Thursday, September 4
Today we didn’t go near the river at all. This morning we explored north towards the Kenyan border, “looking for whatever we could find”. We had the time to stop and identify a number of small birds we’ve been seeing in the grass. We saw 4 lionesses, 3 cubs and 1 male from a single pride. An older daughter of the mother of the cubs played with two them while the mother relaxed in the tall grass.
A short time later, we watched as a herd of 13 elephants come towards us then flow around our vehicle. We were entertained by the antics of three small ones. The elephants pick out small acacia trees from the grassland, preventing its conversion to scrub. This somewhat offsets their tendency to destroy woodland if they cannot move to new territory fast enough. We also saw large herds of zebra and wildebeest, baboons and warthogs, all of them with young ones of various ages. It proved once again that baby anything are cute!
The plan for the afternoon was to look for cheetah or leopards near the camp, and then go over to the river to look for hippos. We spent quite a while quietly watching a bull elephant eating in a marshy area. Then we were informed via short wave radio that a leopard had been seen over in the area we’d visited in the morning. We drove pretty quickly to get over there, as the day was fading rapidly.
The beautiful female leopard was sleeping and grooming in the tall grass, nearly hidden with her camouflage. We waited patiently, and after about 15 minutes she got up and started slowly walking towards some herds of zebra, perhaps scouting for her hunt tonight. We kept moving the truck to stay aheatd of her. Just about the time we needed to head back to the lodge, she walked around our vehicle and found a new place to snooze while awaiting nightfall and the time she hunts. It was an amazing end to the day.
Pictured: elephant family, lioness and cub playing, male ostrich, leopard
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