Part IV: North towards Mopani & The Albino

The next day, having seen no cats, I headed far north towards Mopani to drop my parents a line to tell them I’d made it alright and was in the park.  Mopani was the only Camp within striking distance that had internet access.  Lucky I went too, because I saw something very strange and very rare.  This elephant below, however, was not rare.  He was the second of four during my trip to yell at me and charge my car.  He’s spread out his ears to make himself appear even bigger and he’s a slice of a second away from lifting his trunk and telling me to F-off.  He then took a few quick steps at me and that’s always enough provocation. 

The reason I was charged four times during my time in Kruger was due to the time of year.  Male elephants go through a period called ‘must’ and during must, their testosterone is upped seven times it’s normal amount.  They have so much of it running through their system that they actually bleed the stuff from glands on either side of their face.  A profile photo of an elephant further along in this series will show this ‘male bleeding’.

Just before Mopani, I drove atop a long flat-topped hill.  There I found a herd of buffalo, and there among the bunch I spotted a little blop of white.  I zoomed in with my camera to see an albino buffalo calf. 

“Hm,” I thought to myself, “that’s funny, should probably take a picture of it, whatever it is.”

A park ranger vehicle was parked ahead of me, and a hand came out and waved me forward.  I came up aside and an old ranger with a white beard greeted me with an amazed look.

“Did you see that?”

“The white one?”

“Yes, the albino.”

“I did.  Managed to get a picture before he went back behind that brush.”

“So special,” he said.  “I’ve been in this park for nearly twenty-five years and I’ve never seen anything like that.”

On my way back to Olifants I came across the same mother hyena I saw on my first drive into the park.  Her den is relatively close to Olifants and I got to see her on several occasions. 

Females, interestingly, are much larger than the males, and contrary to popular belief, they are not strictly scavengers.  They hunt about 70% of their food.  However,  they eat so much bone that the over-abundance of calcium in their diet turns their droppings completely white.  Lion droppings have a similar look for the same reason, but the effect is not as pronounced.  A good thing to spot along the road while looking for lions..

Another day gone and no big cats, no lions, leopards, and still no rhinos.  On my way back to camp, I had to stop for near an hour as a herd of buffalo took their sweet time crossing the road.  Poachers are certainly a threat, (more so to other animals..) but these buffalos were happy as Hindu cows, standing in the middle of the road, slowly chewing grass, watching everyone in the cars.

That night, back at Olifants, I booked a morning game drive.  Departure was scheduled for 4 am.  I had an early nightcap and then turned in.  Woke and walked in pitch dark to the meeting point.  The sky was a cityscape, a huge trough of stars that reminded me of the nights I spent on the Colorado river, rafting down the Grand Canyon with my father years ago.  But this sky held stars I had never seen before in my life.  The southern Cross, a constellation I had always wanted to see, rose every evening in the south east, rose high in a tall tight arc.  That morning, the cross was falling and the morning star was soon to rise, and with it, the African sunrise starting Part V.