Our party grew as we joined up with Sej and Henry (Andrew's cousin), and the banter ratcheted up acccordingly. Wonderful to share the experiences - and they were utterly worth sharing.
Simbambili itself is pretty damn luxurious - all suites boasting chilly plunge pools (perfect for the mid 30 degree days), outdoor day beds overlooking the african plains and so on, the lodge itself being a spacious, airy haven with excellent food and wine, and all on a small scale (never more than 16 guests at one time). We were treated to exceptional, personal hospitality and felt more like invited guests than paying customers. Whether Alison in front of house, Locks and Reinas keeping our glasses topped up, Liam piloting us through the bush and providing ongoing education and passion, or Mumps tracking down the most elusive game and impressing us both with his humour and even more so his slingshot (his personal line of defence against the world's most dangerous predators - seriously).
Safari 1 - afternoon
We warmed up with giraffe, waterbuck and impala (aka JAFI, for Just Another ...Flaming... Impala). Liam pushed the truck up a watercourse in search of leopard, and he and Mumps hopped off (with both rifle and slingshot). They told us they were going to search for the cats, and if they weren't back in 10 minutes the lodge was thataway.
Literally half a step later, they said "there they are", and five metres away there they were indeed. Not only were they so close, but were also very much in the mood. We showed no sense of decorum and stuck around to watch them mate.
We returned to them after sundowners (a very fine safari tradition) and drama played out. Hyenas turned up in the hope of scrounging a feed. There was quite the standoff between one and the male leopard. Pretty clearly Mr L was put out at having his mating time interrupted (hard to do, as it lasts about two seconds, though is repeated every 10-15 minutes for up to three days). However, the risk of injury meant that actually fighting the hyena was out of the question, so up a tree he and Ms L went. It just happened to be the tree we were under.
So there we were: ten humans in an open vehicle, with two leopards just over our heads. Things got a little tense when Ms L advanced out onto a brach, bringing her to maybe two metres from Andrew's now-quite-nervous head. It really is astonishing how close you get to the animals, and how easily you relax in their company.
Happily, the hyenas took off. The leopards got out of the tree, and back into action. We repaired back to the lodge for dinner - a spectacular affair in the Big Boma, featuring some lovely oxtail (but sadly no local specialities).
The pattern of the next two days had been set. Rise early, safari (including a stop for coffee with a tot of Amarula), return for sizable breakfast, heavy session of lolling/lazing/lounging, sizable lunch, more arduous lolling/napping/wallowing, safari at 4pm (including sundowners while watching consistently amazing African sunsets), outrageously large dinner, then off to sleep before 10pm. Every day is different, and you wouldn't want to miss a moment.
Safari 2 - morning
Just when we believe it couldn't get any better, it does. On our 5am safari we come across 3 lionesses (sisters). They appeared slightly distressed which we discovered was due to their breakfast being too close to the camp. Our tracker bravely attached a chain to the back of the vehicle with the lions watching intently, that chain is then attched to the leg of their "breakfast" - a half eaten water buck. We drag the water buck away from the camp with lions in tow, it certainly give a new meaning to the meaning of fast food delivery. Mumps pull out his knife and offered for us to share.
We also saw buffalo, hyenas, tortoise, impala, waterbuck, bushbuck, deiker, kudu, nyala.
Safai 3 - afternoon
Saw the leopards again... still mating. We stopped for our sundowners while watching hippos playing in a waterhole. Also saw our first bush baby (google it, super cute) and slender mongoose.
Safari 4 - morning
While tracking some lion prints we saw a swarm of baboons coming out of a tree. They were soon forgotten when nearby we found the 3 lionesses again hanging out by a waterhole. If that wasn't thrilling enough we then noticed our mating leopard pair sitting in the tree above them, not looking too pleased about having their mating interupted. It was a bit of a surprise when a third leopard came out of the brush and joined them up the tree. Eventually the lions got bored of waiting for the leopards to come down and they wandered off. The leopards disappeared shortly after, probably to continue their mating.
We also came across a 2.5 tonne white rhino that came within metres of our vehicle, marked it territory and moved on. Then we trached down some wild painted dogs which are apparenly extremely rare, there were 14 in the pack, 6 of them puppies. They catch their prey by their superior stamina, once it tires they rip the hunted animal to shreds in minutes, thankfully we didn't stay around long enough for this.
Our time at Simbambili was amazing and we're already planning a return trip.
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