GAME DRIVE 2

 On Friday we were awakened at 5:30 for 6:00 am light breakfast and 6:30 GAME DRIVE.

We started the morning drive with a return to the tree where the leopard had the impala in the tree last night.  The big male who was dining last night was in the grass this morning, which told us that the 2 big lions had moved on.  

He's just resting and perhaps digesting the meal he had in the tree last night.  You might get the sense that he is pretty comfortable with us around, but nothing proves that more than this shot . . . 

And its not like we're seeing all of this from far away.  We were probably 10 yards away from him.   That's another Inyati Land Rover watching from the other side.  Yet he still doesn't feel hemmed in or nervous, which just amazes me.

Then, rather suddenly he perked up.

The reason for his sudden attention was that the female leopard was leaving the tree.  We were told yesterday that she actually made the kill last night, but the male leopard came and took it away.  He took it up in the tree just in time to avoid the 2 big male lions.  So, he was up there last night dining.  When he had his fill and the lions moved on, she finally got her chance at the carcass.  And now she's had enough as well.

She then left the area, but not in any hurry and certainly not with any anxiety about our presence.  This is why Gabriel says that Sabi Sands is the best place in the world to see leopards, because of their numbers and their comfort with us.

We followed her for about 10 minutes before we ventured on.  It was amazing to be so close to her for so long.

We saw more hippos over the course of the morning, but they don't look much different than yesterday's hippos and in fact they were less rambunctious.  So no new hippo pics.

We were looking for rhinos this morning.  That didn't go very well, although we did also see zebras, warthogs, wildebeest and 2 bull elephants.  Gabriel estimated that they are in the 20's.  Approaching middle age.

You can see by John's hat in the foreground that we were quite close.  The elephants never seemed to care that we were there.  What a great zoo this is !

Warthog male

Wildebeest . . . we only saw 2.  I'm going to withhold that picture until Kenya, where we hope to see the migration of literally thousands and thousands of them.

We also got a great discussion of termites.  Diane and I had seen termites in Australia, but they operate a bit differently in Africa.  These mounds get built up over potentially thousands of years and multiple generations of termites.  Each termite community lives only as long as the queen and then the community dies and the mound becomes dormant.  Years or even decades later, another termite pair will take over the termite mound and re-establish the community.  With the headstart in size provided by colony #1, colony #2 will become even larger.  But again, eventually the queen will die and dormancy happens again.  This can repeat quite a few times and eventually, a mound 6 - 8 feet high can be the result.  Such as this one, which was not all that unusual.  Again, John's head provides some scale.

To close out the morning, we heard on the radio that the female leopard was returning with her cub to carcass.  So we quickly returned ourselves and we got to see the pair of them for about 10 minutes.  They still hadn't returned to the tree, but they were on their way.  

The cub is on the right and is nearly as big as mom.  This cub is about a full year old and hopefully makes it all the way to adulthood and independence.  Mom doesn't protect the cub and doesn't teach it to hunt either.  She hides it for about 18 months (it does vary), but she doesn't protect it.  She simply can't protect it, from either a full-grown male leopard or from a lion.  So, she just hides it until it is ready to move out on its own.

  So . . . we didn't get to the rhinos this morning, but we still have tonight and both trips on Saturday.  We're also hoping for more giraffe, zebras, hyenas, wild dogs, monkeys, baboons, a lion pride, and perhaps an elephant herd.  So many animals, so little time.  Its been fantastic so far and might get better.