Crisis on the Savannah

Up at 6am, have breakfast, get organized, load onto the truck to go on the hunt in the park for whatever we can manage to find. We have to go early since the animals tend to hide in the shade and do nothing when it warms up. The first thing we see is a vulture in its nest. Many vultures are being killed these days accidentally by farmers who put out poisoned carcasses intended for predators. The vultures are the clean up crew and are usually the first to rip open a carcass so the smaller critters can get in... a very important part of the food chain!

Then the animals really get going. We see zebra, springbok, and guinea fowl on our way to our first watering hole. The first one is pretty quiet. On the way to the second we spot a giraffe. At the second watering hole we hit paydirt! Two lions, male and female just hanging out. A mating pair just relaxing in the morning sun. There are very clear signs everywhere telling people to remain inside their vehicles yet we see one guy out his car window sitting on the door trying to get a photo. This is not the African Lion Safari... this is AFRICA!! We've been told several stories of people doing this sort of thing and not noticing the lion that comes up behind them and hauls them out of their car in front of their wife and kids.

We move on and see wildebeest, more zebra and springbok than you can shake a stick at, oryx, kudu and impala. At the third watering hole we spot elephants, ostrich, more oryx, warthogs, springbok, impala and zebra. A very successful drive! We started to head back to camp for lunch and spot a rhino by the side of the road. He ran off at fairly high speed so there was no chance for a photo.

Lunch at the camp and relaxing since its now way to hot to do anything. This must by why siestas were invented. I decided to take a shower and remove a layer of dust.

At 3:30 or so we went on another drive to see what animals might emerge as the afternoon as the temperature starts to cool off. Brad decided to stay behind and continue relaxing. We spotted a cory bustartd and lots more of the usual four legged antelope type creatures. We drove out onto the salt pan. From a distance it looks like a huge ocean with islands and shorelines. It is whiteish and completely dried up from the floods in the rainy season. We got out of the truck here and walked around. It smelled like ocean and even tasted salty. We took some silly photos of people standing on each other's hands and then piled back into the truck. On the way to our next hole we spotted dik diks (yes, that's really what they are called) and more elephants. Our last watering hole is ducks, giraffes and the usual four legged suspects.

We flew back to the camp gate and slid in just under the wire at 5:30pm. Steph had cooked up bbq sausage, lamb chops, garlic potatoes, sweet corn bread and apple crumble! Yum! My learning from the game drive... never go out on a dusty drive with freshy washed WET hair... unless you feel like showering twice.

After dinner we walked to the watering hole to see what might happen by. We had been sitting for about 1/2 an hour when something in the corner caught my eye. A herd of elephants just glided into view. They were so quiet you couldn't hear them. They just seemed like big grey ghosts. There were atleast 20 or so in the end. Once they started slurping water, that was when you could hear them. We got to watch some interesting herd dynamics on who stands where, who gets the best spot, etc. The herds are all females and babies with one male usually. I also noticed that the elephants had their own stretch routine. I couldn't believe my eyes as they did a little hamstring, quads, IT bands, adductors, etc.. (of course, they would have different names but I don't have my elephant anatomy book with me). They were even doing a little side bending. I wished Peter had been there to witness it.

After the elephants floated back into the brush we waited another 15 minutes until we heard something approaching. A mom and baby rhino came out to get a drink. The baby was bigger than the one some of the others had seen previously but still a baby. It was now 9:45 and I was getting sleepy. We have yet another early morning tomorrow and one of our longest drives (600k) as we need to hit Windhoek by luch tomorrow.

It was still nice and warm when we went to bed and I only woke up once during the night. I dreamt I was snow skiing and trying to rush to the bottom but I couldn't remember how to slalom... weird man.