Safari Day 2

The morning game drive was at 6:30. When we stepped out of the lodge we saw loads of baboons across the river, which was right in front of our room.

For the first part of the game drive we saw some monkeys, but not a lot else. We crossed the river into a different park called Buffalo Springs, and pretty quickly saw the most gorgeous leopard lounging on a log. He was absolutely amazing. John had been really anxious to see a leopard up to that point, so how lucky to see one out in the open and sitting still to pose for nearly unlimited pictures! We watched him for a while, then went not too far away and saw another leopard in a tree with a killed impala. Leopards can drag a kill three times their weight up a tree. It was really amazing to see it camoflaged in the tree with its breakfast. It was also amazing to see two leopards one right after the other, especially considering we only saw one other leopard during the whole trip.

We also saw more elephants, buffalo, water bucks, orex, baboons, dic dics, giraffe, and lots of different birds including buzzards and vulchers. We also had a great view of an elephant with her tiny calf. The calf was so little that even the driver was impressed with how young it was!

After the game drive and some breakfast (where Emily and I fed these irridescent blue birds some bread from our hands), we went to the pool. It was incredibly hot outside (brain meltingly hot). The pool was a little chilly, but the heat was so intense that even a wimp like me who takes seven hours to get to where the water reaches my thighs had to go in often for relief. A baboon came into the pool area but was chased off by an empoyee.

On the way back up to the rooms after swimming we passed a few monkeys who were on the path, as well as lots of mongooses (mongeese?).

The afternoon game drive started at 4, and early on we saw a cheetah lounging in the shade of a bush. He was just off the track, so much easier to see than the ones from the day before. Then we saw a male lion with a big, full mane. He was very impressive, and before we saw him we saw some impala looking very alertly in his direction. He had the attention of prey who were a good 100 yards away! We also saw a male and female ostrich with little tiny babies. Got some good views of close-up giraffes. And at the end of the drive we saw elephants pushing down a pretty big tree, which was a very cool sight.

After the game drive we went to the crocodile bar to watch the crocs be fed. They don't belong to the lodge, but are of course wild. But they definitely know when the lodge is going to offer some food, as they all slink up the bank about 20 minutes before and sit and wait. While we were waiting for them to be fed, we saw a leopard on the other side of the bank.

After dinner we went back to the crocodile bar and sat with other people from our group. We were all facing the river, and I managed to spot a hippo! We were so excited because we hadn't seen one yet. We were also excited because when we've seen any rarer animals on the drives it's been because there are loads of vans already there looking at it, and it attracts our attention. We'd not seen anything that causes a stir without someone already discovering it first. But we were the first to see the hippo, and loads of people came down to see it. Even the bartender hadn't seen the hippo in six months!