I awoke before 5am, showered and was in the mess tent for a necessary coffee by 5.40am. The day dawned less windy than yesterday but it was not certain it was calm enough to walk - as in wind you cannot hear the animals. However Enoch thought it might be possible to drive to a location then walk - so we were prepared for every eventuality! We set off in the Landrover and did indeed park up for short walk - we had a good sighting of rhino before they headed into the bush and then had to carefully negotiate ourselves around some grumpy old male buffalo. As we moved on I saw a pearl spotted owlet fly into a tree - a first - I have never see them flying before. We then spied rhino infront of us and buffalo to one side so 6 of us stood behind a tree waiting to see who went where and feeling slightly surrounded! Enoch actually had to load his rifle as one rhino unaware of us wandered too close - the mere sound sent him scurrying and allowed us free passage to walk back to the truck. On the radio the other vehicle had seen two young male lions and were watching them until we arrived. Lions were the last of the big 5 for Kim and Ionna to see - amazing as its normally leopard!
When we caught up with them they were moving quite fast and looked lean and in need of a meal - but as they disappeared into the bush at least they got to see them. On our way back to breakfast we stopped in a large breeding herd of buffalo - many were lying down chewing the cud accompanied by oxpeckers.
After breakfast I relaxed by the pool and just before lunch did have a quick 30 minute swim - albeit small I could do some decent exercise.
At 4.30pm we headed out for another drive - we saw kudu, buffalo, elephant, warthog, Impala and southern ground hornbill. After sundowners we went to see if the leopard was still around. We sat quietly and we could hear bones crunching so we scoured under all the bushes and sat under the tree where we saw her last night. The guides were perplexed and discussing where she might be when all of a sudden she ran down the trunk of the tree we were under - she had been above us all the time!! Another leopard - a big male had been sighted with a warthog kill - so we made our way to see him. By luck he was right by the track so there was no need to go deep into the bush - we got great photos as he stood there with the most enormous stomach and panting from the effort of eating so much - clearly he was full of warthog! (today's photo)As we made our way back for supper not believing our luck we saw our first giraffe in this reserve - some were sleeping - but as they are diurnal animals we didn't disturb them.
After dinner Ionna and Kim were taken to the tree house as they had opted for a night close to nature! Tomorrow we will find out how they fared!