We woke early as usual and made our way down to the house and waited by the security gate to say our final goodbyes to the JJH children as they left for school. It was an emotional goodbye as laughter was replaced by tears and hugs. Many of the JJH children handed out individual letters to us. We dragged our feet with our heads down back up to the rooms and wrote notes for the children that they would receive after they returned from school. We had a delicious breakfast then went back to work for one last sprint to the finish. We were able to complete some final touches. There was a lot of rushing around the site till we had to leave in the early afternoon. The younger children came to the gate and hugged us goodbye. Many of them were crying as we drove away from JJH, some of the children sang as we hopped into the van. We drove off waving to the school age children as they were walking home from school.
After we left JJH, we drove to Schotia Safaries for our 3:00 appointment. Everyone was fixated by the wilderness. A family of African Elephants drinking from a windmill pump walked right past us covered in mud. It was just amazing.
My tour group drove to see the hippopotamuses chilling in the water. Their relaxation was abruptly ended as the male Hippo launched up, flashing his huge teeth as a warning to all of us.
Click HERE to see a video of the Hippo
Giraffes were easy to spot, with their long necks protruding from the scrub. We saw 4 juniors and 2 older giraffes feeding on the tall trees.
Our ranger took us for some lion spotting. Surprisingly, we found them after about 20 minutes. We watched as the male circled around the herd of springbok, ushering them towards the female lion who was lying low in the grass. We couldn’t believe our eyes…we were actually watching lions hunt in the wild. It all happened so quickly, but the attack was unsuccessful.
After driving a bit more, we found some large Southern White Rhinos and stopped to watch them graze.
We went for dinner at the LeLapa, which was a secured, fenced in area in the middle of Schotia. After a relaxing and delicious dinner, we went back out on our night safari. We did not see as much as we did during the day, but we did find the lions again. It was pretty easy to locate the area of the lions as one of the males began roaring as he wondered off into the darkness, looking for the female. The volume and projection of the lion’s roar was incredible.
Click HERE to watch the lion roar (turn the volume up!)
Afterward, we were dropped off at our rooms and treated ourselves with our first hot shower for several days. We repacked our bags as we are leaving to go back to Australia tomorrow.
– Luke Gomez