Day 4

During the night we heard a lot of hippo calls. It was loud and sounded as if they were on our deck. After the 6:30 am breakfast we started our drive in the savanna. We saw many animals during the morning. Numbers are a guess. Hundreds of impala, cute and graceful. Handful of giraffes, kudu, mongoose, baboons, waterbuck, and wart hogs. At least 100 elephants, most in small groups but some in large groups. Fifty water buffalo. Thirty zebras. Hundreds of different kinds of birds. We drove quite far away from our camp because our guide found out that there was a leopard sighting and decided to pursue it. However, when we were close to the place, he got a call that the leopard has left. There were two excitements of the day. The first was when the safari truck broke down in the middle of nowhere. However, after a radio dispatch help arrived in 20 minutes with 40 liters of fuel and we were on our way. We utilized the wait time to have a coffee break -- the safari truck has a “table” that pulls out of the front, and the guide had a tablecloth, a thermos with coffee, milk, cookies, etc. The second was when we stopped to view a group of elephants on the side of the road. One enormous elephant was on the road and he started coming towards us. Our driver made a quick U turn and a fast escape. We got back to the camp just before 1 pm, just in time for a lovely lunch. After a rest period we again took off into the savanna in the other direction. We saw elephants, giraffes, waterbuck, impala, and a group of 5 or 6 hippos basking in the shallow water. On the way back to the camp we stopped at a place overlooking the water where there was a temporary setup of a glider swing and a table with 10 kinds of liquor and wine and a tray of appetizers for us. Totally unexpected and beautiful against the setting sun. They call it a sundowner. It’s one of the 6 meals we get every day – breakfast, coffee break, lunch. high tea, sundowner and dinner. Dinner was also very nice and very tasty. Our travel companion, Ray, is starting to open up and we are enjoying his company more and more.