SAFARI DAY 5 - DUMA TAU

May 7, 2019

Last night the staff treated us to an experience into their food and dance culture. We were served a selection of native dishes outside under lanterns around a fire pit - it was spectacular! Before dinner the entire staff danced and sang for us for a half hour in their native tribal dances celebrating things like a fresh kill, and other momentous occasions and some just for fun. Everyone is so polite and they have all impeccable manners clearly well raised and schooled. Just wonderful and gracious people. Had a good sleep finally! Frogs were hardly heard and the hippos are across the river mostly so they weren’t too noisy either. Such a good thing. After another hearty breakfast we set out around 7:00AM with Tops to see what we could find. We saw much of the same animals we’d seen in prior days but it just doesn’t get old. Just turning off the engine and watching them in their natural habitat is such a privilege. We crossed paths numerous times with elephants, giraffes, impala (always), and zebras along with the occasional Warthog and Kudu. We tracked Lions and Leopards today for quite some time but never found them. We had some encounters with the elephants again blocking our road, and them shaking their heads at us and trumpeting away. We also came across two female elephants flanking a fairly newborn baby as she or he slept flat out on the ground. The babies are particularly vulnerable to the Lions, Hyenas and Leopards - the top 3 predators in this area of Africa. In fact we came across a baby elephant carcass with not much left on the bones. Circle of life. When we returned at 11:30AM we once again sat down to a beautiful meal with an elephant wading through the river in front of our deck. This is the most gorgeous setting. After a siesta period we gathered again at 3:30 for a ride up the Linyanti river on a pontoon boat with wine and cocktails (duh!). A peaceful ride for a couple hours until the setting sun. We encountered hippos and swimming elephants but most of all just a relaxing float on the beautiful waterways. Once again we had ample time to talk to our guides from local villages about their culture, how they came to work for this company, and everything about their lives. Was a really good experience getting to know all about local life.