RAIN!! Oh no......It began lightly around 3am, but within moments it was hitting the roof with a vengeance. All sorts of things ran through our minds about whether or not the game drive would happen, or how wet are we going to get on it? Even with ponchos and rain gear, photos would be out of the question. Considering ourselves very lucky to have seen what we have up to this point, we are pleased to find the worst of the rain had stopped by 5am.
Again we were awake and up well before our morning visit, and had enough time to leave a bag of laundry to be washed and dried. Funny thing is we did not realize they did this complimentary once a day. We could not find it in print anywhere, but Margaret had already sent a bag, and got it back the same day. Guess it worked.
We sipped a cup of coffee, while eating a few rusks while waiting for the rest of our group to arrive. The young girls did not bring safari clothes with them, but wore short shorts and tank tops with a shawl to cover them instead of a jacket. Yesterday, Joseph sent one of the girls running back to the room to put on long pants on the bush walk. Warning her sternly that there were tics in the brush and mosquitoes everywhere, although we never saw one, they are here. She left and never came back. Oh well. Perhaps in defiance, she was back this morning in, you got it, short shorts, but full of bites. Oh well.
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A beautiful sunrise
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There was a total of 22 animal and bird sightings this morning. The most amusing was the huge male rhino who was laying in the road, sleeping, and refusing to budge an inch.
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Male rhino who refused to move off of the road
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Oxpecker busy cleaning
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We watched as the oxpecker birds worked him over for insects, then we drove around him. A dozen guinea fowl dug the ground around him, while the logtail shrike tried to get his share. Yellow and red beak hornbills were perched in the trees overhead. They are the crows of the bush, cleaning up anything they can.
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| A wet red-backed shrike |
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| Longtail shrike |
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Longtail shrike
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Crested barbet
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| Iridescent starling |
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| Orange beaked hornbill |
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Resting on a branch
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We arrived at one of the open fields to find a mix of animals grazing.....impala, a male zebra, and a male wildebeest. Why were these two animals alone? Jeffrey said they were kicked out of the herd because they were male, and needed to start a herd of their own soon.
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| Impala sniffing the air |
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| Impala buck |
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| The herd |
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| Another buck |
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| Nice horns, lone zebra |
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| One wildebeest and one zebra join the impala |
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| A plains zebra has black, white, and tan stripes |
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| Wildebeest |
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| Scratching an itch |
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| Impala |
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Wildebeest
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Another buck hiding
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Our guide searched for some lions reported nearby, but we never found them. Then he was told they had left Sabi Sabi and went to Mala Mala last night. Or did they? We would find out later.
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| Bush coffee stop |
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| Good to stretch our legs, just don't go far from vehicle |
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New Land Rover
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Stopping briefly for coffee and more snacks, we stretched our legs, then loaded up again for the ride back.
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Grey goaway lorie
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Two goaway birds watched as we passed another frisky rhino, a nyala, and some dwarf mongoose.
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| Rhino |
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Nyala, not common here
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Dwarf mongoose
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While driving around a bend in the road, we surprised a mother elephant with her older baby, who decided to charge us.
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Angry young female elephant trumpeting
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Even though she was smaller than the mom, she was still big enough to scare us as she trumpeted loudly with her trunk high in the air. Jeffrey quickly backed up, and got out of Dodge. Closer to the camp, we saw a troop of vervet monkeys playing in a naked tree. Bet these are the camp monkeys that made so much noise the other morning.
Well, we were happy to have been able to make the drive rain-free. Back in the dining room, we all enjoyed another bush breakfast. Only one of us decided to take the bushwalk with Joseph.
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Joseph telling stories
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I stayed back to wash my hair, and relax for an hour or two. Boy, was that the right decision to make, since within 45 minutes of leaving, the rain began to fall. And not a passing cloud either. Wonder if anyone thought to bring a plastic bag for their cameras? And probably no rain gear. The sun was out when they left. It rained so hard, it sounded like it would come right through the metal roof. It was exciting to watch from the comfort of our room, especially the covered balcony outside. When Bill returned, he was soaked to the bone, but his camera was dry, thanks to someone sharing a plastic bag with him. Good to remember....never leave home without a bag. We had to hang the jeans and t-shirt on hangers on the curtain rod with the fan running on them for the rest of afternoon.
What was happening on the Amsterdam today? Robert V. Taylor, a media commentator and author in South Africa, had accompanied Desmond Tutu on this cruise. he was the interviewer of Tutu during his talks. He is also the head of Desmond Tutu's Peace Foundation in New York. He gave a talk in the Queens Lounge. Later in the day, Stein Kruse had a Q & A session with the guests from 2:30 to 4pm. Among other subjects, he announced the 2016 World Cruise itinerary, which will go through the Suez andpick up two ports in Israel. The better news was that everyone who had purchased an internet package, would get a 50% refund on our shipboard accounts. We think that is fair. Also 120 passengers disembarked, while 134 go on today.
A hot shower was in order, and some downtime before we went to lunch in the dining room. By 3pm, the rain had let up, leaving the air fresh and cool. We kept lunch really light, snacking on the saltier items, as well as some of the delicious salad. Of course, the slices of lemon cake were so good, we had to finish those.
The eight of us were ready by 3:45pm for the afternoon drive. Naturally, we packed some plastic bags for the cameras and raincoats, hoping we would not need them. The first thing we did was accidently run over a terrapin turtle that had been hiding in a deep puddle on the dirt road. Looking back, we saw that it was upside down and still wiggling. Oh well, things happen all the time, and Jeffrey said that it how other animals are fed. He did add that the terrapin was seldom eaten, because it tasted nasty.
We had been watching a female giraffe from our balcony,and she was still in the trees grazing. On our way to search for those elusive lions, we saw many birds. they seemed to like the rain we just had, and took to the sky. Lilac and purple crested rollers, lapwing plovers, blue starlings, and the ever-present guinea fowl and francolins were everywhere.
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| Weaver's nest (the weavers have flown north this time of year) |
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| A bright dragonfly |
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| Lilac breasted roller |
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| Bird blends with the ground well |
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| Roller in flight |
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| A better shot |
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| No, this is even better |
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| European roller....different shades of green/blue |
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| Plover |
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| Kingfisher |
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| A starling |
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Roller
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Wart hog
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One lone male warthog was rooting in a green gully. Geez, they are ugly, only a face a mother warthog could love. Four buffalo were wading in a muddy pond, coating themselves with the black goo.
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| Cape buffalo |
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Wallowing in the mud
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But the frosting on the cake was finding the lions, one female and two males....all about 5 years old. In good condition, well-fed, these animals were beautiful. Simply feet away from them, we snapped photos of them yawning, while displaying a pretty impressive set of teeth. Can you imagine those canine teeth sinking into your neck? You would not have a chance, especially with four of them hunting together. They did look so innocent, laying in the grass all regal-like. Especially the two males. They have a long way to go to be fully grown, but staying together to hunt will insure they will live a long time.
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| Lions! |
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| A male around 5 years old |
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| She could be a sister or a mother |
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| Checking us out |
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| A yawn |
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| Yep, she has good teeth |
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| Looking at us again |
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| Tooth flashing |
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| Wonder if they have bad breath? |
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| They don't care |
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| Time to move |
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| Huge teeth to rip prey apart |
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| More teeth |
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| Male lion |
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| They leave most hunting to the females |
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| Then rest all day |
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| After getting their fill of the kill |
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| Looks pretty content |
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| Very happy |
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| A tender moment |
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| Yawning |
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| Bigger |
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| Tough day |
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| I am good |
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| I need to go |
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| Leaving |
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| Alert |
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| Don't like us there |
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| On the move |
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| A good shot in the sun |
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| Never moving |
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| Take that |
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| Now go away |
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Disturbing their sleep
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There was a special sundowner gathering planned for all of the guests this evening.
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| Getting cloudy |
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| Great scenery |
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| Sun setting |
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Going fast
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Near dusk, Jeffrey headed for a plateau where we joined up with the other two vehicles for a BBQ beef, chips, and salsa party.
A table was set with a full bar, whatever we wanted......beer, wine, champagne, cocktails or soda.
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| Special campfire sundowners |
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Slices of BBQ beef
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Joseph, the most experienced guide and longtime employee of the camp, stood behind the two bonfires and performed his famous animal calls. We wondered what he would do, if any of those animals answered him back? He did the sounds of the wild dog, hyena, lion, and leopard to name a few. We all enjoyed the sundowners, but it was time to head back, as all good things have to come to an end.
On the way back, we saw another flap-necked chameleon hiding, or so he thought. Looking closer, we could see his revolving eyeballs, just like those we saw in Madagascar.
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| A chameleon |
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| Notice his big eyes |
Back at the camp, we continued to re-hydrate with more Black Label beer and lemon ice tea. We were so parched, that one of us drank three cans of ice tea before and during dinner, forgetting how much caffeine is in it. Well, that was a mistake, although it sure tasted good going down. Since it had rained, we were welcomed back to the living room and dining room with both fireplaces roaring.
The living room is attached to the dining room, and has several couches and comfortable chairs and tables. As you would expect, it was decorated with everything African. Next to this room, is the bar, which is stocked to the gills with everything. And even though our documents mentioned that only beer and wine, water and sodas were included, none of us ever got charged extra for a cocktail. Pretty generous, we think.
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| Another dining room dinner ready for us |
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Fireplace in the dining room
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Dinner was served promptly at 8pm. We took our seats at the BBQ end of the dining room, and Sheldon joined the four of us. He is the 20 year old in training to be a ranger. Right now, he is a replacement for Gideon, our tracker from last year. Sheldon had some bad news concerning Gideon, who we thought was on vacation. He is currently in the hospital with a case of malaria, which was disturbing to say the least. It has started to occur more recently with several cases popping up among the locals. How do you get malaria? It is carried only by the anopheline mosquito and the only carriers of it are the females. She needs blood of the victims to nourish her eggs. The mouthpiece of the male is not strong enough to penetrate skin, but the mandibles of the female have no such problem. In order to spread the disease, she transfers, through her saliva, the parasite from host to host. These parasites multiply rapidly then rupture in the blood stream 48 to 72 hours later. Symptoms may not occur until 10 days to 4 weeks later, where you have a fever, shivering, joint pain, vomiting, and convulsions. Cycles of high fever and sudden coldness occur over and over afterwards. It is treatable, but for us, we are most happy to take the preventable medications to avoid it.
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| A big bonfire |
Perhaps that made you all lose you appetite, but here is the line-up for dinner tonight. We began wth a served cream of mushroom soup with fresh slices of whole wheat bread. Thinly sliced tomatoes and mozzarrella cheese balls topped wth balsamic vinegar was the next course. The side table was set with mixed salad, cauliflower, green beans, and squash coated lightly with brown sugar. Roasted kernal corn and baked potatoes or rice filled the plate. A chicken marsala and oxtail stew was the main course. Dessert was a square of tiramisu, followed with a shot of amarula and colorfully wrapped chocolate candies.
Filled to the max again, we wandered off to our room, always accompanied by a staff member with an extra flashlite. Since we were going to be leaving tomorrow, but taking a final morning game drive, it was necessary to pack our bags tonight. Doing this by candlelight was not easy, but the lamp Dale had loaned us helped a lot. We showered and got to bed by 11pm. Note to self: never, ever drink three cans of ice tea before and during dinner......way too much caffeine. By the time sleep came, the alarm clock was going off rudely in my ear.
