Sunday, Nov. 12 Ikuka

Another beautiful day begins at 5:30. Off on the hunt shortly after 6 am. The roads to this camp are very bumpy and it is all downhill when we leave, which means all uphill when we return. Both ways are slow going as we bounce around a lot.

Our first major hit of the day is at 7:05, a pregnant Hyena. Andre and I spot her, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure what animal it was. She was a little shy and retreated being a bush when she saw us. Another must see animal off of our list.

Not the prettiest of animals

We then see a small herd of Buffalo and tons of red ants all in a row on the road. We then drive in a new and beautiful area. There are Baobab trees everywhere and there is a lot more greenery. Also we are a little elevated so we can see forever. Amazing panorama. We are all just chilling when all of a sudden the jeep comes to an abrupt halt. There are four big female lions lying/sleeping very near the roadway. We scare them a bit and they back off slightly. One of them remains there and we are able to get amazing photos. We are there for a bit just soaking in their beauty.

One of the lions near the road

We disturbed these two so they are going to join another who is sleeping under a bush

This girl seemed to want to show off. She never moved out of her spot.

This is how close we are to her.

 

Breakfast site, beside a huge Baobab tree.

A Grant's Gazelle very near our breakfast site

We then see 5 Brown Parrots. They are quite small and move around a lot so it’s hard to get really good shots. It’s time for breakfast so a big Baobab tree is our setting. There are Impalas, Zebras, and Grant’s Gazelles in the backdrop. What a great place for a meal. The usual is served.

We then drive near a water bed where we see a Water Buck and 2 Egrets.

Ron then spots a tiny Pearl Spotted Owl in a tree. Another cutie.

Just hanging out together

  

A Pearl-Spotted Owlet

We are about 30 km from camp when we come upon another watering hole. We see 4 Hippos, some Cranes, Herons, Storks, Egyptian Geese, Spur-winged Goose, King fishers, a Hammerkop, a Goliath Heron, some Ibis, Egret, and many Crocodiles. It is such a fantastic site. They are all sharing this beautiful part of the river.

Wart hog drinking

Hippos love being in the water

Storks

Off again to see what we find. There are elephants and one of them is very young, about 6 months old.

Such a small baby

It’s time to head back for lunch and some down time. While in our small pool, Ron spots an elephant in the distance.

We have a great lunch: green salad, bean salad, olive bread, fish cake, and dessert was orange slices with almond pieces and dark chocolate pieces. I drank my first Ginger Beer, very nice indeed.

We return to our tent where Ron has a really good nap/sleep and I try to catch up on the blog.

4 pm, it’s time for our afternoon outing. Not long after our departure Lazaro gets a call saying that there is a Leopard sighting. Off we go. It’s a little off road, but quite smooth. We spot another jeep under a tree so we know we have arrived. There he is, a huge male Leopard. He is flat out on a tree branch. He moved a little, but he wasn’t going anywhere soon. They do eventually go down at night to hunt. It was around 4:45 when we saw him. 

Difficult to get good photos with sun and lots of leaves/branches

He changed position but stayed in the tree

We also heard of a lion kill of an elephant so that is our next destination. On our way we stop to watch 3 baboons fighting. They scream and chase each other around. It looks vicious but then they just walk away. There are a lot of baby baboons around as well. We also see a male Lesser Kudu, our first really good sighting.

Two baboons 

A lesser Kudu (smaller than the Greater Kudu)

Lazaro follows the directions given and we find the kill. What a sight and smell. It seems the elephant has been dead for about a day. We see a huge male, a female, and 5 smaller females. Two of them are still chewing away. The male and mom are drinking at the water hole but then make their way back to the feast. All of a sudden someone sees another male walking very close to the other jeep. There are two massive males, not one. It’s a sight to behold, 8 lions all around a dead elephant with 4 or 5 of them all eating at once and the others lying around the kill. By the time we are ready to leave, it’s too late for a sun downer so we head back to camp.

Elephant and 3 of the lions

One of two male lions 

The male going for another bite along with some of the others

We have about 20 minutes to get ready so we shower quickly, change and wait to get picked up.

Dinner is very yummy: chicken tangine, potatoes, snow peas, tomatoes, bun, and banana cake for dessert. We sit around and chat, upload our photos, then it’s off to our rooms around 10 pm.