Day 2 : Tuesday 11th December 2018
Today's game drives
We heard leopards last night, our camp is close to (about
100m from) the leopard’s territory. we also heard hippos grazing behind the tent, it's becoming a normal thing now. If it’s dark you need to be escorted
between your tent and the main camp area for safety.
We set the alarm for 5:30am, they bring tea, bikkies and
warm water for face washing to your tent at 5:45am, then you head out on an
early game drive at 6:15am. Not a bad way to start the day, with the sun coming
up over the Mara. It was the two of us and Sarah, three is a very comfortable
number in the game watching vehicle.
We had a look around for the leopard but couldn’t find it.
They are very elusive and often very hard to spot, as they tuck themselves away
under bushes or up in trees. We did see two jackals chasing a white-tailed mongoose,
as well as several female ostriches and a Thomson’s gazelle with a very new
baby.
Andrew heard hyenas carrying on, and then George spotted a
pride of lions on a hillside some distance away that had scored a kill and some
hyenas who were also enjoying a feast about 50m from them. Both groups were eating
wildebeest.
The lion group was 3 fully grown females, several “teenaged”
cubs and 3 very young cubs, about 3 months old. The lionesses were not eating
while we were there watching, perhaps they had already fed. They were basically
taking turns sleeping and keeping a close eye on the hyenas, as hyenas can be
dangerous to them and their cubs. The teenagers were eating and also playing,
wandering away from the meal and then back again. The littlest cubs were also
having a bit of a lick and a chew at the carcase, but also trying to coax the
others into a game, and generally messing about. One of them was playing with the
tufted end of the unfortunate wildebeest’s tail.
The hyenas were quite a contrast, as they do quite a lot of
squabbling amongst themselves over their food. There is a lot of snapping and
snarling, and various individuals being chased off, and sneaking back for
another bite, the smart ones try to grab a piece and take it a distance away to
enjoy. The hyenas were also surrounded by vultures waiting their turn, but for
some reason no vultures were near the lion kill.
We also saw giraffe, warthogs, wildebeest, impala and
gazelles, zebra and various other birds and beasts.
At about 9 am we stopped for our much needed bush breakfast on
an open area with a great view across the savannah. It was drizzling a little,
so we put on the ponchos from the vehicle, they are great and keep you dry and
warm. Breakfast was good, tea and coffee, boiled eggs, bacon, pancakes and
fruit. After brekkie we continued the game drive until it was time to head back
to camp around 11.30 or so.
Lunchtime was 1pm, and of course it was another delicious
meal, then time for a bit of a nap before afternoon tea at 3:15.
We then headed off on our afternoon game drive at 3:30pm. The
sun was out and we saw a few hyenas wallowing in puddles.
The plan was to search again for leopards, but we quickly
became distracted by elephants. Lots of elephants! There was a group of perhaps
twenty elephants of all ages browsing on trees, so we stopped to watch them for
a while. Then we realised that more and more and more elephants were coming up
through the trees behind the ones we could see. They just kept coming, and we
estimated the herd was about 80 – 90 in total. They started pulling down branches
to eat the leaves, then pushing over trees to get to the tastiest parts, which
seemed to take very little effort. It quickly became clear why you see so many
broken and fallen trees around here. We named the effect “elephantnado”.
One huge bull knocked over a dead tree, which must have been
extremely tasty. He then spent ages stripping off bark and eating bark and
twigs. Lots of the other elephants also had a turn at that tree, who knows why
they liked it so much.
We enjoyed the show so much we spent our whole game
drive time watching the elephants and had our sundowner drinks and snacks there
with the herd. They basically were all
around us, and completely unfazed by our presence.
The herd started moving off
gradually forming a long line which we followed for a while before we had to
turn off to head back to camp.
Back at camp, they had the campfire burning, so we were able
to sit by the fire under an African night sky drinking G&T. Can tick that off the bucket list.
We had the
safari bucket shower before dinner and tonight the kids ate early, so it was a bit
quieter and less messy at the table, thank god...
After a full days adventure with excellent game spotting we were knackered so we were in bed with our hot water bottles
by 9:40pm.
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