It was dawn patrol again, but on a really cold summer morning. Low cloud cover had moved in and the wind was chilly.
Not surprising the morning didn’t produce much, and anyway I had planned to spend most of the day in the office catching up.
Of course I also went for a paddle on the dam and saw the most amazing display by a hippo. I think the young bull was worried about being cornered by me, although he was nearly a hundred meters away. But he bolted and 4 times he launched himself almost clear of the water. Much like a porpoise. And then crash back into the water. It was an amazing display, but probably his fastest way out the shallow waters.
I’m just so lucky! After hours of being couped up in an office, I can just drive down the road and have the most amazing adventures.
We were out about an hour before sunset. There was white rhino bull and cow grazing in some fairly open country. Seeing them from a distance and knowing they would bolt if I drove there, we walked. Several mopanie bushes gave us cover until we were about 30m away. We sat tight while the rhino grazed slowly towards us. Even though the oxpeckers on their backs alarmed at us a few times, the rhino didn’t take notice.
It was only when they were about 10m from us that I decided to get their attention. They looked up, saw us, but looked totally bewildered that they were about to walk over these apparitions. A slight movement from me and they bolted. The other way.
On the way home Manyari and her youngsters were lying up at a pan and slowly roused soon after our arrival as the sun was setting. Manyari had 4 youngsters with her, the missing lions were those we saw yesterday at Hwata.
After their slow awakening the lions moved off on the hunt.
This young female was last to leave, and lying out in the open like that I wanted to get some low angle shots of her. Now I only do this ‘cos I know these lions having spent a couple of years with them.
I got out the car and lay on the ground with her not more than 15m away. As soon as I did this she went into a crouching position. But this was more to prepare herself to flee than to charge. As soon as I had settled down she then relaxed but didn’t take her eyes off me giving me this most wonderful stare! It’s amazing how those orange eyes can stare right through you.
After about a minute she had totally relaxed down, got up, stretched right in front of me and moved on to join the others.
Isn’t that just the best after a day in the office? And I’m so so lucky I can do this every day. Well at least I’m not in the office all that time every day.
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