Game Drive #5: Wednesday, Oct 13, 4:30-7:30pm

-kudu (alive at last... one not yet killed by a leopard)
-crested barbet (yellow bird)
-black-breasted snake eagle
-steenbok (smallest antelope around here - they lie down and you can't
see them anymore - their little black stumpy horns look like twigs in
the grass!)
-7 wildebeest (the joke is that they have the hyena's sloping back,
the giraffe's neck, the zebra's stripes, and the cape buffalo's
horns...because they were made of all the leftover bits when God was
done creating the other animals...also called gnus)
- 14 hippos together in a pond, some opening their mouths impressively wide...
-cape glossy starlings (iridescent blue)
-White-backed vulture & hooded vulture sitting together in a dead tree
right over our heads (do you know that weird chanty camp song?)
-Nile crocodile on the bank of the Sand River
-nyala bull (i.e. male - looks quite different from the females)
-furry-necked nightjar (bird)
-barn owl

-4 male lions on the hunt together at night in the pitch black; we
followed them closely off-road for a while, then left them as they
approached a herd of cape buffalo - we found out the next morning that
they made their kill... the rangers are careful not to shine the
lights on either predator or prey at night, so as not to tip the
advantage in either direction. It was thrilling to be sitting quietly
in the open vehicle as the lions with huge manes calmly and
majestically walked right past us, a metre away, on silent paws. After
we left the lions, it felt like we were lost in the dark wilderness,
but the guide knew exactly where we were, and got us back out to the
road safely again.

Also:
-leopard tracks
-giraffe bones: a vertebra & a leg bone
-cape buffalo skull & ribcage
-more black-bellied bustard, impala, fork-tailed drongo, red-billed
oxpeckers, grey duiker, helmeted guinea fowl (beautiful light blue
heads), scrub hare (very scared, running away in the dark), elephants
-we drove through a river on rocks in a foot of water...
-at the end of the drive, we "happened" upon a "champagne tree" - a
thorny bush draped with lanterns and a hanging champagne bucket, with
a tray suspended underneath it sporting glasses... and "grapetiser"
for the kids & me (bubbly fine white grape juice). What a magnificent
surprise. They keep coming. This will definitely be the memory of a
lifetime for our family.

Posted via email from K's Café