Trip to Erindi

Man, at this rate I'm going to have to change the day of when I post these. The WiFi is not my friend. Regardless, last week was amazing!!!!

I cannot tell everyone how much fun it was to go to Erindi from Thursday through Saturday. The rooms were amazing, and we were lucky enough to see a variety of wild animals including Lions, Cheetahs, Rhinos, Elephants, and even African Wild Dogs and Spotted Hyenas! I got so many pictures and videos, and even one where you can here the Wild Dogs and Hyenas. But I'm getting way ahead of myself in my excitement.

The other interns, Becky, Bridget, Whitney, and I all left for Erindi Thursday morning around 9, and arrived in time for lunch. I wish I had gotten pictures of all the food, it was so good!! We all stuffed ourselves, and our plates literally had a little bit of everything. The pasta had a meat sauce made with Oryx meat that was delicious and there was white rice, and yummy fries, and wow was it all good! (Sorry, I am not enjoying the food at CCF, but when every week is the same, it gets to you) When we looked outside it turns out there is a waterhole right outside of the restaurant! There were crocodiles and hippos and a herd of elephants came up during lunch! It was Adorable! There was one small baby that was with the herd along with other juvenile elephants! It was really fun and funny to watch its antics with the water!

After lunch, we finally got to see our rooms! We got to sleep on real beds and they had a shower and a bathtub!  I honestly hadn't expected to get a bath at all once I left home. Regardless, the rooms were beautiful.

We had our first game drive that night, and were placed in a car with a older group from South Africa. They were very nice, and one older man had a good sense of humor. At one point he made me say, and learn how to say Pangolin in Afrikaans. It was actually really fun! The work is: Ietermago (not how its pronounced - The r is rolled and the "go" is a sound in the back of the throat)
I am proud to say that I did not entirely butcher the word.

Within the first 10 minutes, we came across two lions, a male and a female. They had apparently been around the area for about four days, and hadn't been hunting. I got several good pictures of them yawning. Man, those teeth are terrifying! Next we passed by a pair of Bat-eared Foxes. They were so cute! We were told that they were foraging for their prey (some bug), but they were usually nocturnal. Then we came across fresh black rhino tracks, and our guide decided we could bushwhack a little to find it. It turned out they were very fresh. The rhino was essentially right around the corner and charged us. It's certainly one way to get the heart pumping. The guide very quickly backed up into a thorn bush, but fortunately, there was a wall of acacia bushed that it did not pass. It quickly snorted and ran off. We were told that this was why he was not going to be going into the bush for rhinos, as he didn't really have an escape route if they decided to charge us. 

The drive continued and we drove past an area where animals are often given supplemental food since it's the dry season. There were four white rhinos there, all of which had had their horns cut off. White rhinos are all owned by Erindi, and it was decided that the horns would be removed in order to keep them from hurting each other, as well as take away a poachers reason to kill them. There was also a lone wildebeest and a giraffe. But we saw a more excited sight later in the drive. We came across two young male giraffes fighting each other. It was so cool! How often do you actually see giraffes fighting, usually they are eating or running away! I am glad I took a video.

Finally, we came across, incredibly, two previous CCF cheetahs that had been released into Erindi years ago, Obi-wan and Chester. We didn't even need to track them! (They have radio collars) It was really cool, Chester, came into CCF with a broken ankle (I think) with a 50% chance of ever walking again. He ended up with one of the best possible options! And both he and Obi-wan hunt prey, so it's not like Obi-wan is hunting for him either. After that, our guide stopped in an open area where we were able to get out and enjoy the sunset for a bit. It was beautiful.

The next morning was just as amazing as the previous afternoon honestly. We went to a large waterhole, where we saw a pride of lions. There were 2 adult females, 3 juvenile females, and 1 male. We could see that they had just finished eating, as they had quite a bit of blood on their faces and paws. I was able to capture several good pictures, and some that were quite adorable of the male. After watching him for a bit, we found the females, who were playing around with some baboons who were in the trees. When we drove over, two trees filled with baboons emptied and we watched as the lionesses chased them. It was really rather adorable to watch! They were unlikely to catch them anyway. After this, we stopped a bit to get out and stretch our legs. After we continued on, we came across another black rhino - which didn't charge us this time - and I captured another several shots that weren't across a thick wall of thorns. Then farther down the road we saw an absolutely adorable site! There was a mother white rhino right around the corner, and she had a tiny baby with her. It was too. Cute.

Speaking of cute, when we turned back to return to the lodge, we passed by the same waterhole we saw the pride of lions at. As we passed by, we saw a herd of elephants, with several young elephants and one baby. It was so cute!!!! It didn't really know what to do with its trunk, and it was quite cute to watch. I believe it was the same herd we saw previously at the lodge, it looked like the same group at least.

On the afternoon drive on Friday, we finally got to see the African Wild Dogs. It was amazing!!! There was also a set of around 8-15 puppies that were around 3 months old. There was a huge puppy pile, with one little one that decided to be a rebel. I couldn't get many good pictures, and I'm really sad about that, but I tried to get as many pictures as I could.

The next two game drives were not nearly as interesting as the first. I think it was because during the next afternoon and morning drive, we had another two people join us, but its probably just because we already got to see so much already!

Regardless, during dinner on Friday night, we were joined by the African Wild Dogs! We had unfortunately missed the Wild Dogs chasing and killing a Wildebeest, but the staff of Etosha had put out a Zebra corpse, and we were able to see the Wild Dogs eat it from where we were sitting. It was amazing! Plus, a hyena came over and tried to get in, but was quickly run off by the Wild Dogs, they got a few good bites to its leg. Later, when the Wild Dogs left to feed their pups, a total of four Spotted Hyenas ran over to the Zebra and started chowing down, plus quite a few Black-backed Jackals would come in and grab a piece of meat and run away. They looked SO proud of themselves! Then the hyenas were once again run off by the Wild Dogs who were not kind about it. It was really amazing!!!!

Finally, during our last breakfast at the lodge, there were three young Hippo's napping by the side of the water. It was actually rather sad because an adult bull elephant with a radio tracking collar, which was huge by the way, came over. When he got close, the smaller ones jumped away in fear, while the third was still napping, the elephant, confused why it wasn't moving, used his tusk to push it out of the way. The little guy was so confused!!! I felt bad for it. . .

This week has been amazing, and I have so many photos, I don't even know what to do with them!!! So many to choose from! I hope everyone is having an amazing summer!