The drive was fairly slow to start, a few eagles in distant treetops but not much else. A short walk was tried in the hopes of finding lion tracks but no bueno. We did see a giant eagle owl fly past extremely briefly.
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| Of course even if there isn't anything "exciting" there is always something beautiful - like waterbuck |
Driving on - "lions!" The same four lionesses that had walked through camp last night. Lounging on a little rise, very relaxed in the morning sun. We spent a long time watching them, with a photographer from National Geographic. He is doing a lot of filming of the lionesses and was hoping that they'd bring out a cub.
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| Lounging lioness |
Once the lionesses had moved off over the hill we moved on as well, stopping at Long Pool.
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| Photographers getting ready . . . |
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| . . . for this. |
After that we drove through the open plains for a while - quite different from the bush and forest we'd been in up until now.
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| A pregnant hyena was rudely disturbed from her post breakfast bath |
A happy hour or two was spent at Lung Fish Pan - a gorgeous pond covered in green and inhabited by three hippos. A large herd of buffalos kept a wary eye on us from well back in the trees.
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| A lot of yawning went on . . . |
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| . . . and not all from the hippos. I did eventually have to ask Ben & Kevin if they were done taking photos of this dragonfly. |
Heading back to camp we saw a large herd of buffalo. Back to camp at 12 - a 6hr drive.
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| My daily view. The little gaiters over the boot tops were fantastic - helped keep out debris and the little thorny prickles that were everywhere. Almost every time we sat down there'd be a quiet chorus of "Ow, ow, ow." |
Ben and I wondered about staying in camp for the afternoon but decided if the others saw something amazing without us we'd suffer from some serious FOMO. This turned out to be the right call.
The wild dogs turned out to be 15min drive from camp - just relaxing in the shade near the road. There were quite a few people around, but none close to the dogs.
Alex had us all follow him very quietly and keeping low. The area around them was covered in Apple Tree leaves - so called because they crunch loudly when you step on them. Even though the seven of us were quite noisy getting settled the dogs weren't concerned.
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| Checking us out, but not worried about us sitting down by some bushes |
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| Some pack members lazing about. The pack consisted of ten adults and six pups. |
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| Mostly they lay around, but occasionally one would have a sniff and look about |
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| Alpha female and some of the pups |
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| More adorable pups |
Finally, after a few false alarms and with the light fading fast, they started moving more purposefully. Alex told us to drop down into the little valley so we could see them coming down the hill.
Much to our surprise there was a tiny waterhole the dogs were drinking at. Alex said that this meant that they wouldn't have to go to the river to drink, which would be much safer for them.
All the adults and pups came down and played and drank.
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| My what big ears you have |
The adults left the pups with a baby sitter and headed off to try hunting down the valley. They spooked the impala too soon so headed back towards us. As it was nearly dark we headed back to the car for a belated sundowner. Then I noticed that the dogs were headed back to the road that lead to camp so we jumped in the Landy and headed off. It was pretty much pitch dark by this stage, but we could make out the dogs and a hyena for quite a while.
Everyone was very happy with the day when we got back to camp. Being able to spend time in the bush, seeing the world from the dogs point of view was just magical.
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