Day 12

Early wakeup (5:30) then the drive around the area after breakfast. Today’s sighting included: lots of elephants including a group harvesting palm nuts from a tall palm tree by vigorously shaking the tree and eating the nuts that fell. We saw herds of wildebeest, buffalo, zebras. All of them were running from the same direction so our guide thought there may be a lion there. We drove around to check, but no lion. We also saw warthogs, baboons, and lots of impala. Lots of giraffes and 2 young ones playing by intertwining their necks. We did go back to the place where we saw the leopard cubs yesterday, but the cubs were gone. The mother must have come back and took them to a different place. During our mid-day siesta, a herd of giraffes came and stayed not far from our tent all afternoon -- 4 adults and two little ones. It was fun to watch them from our tree house. After lunch and rest we set out again looking for a lion to no avail. Then we heard reports of a leopard and cubs. We found them. At first the mother was up on a tree, but then she climbed down and we followed her to a place where she left her recently killed impala. Soon both cubs joined her. Our guide put the safari truck two feet away from them and we watched for 30 minutes. The cubs played together and jumped on their mother. Bo got hundreds of close up pictures. It was dark when we left so no sundowner. When we got back to the camp, dinner was set up by the fire pit. The dinner table was surrounded by lantern and candelabra, and there was a grill set up on the side + a buffet table. It was quite a beautiful setup. During dinner, we heard thunder and saw lightning, and then we got a few drops of rain. They told us that it’s quite unusual for this time of year. It must have been Africa saying goodbye to us.