After our 6.00 am tea tray and bucket shower we went to the mess tent for breakfast as we had decided to go for a another slightly longer walk. We set off at 7am with our guide, spotter and an old Masai, wearing traditional Masai dress and a woolly hat! He led the walk and we double translation as he spoke to our spotter in Masai, he translated it into Swahili and spoke to our guide who translated it again into English for us - it seemed to work and nothing seemed to get lost in translation. Having seen our interest in birds Mdabe brought a large bird book with him which for comfort he carried down the back of his shirt!!
We turned over rocks and found scorpions including a baby one, hardly visible to the eye, we learnt about the different medicinal qualities if the flora and had a lovely walk through both woodland and open plain. As we came to a small waterhole we saw an Egyptian goose with goslings swim quickly into the undergrowth with them and emerge without them - where she hid them we will never know as we couldn't find them - amazing camouflage, parental strategy and kids doing what they were told! We also saw steppe and tawny eagles and on the way back heard and the saw a two black throated barbets go into a hole where I presume they were nesting.
We got back around 1030 so had time to relax before lunch and then an afternoon game drive. At lunch we were joined by a group of British photographers on a trip led by Warren Samuels - the wildlife cameraman and the camera behind much of the cheetah footage we see on the BBC.
At 1600 we went in search of the honey badger but to no avail not helped by being hit by a massive thunderstorm - it is these rains that keep the wildebeest in the areas the grass is replenished so no complaints. It did mean we saw a Montagus harrier on the ground sheltering behind some grass and similarly 3 white bellied bustards were sheltering behind some even taller clumps of grass. We also saw hyena, stenbok and had great fun watching a family of bat eared foxes continuously running, stopping and looking as they ran away from us - so cute with their large sound catching ears.....and of corse we saw wildebeest and zebra- it goes without saying!
The drive back was quite slippery and muddy due to the rain but it was dry on our return so a drink around the fire while we ordered and waited for our lovely hot bucket shower to be hoisted over our tent - we had direct line of sight from the fire- so not a minute was wasted.
Dinner was again a convivial affair - prior to dinner I had been sorting out my photos on my iPad so when in conversation with Billie about our travels the subject of Brazil and jaguars came up. As she didn't know exactly what they looked like or how they differed from leopards I showed her my Pantanal album on my iPad. My pictures were then analysed by Warren, John and Alex -3 photographic experts so a tad daunting - when Warren said that one of my jaguar photos was one of the best he had seen I felt quite chuffed ( I hope he's seen more than two!!) I do need to go on a photographic course and although auto focus is fine I want and need to understand what all the dials and settings do---another holiday on the wish list.