An early start today - 5.15 wake up and 6.15am set off as we were headed north to Busanga Plains - a vast expanse of grassland & mounds with trees and bushes on top, which is underwater during the wet season and is a large lake with a complex of small islands. As we wended our way north we looked for leopard - but no luck and has we got onto the plains we saw small herds of blue wildebeest, groups of 2 or 3 oribi, single male roan and in the distance one larger herd and around the drying marshy wet areas - pods of hippo - I have never seen so many out grazing in the daytime - we counted over 30 - they are a Kafue phenomena, herds of puku and very large herds of red lechwe. They are a remarkable recovery story - once down to 80 individuals they are today @ 7000 animals.
We also saw lots of bird life - recently arrived yellow bilked kites, fish eagles, black chested snake eagle, capped whitear, stonechat, common waxbill, rosy chested long claw, long clawed plover, spoonbill, red and yellow oxpeckers, yellow billed storks, sacred ibis, pratincole, egrets and no doubt many other species I have failed to remember.
The adventure of the day was heading across the marsh to see if we could find the lion seen earlier and getting across one stretch of water but getting stuck in the second. Despite Phil's best endeavours , jacking it up and putting in more would the jeep wouldn't come out as the original structure lost shape and offered no traction. He decided the best option was to call for help - no reply on the radio so he walked/ran to the nearest camp - 10 minutes away. We all ate lunch sitting in the sun while he trekked off returning just as we had finished with help and a tow rope - the vehicle was out in seconds and we
were off for the continuation of our journey but deciding the lions were out of reach!
When we got back to camp @ 4pm - showers were the order of the day - all clean Phil told us that one of the staff had seen a leopard crossing the road near camp earlier. So all clean we set off to see if it was still around - our luck was in we found her under a bush (today's photo) and watched her as she repositioned herself then walked off towards the river - as she did she leapt about 3 metres into the air as a flock of guinea fowl attempted to land- great attempt if a miss. We then in the gloom of nightfall watched her crouch on the edge of the grass as a wary waterbuck moved closer- we think it was too big for her but she was definitely interestedly. Everyone content we made our way back to camp for supper!