Saturday 21st January 2017

Thankfully no monkey business to contend with this morning.

We headed back to the rhino reserve and this time saw 3 rhinos quite close to the car – enough to fill a camera screen.  What magnificent animals they are.  A bit further on, we were lucky enough to come across a female with her calf literally standing by the side of the road.  It was just enchanting especially when the calf started suckling.

We then headed to a completely new area where George had a special surprise for us.  There is a tree there he knows well where quite often lions take refuge in its branches to sleep off a full belly.  We were in luck as there were 2 lionesses in residence.  As we approached them in our noisy truck, one of the cats was unnerved and came down the tree, but after we stopped, she decided to return to her branch and lay there with her back legs hanging either side of it looking the picture of contentment.  We admired them for 10 minutes or so and then the other truck from camp arrived and that was just too much for the lions who moved off into long grass and away from our admiring bur invasive eyes.

We then continued on and George announced it was time for breakfast.  He drove us to a clearing under some trees where a kitchen and dining table had been set up.  It was magic!!  We managed to struggle through a cooked breakfast, fresh fruits, tea and coffee plus champagne.  We felt totally spoiled and just lapped it all up.

Just after the breakfast clearing, we stopped to admire a Scops owl in a tree by the road.  How the guides find these birds is just amazing as it looked like a bit of bark.  On the way back to camp, we came across the Grevy zebras which are stunning to look at – vertical stripes very close together – more tiger than anything else.  They’re also bigger than their Burchell cousins and I have to say I quite had my breath taken away.   This is the 1^st time I’ve come across this species of Zebra and had been hoping we’d see them on this trip, so feel very happy.  Also on the way home, we came across 2 male impalas sparring and locking horns which was a great sight.

After yet another super lunch we’ve been relaxing, trying to stay cool as it’s got hot and muggy after a cold and cloudy morning.  We’ve decided that avoiding carbs, and trying not to eat the tempting snacks put out between meals is one way of not feeling as if you’re about to burst out of your skin!!

Having said that, we’re about to go for afternoon tea (definitely no biscuits!!) before heading out to our afternoon game drive.  Now, what will George surprise us with next?

Well, we were all tempted by the cake that accompanied afternoon tea – drat!!  George took us out to the area where we’d seen the lion cubs as it’s apparently a good place to see gerunuk – an interesting sounding animal with a neck like a giraffe but is possibly an antelope?  We were out of luck though, but saw a warthog family, 2 gorgeous crowned cranes, some ostrich and hartebeest instead.  We then revisited the hippo pools narrowly missing seeing a 2 metre cobra lying by the side of the road – thank goodness.  We were also lucky enough to see a small group of vulturine guinea fowl which have stunning blue plumage.   Then it was on to a temporary bar on a small hummock for a sun downer which was lovely as we observed some elephants and giraffe in the distance.