We had decided that this morning could be a morning just spent at Senyati. Watching the sunrise, some birding, seeing what animals would come for a drink (wildebeest & impala). It was a lovely quiet morning just enjoying the environment. A very kindly came to find me this morning because one of the campers had pointed out a Barn Owl to him. Nice one for the trip list.

We had an early lunch and set off to Kasane at 12:45pm. The plan was to refuel, do some shopping and then be ready for the river cruise which left at 3pm. While refueling A checked his tyre pressure and one of them had dropped quite a bit so he headed off to a tyre place to see if they could find a leak on the tyre. They didn’t manage to find anything but changed the valve and cleaned everything out so hopefully it is resolved. The rest of us went to do the shopping we needed at the local Spar and then to buy drinks for the river cruise. Timing all worked out well and the cruise pushed back at 3pm promptly.

The boat seated 20 people and there were 15 people. While we were waiting for people, I spoke to the skipper and said we were interested in birds and he asked for a target list and I gave them to him and he responded with ‘yes definitely can get that for you’ or ‘no that isn’t here right now as water is to high’. It gave me a degree of confidence that he knew what he was doing with birding.

The river cruise was fantastic. Not only did we all see lifers (I added 598 – Allen’s Gallinule) but more importantly, B passed the 400 mark (champagne to come still). Besides the Allen’s Gallinule, we also saw some other really good sightings including Squacco Heron, African Skimmer, Collared Praticole and Long Toed Lapwing. The quantity of birds was also just amazing. Massive flocks of White Faced Whistling Ducks (like in their hundreds). And then the Collared Praticoles in their hundreds (and maybe even thousands), taking off and landing again. There was a young child (like 3 years old) and she even just kept saying “Wow”. It was WOW indeed.

Then we also had some up close and person views of elephant, crocodile and hippos. The elephant was only about 2 meters away from me and I definitely felt a little uncomfortable. It was pulling out grass to eat and each time it was slap off the extra water on the grass and I could feel the spray. We were probably only 1 meter from the one croc and about 10 meters from the hippos. And then of course you get the sunset over the river just before you head back. There is generally nothing like a bushveld sunset and even more so when it is a bushveld sunset over a river.

It was absolutely spectacular. I remember from 10 years ago it being good but this today seemed even better. Maybe it is because our birding is better, maybe it is because the skipper had heard our request for doing some birding. Whatever it was, it was really excellent and again made me want to do a houseboat on the river at some point.

We had to drive back to the lodge in the dark and that is not a pleasant experience. There are trucks upon trucks parked on the side of the road waiting to cross the border at Kazangule border post (into Zambia or Zimbabwe). B&S measured them on the way back and the line was for 3.4 kms. We googled and it said it could take up to a week for the trucks to actually reach the border gate! I am not sure how any trucking company is actually using this border crossing. Because the trucks are all lined up on the road, it reduces the road to effectively one lane. It means you have to leave the road to let cars come in the opposite direction. Then of course there is the wildlife you can to worry about and then lastly, for about 2.5 kms the road is a single track, very sandy road. But good news is that we navigated that successfully.

As we knew we would be back late, we had pre-ordered pizza at the lodge and so as soon as we got back we headed to the restaurant and ate our dinner. As we are expecting an early start tomorrow, we all headed off the bed at 8pm. It is now 9pm and as soon as I have hit send on this blog post, I will head to bed. Something about fresh air, sun and the bushveld that takes it out of you.

Until tomorrow …

P, H, A (for coming to find me to see owl), B (for all organising of today), S (for spotting her own lifer today) and O