No Fixed Abode: Leopard breakfast

Tue 12 Jul 2016 - Mobile Safari Day 2: Moremi

After an interesting night of lion roars, an elephant visit to the camp and, as Lets informed us in the morning, a pack of hyenas wandering through we got up at the comparatively late time of 0645. Last night Lets had told us that when it is cold the animals stay in the warmth of the bush until the sun gets up so there is no point leaving before 8 o’clock - something we’d observed ourselves in Etosha.

We decided to revisit the leopards so set off early for the long drive, passing bathing hippos, Red Lechwes (another new antelope for us), ground hornbill and lots of groups of squirrels sunbathing on the trunks of their home trees. At the leopard tree we could see the tiny cub asleep in the sun on a high branch but there was no sign of the mother, however, we waited a while and she soon returned to gracefully leap up the tree for a late breakfast on the, now, sparse remains of the warthog. Once finished she too found a comfy branch to clean herself and prepare for a nap but just as she was settled something caught her eye and she nimbly climbed down the tree and set off for some dry long grass with us, and a couple of other cars, in pursuit. We soon discovered a small herd of impala about to enter long grass - a perfect ambush spot. We waited a long time in the hope of witnessing our first kill while the herd entered, dithered and left the grass several times before we eventually gave up, returning for an overdue brunch.

That afternoon the boys rigged up the camp shower so we could wash and we loafed around during the afternoon heat in readiness for the evening game drive leaving camp around 4.30pm. Just as we clambered in the truck a large single elephant silently entered camp and raising its trunk on the trunk of a tree and shook it vigorously before Lets revved the engine and chased him out of camp with us bouncing about in the back. It appeared to do the trick as we watched its huge rear end race away from us in a plume of dust. He was trying to shake the nuts out of the tree.

With that excitement over, Lets headed down to the river stopping at a good viewing point to observe a large sprawled out group of hippos submerged in the water for a long stretch of the river. Many were busily munching on the green grass on the edges, or wallowing close to a group of 3 youngsters who were busy being playful mock fighting with locked jaws or lying on top of each other to submerged the other. Glenn remarked how closely they resembled his boys.

Single elephants started appearing out of the bush one by one, some plodding quietly down, others trotting at pace down to the river where they joined the hippos. One young hippo was intent on being mischievous with a large elephant and waded by the elephant’s feet back and forth goading him playfully. Finding this tiresome the elephant sprayed the youngest with a large jet of water and flapped his ears at him, which did the trick for awhile until the hippo found a new candidate to irritate.

As the sunset we headed back to camp, Lets pointing out a pair of reedbuck antelope, male and female that we’d not seen before. Then driving back through dusky light remarkably, Glenn spotted a lioness amongst the dry golden grass. Stopping abruptly Lets then noticed another female close by and then out of the bush appeared a third lioness. They were on the trail of the reedbuck. The three of them were spread out in a line just lying on the ground for some time when one got up and quietly strolled past our truck within 2m of us. In the darkness we could see her eyes glowing slightly red as she continued past and then behind us. By now it was dark and we had to move on with our headlights on still able to spot a large owl on the top of a dead bough. Arriving back to a lantern lit camp and roaring fire, KB served dinner followed by hot drinks around the camp TV (fire) where both of them told stories of near misses with elephants, hippos and lions they had had over the years. No wonder KB is very wary of elephants is all we can say.

We hit camp bed early and tried to get to sleep with the roaring of lions, grunting of hippos, elephant growl and the patter of hyena around the campsite.

Campfire tale: On a previous trip Lets had left the cook at camp while he took the guests for a drive, as we did with KB. When he returned there was no sign him and after searching around they heard him banging from inside the trailer. Apparently three lionesses had watched the truck leave and decided he would make a nice meal so he dived in to the metal trailer and shut the doors.