Wake up. It was easy to wake up - fresh air, early dawn light....Africa!!! Oh my god, what a nice sleep. Even the occasional deep breathing animal didn't scare Beth from sleep last night.
I went over to the girls tent and they were both laughing their heads off - "we were freezing last night, and didn't even realize until now that we were sleeping on top of the sheet! Ha ha ha!". Clowns.
I would say it was about 18 degrees at sunrise, which was absolutely beautiful. Breakfast was great, though there was a huge lineup for the crepe/omelette station so we had to skip that.
We hoped back in the same jeeps as yesterday. The kids were having no part of doing family jeeps.... nu-uh...no way. Ok fine! :-)
Our game drive this morning went for about five hours, and we had a lot of good finds - lots of elephants really close to the jeeps. A ton of giraffes, zebras and wildebeests again. Grayson had a great find under the canopy of a tree - two huge owls sitting perched up in the tree, staring at us with their wizened faces.
We asked the guides what their craziest moments were...
Craziest Tom story: Tom was in Serengeti one time and a pride of lions took down a zebra between his tents and his client's tent. They basically had to sit there and listen to the kill, the bustle for position as they scrapped for scraps, the crunching of the bones and the post kill gastrointestinal effects of a large meal. The lions were literally inches away from the tents and he keep having to reassure his clients to sit still and remain quite.
Craziest Grayson story: he was watching a group of three lions take down a zebra by the river. They weren't that hungry, so after they killed it, they backed off fifteen meters and lay down. A crocodile eventually slimmed out of the water in hopes of dragging it back in. The lions didn't take well to this, so they started down to the water and had a tug of war with the zebra body. Eventually they decided to surround the crocodile, who released the zebra from its mouth. Then, and he'd never seen or heard of this being done: the crocodile coiled up in a ball on the sand, uncoiled really fast over and over to crest a cloud of dust and sand as cover. The lions (and Grayson for that matter) could not see the crocodile any more until he saw it slinking back into the water. Grayson still doesn't know if that was a natural defence technique or something that was a fight or flight, do or die reaction, but it sounded pretty spectacular.
We got back to the lodge at around 1pm, but not before we saw a lion chewing on the remainder of a kill in some long grass by herself. We also saw a cheetah and her cub from about four hundred meters away, and another set of three lionesses from afar.
Lunch was incredible - so many options and so relaxed. Alex and a Kim booked one hour massages, while Beth retired for a long nap and the kids went to the pool.
The afternoon game drive was a big success. We switched cars and the adults were now in Tom's car. Tom and Grayson are a complimentary team - Tom is more of the joker, though seriously knowledgable, while Grayson is the strong silent type with the killer smile.
Not soon after we left the lodge, we were headed towards cat territory - late day near the river was usually best for some activity. It wasn't long before we spotted a lioness in a tree, on the lookout, while two others lounged around in the grass. We waited, hoping some stupid wildebeests would wonder over, but no luck.
We soon spotted a cheetah in a tree that was almost four hundred meters away. Thank goodness for the telephoto lens. Sometimes I can't even see the details of the picture I'm snapping but then the photo pops up on my screen and it's a "wow" moment!
We drove another kilometre and found a cat lying next to one of the dirt road tracks, and we spent some time there, trying to wake him up and hoping some stupid impala would wander over. It was amazing watching the confidence this beast displayed by lazing around wherever she wanted, while the other herd animals seemed to always live in fear....twitching, spotting each other, always looking around. It was nice to be at the top of the food chain - wait, I guess we're at the top - it is nice!
As the sun started dropping to the horizon, we headed back. Suddenly we came around a corner and stopped - Grayson had spotted a leopard sitting on a large, horizontal tree trunk. My favourite of the cats, the leopard is so beautiful. Grayson says that when all other living things on the planet are dead, leopards will be the last ones standing as they are such great hunters.
The group was pretty buzzed when we got back as darkness was settling into the lodge. We did our blah blah with Tom and came up with a plan for tomorrow, and then we gorged like hungry lions on a feast fit for kings. I think our sleep clock is morphing with the daylight hours. We are ready for bed and it's just 9pm. We really are at the top of the food chain....
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