Sunday Star, page 12 & 13
By LOH FOON FONG
A BLOATED impala carcass lay on its side under a bush. There were no bite marks or any form of injury. It might have been knocked down by a car or died of natural causes.
A hooded vulture gnawed at the abdominal flesh in between the hind legs with its beak. Above, more than 10 vultures were either circling in the air or perching on tree tops, a sign that something riveting was about to happen.
Sitting quietly in the van in Kruger National Park, South Africa, we a German, a Dutch, a Scottish, a Malaysian and our Bundu Bus Tour guides, Sean and Merle waited patiently for the predators.
The vulture suddenly seemed to feel all alone and flew away.
We were puzzled. Why didn't the vultures above plummet to wipe out the enticing meat "right under their beaks"?
We gave up waiting after half-an-hour. Sean started the engine and steered the van away, when a tour guide from a bus beckoned us and pointed towards the bushes.
Lifting our binoculars, we spotted a young lion, with a slight mane, and later two lionesses as well.
That explained why the vultures wouldn't land!
But the lions suddenly looked threatened and moved deeper into the bushes, leaving us even more puzzled.
"Look behind you," said Sean.
We saw a man standing on the roof of his car videotaping the lions.
"Silly man! They (the lions) could smell him," remarked Sean.
(The man was soon joined by a woman and a child but was later warned of the danger.)
The dead impala created a domino effect the vultures waited for the lions to depart, the latter for the humans in five cars to leave.
After some time, most of the cars left, and we moved in to be the closest to the carcass, about nine meters away.
A jackle moved in and ate where the earlier vulture had left off. When it stepped away, the group of vultures swooped in and gobbled the impala as though they had not eaten for a long time.
They were however rudely interrupted by the lioness which sprang onto the scene like a gust of wind. The vultures flapped away.
Within a split second, it sunk its teeth into the impala and lifted it effortlessly.
Just as the lioness was tucking in, the lion raced forward and fought it away from the former. Another lionness joined the fray and they tussled over their food, gradually disappearing into the bushes.
Lions are typically chauvinistic.
"The lioness usually hunts for food, while the lions feed on it first.Left-overs are for the lioness and cubs the reason for the cubs' high mortality rate," said Sean, who constantly furnished us with details, an advantage in joining a tour.
We counted ourselves fortunate to have seen the real-life documentary unfolding before us in just one-and-ahalf hours of waiting, a rare occurrence that writers and photographers would wait for weeks and months to capture.
It was the last day of our two-night and three-day stay in Kruger Park, before proceeding to the Drakensberg route.
The trip to a safari park in Africa is always exciting and full of surprises, even if you have been there several times.
During a special drive organised by the park for instance, a humongous creature suddenly appeared before our jeep, giving us quite a fright.
Maria, who was nearest the hippopotamus screamed, startling the poor animal. For a second, the both stared at each other; she tried to move away and the hippo quickly escaped into the bushes.
More surprises awaited us the following day. While taking a slow drive, an elephant emerged out of the bushes, sauntered towards us, stopped about six meters away and stared. Sean started the van, all set to speed off if the elephant should attempt to attack us.
He warned that bull elephants could be dangerous, and related stories of how a car was rolled over while others were chased for no apparent reason.
Besides the lions and elephants, the other "big fives" like the rhinos, buffaloes and leopard are also found in the park.
Stalking animals, and observing their behaviour, that's what the safari is all about. Waking up as early as 5.30am and driving about 300km daily, we discovered the beauty of the many animals which we had never seen before but on television.
We were also taught how to identify the various antelopes. Sean never failed to point out that the antelope with a white ring on its buttock, is the waterbuck, or that the biggest in the antelope family, with cock-screw horns, is the bull kudu.
We discovered the warthog at close range, with its over-sized head and warts on the face, undeniably an ugly beast, trotting away on its small feet; in contrast to the elegant long-legged giraffe which browsed around in such a gentle and 'cultured' manner.
Even little creatures have fascinating lives, as we discovered when Sean pointed out to a heap of dung on the road. The dung beetles rolled the elephant dung with their back feet into the size of a marble and occasionally got rolled over by the dung itself.
But they quickly regained their balance and went on to make more tiny dung balls.
"These dung beetles would push the balls back to their nests and lay eggs on the dung. When the eggs hatch, the tiny beetles will feed on the dung," Sean explained.
According to a brochure, the park has 300 different types of trees, 49 species of fish, 33 types of amphibians, 114 reptilian species, 507 species of birds and 147 species of mammals.
We camped at Berg-en-dal one of the 12 main camp sites in the two million-hectare park (350km in length and 60km in width), where we were fenced away from the animals. Amazingly, facilities are also provided for wheel-chair bound visitors.
When you are backpacking alone in South Africa, a tour like the Bundu Bus Tour (Bundu means 'wilderness' in Swahili) is worth hopping onto. Costing R550 (RM400), the tour is economical and it saves a lot of hassle.
Departing from Johannesburg, it provides sleeping facilities (sophisticated tents, sleeping bags and blankets) and two meals a day.
You need to rough it out, all right, but it is fun and exciting. You get to make friends from all over the world and the minimum number of people in the van is four while the maximum nine, thus it is cosy and you get personalised attention from the guides, unlike the upmarket tours that carry huge bus loads of people and everything is rigidly scheduled.
* The Bundu Bus Tour can be contacted at 27-11-6931621.
