Tuesday night we went on a night drive, starting with a visit to “our” pride of lions. They had moved from their earlier napping spot, but not by much; four were cooling off in the mud at the edge of the swamp and the fifth was lounging on the thick branch of a nearby tree. As the sun set they rose, stretched, and set off in search of dinner. A local herd of impala seemed an easy takeout meal, but some confusion from the lights of night drive trucks (not ours) may have contributed to a spectacular hunting miss by the lions. We went in search of nocturnal creatures and saw several, including the civet pictured below.
We spent this morning cruising upstream on the Rufiji River. It is probably an underestimate to say we saw 200 hippos, some nearly under our boat (again not our fault!). Getting a drink of water from the river is tricky as there are Nile crocodiles everywhere, particularly if you consider the ones you can’t see! We saw three species of monkey, including Blue (Samango) Monkeys, as well as Rock Hyrax and several new birds. Our guide was surprised when we saw an African Harrier Hawk bathing in the river. Judging from the quantity of kingfishers, fishing eagles and crocodiles, the river must teem with fish.
For our final afternoon at Sand Rivers, we drove to a lake. For the animals that come to drink there, the water is clearer by far than in yesterday’s swamp— but the lake has crocodiles and the swamp did not. We saw a number of new shorebirds but (not surprisingly) no new mammals. Tomorrow we fly northwest to the Ruaha reserve; we have been warned that there will be no internet available so we will need to post four days when we arrive at the third and final location on September 11th.
Pictured: African Civet, Samango Blue Monkey, Yellow-billed Stork, Yellow-spotted Rock Hyrax, African Fishing Eagle having a post-dinner drink
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