Wednesday 23 August 2023
We went to bed early last night as there was load shedding and we were really tired. This was good as we have the early start for a 6.30am game drive. Unfortunately, there was more load shedding (5:00-7:00am) so we missed out on coffee.
Watched the sun come up again, over the hills looking bright red a glowing. Someone had called in that they were tracking a lioness so off we sped (as fast as you can on a bumpy dirt track). As we came up to a clearing we spotted a lion, and as we got closer, we realised that there was the lioness with three of her cubs. One of which had just chased after a small group of kudu with the kudu winning. We had magnificent views of all the 4 lions and eventually they wandered off around the front or back of our vehicle. Soooo cool!!
We then realised that there was a fourth cub that was lying down and watching the food. Eventually he gave up and sauntered across the clearing to following his siblings around our vehicle and into the bush.
That was an awesome was to start the morning and I would have been just happy with that.
We are trying to find ‘the elusive one’, as our guide Patrick refers to the leopard. On our quest to find the leopard we saw more of the same animals we have so far, rhinos, zebras, gnu, wildebeest, warthogs, and many others. It was time for morning tea and Patrick found a nice place that had a couple of grazing zebras and a rhinoceros in the distance. By the time were had finished our muffin and half a cup of tea the rhino was much closer and then got closer still. Got close enough that our guide suggested we walk slowly to the vehicle so that it was between us and the rhino. Mr Rhino then got closer so we hid behind the vehicle whilst he inspected our tea and the tin of muffins. For about 20 minutes!! Eventually Patrick decided to make some noise in the hope that the rhino would move away, but that didn’t really work. The rhino only started to move away from us after Patrick started through some small sticks. Once far enough away (about 20m) we all rapidly packed up morning tea, stowed it in our vehicle, climbed aboard and headed off. Best morning tea ever!
We saw more animals and stunning views, but no ‘elusive one’. But it doesn’t matter, it is only 9:00am. Time for breakfast and a shower. We have an outdoor shower on our chalet. It is lovely way to clean of the dust from the morning drive in preparation of sitting out on the deck and enjoying the view for 4 hours.
There is a waterhole just beside the lodge, and we had zebras, kudu and warthogs wander up to it over the course of the afternoon.
Soon it was time for lunch (2:30pm), not that we were hungry. Then it was time for our afternoon game drive. After having such a wonderful morning, I wondered if where were going to have a disappointing afternoon, just to balance things out.
Nope, afternoon drive was awesome. Patrick (our guide) spotted some leopard prints, but we went and saw the hippos on one of larger waterholes first. Most of the hippos were out of the water, including a really cute baby hippo, so we got to see more than nostrils and ears.
Hippo viewing satisfied, we headed off to see if we could track down that leopard. The leopard is the only animal of the Big Five that we haven’t seen yet. The Big Five are the lion, rhinoceros, buffalo, elephant and leopard. Patrick followed from where he’d seen the prints and worked out a rough area of where the leopard should be. Spotting a leopard in amongst the various shades of brown and black of the trees, shrubs, rocks and grasses is quite difficult. Unless you are awesome, which is what one of the other guests at our lodge is!! We’d gone barely 5 mins when he spotted the leopard lounging on a rock surrounded by grass and under a tree. I don’t think the leopard liked us as he immediately got up and walked away. So, we followed him. We saw him cross the road and then into the bush, again being swallowed up and blending in. We took a punt on the direction he was heading and got it wrong, he had stopped not long after crossing the road. All of us in our vehicle had out our binoculars searching for any sign of him. A couple of us saw movement and off we headed, backwards, in reverse up the hill we’d just come down. Our original punt of the direction he was heading was right. By this time there were about 5 vehicles in total searching and following the leopard. He eventually popped out of the undergrowth and looked to cross the road behind our vehicle. Before doing that, he gave us a death stare, I thought he was going to actually charge straight at us as he looked really pissed off. Instead, he leaped and bolted across the road. We all lost our shit!!!!!!!!!!!
We would have been happy to just leave it there and head back to the lodge, we were all so stoked by what we had seen. A great team effort. However, we trundled on, saw more animals but still pumping from our leopard encounter. Found a great view to have our afternoon g&t.
Drove back to the lodge as the sun set behind one of the hills.
Dinner tonight was the traditional braii outside and in front of an open fire.
Lights out at 9:00pm, due to loadshedding. A nice sit on the desk of our chalet with a small glass of our Mauritian rum and then nap time.
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