It rained overnight but it didn’t seem a lot. All the gravel roads are closed though at the moment as they are worried that they are too muddy and people might get stuck. It meant we had to stick to the tar road. We decided to head south and then turn east toward Mozambique. It was still heavily overcast and drizzling lightly so not really ideal birding conditions.

Just after we turned east we saw a pride of lions lying right on the side of the road. It seems that the lions have decided to oblige and stay right on the road for visitors to see them. They were also very curious and would get up to have a look at the cars who wanted to pass them. Lions are often just sleeping and so it made for a nice change to watch them being active.

The rest of the morning drive we saw a reasonable amount of the ‘standard’ wildlife like impala, elephant, giraffe, kudu and waterbuck. We also added numerous birds to our trip list. After our morning drive we were at 75 birds (basically in 2 days in park) and we subsequently added in some more on the evening drive. What has amazed us is the lack of water birds. It seems that the heavy rain has removed them from their usual places in the rivers and dams. We have been wondering where they have gone! The bird life at the dams and rivers is basically non-existent. It seems they must move somewhere else but given they are water birds, where do they go?!

We got back to the camp at around 9am and spent the balance of the day in the camp. It was relatively pleasant weather in that it was mid 20s (C) and at midday it started to also clear up. At 3pm we headed out south for our evening drive. The weather was beautiful and the scenery fantastic. We didn’t see any predators but we still enjoyed the tranquility of the drive.

We had our first braai tonight as well. The weather hasn’t really enabled us to braai until tonight. We had boerewors and lamb ribs with gem squash and potato (also done in the braai) and mushrooms. A lovely way to finish off the day.

Until tomorrow …

P & H