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Baby elephant climbing our of a waterhole
Courtesy of Bob Brian
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We had a quiet morning only spotting elephants descending
the ridge into the valley, a colony of baboons and some Hyrax, the
closest relative to an elephant. Along the way we exchanged jeeps because the
starter wasn’t always starting. But after our tea break, we had a report of a
lion nearby. We kept hearing lion sounds, but couldn’t spot the lion. We
circled around to another road and then proceeded into the bush across some
open areas. Sure enough, we came upon three lionesses. The other jeep had
better success finding a herd of Cape Buffalo and elephants drinking from a
water hole. They especially enjoyed watching the baby elephants struggle up the
side of the water hole.
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Our Lunch Waterhole |
We continued for quite a way until we reached our lunch
spot. We overlooked a large watering hole with hippos, crocodiles, impala, wart
hogs, waterbucks and a troop of baboons. One of the baboons gave us a scare when
it climbed up the wall and grabbed Bob’s lunch. We really enjoyed lunch here –
it fulfilled the way you expect a waterhole to be: animals interacting as they came
down to drink. On the way back we saw giraffe, a Giant Eagle Owl,
and more elephants. We especially enjoyed two young males challenging each
other, and a small herd of Cape Buffalo. We got back to camp at about 4:30 PM.
Quite a day!
Before dinner, we go to try the traditional brew of the
region, a corn beer, now sold commercially as Chibuku
meaning “that book” referring to the book with the recipe. Our treat with the
beer was Mopani worm, the larva of the mopani caterpillar,
definitely an acquired taste. After dinner, we had our final Boma. The camp
team did drumming, singing, and dancing, and we reciprocated with “Take me out
to the Ballgame” and “She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain”.
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