Feb 16-07: Safari Day 2

Photos: various animals we saw this morning; our mid-morning stop for coffee and muffins; Solly (or ranger) & Steve; Solly walks us back to the lodge (yes, the rifle is necessary in case we meet any big cats) and shows us lion tracks

The days start early here, they wake you at 5 am with coffee and biscuits and you are off for your first game drive of the day by 5:30, before the sun is up. The animals are very active in the morning, so that’s why the early start. And we had an INCREDIBLE morning of game viewing – the guys finally found the lions they’ve been tracking for a few days, in fact we found a group of 3 females and 2 males, we got very close and spent some time with them. They are truly spectacular, I took a lot of great photos. The lions were only to be outdone by the leopards we found – the same young male from last night, Solly said, and with his mother this time. We tracked the two of them for quite a long time, and again some incredible photos. We are saw giraffes again, and two young male elephants.

After a stop for coffee (laced with Marula cream liqueur, YUM), and to view the monkeys that were close by. We walked back to the lodge with Solly, where he identified the tracks of a number of the animals, indigenous birds and plants. And just before we arrived back for lunch we saw a group of zebras. WOW, this morning has been incredible!! Another monster breakfast, and then you have the rest of the day to yourself until the evening game drive again at 4:30pm. Time to rest my aching back…lots of bouncing down dirt roads, ouch, poor back s complaining now. But it’s a very small rice to pay for having such an awe-inspiring experience.

The heat of the day is already upon us, and its brutal, well into the 30s, maybe hotter, so there isn’t much movement around the lodge in this kind of heat. Steve and I took a dip in our plunge pool (ahhh. SO nice in the heat), reviewed the morning’s photos etc., and I did a little blog writing. There are two computers available here, but with internet connection speeds from the dark ages, so I am hoping to at least get the blog up and some photos on there, but the rest of the Flickr shots will have to wait until we reach civilization again. Lunch will be served in an hour or two, followed by more lazing about until our game drive at 4:30 pm again. Tomorrow we are going to opt to a visit to the local village with Solly, where you can see how folks live here, visit the school etc., and I plan to book a looonnngggg massage with Nonku in the afternoon. As you can tell, life is pretty rough here at our luxury game lodge…