Safari Day 3 continued
We started our afternoon safari by going back to the hippos, by my request. They generally stick to the same watering hole so it's pretty easy to find them. We still couldn't get a good look at them since they are mostly submerged, but they yawned to show us their teeth a couple of times so I was able to catch a photo. I also caught a video of them grunting.
Then we drove around looking for other animals and watched another gorgeous sunset. Everything was so beautiful especially during that time of day. Then we found something exciting- water buffaloes! That was our last check of "The Big 5" (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, water buffalo). We had to drive right through a dried up river bed but we made it and found a large herd. They are so big! Our guide said they averaged about 800kgs each. They also have the huge curved horns as well. So that was exciting. Then we tried to go back the way way we came, through the river bed, but we got stuck and couldn't get up the steep incline. It took a good 7-8 tries and a driver-swap to finally get us out of there. Ezekiel, our spotter who usually sits at the very front corner of the vehicle and looks for animals as we drive, eventually got us out. That was entertaining.
Then we stopped for our usual break halfway through the drive. We got out and all grabbed a drink and some snacks when all of a sudden we spotted a leopard walking near us!! It was near dark and difficult to see it but wow, it was still a shock. Our guide was just finishing telling us that she would never walk that near a leopard but since it was the one who walked near us and clearly aware of our presence it was okay, when all of a sudden he switched directions and appeared to be heading straight for us. She abruptly stopped what she was saying and started to usher us quietly back into the vehicle. As soon as we got back in it disappeared from sight and must've turned back around, but what a thrill! We got back out and were excitedly talking about what had just happened when Ezekiel wandered back as he had been over in the bush and hadn't even seen the leopard! Some spotter! (I'm just kidding, he was actually a great spotter. But it was funny that he missed the leopard right under our noses!) He didn't even believe us until he saw the terrible photo I had taken, and then he heard the leopard making his weird grunting sound not far off. Then he was all excited, "Let's go find it again!". So we took off and it only took us about a minute to find it. We watched if for a bit and he was having a grand time with the branch of a tree. He was batting it with his paw, rubbing his face on it, and hugging it close to him. It was adorable- he looked like a (really big) playful kitten. Eventually he wandered off where we couldn't really follow and that was the end of that.
That was about it on that drive. We found another chameleon sleeping in a tree so I snapped a picture of that but it's difficult to make out. Then we went back to the lodge for dinner. Choice between curry lamb or pork chops, neither one are my favorites. The strawberry cheesecake dessert was delicious though. The whole evening was a bit more relaxed and even more casual than before since there were far fewer guests. We got to bed early so we could get up early for our last safari drive.
Safari Day 4
We woke up this morning before our alarm due to a loud roar (well actually, the roar woke Matt up but Matt's sneeze woke me up, which is basically the same thing). Apparently there was a lion not too far away from our camp and we heard it roar off and on for 40 minutes until our alarm went off. When we did get on our safari they mentioned that they also heard a lion nearby so we tried to find it but never did.
We were 2 of only 4 guests on our drive this morning and it was pretty relaxed. We caught another beautiful sunrise and saw quite a few impalas, like usual. We also spotted a warthog, which we haven't seen very frequently and I still hadn't managed to grab a picture. They're funny little animals to watch since they run with their tails straight up in the air. Anja says this is to make it easy for other warthogs and piglets to follow each other when they're moving. We also saw some vultures high in the trees which wasn't unusual but I finally got some decent pictures of those guys as well.
Then we got a call on the radio and headed off, so we knew it was something exciting. We found the pride of lions again! We first spotted an adult male and female and they were pretty close so we got great pictures of them. Then we moved forward a bit and found a couple of other females and several cubs, we never did get a full count. There was also another adult male laying down just observing from a distance. We watched the little cubs play and try to climb the trees but we didn't have a great vantage point so we didn't stick around too long. But we were excited to see them again, and on our last drive.
Then came the fun part. We hadn't driven more than a minute away from the lions when we realized that our all-terrain, indestructible vehicle had a flat tire. (Do you remember when I said there was an entire pride of lions less than a minute away?!) Uh oh. We all jumped out (again, lions!) and inspected the damage. Luckily we had a full spare and Ezekiel jumped right in switching it out. We only had a tiny jack which was tough to lift that huge vehicle but eventually he got it done. We all jumped back in and went on our way; no one got eaten by lions. Ezekiel= MVP for the day.
Then we got another radio call (wohoo!) and found the right spot and were greeted with not one, but two leopards. That made leopard sighting #6 and #7 for us, in only 6 drives, which is crazy!! We only had one drive where we didn't see one and two drives were we saw two. Unbelievable. Anyway, these adult males were being super lazy and just taking cat-naps in a shady area, so it wasn't crazy exciting. But I was able to get some good pictures.
We finished out the drive by swinging by the hippos again and we could kind of glimpse a baby laying on top of it's mom in the water. It was so far away though it's hard to see in the picture. But then we got back to the camp and saw 2 monkeys jump out of the other guide's vehicle. Looked like they got into something! There were also a couple of elephants hanging around by the lodge and the watering hole. Clearly they came to say goodbye to us! We had a quick breakfasts and then said farewell to the other guests. Anja and Ezekiel drove us back to the other camp where our BMW was and we were able to check out and say our goodbyes to them. On the way we spotted a leopard tortoise on the road, which was our first sighting of one of those. Then Matt and I bounced off in our BMW! We didn't take the most direct route out of the camp but we didn't get lost either, so that was a win. We also spotted some impalas and warthogs on our way out of the reserve.
So that was the end of our (first!) safari adventure. What a success it was! We couldn't have dreamed of it going any better. We got to see all of the Big 5, 7 leopard sightings, we saw multiple lions on 3 different occasions, rhinos, and lots of elephants and giraffes. The people were also awesome and the food was great. Our tent was cozy and always made up each time we got back from a drive. It's definitely been one of the highlights of our trip so far and we would definitely recommend Honeyguide camp to anyone looking to go on a safari in that area.
Pictures are in the album!
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