We leave today but before that we get to do one last Safari drive. After so many game drives, and sore tailbones, some of us were considering passing on this last drive. We met a super nice gentleman “Prabah” from Chicago who was traveling on his own and also staying at Duma Tau. It was his 18th safari and his wife opted out of joining him and instead went to Italy with her girlfriends! Anyway, his sage advice to us was “never pass up a Safari drive” because you never know what you’re going to come across, it’s all random. So once again we set out with “Tops” our guide to see what was happening out in the wilderness. Almost immediately Tops saw evidence of a kill being dragged across the road so we immediately went off-road in search. It wasn’t far off the road, and was a very fresh kill of a male impala with the predator nowhere to be found. Tops told us that it was a particular female leopard that was extremely shy, so she was off in the bushes watching us most likely. She never reappeared so on we went. The terrain we drove this morning was gorgeous, right along the marsh with tall grasses and water holes. Sometimes our drives are in the thick trees where there is no visibility and we are constantly dodging branches so this was super pleasant. Well Tops spied the top of a Leopard tail across the marsh in the tall grass so off we went in search of the Leopard. It was the same male Leopard we saw the very first night. There were some red lechwe (like deer) out in the middle of the marsh on a small island so they kept his attention while we shot photos and observed. There is no way for the leopard to cross the water and get to the lechwe without revealing himself as the marsh is the lechwe’s home, they live in the water lands. After that Tops got a call on the radio that there was a pride of female lions and young males that were sleeping off a kill next to a watering hole so we motored over there and watched the lions for a while before our time was up. They all had super fat bellies as they had clearly just gorged on something. These lions were quite a bit larger than the ones we had observed back at Little Vumbura camp. A couple of them were bathing one another, while others flipped over on their backs and sunbathed. Tops passed us off out in the field to another driver who took us back to camp to catch our ride to the airport. Once again we say goodbye to a magical place where the elephants swim in front of the lodge, and the people are just so special.
Hippos, never tire of them
Young lion with a full belly
More lion headshots, love their piercing stares
Young male lion just starting to grow his mane
Cape buffalo with egret. Egrets follow around the herding animals because they stir up the insects in the grass then the egret eats the bugs
Lioness
Lions grooming each other
I have just rad your blog from beginning to (current) end (May09). Sounds like wondrous daily adventures were had by all. 12 hours in the bush day after day, that is quite a commitment to the adventure. But it sounds like well worth it, I'm sure you're a bit sad to be traveling home now. Don.
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