Chris Kilner shares his story of one day on the Lebombo Hiking Trail:

After a light breakfast, we walked out of camp just after 07:00 having packed up our bags with food and lots of water. The plan was to be back around 12:00 so we only took same light snacks.  We set off towards Rhino gorge in search of the animals attracted to the water remaining in some of the deeper pools. The plan included a detour to another waterhole to see if it still held any water.

We reached the waterhole and as we looped around and back, crossed some fresh buffalo tracks which we planned to follow up after checking the other waterhole.   Still a few 100m from the waterhole we approached a termite mound when a large male leopard took off, running through the short dry grass away from us.  He moved slowly enough that we were able to see him clearly.  He had been dozing in a small clearing next to the termite mound, shaded by a wild raisin bush.  Once the excitement had died down a little, we moved onto the waterhole where we saw blue wildebeestand impala and also had a great sighting of 3 zebra drinking at the waterhole.   We then picked up the buffalo tracks and followed them.

We continued to follow the tracks along the Palarangala river and came to an area where,  until recently, there had still been water and found evidence of large numbers of elephants, buffalo and many antelope. As we moved in, quietly listening for the sounds of animals around us, two honey badgers appeared ahead of us, entirely unconcerned by our presence, stopping regularly to forage around the Mopani trees. They moved through the trees allowing our guests to take some stunning photographs of them not more than 15 metres away from us.

The Honey Badgers moved past us, turned into the dried up river bed and were gone after about 3 or 4 minutes. They left us all chattering away for another 20 minutes while we explained to the guests how rare any sighting of Honey Badgers is, let alone in broad daylight, on foot, at such close range and so unperturbed by our presence.

Eventually we set off again following the buffalo herd we were looking for.  We decided that we may be able to jump ahead of them heading for the next potential water source and some rougher terrain.  When we eventually reached Ntomeni we found disappointing little in the way of water of wildlife apart from a few Vervet Monkeys, who quickly fled. There were no other animals there.  We sat for a while in the shade of the Fever and Mopani trees and drank some water while we rested and prepared ourselves for a long, hot walk back to camp.

We had only taken two steps towards camp when we were rewarded for our long hike, with a brief but beautiful sighting of a small breeding herd of elephant. In the way that can happen so easily in the dense bush, we had heard nothing to alert us of their presence before seeing them. So we moved away from the main game trail to let them pass and prevent them getting wind of us. They did, however pick up our scent and disappeared into the thick Mopani as suddenly as they’d appeared.

Satisfied now that we’d had as much luck as we could hope for, we took our next of many steps towards camp some 8.5km away.   Before we’d even covered a quarter of that distance we encountered a large bull elephant who was making his way slowly through the Mopani scrub. He was well aware of us but not at all worried by us, stopping now and again to browse on some of the greener Mopani trees but moving on purposefully. We quickly lost sight of him amongst some thicker Mopani trees.

After that we didn’t even think about the buffalo herd again and walked on stopping now and then when we would find a little shade but otherwise simply concerned with getting back to camp where we could have a cold shower, cold drink and relax in the shade.

About 4.5km from camp just after a water break, we were crossing over a ridge and passing some thick Mopani about 50m to our left when a sound of rumbling thunder started. A herd of buffalo – the herd we had been tracking in the morning which had been resting in the Mopani – woke up and began to run away from us. They stopped about 80m from us and turned to stare, curious about the scent that had alerted them.  Some of them grew confident and as their curiosity got the better of them, they began to approach slowly trying to work out what we were.

With the wind against us and the herd already alerted to our presence, we decided to move on before we disturbed them anymore.

We made it back to camp hot and tired but thrilled by the experiences we had had. This was our guests first ever African Safari and with those views, I’m sure they will be back to see what other amazing creatures Africa has to show them.

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