It is a beautiful Christmas morning here in the Gauteng province of South Africa!  We are up, ready with our coffee and out to the game drive vehicle well before our appointed 5:30am hour.  As are the rest of our group.  Not so for the other vehicles, where there are quite a few missing.  No matter for us – we’re here for the animals and we aren’t missing a drive. No way Jose.

Kieran is quite impressed with our timeliness and dedication, and we are out of the lodge area and on our way before 5:30.  This will work!  Our first sighting is a huge herd of impala – with tons and tons of babies.  Those little guys are so cute.  Kieran explains why impala are called the McDonald’s of the bush, because there is one around every corner.  (Also because they have markings on their hind quarters that look like an “M”.) Ed goes into a rendition of the 12 days of Christmas as we happily watch the herd meander about here and there.

Then more zebras and wildebeest.  Some so close to the vehicle, it’s incredible.

And then we spot a black rhino!  Out in the distance, sort of hidden in the bush, but still – they are so rare, it is so cool to see them out here in the wild – for real wild as Colleen might put it.

A few minutes later, we stop for our morning coffee break.  Rusks, the South African version of biscotti along with coffee or tea.  We are joined by the other vehicle, which does not have that many passengers this morning. So we hang out and chat with the family and enjoy being out in the bush with our morning snacks.  This is just too much fun.

Back on the vehicle, we follow a parade of guinea fowl; Kieran says they always to this, just run in front of the vehicle, too dumb to get out of its way!  And another black rhino!  This one much closer to the vehicle so we get a good look at him and his horns.  We ask Kieran why they don’t dehorn the rhinos, to which he replies that they’ve poisoned the horn.  They inject some sort of poison that ruins the value of the horn, but doesn’t hurt the animal, thus deterring any potential poachers. 

There is a brief giraffe sighting, and then, the highlight of the day:  lions.  A pride of 7 are lounging under the trees in a huge field (full of warthog holes that Kieran expertly, if not a little tentatively, navigates through).  There are a couple young males, but the older male and female are not with the group – which is fine, really.   Seven lions hanging out?  We’ll take it! They are so beautiful and languid, you really do want to get out and pet them. Particularly the one who is laying on its back, like she is waiting for you to scratch her belly. Not!

As we are turning around to leave, we come across a dead giraffe.  The lions killed it! That is so unusual.  Giraffes normally are not prey, as they can kill a lion easily with a kick from their long legs.  But this one was definitely dinner.  Kieran supposes that the giraffe was separated from its tower and then fell into one of the warthog holes, making it easier for the pride to kill.  Sad. And gory. But circle of life.

Circling back, we watch the male lion stretch and take a stroll as we are leaving.  So majestic and powerful, and slightly scary the way he slinks about just watching.

Then lo and behold, another black rhino.  Do you know how unusual that is? To see 3 black rhinos on one game drive?  It does not happen often, if at all. Even Kieran is amazed.

We’ve been so lucky this morning. 

More guinea fowl parades.  And more driving around gorgeous scenery.  And then we are back. Our 2 ½ hour game drive has actually been 3 ½ hours!  Fantastic. 

There is breakfast being served at the Kingfisher, and when we arrive we find everyone else is there already – mostly because no one got up to go on the game drive!!!  It is almost 9:30 and the service is slow, so we decide to bag breakfast. We have a huge Christmas lunch coming up at noon, we definitely don’t need more food now.  We are happy to just hang out on the patio with the zebra and make our own coffee in the chalet.  Merry Christmas!

By 11:30, we’re ready and head to the restaurant to get a good seat.  They aren’t ready for us yet, so we hit the bar for a drink, meeting up with Team family, who we thoroughly enjoy.  The kids go off to scout for a table for us, and when the buffet area opens, we are seated in our group area with Colleen and ready for a feast.

An what a feast it is! The starters alone make up a whole meal – seared tuna, salads, bread, mushroom and bacon puffs, salami and cheese on a stick. It is wonderful.  And then there is the main section, with steak and chicken and veggie lasagna and pumpkin puree.  Totally excellent and filling.  The last thing we need is dessert – but we all must indulge.  How can you turn down Christmas tree brownies or a tipsy tart? Well you can’t!

It is an incredibly enjoyable lunch, with a great table.  To end a wonderful event, the rangers come by, dressed as Santa and elves, handing out candy to all the kids there.  Excellent way to end a wonderful event!

Unfortunately, during our lunch, it started to rain. And by rain, I mean a deluge. It is pouring out there.  We had signed up to do a bush walk tomorrow morning, instead of the game drive, but with this rain? We are not at all confident that will happen – but we’ll still have the game drive at least.

Trudging our stuffed bodies back to the room, we spend our afternoon watching the nyala herd meander around our patio. The nyala family, so adorable as the babies go running and hopping along.

Back on the game drive vehicle, it is only the hard-core team:  Jennifer and David, Neil and Olga, Ed and me.  Fine by us, more room in the vehicle and less chatting to worry about scaring away the animals!  The other vehicle is similarly empty – they actually have to put 2 drivers into one vehicle because there are only 6 total going. What is with these people???

At any rate – we are off with our intrepid team and spot kudus right away, and also the hippo. There’s no one here to scare him away this time.  We also spot a Jesus bird, so named because it looks like it is walking on water. 

More wildebeest, a black back jackal that Olga spots on the side of the road – go Olga!  More zebra.  A little bird family.  The other game drive vehicle (LOL). More wildebeest.  More impala.

Then it is time for our evening drink stop. Kieran very intuitively reads the group and asks if we want to stop with the other vehicle.  That idea is unanimously defeated, so off we go on our own – which is the preferred Team Nolga way!  And seriously, what could be more cool, than just stopping in the middle of the bush, just the 6 of us, sharing a beer and wine and incredible scenery?  So peaceful and lovely.

After our break, we hop back on the vehicle and head back to the lodge – spying more wildebeest, and trying to stay dry in the now pouring rain.

The rain makes it difficult for animal viewing, but the bush vistas and scenery make up for that. We’ve seen so much already, it is lovely to just enjoy the nature out here.

Our last sighting are a pair of black back jackals who might as well be posing for us.  They are really quite cute, if you ignore their predatory nature, that is. They look like little dogs – and stretch like dogs too.  Quite a lovely way to end our Christmas game drives.

Back at the lodge, we have a “light dinner.”  Yeah, light. It’s burgers!  Oh no, no way. We are still so stuffed from the brunch, no way we can both do a burger. So we decide to split one and just do sides and drinks.  Really, we don’t need a thing more.  It has been a fabulous Christmas day, one we won’t forget, spent in a magical place with good food and company. 

It is an early night for us as we have to organize our bags and then, our 4:30 wake up call, for our last 5:30 game drive.