We awoke early and as we had tea and coffee makings in the room John made us a lovely cup of tea - before I had a shower. As I picked up the glass shampoo bottle I said 'I don't know why they always seem to have glass bottles in Africa' - then in the shower while trying to get the reluctant shampoo out it slipped out of my hands and smashed on the shower floor! I pushed the glass to one side, finished my shower told Elia when we met up for our pre drive coffee at 5.45am. Oops!
We headed out and the weather looked slightly brighter than yesterday - our first encounter was with a small breeding herd of buffalo including a couple of day or so old calves. A slender mongoose crossed the road and then we turned a corner to find three rhino, one lying in the road - after waking they made their way off into the bush. A pride of lions had been found so we made our way to find them lying in the road 3 females, 2 sub adults and 3 cubs.
We saw a group of elephant in full flight after being frightened by an encounter with the bulldozer mending the roads - they charged back into the bush - it was quite a formidable sight watching a herd of elephants running - it was best not to be in their way. (today's photo)
After that excitement we stopped on a large flat rock and had coffee and muffins - for the first time ever a cafetiere emerged and we had proper coffee - brilliant!
The mother leopard from yesterday had apparently moved and her tracks had been spotted in the river bed so we decided to follow them to see if we could find her - after negotiating the herd of buffalo who were also in the riverbed we looked but couldn't find her - it was thought she was probably in thick bush but the hunt would continue this afternoon.
Brunch was fruit, yogurt,cereals and a lovely cooked breakfast including vegetables in a light pastry, tomatoes, mushrooms and a pancake for me and a pancake filled with a South African mince for the meat eaters with toast and croissants if we were still hungry!
After brunch we went by the pool for the day and just chilled - the wether improved so it was a very pleasant day - swimming and sunbathing were interspersed with watching the baboons, ververt monkeys and the purple turaco that briefly flew in.
At 4pm we had a light snack before venturing out on the evening drive. Elia told us he was struggling with toothache - so we let him have some of our numbing oral gel which he said made a difference so we told him to keep it as there is nothing more debilitating than toothache.
Tonight we searched for the leopard again - another jeep found it having made a nyala kill but it was in an even more difficult spot than yesterday so it was decided to leave it until tomorrow morning to find a way in if possible.
We watched a pod of hippos getting grumpy with each other and yawning their threats. We also watched elephant and had our sundowners with a group of giraffe. In the darkness we found a chameleon and several night jars.
Dinner was again around the fire in the boma and was again excellent.