We were up early for a game drive and it’s been a quiet morning…one giraffe, one elephant, one wildebeest, a herd of buffalo with lots of little ones and of course a ton of impala. We are sitting at Marbou Pan….meant to be a good spot to watch animals drinking but none to be found, as there is a lot of water in other parts of the park..so a perfect spot for breakfast and catching up on the blog.
We took the “safari circuit” drive and saw more ellies, giraffe and wildebeest through changing scenery of open veld and more dense forest type areas so made our hunt for lion a little challenging. We had a much easier ellie sightings at a water pan when 4 bull ellies came by for a drink and siesta, constantly flapping their ears to cool themselves as by now it’s 30+ degrees. We were out from about 6 hours and only saw 3 vehicles so felt like we were the only ones at Savute!
We took the “safari circuit” drive and saw more ellies, giraffe and wildebeest through changing scenery of open veld and more dense forest type areas so made our hunt for lion a little challenging. We had a much easier ellie sightings at a water pan when 4 bull ellies came by for a drink and siesta, constantly flapping their ears to cool themselves as by now it’s 30+ degrees. We were out from about 6 hours and only saw 3 vehicles so felt like we were the only ones at Savute!
Gates to the camp “close” at sunset so a late afternoon drive is a great time to catch the predators on the hunt. We had an unbelievable encounter with wild dogs on the hunt as three walked out of the bush and stopped in front of us sniffing and scouting the area and then the hunt began and they were off. Wild dogs hunt in packs and part of their strategy is that they encircle the prey from all directions. We were like the paparazzi with 4 other vehicles following the hunt and following them through the roads alongside the bush. Sunset arrived before the kill occurred so we don’t know what happened next but the excitement of the chase made for our highlight of the day.
We were huddled around the campfire in the darkness braaing chicken and chatting with Jaco, an SA guide we’d met earlier when I suddenly looked up and saw this absolutely massive bull elephant pass by us less than 8 metres away. We felt dwarfed in his presence and Jaco calmly suggested we stand near the Landy. The ellie didn’t seem fazed by us…Deon protected the chicken just in case. He headed to a nearby camping spot and you could see with the activity of the lights there they hadn’t spotted him yet. Jaco gave them a heads up whistle and gently shouted “elephant” and then you saw the mass scatter action of torches as they ran to safety. We heard from them this morning that they were just about to sit down for dinner when they heard Jaco call so there was a moment of chaos as they scrambled for last minute cover as they thought he was coming between them and their tent! Not sure if it was the same one that walked through the campsite when we were braaing our lunch?
The books warn you to leave nothing out over night and to pack everything away as hyenas will take it away – braai grids and all. Our roof top tent ladder is wedged on top of two rolled sand ladders. Deon sprayed them last night with Baygon hoping to deter the hyenas. We woke this morning to find one missing sand ladder…which was fortunately not stolen…just been dragged to the other side of our campsite. Deon left some chicken bones so perhaps the hyena opted for those over a tasty sand ladder!!
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