hill, where the wild dog, in this case plural, was added to our list of never before seen animals. As an afterthought, maybe getting out of the car in order to try for better pictures might not have been such a good idea, especially when you consider the name of the animal we were watching! After our wild dog sighting, we drove past zebras, giraffes, warthogs and wildebeest, along with some rhinos and cape buffaloes, animals that have now become commonplace to us, but still bring oohs and aahs when they come into sight. As we were continuing through the reserve, we came upon some cars parked alongside the road. Usually this means that there is something of interest and we weren’t disappointed. A cheetah was in the shade of a tree have a noon time siesta and occasionally would raise his head and then fall back to sleep. What a morning for us – two firsts, wild dogs and a cheetah in the wild! After a fast picnic of peanut butter sandwiches and such we drove through Hluhluwe Game Reserve, headed toward Leopard Mountain Lodge, where we had a reservation to stay the night. At the front entrance we were greeted with cool washcloths to freshen up and a tall glass of tropical fruit juice before heading out for a late afternoon/early evening game drive. There were great hopes of finding a leopard since we would be out in the dark, but no luck. Giraffe, a very old male rhino just bidding his time on earth, wandering here and there, and a collection of smaller animals, were all to be seen that night. We learned an interesting fact, when we asked if the animals really slept. The answer: due to the predators that are around, most animals sleep standing up and only in short stretches, so as to be ready for an unforeseen intruder. Also, we now know how to find the southern cross star formation, were called to dinner, which was under the stars by an open fire, by the beating of native drums. After a better than delicious meal, we were all more than ready to sink into the bigger than king size bed. It felt like we were asleep even before our heads hit the pillow.
Our early morning (6 am) game drive Wednesday, was kind of a bust when compared with our previous days encounters in Imfolozi. As our guide Johann said, “the animals seem to be quiet today,” so he filled us in on interesting tidbits of information here and there as opportunities presented themselves. We even sampled “elephant pudding”, which is a succulent that elephants love because it has a fair amount of moisture and slightly sweet. After spending two hours searching the tall grasses for a leopard or really about anything other than wart hogs and antelopes in many varieties, Johann called it quits and brought us back in for breakfast. While enjoying our food, we mutually decided to skip out on the drive to the hide and head back to Hluhluwe and try our fantastic luck again. Our laundry list for this trip still had leopards and elephants on it. Driving through we came upon several Cape Buffalo just wallowing and having a great time in a mud hole, a sight that we have wanted to see. A short distance later we found the rest of the herd of buffalo grazing near the road, some almost coming eyeball to eyeball with us. The time we had left before needing to return to Durban, started to become short, when we hit the mother lode. Down in a ravine was a most spectacular sight – elephants here, there and everywhere!! Sister Pier tried counting the elephants but without much success as it seemed like the family reunion kept being added to on many sides. It was just fun to watch 50-75 elephants of all sizes, roll in the dirt, spray dirt and water over their backs, get drinks of water, check on children and then have two very big guys toss their heads back, raise their trunks and make some very loud noises in our direction. It was decided that our car might be blocking the path on which their leader wanted to take them, so we figured to would be wise to move. The herd made the decision to change their minds, just as we turned around to go up the road and then there they were crossing right in front of us. It was a different feeling to watch these huge animals lumber across the road, all the while checking on babies , teenagers and all the rest of the family. Probably stayed too long enjoying the elephants, but if we had left any sooner then we would have missed our next equally exciting animal sighting. As we headed out of the park towards home, a lioness and her cub walked across the road near us and into the bush. This all happened so quickly that cameras were flying around the car, and no good shots happened. Then when we were feeling badly because we missed the chance to document that indeed we had seen a lion, guess what comes meandering down the road towards us but dad lion! Again it was a mad scramble to get a shot, and from the back seat of the car it was difficult, but we managed. Then it got even better as he came within 15 feet of the car and we snapped a few side views as he walked through the tall grass. Down deep, each of us hoped that dad would just keep walking because we were a little uncomfortable at being so close. As we drove on, there was an air of excitement in our car because in one day we had seen four of the Big Five, missing only the elusive leopard!
Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent in Swaziland to accomplish two purposes: (1) tie up loose PEF ends and (2) provide transport for Patriarch Courtney. Since Swaziland is a district there is no patriarch, so Patriarch Courtney graciously consented to come and give blessings. There was a list of 24+ people desiring their blessing, but it was divided over two different weekends, twelve each visit. Twelve is a major feat, but he turned out that he gave 13 this weekend because one young woman had her dates mixed up. He later shared with Wilsons and ourselves the stress and strain that he felt after giving three on Saturday morning. He asked for some time to walk alone outside and a short time later came back in with a request for Sister Wilson to play her favorite hymn (I Believe in Christ) and for all of us to sing. It was an emotional time for him and a tremendous spiritual experience for us to see the hand of the Lord in behalf of his servant. Music was the answer to his prayer and he was able to carry on and give four more blessings in the afternoon. Two of our PEF kids were there to receive their patriarchal blessings and it was a hard time for them and for Sandy to say a final good-bye. One was Portia, whom we have watched over our 18 months, grow into a mature young woman, giving her all to the Ezulwini Branch (Primary President-doing every position because she is the Primary, teaching seminary, chorister for Sacrament Meeting, plus going to school. The day turned out well as far as our work goes in that we helped Sipho enter his application on the computer and gave some counsel to Bheki and Siphiwe. We stayed at Malandela’s again, this time in the orange room. This gave the Wilson’s had opportunity to have the Patriarch in their home and get to know him.
As the days are speeding by, there are more and more “last times.” This time to the Kingdom of Swaziland with all of its beauty, plus our favorite Summerfelds Restaurant and Botantical Gardens. There were no final goodbyes with the SwaziWilson’s and Pier’s since future visits are already in the works.

Piers and Mickelsens at the entrance to Leopard Mountain Lodge

Our room at the lodge. Each room is an individual dwelling.

Deck off of our room

View of part of the game reserve from our deck above.

The man on the front fender of the Land Rover serves as spotter, tracker and spotlight operator after dark. We did not find any leopards with the spotlight during our evening drive,

but we did find several antelopes and giraffes and one rhino.

The following photos were taken during our drives through Hluhluwe-Imfolosi game reserve as well as Leopard Mountain game reserve. This is only a sampling of the many animals we saw.

We had just seen a lioness and cub cross the road and head through the bush when this guy came down the road heading straight for us. When he got to us he moved over to the side and went past us less than 15 feet away.

One of several rhino we spotted.

Several of the elephant herd of 60+ we watched as they slowly moved past us heading up the valley.

We love the zebra which you will always see on any game drive.

We came across a large herd of cape buffalo two of which were wallowing in a mud hole. This guy was covered from head to hoof.

You find giraffe on most game drives as the are easy to spot.

Male ostrich - the first one for us

We were excited to find this cheetah resting in the shade getting ready for the night hunt. Cats are hard to find and this was the first cat we had ever spotted on all the game drives we had been on.

Male Kudu - a beautiful animal.

Wild dog - another unusual find. One of several in the pack we ran across.