We had seen the weather forecast and it had said overcast and rain the whole day. We decided to sleep until we woke instead of needing to get up at a particular time. H also thought it would be a good morning for a run (and it was). I (of course) woke for the first time at 4am but managed to persuade myself back to sleep. H was up and out running by 6am. The weather was as predicted though it only started drizzling when we headed out at 6:45am but steadily grew stronger during the drive.
We headed north and then once over the Letaba River we turned west heading for the Engelhard Dam. The route has always been productive for us and today was no different despite the weather. We finally (after 10 days) saw our first jackal of the trip (though it was pretty fleeting). We did also have some good bird sightings and by the time we got back to the camp we passed the 200 birds for the trip.
By the time we got back it was raining pretty hard and as the day progressed it rained harder and harder without letting up at any point and got colder and colder. We even had to wear a jersey for most of the day (only time I have worn one the whole trip so far). We had planned to take it easy today and with the weather being so rainy it was easy to do exactly that. We caught up with some emails and just spent the rest of the day reading. At about 3:30pm I said to H that maybe we should just go out and even if we see nothing it is just enjoyable to be out in such different weather. We did see some game and added 1 bird to the trip list (and was also a lifer for H).
The rain is being caused by a tropical storm over Mozambique and I can only imagine the amount of rain it must be dropping on them as we are just getting the edge of it and it rained constantly here. I had no desire to braai in the rain so we decided to head to the restaurant for dinner this evening. Turned out to be a good decision as we saw a genet climbing the tree in front of the restaurant and we thought it was going to try take out a guinea fowl that was roosting in the tree. In the end it didn’t and then climbed onto the roof of terrace of the restaurant. So another cat to add to the trip list.
The weather is predicting to clear from later tonight. After today’s relaxing day, we plan on a slightly longer drive tomorrow am with the hope of adding some more birds to the trip list.
Until tomorrow …
P & H