KRUGER NATIONAL PARK (South
Africa)
02 DECEMBER – 05 DECEMBER 2017
This is an entry written specifically for our fantastic guide in Kruger NP, Robbie Williams. It relates to an incredible encounter that we experienced on the third day of our safari, 04 December 2017.
But first, here's a bit more about Robbie in his own words;
'I'm currently doing an autobiography on my life in Kruger and outside of Kruger. The intended name of the book is Never Know Enough. The book is intended to be about being in and out of the straight path and then back into the straight path, and especially, how nature has saved me, got me through certain difficulties.
I've been working in the park for the last 24 years. I'm a Reaction Unit Officer for the Anti-Poaching Unit and I have my own Anti-Poaching company, as well as my own Safari Company which is called Robbie Williams Safari's.'
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Ever since I was a child I had
known it was my mothers’ eternal dream to go on safari in Africa. It would often come up
in our family conversations when discussing our top
of our list destinations. However dreams can have the propensity of
remaining just that, aimless thoughts that lie sedately in your mind,
uncomplicated and uncommitted to ever finding a way to realisation. It had seemed, in my
mind at least, knowing the financial situation of our family growing up, that
my mothers’ dream would always be just that, a fantastic dream without the means to be realised.
We were a lower middle income migrant family
that lived in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Not that we ever struggled in
life, my father worked tirelessly as a Storeman for our national carrier,
Qantas, for nearly 30 years. But making plans for what would have felt like an adventure
for the rich and famous was somewhat beyond our financial means , and also contrary to our completely mundane, biennial visits to Belgrade,
Serbia, where our relatives lived. Admittedly we were fortunate to have that opportunity but it was made possible only via substantially discounted airfares,
(which we could afford), through Qantas, due to my fathers’ tenure with the
company.
In recent years our family
circumstances changed. My father passed away five years ago and I, now older
and earning a reasonable salary, was now in the fortunate position to be able to make my mothers’
dream come true, which is something that I had personally always wanted to do
for her.
Thus this brings me to a story that took place in Kruger
National Park, on a Nhongo Safaris tour, guided by the wonderful Robbie Williams, who I now consider to be a life-long friend.
For me personally I had always thought that in going on safari you needed to have a particular kind of passion or yearning for a specific style of experience. As I said, this was a
dream that my mother always had, it was never mine. Truth be told, at the start of
this adventure I anticipated that the only real amount of excitement that I
would have would be the joy and happiness I received from knowing that my mother would be fulfilling
her eternal dream. But hey, life is never short of surprises and you know the quote that goes, ‘Africa changes you forever…once you have been there, you will never be
the same’. Let me tell you, not a truer word has been spoken. Africa, in particular Kruger NP,
had a wonderful impact on me.
This story however is not about
my own minor epiphany but rather about an encounter our safari group had with a
somewhat curious and cheeky leopard that earned the nickname ‘Dunlop’.
Sighting location: 112rd,
Southern Kruger
Date: 04 December 2017
Time: 09:30
During our second morning in
Kruger our guide Robbie had wanted to follow up on the sighting of a pride of
lions. I don’t recall exactly where it was but somewhere during the drive to the last known location of the pride, Robbie received a call of a dual leopard sighting on a road
nearby that was occurring at that moment and thus made the decision to go and
investigate.
It was probably a 5-10 min drive
later that we sighted two safari vehicles stopped on the road, and right in
front of them were two amazing looking leopards, with beautifully dark
rosettes, light to dark golden coloured fur, a shortish ringed tail and beautiful
white bellies. These cats were simply majestic.
Robbie stopped about 15-20 mtrs away
from the other vehicles and it took about 10 seconds for us really to really comprehend what was going on. On closer viewing it appeared that one of the leopards had taken an interest to the
tyre and mudguard of the front right wheel of one of the safari vehicles in
front of us, and there we sat in our vehicle just watching as this cat pawed
away and then licked both the tyre and mudguard for what seemed like an extraordinarily long period of time.
Investigating the vehicle in front of us - Kruger National Park - South Africa
A question from a guest in our
own vehicle to Robbie was, ‘Is this a
common thing for them to do?’, to
which is responded, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘No,
this is highly, highly unusual’.
For me personally I didn’t care
whether it was unusual or not, the sighting was absolutely mind boggling and
magical. It felt like there was a big playful cat just roaming around the
streets of downtown Kruger NP looking
to be mischievous and alleviate a bit of boredom from being out in the wild all
day, taking a break from having to utilise its natural instincts to survive. This schism, the clear break that we tourists have from the reality of being in the natural habitat of wild animals is really a danger as our awareness of what is real becomes blinded by a false sense of security.
Now, I’m not sure what the
trigger for Dunlop was but after a
few minutes he got up and started to move, tracking directly toward our vehicle.
When I saw it coming for us, yup, that's when I started holding my breath
Kruger National Park - South Africa
Approaching slowly, almost
languidly, the mood in our vehicle started to change gears. Cameras ready, phones
pointed and held high, poised to capture fantastic shots, the leopard made its
way to the front left tyre of our car. Rubbing itself against the tyre at
first and then climbing under the vehicle, again it started pawing and licking,
and then biting first the wheel and then mud guard. Sprawled out on the dirt
road, laying on its back and looking upwards, it was, I’m sure, an exhilarating site
for all those other groups that had now surrounded us.
In many ways this was the unforgettable dream sighting that we all wanted. The
perspective however, which I feel in a situation like this gets kind of lost,
is that this is not a Safari Disneyland.
These animals are wild, we’re inhabiting their environment and believing in the
predictability of their actions is both as ignorant as it is possibly stupid.
Robbie, constantly calling for
updates for the positioning of the leopard from both within the vehicle and by
radio to those that were surrounding us then said something that snapped my
brain into a state of hyper vigilance…’Guys, keep your hands
inside the vehicle, be as still as you can’.
...and thus earning the name, 'Dunlop'
Mechanics come in all shapes and sizes in Kruger NP
Kruger National Park - South Africa
Kruger National Park - South Africa
Kruger National Park - South Africa
After what felt like an eternity
Dunlop got up and slowly started walking down my side (the left hand side of
the vehicle), I was seated on the highest bench on the back left hand side. All
of a sudden I felt an overwhelming rush of anxiety and fear. This situation and
this action pushed me into a sense of panic. But, to completely understand
my blinding burst of fear I need to recount a situation, or rather an encounter
some 7 years earlier to which I immediately regressed.
Years ago I had been travelling
through South America and during my time dedicated some 4 weeks to undertaking volunteer work at a Wildlife Sanctuary in Bolivia.
Parque Ambue Ari was, and still
is, a park that cares for many different types of animals, inclusive of such beautiful animals as jaguars, panthers and pumas. The work
of the dedicated staff and myriads of volunteers that move through the camp
involve, for a large part, taking these domesticated
cats (I say that facetiously), out for walks in the jungle environment of the Bolivian Amazon.
Volunteers literally tie a rope onto the collar of a selected cat, wrap a harness
around themselves and click themselves in via a carabiner. These volunteers, of
which I was one, were tethered by a 3mtr length of rope to a power, unpredictable animal. That is all the
protection that we were afforded.
If you want to read about the encounter then you can find it here: Parque Ambue Ari - The 3:10 express to Yuma
Now, youthful exuberance aside,
there is something fatally flawed in believing in the total safety that we
implicitly placed in that process. I discovered quite quickly that the false faith
that I trusted to my 10min training and induction was crudely misplaced when on
the second walk that I did, with a fully grown female puma, she turned on me, pinned her ears back, snarling and with animalistic fervour grabbed my leg with both its paws,
claws cutting through my trousers, and then wrapped its jaw around my right
knee. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite like the dismay, complete fear
and overwhelming disbelief of being attacked by what is effectively a wild
animal. In an attack that lasted a
matter of seconds the hundreds of thoughts that populated my mind all ended the
same way, this attack could potentially
kill me, this shit is real!
For whatever reason the attack
was only short and the puma backed off, but the fear that accompanied that
attack has always lived with me. This moment was now just about to be revisited.
Back in Kruger, sitting in an
open vehicle, exposed on the back seat, I was frozen stiff. There was a leopard
not 30cms from my feet, hovering with all the wild ferocity and unpredictability
that a cat of that nature should have. Anything could have triggered an adverse
reaction, if it has been spooked or simply curious and had jumped into the vehicle,
what then? What would be our reaction? What sort of panic and what some of
carnage could have ensued in that sort of scenario?
I simply held my breath and
willed it to walk away, anywhere else at the moment was good enough.
‘Dunlop’ passed around the back of our vehicle and walked around to the front right hand side near the driver's door.
Robbie had armed himself with a
baton of some sort, I’m not sure exactly what it was, but he and I both knew that in a real attack, what it could be used for could be counted on zero
fingers. At best it could have been a momentary stall.
See the people hanging out of the vehicle...that's called tempting fate
When the leopard jumps up for your throat, maybe you'll reconsider your need for the epic Instagram photo
Kruger National Park - South Africa
For
other passengers in our car I know that this experience was not fear driven but
sheer excitement, I’m sure had they have placed their minds into the possible consequences
then their thoughts may have been different. Better for them I guess. Ignorance truly can be bliss.
Perhaps
a minute later ‘Dunlop’ made his way
off, tracking back passed us and along the dirt road we had driven in.
Kruger National Park - South Africa
Kruger National Park - South Africa
I
literally breathed a sigh of relief. A
crazy, crazy encounter that in many ways we were both fortunate to experience
and fortunate to get out of with just our photos and nothing else added.
What an
experience! What a head spin!
To use
a catch phrase from Robbie, TAB, That's Africa Baby!
