Ulusaba Game Drive – Animal Showcase

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We have two game drives daily. Everyday we met different animals. The rangers and trackers seem to know where these animals are. So we never come back with zero results.

The Snake Puzzle
One day, on our way to the bush breakfast, the other jeep of colleagues just stop in front of us looking at a green snake on a tree. We were scared especially with the big opened mouth and the red tongue. However Carl, the other jeep’s ranger didn’t seem to be afraid at all and was trying to suppress the snake. All at a sudden people were laughing. It was a fake one, it was Leon’s plastic snake! I started to realize that it was the one that Leon wore at the annual dinner last night. It was such a joke, we were all teased by the colleagues of the other jeep. Anyway, it was amusing, a plastic snake in the wild on a tree, did look real.

Mini Owl On A Midnight Tree
You can’t imagine how a man while driving can spot a tiny creature hiding in the dense leaves of a tree after dark by only listening to its voice. Saly got lost, Lawrence grip the spot light and found it. It was so small, just 15cm tall, the world’s smallest owl.

Animal Showcase
After so many game drives, I got mixed up with animals from the antelopes family. To me kudo, duiker, nyala and waterbuck all look the same. But Lawrence and Janet can name them immediately. Well, a matter of experience. For people like us living in a city, it is difficult for us to identify the animals. But for people living in a game reserve, animals are just like their friends. We can identify our friends, can’t we?

I have also asked Lawrence if he ever had to vaccinate against Yellow Fever. He said ‘never’, neither do anybody at Ulusaba Game Reserve. They also never have to use mosquito repellant. Well, they live there, may got immune.
Here is a short list of the animals that I met over the few days at Ulusaba Game Reserve. Without reading the names, see how many you can identify. Again, my mini camera didn’t produce good photos, so I’ve borrowed these photos from Wiki.

Animals from the Antelopes Family

Duiker Impala
Kudu

Nyala Waterbuck
Steenbok

Other Animals We Met at Ulusaba

Cheetah

Giraffe

Hippo

Hyaena

Warthog

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Ulusaba Game Drive – The Big Cat Show

Game Drive at Ulusaba offered us new experiences everyday. I believe this was also true even for the rangers and trackers. The amazing BIG CAT show was one that made us unforgettable.

Over the walkie talkie, Lawrence was told that there was a baby leopard around. After quite a difficult journey, ran on medium size trees and rugged land, we were all completely impressed by the engine of Land Rover, a little leopard was found.

It was such a close encounter, the leopard lay only somewhat like 5-6 feet apart from us. This was a completely unique experience to us. With spots all over the body, the leopard was such a beautiful creature. If you ever had a cat at home, you can image what we’ve seen in this morning’s leopard show.

This beautiful creature performed an unforgettable BIG CAT Show for us.

Unfortunately my mini camera had no video function!

It was actually a BIG CAT show. Cat walk, cleaning, scratching, typical lovely cat motions were all demonstrated. With his tongue cleaning his paws, then his face and his head; cleaning the tail, cleaning the hands, cleaning the rear legs – it was such a great leopard show. That was exactly what your cat does at home, but now by a big cat in the wild. It was just amazing! We were all extremely happy when saying goodbye to the lovely baby leopard.

Animal Emotions
Animals do have emotions. While Peter reported them being charged by a rhino, we were charged by an angry elephant in the same morning. Nobody knew what has pissed him off. Anyway, the elephant was coming towards us. Janet our tracker, with her natural instinct quickly drove away and the elephant was still after us for a certain distance. May yelled to wait while taking photo with Sean using the elephant as the backdrop, without knowing that her life being threatened. Janet said ‘you want a photo, but we want our lives’.

About elephants, I didn’t know that they were quite a destroyer in the jungle, until I saw the facts. They like pulling down trees and eat their leaves, bark and even the trunks. All the dead dry tree bodies on the floor were left over from their meals.

Bloody Kill
This was what we most wanted to see and most afraid of seeing. One morning, we were closed to a fresh kill, perhaps just two hours late. A cheetah lay proudly beyond his prey, probably a young impala. The cheetah seemed to be so full that he was unable or didn’t care to move.

See the cheetah and his prey on the tree?

Separately we saw a family of two lioness and three cubs eating the left over of their prey from yesterday. Pulling the internal organs out was really bloody and cruel. Next a leopard on the tree was enjoying his prey, a bit more fresh than the lions’. It demonstrated the natural rule of order. The dominator ate first, not until he finished, his subordinate didn’t had a chance. Once he moved away, the next quickly continued. And of course there was a hyena waiting apart to clear the left over.

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Ulusaba Game Drive – African Big Fives

Game Drive at Ulusaba had a couple of safety rules to follow. One, keep quiet and still; two, stay with the group. In short, don’t leave the jeep and don’t do anything that will irritate the animals.

I was told that animals usually won’t attack anything that is bigger in size than them. So if we stay together – 11 people in a jeep – animals will view us as one single huge object (in terms of the animals’ eyesight) and will not attempt to attack. However if we leave the jeep and stand alone, we will become dangerous.

Before we depart for the first game drive, we were given a book by Ulusaba describing their property and the environment and the animals that we could expect to see. We all had a check list of the BIG Fives and see if we had the luck to see them all.

As we had game drives twice daily, different colleagues went on different routes and met different animals. Though game drive had no guarantee, every time we found something new. After all, when we cross checked our lists, we were all lucky enough to meet all the Big Fives, though on different days and different occasions.

As I said, my primitive camera on this trip didn’t produce good quality photos. I have therefore borrowed the Big Fives photos from Wiki. But I did meet them all.

African Big Fives
Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant, Buffalo

Lion

Leopard

Elephant
Buffalo

Rhino

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Ulusaba Game Drive Experience

Breakfast and lunch usually served at Rock Lodge, with extremely fantastic views. Everyone were excited in seeing several elephants from apart. It was time to show off telescopes and binoculars. Those without one can only blame themselves of not well prepared.

Breakfast at Rock Lodge - very fantastic views

My room is at Safari Lodge which is quite nearby the training hall. All rooms at Ulusaba Game Reserve were WITHOUT air-conditioning. It was hot but a true African feel. All beds were covered with nets to protect us from mosquitoes.

While sleeping at night, we could hear animals roaring outside our room, but just couldn’t identify who they were. In the morning, we usually see groups of baboons playing at near distance. I had never stay close to animals that way!

We have two sessions of game drives each day – one in early morning and one in the afternoon after the training. The morning one was more comfortable in terms of temperature. The afternoon one was extremely hot. Anyway it was a new experience to see animals at their home, rather than at a zoo. It was a nine-seated open-top Land Rover with each row elevated to ensure everyone has a good view.

I am sitting at the tracker's seat

Each game drive was conducted by a ranger who is also the driver and a tracker who usually sit at the very front of the jeep whose job is to spot animals. Saly (the ranger) and Lawrence (the tracker) were our Ulusaba game drive guides.

Very unfortunately I brought with me a very primitive camera on this trip. My photos were not successful at all. However please bear with me. More interesting and exciting game drive experiences to come in my future posts.

I now become the ranger

Recommended Reading

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Book cover preview from Anna's private collection

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Anna's Amazing Journeys

Heading to Africa – Ulusaba Game Reserve

Ulusaba Game Reserve was in the middle of a jungle north of Johannesburg.

Departing from Hong Kong, it took us 13 hours to arrive into Johannesburg on direct flight. My company was taking us to another offsite, after to Dubai last year. You might wonder how luxury can a game reserve tour be. Well, first of all, we were connected to the site by a 90-minute domestic flight. I was told that if we didn’t take this expensive option, it might take over 6 hours of driving.

Heading to an African jungle, an additional preparation work was needed – medical advices. Prior to our departure, there had been discussions going over in our office of how to protect us from any possible diseases. On the safe side, I consulted a doctor and was advised to take a vaccination against Yellow Fever. It will go into effect after 10 days of vaccination and I had to carry with me some tablets to be taken while in Africa.

Life in Ulusaba (South Africa) was quite simple. There were mainly three things to do everyday:
· Game Drive – two times a day (morning/afternoon)
· Training – NLP
· Meeting and eating

Claiming to have been to South Africa, its better saying I have been to a jungle in South Africa. Actually Ulusaba Game Reserve was the only place I stayed through the rest of the week. Apart from there, we had a short 30-minute ride to visit a nearby village, and that was all.

I must say Ulusaba wasn’t as deluxe as Al Maha of last year, but it offered another kind of unique experience in my travel history. Have you ever experienced an elephant walk outside your training hall, drawing your attention away from the trainer? For me, yes, that was Ulusaba South Africa.

Upon our arrival, the NLP training was done immediately after a brief lunch at the Safari Lodge. Ulusaba had two groups of Lodges namely Safari Lodge and Rock Lodge, both among breathtaking landscapes and I shall go into details in my later posts.

Ulusaba Game Reserve South Africa

Anna's Amazing Journeys