Game On!

you gotta be kidding me! we're still on the airplane doing a slow taxi to the terminal in Hoedspruit when we spot 3 warthogs in the tall grass next to the runway. and, get this. they're being stalked by a cheetah! we see the tail of the cheetah as it makes its move -- a nano-glimpse of a high arching jump that we know to be the attack -- only to have the plane continue on toward the terminal, leaving the fate of the warthogs..........uncertain.

we leave our porcine friends to head out to the Pondoro Game Lodge, some miles north. on the 10 mile dirt, and heavily rutted, road to this private reserve we see giraffes by the side of the road, impala, wildebeast, and zebra. crazy. and, we have yet to go on our first game drive.

a word about the lodge: outrageous! check it out online (http://www.pondoro.co.za/). canopied beds in their 6 mini-lodges; a bath tub out on a deck overlooking the Oliphants River; a shower with a full glass wall revealing another nice view of the river; a shower head reminiscent of the one that almost killed Kramer; 3 gourmet meals a day; 2 4-hour driving safaris per day, one at 5:30 a.m., the other at 4 p.m.; a walking safari after breakfast; and a full menu of spa offerings. (alex gets his first ever full body massage and a pedicure!)

on our first game drive the afternoon we arrive, the giraffes, zebras, wildebeast and impala show up in earnest. they are simply everywhere. oddly, though, the comic star of the afternoon is a quirky bird they call the helmeted guinea fowl. apparently, these sorrowful birds are seriously contending for the honor of most stupid animal on planet earth. unlike most flocks of birds who flee in a flash when one of their tribe is either threatened (or even thinks he's threatened), these bozos -- we are told -- actually are happy to sit on a branch while the friend immediately next to him or her is shot out of the tree, completely oblivious to the notion of danger. we take note that as our land rover approaches them, it doesn't occur to them to get out of the way. no, no. they run -- imagine what a bird on fire might run like -- skirting the front wheels of the rover as if a place squarely under the tires would be the safest place to be! Darwin is definitely scratching his head at these evolutionary outliers.

as darkness falls, we spot a leopard, not an easy sighting, we are told. it's a young male. about 15 feet away. he's wary at first at our presence, but soon enough emerges from the bush to continue his nocturnal hunt. beautiful.