Lions, and Hippos, and Giraffes! Oh My! WITH PHOTOS

Thursday, September 15, 2022

I know that promises start to ring hollow after a while!!  But I promise that when I have adequate internet - and sleep! - I'll put up more photos and more details!!  But the days are so jam packed and the food and drink are so plentiful, that when I get back to my computer I'm basically worthless!!  (And now that I'm adding them, so much later, many are out of order, so just do your best!!)

Marilyn just loves getting into the 4x4s!  It helps if you're a gymnast.

Baboon

Kudus

Impala herd

Today we started out at six a.m. and headed out of camp, in the forest land (protected land that's owned by the government) and crossed in the Hwange National Park.  The idea was to protect the trees, but with trees come animals, and with animals come tourists! We encountered a troupe of baboons right off the bat.  Then came several kudu with the curly horns and and we went a little way down the road when one of our group said we needed giraffes.  As if by magic we found a mommy, daddy, and baby giraffe!!  Then there was an entire herd of elands and we haven't even gotten to the park yet! At the watering hole we saw two hippos and a croc. And other antelopes and many birds and then...

A pride of lions!  Three pregnant females and the king of the beasts!  We watch them for a long time, but they are quite comfy and the most we see is two of the females walking over to join the first one.  But we saw actual honest-to-god lions in the jungle!!! I don't care what else we see!!

We move on and see two hippos in the water and lots of pretty birds and elephants making their way through the trees and then there's another watering hole.  There are zebras and wildebeests! And more kudu and yellow-billed hornbills. The two jeeps meet up here for a mid-morning snack.  There is coffee, tea, and juice, and egg sandwiches and cereal and yoghurt and oranges and cookies! Sam and Sisa communicate constantly so that each one knows what treats the other has discovered for us.

They are so strong!  People use the material for flooring or walls in their huts.

Everyone comes to the watering hole, specially since it is a couple of months before the rains come.

Chocolate mousse with an apple stick

sugar bowl

tea time

Before moving on, Sisa delivers a lecture about the fungus-eating termites that have created the huge mounds that we see everywhere! They cannot process cellulose and so they have a fungus garden right inside the mound, outside the queen's chamber.  They have soldiers who guard the entrances to the mound and gatherers who harvest the grass adjacent to the mound, thus creating a firebreak!  When they are leaving the colony to start a new one, the people dig a small pit, fill it with water and shine a light on it.  The insects are attracted to the water and fall in.  Then the people scoop them us, boil them in salt water and allow them to dry - instant salty snack!!

After snack we start to head back to the lodge when Sisa radios Sam that there are several zebras with a dead baby.  Do we want to see them?  You bet!  When we get there there are more than several and the small one lying on its side gets up and looks perfectly fine!  We're all relieved!

We pass the watering hole again and the two hippos are out of the water and lying down on the island.  They get up but that's about the time my camera really begins to spit up, so I don't get that shot!  We also see more zebras and impalas and warthogs and baboons as we return to the lodge for lunch.

Again, it's spectacular.  Fish with house-made tartar sauce, and glazed pork chops and salad and pasta shells and potatoes and rice salad and coleslaw.  And dessert is chocolate mousse! And I have a glass of that lovely African red wine, because I deserve it for not hurling my camera under someone's wheels!

We have almost two hours before we leave again and Marilyn and I both take our computers to the main area to see if the wifi is better there and to try to catch up with our photos!  it's not long at all before we head back into the national park to see what's happening before sunset. There are kudu crossing the road in one direction and a herd of elephants crossing in the other!  Not at the same time!

More kudus, very well camouflaged

There are more kudu and a large black bird with a red wattle that related to the crow! And there's a single giraffe and a steenbuck, or stone antelope, that freezes like a stone when frightened. And there's a leopard tortoise, one of the "Small Five" and more elephants and then Oh My God we've found the lions again!  They are meandering to the watering hole to find a comfy place to hang out and wait for dinner to appear!! Several other jeeps keep on going and missed the whole show.  We are so lucky to have the guides we do who know so much about the animals and their habits and the park itself.

He lives in the park in which the famous Clifford lived and was murdered and Sisa thinks that
he made be of Clifford's lineage based on his dark mane!

With the lions bedded down for the duration it is time to go back to the lodge.  We stop for sunset photos but pass on our sunset drinks, choosing to go home first.  And there's a small herd of impalas crossing the road to get to where there are people!  They know they will be safe form predators if they are near humans!

Back home there is time for drinks down by the fire pit before dinner is served.  Isn't G&T the customary safari drink? And that African wine is to die for! The deliciousness never ends!  After dinner it is back to our tents for an early night, followed by an early morning!  And our laundry has come back, all washed, dried, and folded!  (Many more photo when it doesn't take three minutes to upload each one!)