Today we had two game drives on the schedule. One in the morning and one for the late afternoon.
We were up early again, downed a quick cup of coffee and hopped on our vehicle again for another early morning drive. Unfortunately it wasn’t as eventful as our previous drives so we spent a lot talking amongst ourselves and I got to know one of our travelling professors quite well! The drive wasn’t without any excitement though and we got to see some early morning Zebras, birds and Water buffalo.
We were on the track of a male lion and circled an area a few times hot on its heels, but unfortunately he alluded us. Raymond then found tracks for a leopard and both he and Matthews hopped off to track it on foot. What they came back with was an Impala heart from a kill the Leopard had made this morning.
The hunt for the lion was rather exciting and we enjoyed the thrill, but it totally would have been nice to have found it! Having been on a few drives now, I’m finding that the more elusive “prey” and the “hunt” for them is what makes the drive exciting, and the exhilaration of finding one (our leopard from the night before) feels very satisfying. Though we have now experienced a number of misses as well.
Returning back to the lodge, breakfast was waiting!
We had a bit of free time between breakfast, lunch and the next game drive so Gimpy and I ended up going to a bird viewing platform to see a crash of hippos for an hour or so. I love watching hippos because they seem to take a long time to make every decision and then another long time to move. They are slow, clumsy and cute, but in reality are extremely dangerous!
After the hippo watch lunch was up next:
We were also to be joined by a National Geographic expert on endangered cats. He was excited to hear about our Wild dog sighting the other day and gave us some more information about them. He also spoke to us about Cheetahs and the efforts that are being made to repopulate them in Africa.
He would be joining us on our game drive this afternoon and we’d be looking for Cheetah. He knew of one female in the area that was quite relaxed and so he sat with our driver as we set out to find her.
We drove around for quite some time until we got wind of a sighting on the radio. We rushed over there and after a bit of maneuvering, dismounted our vehicles and trekked into the bush a bit to come within 10 feet of a pregnant female cheetah. What a sight, she was beautiful! Its amazing what we can see in nature and how marvelous it is! We hung out with the cheetah for some time snapping pics, keeping a safe distance and just admiring. I learned that her tale acts as a rudder when she’s at full speed as her entire body is created for speed.
It was then time for our customary afternoon drive picnic. I still can’t get over the fact that we stop in the middle of the drive to have a drink and snack but we did!
Sadly the rest of the drive wasn’t too eventful we circled, saw some kudu and impala and attempted to find leopard in the early evening, but sadly we didn’t see anything else too significant. I ended up using the time to chat with my professor friend for a majority of it. We returned back to the lodge for dinner
We also had to pack as we’d be leaving Karwongwe tomorrow but not after one more morning drive in hopes we find the male lion!
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