Day 92: First Full day at Bumi Hills — Charged by two Elephants — Aggressive Baboons at the Pool — First Lion Spotting

by Ted · Published April 7, 2019 · Updated April 14, 2019

I didn’t sleep well last night — our first at Bumi Hills.

There wasn’t one specific reason for my restlessness. It was likely a combo of all of the following:

unknown wildlife risks — kids are supposed to stay with parents at all times;
various insect roommates — I’m a pansy city kid, not a fan of spiders and some of our stuff had been swarmed by ants; and
the lack of communication capabilities from our rooms except for a blow horn to be used only in case of emergency — this wouldn’t bother me too much but I was worried that Lobsy would feel anxious. She was in a separate room with Willa.

But in terms of anxiety production, that was nothing compared to what we experienced on our first full day of game drives.

Our first drive yesterday afternoon was fantastic. We had the most peaceful encounter with a herd of elephants along the shore of Lake Kariba. Mommies with their babies, chowing away, barely paying us any attention. This only reinforced our opinions of elephants as passive, lovable creatures you see at the zoo.

However about five minutes into our game drive this morning we came face to face with a male “bull” elephant with two huge tusks. Our guide, Ntando, mentioned that he was looking distressed or anxious — apparently you can tell by looking at the glands on their ears. Anyway this one was also twisting its trunk and smelling us. We were at a fork in the road and as we slowly started down the other road, he started charging right at our vehicle. We sped off just as the charging tusks were getting close to the left side of the truck.

Hearts racing. Nervous laughter. So many questions for Ntando. Does that happen a lot? What would have happened if we hadn’t moved? What if there wasn’t a fork in the road? Why was he so pissed off?

We got a few answers but none that really helped us understand why that happened or why it wouldn’t happen again… and it was only a few hours until we starred in Episode 2 of Elephant Encouters.

But first, a human v baboon showdown at the pool:

There are vervets and baboons all over the Bumi Hills property. We saw them as soon as we drove up to the main entrance. It was funny and cute at first — we saw babies clinging to their moms, young ones chasing and wrestling with each other and others lounging, snacking and people-watching like they’re at a sidewalk cafe in Manhattan.

We already knew the vervets were clever and ballsy — one tried to steal Margaret’s phone at Monkeyland in Plett. Another downed Lobsy’s leftover can of tonic water this morning.

But the baboons are aggressive and can be dangerous. The Bumi Hills staff told us that they are especially unafraid of women and children.

At breakfast this morning the vervets were out in force. They dart around, grabbing fruit from the buffet or a leftover piece of crust from an abandoned table. We also saw baboons drinking from the pool.

This had gone from cute and entertaining to a bit disconcerting.

Then around midday we watched a baboon approach a row of pool chairs where a family of four had left their stuff for a couple minutes. The mom was still there and there was some sort of scary encounter. We didn’t catch all the details but it got our attention when the dad started shouting but the baboon continued to approach. This all happened right where the kids had been playing in the pool for a while.

We didn’t know what to think. Were the kids in danger? Is this an everyday occurrence or a rare, once a year situation? We were feeling a bit skittish.

Now for Episode 2 of Elephant Encounters.

Our afternoon game drive took us to a fishing village about 20 or 30 minutes from the lodge. About 10 minutes into the trip we slowed down as a herd of elephants crossed the road in front of us. We were nervous after the morning charge and just hoped they would keep on walking. It seemed like that was going to happen — they all crossed the road and we started to drive past. But the last female in the group turned to look at us and seemed a bit agitated. Then suddenly she charged out of the bush completely pissed off and began chasing the jeep, trumpeting and only stopping once we got far enough away.

Holy shit.

Here’s a video of the last few seconds.

We made our way to the village, then out to the lake for a much-needed sundowner cocktail. We are becoming huge fans of this sundowner concept. Who wouldn’t?

But on the way back we turned off the main road to an open area with a little watering hole off the lake. Ntando quickly spotted a male lion.

Wow. Our first lion sighting in the wild.

This caught us by surprise. And considering this day of not-so-kind experiences with wild animals, we were all a little scared.

The kids were very good, sitting totally silent and still.

Then the lion let out a growl / call that was like nothing we had ever heard. Impressive and terrifying!

Ntando explained that it was a two or three year old male who had been separated from his mom and sister, so he was calling to try to find them. He would call, then walk a bit away from our direction. Ntando would then drive forward a bit which made us all a little more anxious. James whispered to Margaret, “why are you squeezing my hand so hard?”

We watched and listened for a bit, then told Ntando we had seen enough and it was time to head home. We just weren’t in the mood to follow a male lion after the day we had today.

Our hearts were still racing when we pulled back into camp. Happy to be safely back home and no longer bothered by monkeys who had all found a place to sleep by this point.

We had another tasty but barely visible dinner by candlelight. The kids were pretty exhausted and the grownups were all anxious from the day.

Back in the room we were greeted by a few more insect friends — a couple big-ass spiders on the wall and a swarm of ants on the kids bathroom kit.

OK, so Day 1 on safari managed to push us all well out of our comfort zone. We knew this was the point — of safari and of this entire year of travel. And we rationally knew our time at Bumi Hills would end up being an incredible and memorable experience.

But as we were getting ready for bed on night two we were admittedly feeling a little frustrated and anxious.

The presence of my mom added to our unease. We both want my mom to have a great time and I could tell she had some of the same concerns.

We felt like some of these issues could be solved by the Bumi Hills staff. They seemed very laid back about the monkeys and ants — like it was just part of the experience! And Ntando seemed to think the elephant charges were entertaining and not a big deal — even explaining that “maybe they aren’t used to our new jeeps yet,” leaving the question in our minds that maybe other animals could react in the same way?

We agreed that Margaret would write a note to our Africa travel agent to prep the next lodge (different camp, same parent company) on what our family and my mom needs to feel more comfortable: Keeping a healthy distance from animals to ensure 100% safety for the kids and a more relaxed grandma, a guide that provides super-clear explanations of what’s happening and maybe even a second guide in the van to make everyone feel more at ease.