SAFARI DAY 3 - LITTLE VUMBURA

May 5, 2019

Well we almost died today after being charged by an angry mama elephant. Ok not really but we did have a tense moment! But I am getting ahead of the story here. Once again we hit the trail by 5:45AM, coffees and mobile breakfast packed. Our guide Sam wanted to really get us way out to the boundaries of the property so he also had the lodge pack us lunches so we could stay out all day. And stay out all day we did....12 hours....but so worth it. First up we revisited the leopard because we had heard from others that she had dragged her kill up into the trees so we wanted to see her in action. We instead found her sunning herself on a little knoll near her tree and got some great photos once again. We were truly 8 feet from where she lay, she just ignored us. We eventually left her (very hard to do) and went along our way as our guide really wanted to find the herd of Cape buffalo and also 3 male lions that travel together, so most of our day was spent crisscrossing the savannah looking for these animals. He also wanted to find the zebras as we had been looking for them for a couple days as well. Next up we happened across the lion pride again sunning themselves out in the open savannah. The sun was just newly up so the lighting was really yellow but they gave us some great photo opportunities. We spent a lot of seat time in the Jeep getting to the outer reaches of the area where most of the guides don’t go, so when we ran across herd after herd of elephant they weren’t too used to seeing the jeeps. In one instance we came around the corner and a big female was with her family and turned to face us shaking her head and flapping her ears at us. She was blocking the road so we couldn’t continue without her moving everyone in the herd along so the guides did everything they could think of to encourage her to move. They revved the engine, they shouted, they clapped loudly and all it did was serve to get her agitated so at one point she advanced towards our Jeep and closed the gap by half very quickly - quite intimidating! They are very dangerous if they charge and could have flipped our Jeep and killed all of us but we have very knowledgeable (native) guides that know these animals and what to anticipate. We patiently waited until she moved far enough off the road then our guide made a run for it, and we sped past her! She was really mad and started to chase us for a moment but quickly gave up thankfully!! My heart was pounding!! Onward, because we still had a mission. A while later we happened upon a water hole and found a large “dazzle” of zebras (that’s what a herd of zebras is called). They were so gorgeous! Continuing on we finally ran across one Cape Buffalo that had backed himself into the bushes and was staring out at us. He had been inured by a lion and had a huge gash on his head - poor guy, probably won’t last long. He was extra defensive because of the attack. Apparently Cape Buffalo and Hippo kill more people in the area than any other animal in Africa so the guide gave him a wide berth. Try that we may, we never found the entire herd today but it was a fabulous day in the bush regardless. The bushwhacking and cross country transit through the shrubs, over logs, branches whacking us in the face, and to think around any corner we could run into lions or another mad mama elephant. Such a thrill! After 12 hours in the jeep (Toyota Land Cruiser) we got back to camp at 5:30, freshened up and had dinner, once again in bed by 9PM.