Up at 5.45 awakened with tea and biscuits - John has been dreaming of morning cup of tea for 3 weeks now - so his dream came true. At 6am the bucket shower arrived which allowed us a quick freshen up before leaving at 0630 for a morning game drive with 2 Americans who were leaving today. We took a packed breakfast which we ate in the bush before returning around 1130am.
As we left camp Sod's law again prevailed and what did we see but a rather well fed lioness and three cubs walking through the bushes, there was a heavy dew so everything looked crisp and fresh - she made her way to a pool to drink and then back towards the bushes probably to digest her dinner and sleep it off. The cubs were a couple of months old and very playful one even tried to climb a tree. A second female emerged from the bushes but only fleetingly -apparently she has two 4 month old cubs - they remained elusive.
A great sighting after yesterday's efforts and they form today's picture.
Other unusual sightings were dwarf and banded mongoose and a tree hyrax. We also watched families of elephant - one 40+ group including big males- hippo, wildebeest ( northern Lolita population not Tanzanian migrators),a group of giraffe with 4 youngsters, topi, hartebeest, dik dik, impala, Thompsons gazelle, eland and zebra.
We said our goodbyes to Dixon, our lovely Masai guide, as he had an ongoing chest complaint and was off to the hospital to be X-rayed - a 2 day journey!
We opted to go to the fly camp for the night - they have just started this venture and it was great because you walk in and walk out and get to see wildlife on foot.
We set off after tea at 1630 with Roelof, the camp manager, and arrived at fly camp as the sun was going down at 1830pm. We had an eventful walk as we had to steer a route between elephants - the big breeding herd and 4 big males. As we went to walk down a gully we disturbed a lioness hunting topi - I am not sure who was more startled - our guide had his gun loaded in a flash and she ran off. She sat and watched us from a small mound but he was pleased she wasn't growling. We took a wide berth because we weren't sure if she had cubs concealed somewhere and if we went near them she could/would become very aggressive.
You really get to see the little things and we saw balls the dung beetle had made and in which the lava would be developing which had been dug up by honey badgers or similar; they had broken then balls open and eaten the larvae.
On arrival at camp we had a drink by the camp fire - got our fleeces out as it was cool and windy and had a lovely dinner of spinach soup , potato gratin, vegetables, chick pea curry ( and lamb kebabs for John) finished off with a very rich chocolate fridge cake and coffee.
As it was now quite cool and very dark we decided to postpone showers until the morning and after chatting with Roelof....we went to get ready for bed ...we made our way to the loo tent as we thought two torches were better than one - but as John sat down the seat collapsed - the stays weren't extended properly - the look of horror on his face as he thought he was going to end up in the nicely dug hole made me roar with laughter - but I did put out my hand and pull him up - saving him from a fate worse than death - he put the seat together properly and tried again - success -but I couldn't stop giggling!
They had thought of everything - a really comfy mattress - nice bedding - hot water bottles and a battery operated lamp in the top of the (bell) tent which you turned off with a remote control!
We had a great nights sleep falling asleep quickly after lying looking out on the clear starlight sky.