Someone knocked on the door for a wake-up call at 5:30 am. A woman called out that she would be back in half an hour to escort me to breakfast and to be ready to leave on the game drive from there. Escorts were used during darkness because the elevated boardwalk that led to the Camp Center also led down to ground level in one spot. It was a crossing that hippos and leopards had been seen to use most recently.
Dawn still seemed to come early even though it was almost mid fall for people south of the Equator.
Tebla was our guide for the rest of our stay. Our vehicle now included Sue and Bryan from Perth, Australia, who were both born in South Africa. It was chilly, but blankets were provided in the truck for us to use. The male lion we had seen yesterday was in the same spot, still digesting his meal and enjoying the warm sun.
Many birds were out in the early morning, such as this Striped Kingfisher.
Marabou Stork
It was a beautiful, cloudless day.
Pied Kingfisher
Woodland Kingfisher
SF
Little Bee-eater
Purple Roller
Hippos were awake.
African Jacana
Cape Buffalo with four oxpeckers.
Bateleur
A giraffe peeked at us.
Lots of Red Lechwe were ever alert.
A zebra and a giraffe were hanging out together
Zebra are curious about us, too.
We stopped for morning tea and nibbles.
Tebla drove through deep water and deep sand.
Tsessebe are another large antelope.
Egyptian Geese
A dignified Saddle-billed Stork
Tebla was radioed that two sister lionesses were on the hunt, having stashed their young somewhere in the bush. We chose to go find them rather than head to the lodge for lunch. Our vehicle was east of Center Camp, and the lionesses were northwest, so it took us a while to find them.
SF
The lionesses attempted a half-hearted attack on two Red Lechwe, but the lechwe headed into a big marshy area where the lionesses do not like to follow.
The lionesses headed back past two vehicles to a headland to see what else was about for a meal.
SF
Tebla knew where they were headed and went around a thicket to catch up with them. They really do look like sisters.
The lionesses completely ignored us.
But then one saw something.
They took off towards a tree seemingly not in the direction of their objective.
Tebla figured out that they had seen a leopard. According to him, lions hate leopards, and will go after them any time. Locating the leopard, Tebla headed towards it. As we stopped under its tree, the leopard began moving out of it.
SF
Determined to follow the leopard, Tebla drove around another thicket and parked our truck parallel to it. We could see the bushes move as the leopard made its way from right to left. Suddenly, a cape buffalo burst from the foliage toward the truck. Sue and I were on the side facing the buffalo. Both of us moved at the same time up and to our right into a standing position away from the oncoming buffalo. We both were wearing light colored shirts. I think our movement startled the buffalo, and he made a sudden 90 degree left turn inches from the truck and avoided hitting us. Most of us in the truck were greatly relieved we had not been hit.
With the excitement over, we made a beeline back to the lodge. We were treated to a group of elephants along the way.
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