Lions roared a fair bit last night and that combined with the sight, sound and smell of the rain made for a peaceful night in the bush. Except for one major thing: bats. When I went to bed, I saw the poo on my bed then in the middle of the night I heard screeching and scratching and knew they were above my bed. Those evil little flying monsters were right above my head!! (I don't like flying creatures.)
I woke to the sight of a glowing red sky as the sun started peaking over the horizon. Was a good way to start the day. After coffee, showers and a quick breakfast, we were off for a drive on the neighboring reserve in the hope of finding the lions.
Olifants North is a very different reserve to ours in its topography. Where as ours has hills and flats, theirs is predominately hills. We headed along to the road across from our house then to 2 of their dams but the lions were no where to be found. As we were headed in the direction of the next dam, we came across a herd of buffalo that were clearly headed to the dam we had just been to so we made a u-turn and headed back to that dam to wait.
Buffalo are definitely not pretty animals but they are certainly majestic in their size and how they charge almost viciously at the water and then become as meek and seemly mild as a domestic cow as they relax in the cool water.
Sometime during our drive we heard a report on the radio that there was an impala that looks like it had been shot with maybe a shotgun. Will wait for official news before I comment further but I find it totally sickening that someone could kill something like that.
After that special sighting, we meandered in the direction of the next dam but instead of finding it, we found a scenic road with a nice view point before heading home for lunch.
After lunch, Gareth and I headed of to main camp to do some errands. On the way back, I pulled in at a dam so I could teach him the absolute basics of photography: finding where to measure light from. Whilst sitting at the dam we had some great game sightings and had a few good photo opportunities.
In the evening we all went for a drive and got the opportunity to see 2 young female lions that came nice and close to the vehicles, closing off our big 5 sightings. The rest of the evening drive was uneventful.
No comments:
Post a Comment