Last night after dinner as the driver-guide was walking us to our tents, we saw a huge elephant right next to our cabin. If we had walked onto the porch, Dave could have slapped him on the hindquarters. Jacks told the others waiting for him on the main boardwalk to move out of the way and then he made some noise and clapped his hands to get the elephant to move. He was quite large, but very deftly walked over the boardwalk and not on it (they frequently have to make repairs when the elephants step on the boardwalks). As we were getting ready for bed, we could hear the hippos calling (mostly grunting) down by the river. They did this periodically most of the night as every time I woke up, I could hear them. They were also being vocal this morning when we woke up. Several of the others heard the lions roaring around 2:30, but I must have been in a deep sleep cycle and did not hear them. I was ready first so I sat on a porch chair and enjoyed the morning air. A black and white bird with a very long tail perched himself on the top of a small tree next to the tent. I found out later that it was a magpie shrike. I also found out that the resident bat in the lounge area is a long-eared fruit bat.
We were treated to a beautiful African sunrise - not quite as spectacular as the sunset, but lovely in its own way. After breakfast, we headed out for an all-day game drive. It was chilly this morning, but I decided to suffer for a short while as I knew that when the sun rose high enough, I would be melting. We kept the same driver as yesterday, Taps, but rotated seats so Dave and I were in the front instead of the back. Our first sighting this morning was of a red lechwe. We then saw a number of waterbucks and zebras. Taps was driving fast along the sandy road (some places are very deep) and he called our vehicle a Kalahari Ferrari. We then stopped next to a tree that had a large hammercock nest. This nest was very interesting as there is a hole in the side as an entrance. The top of the nest is frequently used as a roosting place for the Egyptian goose (sounds like a bird condo to me). Taps told us that the hammercock uses anything it can find to make its nest - sticks, grass, paper, plastic bags, etc. Taps told the story of when he was a young boy, he came out the door and saw that a new pair of underwear of his had blown off the line in the breeze. While he was watching a hammercock swooped down and stole it. When his mom asked him where his new undies were, he said that a bird stole them. Of course, she did not believe him and he got in trouble (sounds like the dog ate my homework line). We saw some baboons - some with babies on their backs again. The babies are so funny - they ride around on the backs for a while and then jump off to the ground, then back to their mom’s backs. We stopped by the river and saw a huge pod of hippos. We stayed there for quite a bit and just watched. They kept putting their heads up and watching us. There were a lot more open hard sandy areas where we were driving this morning. Taps said these are large salt licks and the elephants like to come here to root out the salt. They sometimes make deep holes while doing this and when the rains come, they can expand over time to make a new waterhole. We then stopped to see an hyena den and an aardvark burrow, but no one was home in either case. We saw a female lion. She had recently given birth, but the cubs were pretty well camouflaged in the bushes. We could just see glimpses of them. Taps said they are about a week old and still a bit wobbly on their feet. We went back to the river and saw an African fish eagle, a Rufus-bellied heron, and a saddle-billed stork. We saw some Southern common reed bucks in the water. They had a black spot on each side of their faces. Taps said it was a pre-orbital gland. A little further on, we spotted a great white egret and a little egret very close to each other. As we drove along, we came upon a red-billed Francolin (also known as a spare fowl). Then we finally saw a large crocodile (about 7 feet). He was sitting beside the water with his mouth open (just a heat exchange, not being aggressive). I got a good picture of his teeth. He must have been full as nearby we saw a green-backed heron and a squacco heron. We also saw a common red-back (deer) and a blacksmith lapwing (bird). We also saw some wattled cranes (they are on the endangered list). They are very tall with lovely coloring. We saw a very large nest at the end of a branch - it seemed ungainly. It is a communal nest for red-billed buffalo weavers. So everyone comes to Africa to see the Big Five: buffalo, elephant, rhino, lion, and leopard. We just saw one of the Small Five: red-billed buffalo weaver, elephant shrew, rhino beetle, ant lion, and leopard tortoise. Taps said there is also the Ugly Five: Blue Wildebeest, baboons, vultures, Maribou stork, and the warthog. Taps also included his cousins on this list as a joke. We have seen all of them except for Taps’s cousins. We also saw a female leopard. Taps said they have named her, Tsebe, which means torn ear. We took more pictures of the carmine bee eater - such a lovely red against the branches of the trees. We saw some more of our bird friends, blacksmith lapwing, the hammercock, and a hada ibis, a new one for us. We spotted a water monitor about 2 feet long. He was really moving so I didn’t get his picture. We saw a beautiful bird called the coppery-tailed coucal - he was a bright copper color and very striking when in flight. Our next sighting was of a brown snake eagle sitting in a tree. We then spotted a Bateleur eagle in flight - way too far away for a photo, but really cool to see. Our next sighting was of an African jacana (also known as the Jesus bird as it looks like he is walking on water). He was copper colored with a white head. We spent some time watching a pied kingfisher. He looked like a helicopter as he would fly up and hover over the water before diving down to get (or not get if he was unlucky) a fish. He did this a number of times and it was great fun watching him. I think he had a 40% success rate for the time we were watching. We drove through watery areas - some were a bit muddy, but one was quite deep and we called it an African carwash - Taps liked that. As we neared our lunch spot to meet up with the others, we saw a number of large acacia trees (they are also known as the umbrella thorn tree). I love how they flatten out and are so wide. They do make a great shade tree. We came across a few Southern ground hornbills. They are so much larger than the other hornbills, you would not think they were related at all. They are about the size of a tom turkey. We saw some elephants, one of whom was not happy to see us getting close and he charged at us with his large ears flapping. Since he was a lot bigger than us, we backed up quickly. We then saw some knob-billed ducks. We came around a corner and saw the blue wildebeests and zebras together under a rain tree and just behind them, a good-sized herd of impalas (McDonalds of the bush). I took a picture of a very pregnant zebra. Taps said that she will give birth in the rainy season as the food supply with be more abundant then. There were also about 5 warthogs nearby, but they ran when we got close. We came across a different type of acacia with yellow leaves called a knob thorn acacia.
We stopped for lunch and a bush loo break. Everything was delicious as usual. The setting could not have been more perfect. We were facing the river, where we could see some waterfowl like the wood sandpiper. There were some hippos in the water and elephants behind them in the distance. When I looked to the right, I could see some elephants getting a drink and when I looked to the left, I could see three giraffes bending down to get drinks. It was an amazing place! As we were driving away, we saw some bones in the water near the edge. We stopped to take a photo. Taps said an elephant had died here of natural causes and the crocs were responsible for stripping the flesh off his bones. They called the wildlife department to come out and take the tusks so that they could not be poached. Speaking of tusks, we have seen a number of tuskless or one tusked elephants. Apparently, this is a genetic trait. On our way back to camp, we saw and Egyptian goose, great white pelicans, a gray heron, and a yellow-billed stork. We passed a good sized herd of impalas (the locals call them the McDonalds of the bush). We stopped by a bush called a purple pen weed. It had a great smell - quite herblike. We spotted a hippo in the bush and as we got closer we could see that it was injured. It had what looked like scratches on its side (perhaps from a lion) and there was some blood coming from his mouth. Taps said that he was hiding in the bush to let his injuries heal because if he were to go into the water, there are some small fish that would eat at the wound and prevent it from scabbing over. At first we thought he might be dead, but we could see his body rising and falling slightly from his respiration. Taps drove a little closer and the hippo leaped up and came towards us. We backed the land rover up very quickly! Taps drove around the bushes to get a better view, but the hippo didn’t want us there either and charged the vehicle with a roar. His mouth was open and he certainly had a lot of very large molars. It came as such a surprise that ho one got a video - we just wanted to get out of his way as fast as possible! That was enough of charging animals for me for the day!!!
After that excitement and when our heartbeats returned to normal, we continued our game drive. We saw an open-billed stork and a red-billed hornbill (the natives call it a flying chili pepper). Apparently this is the bird depicted in The Lion King - Azu. They call the yellow-billed hornbill a flying banana. Our last sightings of the day were of a juvenile saddle-billed stork and a long-toed lapwing.
We came back to camp for high tea and siesta time. I was sitting writing the blog in the lounge. Greg decided to go back to him tent for him camera and when he came back with Mike, they said there was a large elephant eating grass next to the path near their tents. They took some pictures and Dan took a video from his porch. Poor Kitty was stuck in her tent as the elephant had her penned in. We had to wait for some of the staff to come to the lounge area to alert them of the predicament. They finally were able to get him to move and then they had to remove a large branch that the elephant had torn down and left on the boardwalk. Vimbai had already started her talk on her home country of Zimbabwe when Kitty was finally able to get out of her tent and join us.
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