Fannah, our young guide, quietly maneuvered the safari vehicle through the brush and African sage, coming to a stop 25 feet from our target. The towering acacia tree overhead was skeletal, a victim of debarking by rapacious elephants, with dead limbs littering the ground. A mound of white sand amidst the debris marked the den’s entrance. Out popped first one, then a second cub, one of them tiny and very dark, the second lighter in color with spots and older by a few months.

Curious by nature, the cubs stared at the gaping tourists in our Toyota Hilux but quickly began playing and grooming, then sprawled in the hot sand for a nap. Clicking away with our cameras and phones, the seven of us were captivated by these adorable cubs and wondered when a parent would show up to ensure we meant no harm. Finding enough food in a harsh environment to sustain the family is a major concern of any wildlife mother but protecting her brood is uppermost in her mind.

Within a few minutes Fannah spotted the female walking through the brush in our direction. We expected her to come running but instead she laid down with her head erect. She was alert to our presence but was either relaxed in her approach or was evaluating the risk in approaching our vehicle. After a couple minutes the female jumped up and walked closer, maybe 40 yards away. Then another pause to consider her options….

As she approached the Toyota, we could hear the female calling in a soft voice, one that Fannah assured us the cubs could hear even 100 yards distant from the den. Soon the cubs were bounding through the brush and we were treated to their excited squeals and the gentle greeting from their mother, clearly relieved to find her young were unharmed. The family nuzzled each other, and the cubs immediately began to nurse, hungry after the female’s long absence. You may be surprised to learn that we were enchanted by a family of hyenas.

Several readers have asked me to share tales from our September trip to southern Africa. After hearing rave reviews from former travelers, we booked The Ultimate African Safari with Overseas Adventure Travel. It was our fifth trip with OAT and they always deliver great memories and solid value. Our trip began in Johannesburg, South Africa and included two days at spectacular Victoria Falls, one of the world’s seven wonders.

The heart of the trip was 12 days in four remote safari tent camps, across Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana. In the coming months, I will be introducing two new presentations to share the highlights of the trip. Our three weeks in Africa was a fantastic experience for anyone interested in the wildlife, countryside, and culture in that distant land and my photos will prove it.

I chose the story of our hyena encounter to illustrate a truth that was a topic of discussion around the campfire that evening. All of us grew up watching National Geographic presentations on Africa and we formed impressions of the diverse wildlife of the Dark Continent. Most people favor the big cats: lions, cheetahs, and leopards. Graceful antelope like the impala and steenbok would probably be on your list of favorites, along with the magnificent elephants and rhinos. Others like the hyenas, warthogs, hippos, crocodiles, and snakes are either ignored or dumped in a mental box labeled “ugly and repulsive.”

But initial impressions may be wrong, and with the luxury of time to observe all kinds of wildlife at close range, you soon find yourself dumping your early conclusions. Most of our group started the trip with the notion that hyenas were ugly, vicious, unappealing carrion eaters. While the adults are not as easy on the eyes as a mature leopard or cheetah, they are fascinating to observe in their family groups. Survival for hyenas requires a great deal of wit and toughness.

On another trip 20 plus years ago with our children, we had a similar awakening with a family of giraffes. From watching them on television, we had formed the impression that giraffes are little more than towering leaf eaters, bumbling and awkward in their movements across the veld. But an evening game drive at the Shamwari wildlife preserve in South Africa gave us an opportunity to learn the error in our thinking. Not only did we have the thrill of a close encounter with a white rhino, but we also spent about 20 minutes surrounded by a family group of giraffes; two adults, a juvenile and two babies a few months old.

The first thing we noticed was the sheer beauty of the giraffes. In the slanting light of evening, their coats glowed soft and golden, each animal having a unique pattern of spots. As we watched them moving slowly among the trees and shrubs while feeding, we could appreciate the grace in their slow, undulating stride, using long legs to avoid obstacles on the ground and towering necks to reach acacia leaves up to 18 feet high, well above the browse line of the elephants. Acacia trees have long, heavy thorns and very few animals have the tough mouths to feed on them. The giraffes seemed to relish the gnarly food. In the still evening air, we could hear the soft murmurs among the giraffes as they stayed in touch while moving easily through the trees, paying little attention to us. Among all the animals we saw on that trip, the giraffes ranked close to the top.

I am not going to convince you that anyone in our group was charmed by the crocodiles. We saw plenty of them, some as large as 15 feet long, but it would take a serious herpetologist to say they were attractive creatures. We did observe two large monitor lizards stalking through the vegetation at the water’s edge in wetlands, focused on finding eggs or immature birds. At three to four feet in length, they were sizable creatures but not likely to generate nightmarish thoughts of being dragged underwater by a mouth full of vicious teeth! Because it was near the end of the winter dry season, most of the snakes were still in hibernation, so only one snake was spotted during the trip, although it was a black mamba, one of the deadliest creatures on Earth. No one was overly disappointed at not seeing more snakes!

There was another creature that managed to charm its way into the hearts and minds of our group, at least the ladies. Every time we spotted one, a murmur of excitement would ripple through the Toyota and our driver would stop so we could enjoy the fun. This did not occur for most of the elephants, since we saw many hundreds of them and only the babies could stir emotions by the end of our tour. But a creature with a sad face that only its mother could love became a crowd favorite. That would be the warthog, bearing a countenance that would never win a beauty contest.

Yet, they are fascinating creatures to watch and sure to elicit a giggle or two when they run off at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. First, their eyesight is quite poor and when rooting in the soil with their snouts for food, they are not particularly wary of safari vehicles. If we were quiet, we could sneak in very close to watch and listen to these bush pigs. When feeding, warthogs often go down on the knees of their front legs to better reach food items on the ground or in the water. Several times we saw them walking along on their knees. We also enjoyed seeing family groups coming into water holes with tiny babies barely able to walk in the deep mud.

With two upper and two razor sharp lower tusks that can exceed 20 inches in length, a large male warthog may reach 200 pounds and certainly looks like a formidable beast. Those big lumps of flesh on either side of the face are critical in protecting the hog’s eyes during mating battles among males. I have read that most of the large cats will avoid tackling a mature warthog unless they are truly hungry and willing to risk serious injury from the hog’s tusks. The cats attack from the rear of the hog, trying to grab the neck before the hog can slash with its tusks.

When threatened warthogs are inclined to run for safety, and if near their dens, they back down the hole so their tusks are pointing out to dissuade all but the most desperate predators. On many occasions we watched warthogs running through the brush with their skinny tails waving in the air like a whippy radio antenna with a tuft of raccoon hair on it. Every time, at least a few of us would chuckle to watch the hogs on the run.

Three weeks in southern Africa left me hungry for more despite all the close encounters we had with the most popular species on offer. Spending a couple hours watching a large pride of lions with several small cubs at play will warm the hardest of hearts. We also enjoyed the quiet charm and warm welcomes from our African hosts, who greeted us at each camp with traditional songs and dancing. As a favorite writer, Wilbur Smith from Zambia, noted in one of his wonderful books, “no one travels to Africa without wanting to return again and again.” There is much more to see and to learn on our next trip to Africa, and no doubt, other preconceived notions to be dumped along the safari trail…

If you like Ed Robinson’s writing, check out his two Nature Notes books! Click here for more information.