Bush Day 10

This morning was D-Day for the bank. Mom and I headed to Standard Bank to finally try sort our stuff out. Fortunately for us, they felt like being helpful today and we came right. After the bank, we went for brunch followed by some shopping (coffee, milk etc) before returning to the reserve.

Spent the afternoon relaxing on the deck and watching a herd of elephants on the other side of the river. Was interesting to watch how a bunch of baby elephants were being looked after just 3 adults in an almost nursery school fashion. These 3 herded the babies to the water, and then guarded over them whilst alternatively taking turns at getting water and having mud baths.

As we were about to get ready for a drive, a lone elephant came and munched at the trees around the house. Was great for a few photos but mom was not too impressed by him breaking branches by the house. Eventually he moved off and we went off on our drive. 

The drive was fairly quiet. We saw the usual Impalas etc but with way more steenbok. It was almost like there was a steenbok on every plain. On the way home it got dark so we started shining with the spot lights - I multi tasked with driving and shining - and we were fortunate enough to come across a pride of lion in the road. Within seconds of seeing the lion, an elephant came out of nowhere and started mock charging us with full trumpeting sound effects! Both spotlights had been on the lions so we had not seen him. Mom urged me to drive faster but there was no where to go! I was already quite close to the lions tails and much closer and I would have become a part of the pride!! Fortunately the elephant gave up and kept quiet. We had a great sighting of the lion before they ducked into the bush near the causeway and we lost sight of them. 

As we drove into our driveway we realized that the elephant from earlier had left us a not so nice surprise - a tree pushed down in our driveway! And Murphy's Law, I was wearing slops. (I am normally so paranoid about wearing takkies on drives but for some arb reason, I didn't.) We had to bundu bash our way around and through the tree to get to the house and we had to abandon our Landie where it was. Then: when we got inside and started preparing dinner we realized the gas had run out so I had to switch over to a new bottle and relight everything. Fortunately the excitement for thee evening was over and we were able to enjoy our braai in peace.

When I went to shower, I could hear the elephant in the bush nearby. Poor elephant spent the night being grumpy and trumpeting lots. Definitely not a happy lumpy.