There is a wake up call at 5:30am. H and I were already awake by this point. Coffee, rusks/biscuits in the main lodge and then onto the game trucks for our morning game drive. It was chilly this am when we left. Fortunately they give you hot water bottles and blankets. Double jerseys, beanies & gloves all part of the gear for a morning game drive. It didn’t take long for the rangers to find 3 lion. The one vehicle (with the younger generation) got to see them walking before they lay down. We joined later mainly because of the stops for birding. I did add another lifer (Stierling’s Wren-Warbler) which takes my tally to 483. Some of the other birders have added significantly to their tally’s during this trip.
The lion’s weren’t doing anything and so we left them after spending some time with them and then met up with the other truck for our coffee/tea stop. We got back to the camp just after 10am which meant we ended up finishing breakfast at 11am. Lunch was at 1pm, afternoon coffee/tea (and cake) at 3pm, game drive (including evening drinks stop) and then dinner at 7pm. Basically you go from meal to meal with a game drive to break the meals! One crazy person did manage to fit in a swim though (see pic above).
This evening’s game drive resulted in us seeing another 6 lion. This time though we got see two white lion. H and I had seen them in Feb when we drove into the Kruger Park and we got to see them again today. Our ranger (Nikki) told us that there are only 3 white lion in the world at the moment in natural habitats and we got to see 2 of them today. Unfortunately they also weren’t doing anything so we watched them for some time and then moved on to find a spot for our evening drinks. We had split ladies and men on tonight’s drive and the ladies joined us just as the sun was setting. There is nothing quite like a bushveld sunset.
After drinks we slowly made our way back into the camp and we managed to see a few animals but the most impressive was again seeing a Fiery-necked Nightjar just sitting in the road. It even obliged to have some photos taken with the spotlight being shone on it.
Dinner this evening was in the courtyard and the main was a choice of chicken or kudu loin. I (obviously) had the kudu loin which was really delicious. The tiredness of the fresh air and early morning and constant eating kicked in for everyone. It is not yet 10pm and I reckon most people are asleep already! I can hear the hyena calling though … lovely sound to fall asleep too.
Until tomorrow
P, S, H, K, C, J, M, O, R, J, S, B, B