Jay's Adventure's - Madikwe,
South Africa - Jan 2001
(click any picture to get enlargement)
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Nicole could not take much time off, so I decided to drive to the northern part of
South Africa for my first safari... to a place Nicole had been a few weeks
before.
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Road to Guest House ?
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Guest House In View
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Driveway to Paradise
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Front Lawn Area
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Pool Area
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Front-yard Watering Hole
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<===
My secluded room, with only frogs as roommates
===>
My comfortable bed
(with mosquito netting)
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Game Drive Jeep
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General Road in Park
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Valley Scenery
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Tree Scenery
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More Trees
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An inexperienced Guide
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Great Rainbow
(no pot of gold though)
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Termite Hill
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River Crossing
(looked for hippos first)
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Lone Elephant
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Water Hole Elephants
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Great "Elly" Picture
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Elly's in Mud Hole
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Elly's Ready to Charge?
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Elly's Cross Road
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Giraffe Family
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Lonely Giraffe
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Water Buck
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Pride of Lions
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Is he ready to Attack?
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Nope, he'll just watch!
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Lioness' Dinner
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Time To Wash Up
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Warthog Remains
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Cheetah Relaxing
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Chameleon
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Millipede
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Eland?
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Springbock?
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Impala?
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Wildabeest
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Prarie of Animals
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Sunset on the Game Drive
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SPECIAL: In Madikwe Park,
most animals have been imported from other areas which were determined to no
longer be safe for the animals. Once replaced, most animals adjust well
and put up with humans. The
animals are in their natural habitat and it is the humans who are intruding on
their ground. Unfortunately the
natural habitats are being shrunk and game parks are becoming the only places
the animals can live. The game parks need money to stay in existence; the
money comes from visitors who want to see the animals. The result is that the animals
and humans need to co-exist and that close encounters are bound to happen. The
three pictures below show one of those un-planned contacts. In this case the jeep
goes
around a corner and unexpectedly comes upon a herd of elephants. The matriarch
(lead female) in this herd must have had bad experiences with humans (they have
good memories) and did not want anyone to get too close.
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Oooops, herd ahead!
Female is in "Protect
Mode" (note flared ears)
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Jeep begins to back up as female approaches (note she has only one tusk)
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She continues to pursue reversing jeep (back leg
shows she is running)
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Due to previous experience, the guide knows that this elephant will not back
down. He continues to drive in reverse and hopes to come upon a spot in
which he can quickly turn
around..... no spot can be found and the charging elephant catches up to the jeep
..... and
rams it; see the next three pictures.
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Ramming speed ... oh no!
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Guide survives ....
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The Jeep is not so lucky and sustains
damage that would be hard for a human to reproduce. The elephant did this
easily, which shows the powerful force they have. Note the close proximity
to the guide seat; big tip is due!
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The incident was reported to the authorities and
they
decided that this elephant posed a great risk to park visitors (this was about
the hundreth incident with this particular female). Ideas of replacement to another area were pursued,
unfortunately without success. The authorities decided that this animal
needed to be taken out quickly, since it
would be just a matter of time until a human was injured. An incident
could lead to lawsuits and possible closure of the reserve.
A hunt was organized and bids
were solicited to raise funds for the reserve; highest bidder would receive the "honor". I have
always wondered what a "big game hunt" would be like and I decided to
put in a bid........... and guess what?
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Yes, I won the bid ! Part of me was
excited, but I was mostly apprehensive. I had made a comment
that I had lost respect for big game hunters, as it seemed way too easy to
drive a jeep up to a herd and take a shot .... there seemed to be NO skill
involved!
Given no choice, I
prepared for the hunt; I got them to agree that we'd do it on foot. We quickly proceeded to find indications of the herd we
wanted. Before I had a chance to back out, we came upon the herd.
In an hour or so, we were able to isolate the female. We got into a position
to minimize the impact to other animals and to minimize the chances of her
suffering.
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The Result?
I have kept the picture rather blurry because it was not a nice sight.
But see more below.....
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APRIL FOOL's!!
......... yes, this was basically a hoax story ...... I
don't think I could
shoot an animal like that, especially
after seeing these animals in their shrinking natural habitat ........
sorry if I offended anyone!
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This
ended my first experience in a real South African game lodge ...
... and I was
TOTALLY thrilled about the experience.
I am sure we will be
going on quite a
few more safaris in the near future.
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