o 3 days ago, we left the luxurious Kuname Lodge and Game Reserve near Kruger National Park. It was a marvellous experience- see our link to the lodge as well as our comments below. We then returned to Jo'burg for the night and moved on to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Throughout our stays at a number of game lodges, it is easy to focus only on the Big 5, but we've been surprised and impressed by a number of other things:o Within South Africa, our travels have taken us from the savannah, or bushveld, to the lowveld; that is, going from grassland to land similar to Gatineau Park. At Kuname Lodge, we were facing the Drakenburg Mountain range, with its gray, cobalt blue and red stratified colours. We're both fascinated by the extremely varied and colourful bird life. The birds' colours do not attract predators, because animals' colour perception is different from ours; one can understand how Europeans became enthralled with Africa as a result of its physical beauty.
o The game viewing at Kuname was magnificent, and was only surpassed by the cordiality and hospitality of Linda, Christine and their staff and the fabulous food. And yes, we even stop for "sundowners" (cocktails) during the evening game drives; we have even become accustomed to being woken at 5 AM for the morning game drives.
o IT MUST BE EMPHASIZED THAT THROUGHOUT OUR TRIP, WE GO WITHIN 15-20 FEET OF VIRTUALLY ALL THE ANIMALS, INCLUDING THE BIG 5, EVEN THE LIONS AND CHEETAHS; AND LAST NIGHT, WITHIN 2 METERS OF A BLACK RHINO.
o Without a doubt the most awesome experience at Kuname was coming across a copulating lion couple. We were withing 15 feet of them, but they were otherwise occupied and didn't seem to mind our presence. A female lion in estris will copulate 150 times in a 4-day period. Afterwards, both lions rolled over, panting and satiated....for the moment, at least. 
o This male lion is called Zero by the rangers. He is 14 years old, weighs 
about 400 pounds and is about 6-7 feet long. Nice Kitty..... The rein of an alpha male lion is short- only about 1 year. He is fed and serviced by the females and is thus weakened so that a younger, fitter male can easily take over the pride. But what a way to go! In this photo, we purposely included the vehicle in the picture of Zero to show how close we were able to get. The animals are conditioned to the presence of the vehicles, so as long as everyone remains seated and stays quiet, the animals aren't overly concerned with our presence.
o This male lion is called Zero by the rangers. He is 14 years old, weighs 
about 400 pounds and is about 6-7 feet long. Nice Kitty..... The rein of an alpha male lion is short- only about 1 year. He is fed and serviced by the females and is thus weakened so that a younger, fitter male can easily take over the pride. But what a way to go! In this photo, we purposely included the vehicle in the picture of Zero to show how close we were able to get. The animals are conditioned to the presence of the vehicles, so as long as everyone remains seated and stays quiet, the animals aren't overly concerned with our presence.o We also experienced many other firsts with our superlative guide, Rian. We saw our first hippos, crocs, and cheetah. Rian always brought something new and insightful to our game drives.
o One of the highlights at Kuname was on our last morning drive. We walked within 30 feet of a mother cheetah and her 3 cubbies. The mother watched us in a blase, bored manner. The babies were all fluffy....like kittens.
o After we left Kuname, we took the Blyde River Canyon route back to Jo'burg. It is called the Panoramic route for good reason. It is where the Blood and Blyde Rivers meet and the canyon has been carved out by the water to look like modern sculpture. Beautiful!
o After a night in Jo'burg, we flew to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (Zim) which is an entirely different world. We'll comment more in our next posting.
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