Africa Trip Day Two
Africa Trip Day Two Roundup
Day Two was my first full day on safari. It started very early in the morning with a 5am wake-up call, coffee delivered to my tent at 5:30am and meeting at the Social Area at 6am. We had a light breakfast and some coffee and headed out for the morning drive prior to 6:30am. As you can see by the video the sunrise was epic and absolutely beautiful. It was a bit chilly, but a long sleeve shirt and light jacket was enough. The water crossings was a new experience for me and just added to the ambience of the moment. This morning I was alone with my guide, Mr Bee, but two others will join my group in the afternoon. The guide was outstanding BTW!! He was extremely knowledgeable and was very thoughtful on getting into a good position photographically. The highlight of the morning was the siting of a cheetah. Everyone, including the guides, were very excited when we learned one of the vehicles found a cheetah. We arrived and spent quite a while taking photos and observing from different positions. It was interesting that the Cheetah could care less about seeing three cars moving around in the area. The guide mentioned that they haven’t seen a Cheetah in the area for 9 months and this was a rare opportunity.
We stopped for some coffee next to a large water area, and I discovered the Pied Kingfisher. Most Kingfishers I’m familiar with sit on a branch or reed and watch the water, then dive in to catch a fish. This Kingfisher is different and it hovers over the water looking for a fish and then dives in. Just found it very interesting to see a new behavior in a bird I thought I knew.
We saw a lot that morning but I can’t cover everything. We headed back to the Camp around 11:30am where Brunch was awaiting us. We had free time in the Camp until 2:30pm when High Tea would be served and then head again for our afternoon/evening game drive by 3:00pm. During that time I spent most of it getting the MANY photos and videos off my SD Card from my camera onto my computer, and then backing everything up to two other external drives. I was very prepared and paranoid about not losing any photos during this trip. The two other guests who would join my group arrived during the break and after some snacks during High Tea, we headed out. Once again saw a lot of things, various Antelope, Hippos, various birds, but the big fun this afternoon was seeing a lion chase some Warthogs and siting a pair of Wild Dogs. Regarding the lion hunting situation, we came across a female lion walking near the road and the guide said it looked like she was looking for something. We stopped for a short time to take photos, but the guide wanted to move forward to see if we could find what she was looking for. We moved forward a short distance and saw a young cub and its mother sitting on a termite mound. We moved a bit closer and began taking photos and some video, when three Warthogs appeared behind us. At that moment we saw the female leave her cub behind and begin slowly getting into position within the tall grass (you can see this in the video below). The Warthogs apparently didn’t realise this and began walking directly toward the Lion, which was laying down in the grass. We were positioned so close I couldn’t use my camera so I pulled out my iPhone to get video of the moment. It was so exciting watching these Warthogs walking toward the Lion and anxious to see what will happen. Suddenly the Warthog in front realised something was wrong, not sure how, but suddenly turned around and began running in the opposite direction. The Lion did pursue, but it didn’t look like she was putting in a lot of effort. We stayed for a little while to see what happened and another four lions appeared nearby. I took a lot of photos of the young cub, which just stayed on the termite mound while the mother was hunting, and I took some photos/video of the four Lions. Later on this outing, we came across a pair of African Wild Dogs as well. This was another rare site because these animals are in a vulnerable state and declining in population throughout Africa. One of them had a radio collar on revealing that this pair was being tracked by researchers. In fact, Botswana has a program where anytime there is a siting of these animals, the Camps have to report to a gov’t agency the details of the siting in an effort to protect these beautiful animals. In addition, during our Sundowner the pair of African Wild Dogs came out of the bush and walked next to our vehicles; we got back into the vehicles when they showed up as a safety measure. Finally we got back to the Camp after sundown around 7:15pm, dropped off bags in the tent and headed to the Social Area for Dinner. After Dinner, repeat what I did during the break by moving photos and backing up. Took a shower and soon went straight to sleep for an early start to the next day.
Lion chasing Warthog
