Up at 5:30again. I did not even have to wait for the rangers to wake us up, because the baboons were having some fight right outside our lodge and were making quite a ruckus!
We saw another big female leopard and a lion: what we do is, once we see one, we follow them around for a bit in the range rover, just to figure out what they are up to: it’s remarkable how much they just don’t care about us – they go about they business in a slow and deliberate way, basically ignoring us – it’s cool. We also found a big bunch of hyenas. Not the most pretty of animal – but apparently, they don’t deserve there bad rap – they are quite a clever predator, with a sophisticated society. (Still, they are just not pretty and they look threatening…..).
Talking about societies, I’ve also leaned a lot about termite societies: their hills are just the “tip of the iceberg” – it’s there for temperature control inside: the termites open and close the holes to ventilate and get a constant temperature in order to grow a fungus on which they feed – they are very sophisticate farmers, and were doing it a long time before us human figured out farming. I find this fact amazing!
Saw my favorite again (warthogs) demonstrating how they sometimes walk on their front knees: they are not very flexible, so leaning to eat or drink is hard. They deal with that by sometimes just walking on their front knees.
On the way back, a wildebeast just lazily crossed the road…..
Lunch, another walk, a siesta…. I can’t recall when I’ve been so relaxed…..
Although – the ranger that does the walk is not relaxed – he carries this big riffle around, just in case we happen upon something threatening (like a lion) and we can’t escape – they do not want to shoot an animal – but they are ready just in case: however, they are not allowed to shoot unless an animal is threatening AND within 10 meters: For a charging buffalo, 10 meters is an awfully short distance … and you only have one shot. But Chase (the ranger) said that climbing a tree is in fact a better technique…..
In the evening, we followed this lion around: they are much more active in the evening – during the day, they sleep and move only to go from one shaded area to the next one. This one showed us his impressive teeth and took us to his watering hole.
We also went to see some hyppos- but they are quite boring, because they just stay in the water (they come out at night, at which point they are extremely dangerous - they do kill more people they any other animal in Africa) - this is all we see of them: a nose, an eye, an ear.....
Another sunset drink in the bush: picture with both Joe and me together – just to prove that Joe is really with me……
Lovely moon rise on the bush!
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