Londolozi

Londolozi Camp borders Kruger National Park in South Africa. Londolozi comes from the Zulu word meaning to protect. The Shagaan Tribe has its roots in this area. We visited their village. Lina read an assortment of small animal bones to figure me out. "You are a lady of many surprises.." she said. Lina lives in a rondavel, a thatched hut that stays cool in the heat and is impervious to the rain. The camp's location is referred to as Sabi Sands and is part of the Greater Limpopo Park. In the late afternoon light, I huddled under a wool blanket. We saw our first white rhino and an aging male bull. There were also herds of wildebeest. Somehow I had always thought that wildebeest were fabricated for fairytales, but here they were in the flesh. Guinea fowl hurried along with their long blue necks. We heard the knock knock call of the blacksmith plovers, a chorus of painted reed frogs, the calls of the white-faced ducks and the rustle of marula trees. The earth is a shade of reddish brown that is different from the pale yellow Kalahari sand in Botswana.

The setting of this camp is granite outcroppings with lush green undergrowth. Elephants ambled toward the Sand River for a drink. In the morning we walked with our guide, Byron and a couple from Oklahoma whom we had met. We studied hippo and tortoise tracks, lizards with indigo blue tails called rainbow skinks and colorful lilac-breasted rollers that happen to be the national birds of Botswana. A chameleon was almost completely camouflaged in a fig tree. Later we were driving north, looking for lions. In the chilly air I had on a scarf, a fleece sweatshirt and a vest. Our vehicle crossed the river with the rushing current. We came upon a pride of two lionesses, four cubs and a young male lion who was old enough to go out on his own but must have preferred to stay with this group. I snapped a photo of him looking as though he is smiling for the camera.

We encountered two male leopards facing off with low growls. They each had bite marks and gashes on their faces. Our guide explained that clearly there had been a territorial struggle. Later we were lucky to track a lone male leopard moving stealthily though the brush. He pounced seemingly effortlessly on a tree limb and suspended himself gracefully. On our way back to camp that day, we passed a crash of five rhino and a herd of buffalo wallowing in the mud.

It was magical to be in a place where we could study the web of the golden orb spider, listen to monkeys sounding the alarm that lions were near, touch wild anise, taste biscuits and coffee in the pink glow of the rising sun and speak in hushed tones so as not to disturb the animal life.