The white lions of Timbavati

It was rather cold last night but after supper we came back to a very cosy room, the heating had been turned on and there were electric blankets on the bed. The days are hot but the nights and early mornings are cold which is typical weather for this area in winter. The sunrises and sunsets also happen so quickly, unlike in the UK where the sun takes a while to rise or set and there is a period of twilight.

This morning we were woken up at 5.45am with a gentle knock on the door from a smiling Themba who came baring gifts of tea/coffee and rusks, plus a GF cookie for me. We were out on the open vehicle half an hour later, all dressed warmly with blankets and hot water bottles on our laps, enjoying watching the sun rising as we drove off down the track. We stopped to look at buffalo dung, then saw their tracks and then the tracker noticed lion tracks. The game ranger told us that there are four (known) wild white lions in the world, and they live in this Timbavati area but cross all over the huge Kruger National Park (which is almost the same size as Wales). He suggested we follow the lion tracks as it could possibly belong to some of the white lions. 

The tracker jumped off the vehicle and walked in one area while we drove with the ranger in another. Soon they had found the tracks and the lions… a pride of one male, two females and nine cubs - two of these lions were the white lions! We were so excited to see them and had a wonderful time parked up near them just observing their behaviour. The lions are white due to a recessive gene known as leucism, they are not albino. They were thought to be extinct until these four were seen. Here you can see the white female with one of her white cubs, her other cubs are the usual golden colour.

After that excitement we stopped for coffee and snacks - they serve a signature early morning drink made of hot chocolate, coffee and amarula which everyone loved. We drove around looking at antelope and birds and then it was time to head back to the lodge for breakfast. Our ranger announced he quickly wanted to show us something else, and he surprised us by pulling into an area where a surprise bush breakfast was waiting for us. 

After breakfast in the bush we went back to the lodge where everyone relaxed - the youngsters swam in the pool (the water was very cold) and I edited some photos and enjoyed chatting to everyone. It was then lunch - we seem to go from meal to meal here - and then we got ready for our afternoon game drive. The plan was to find rhino. We were following tracks but then saw a female rhino and calf, and we followed them through the bush for a little while but they were very skittish and so the ranger did not want to upset them so we turned back. Rhino are still being poached so they are all dehorned, and when we were tracking them the ranger is not allowed to radio other rangers to identify rhino locations as the poachers can tune into the radio. After a little while we found the rhino that were being tracked, they were so relaxed and walked right up to the vehicle, I could have reached out and touched them (but didn't, one has to respect the wildlife). I have never been so close to rhino before. We watched them as the sunset and then went off to find a location to park up for sundowner drinks, before going back to the lodge for supper.

It was a very special day, seeing the very rare white lions was definitely a highlight as was being so close to the rhinos. The advantage of being on a private conservancy is that we are usually the only vehicle on a sighting, or at the most only two vehicles are allowed. We can also go off road to track the animals.