Day 6 started early with a stunning sunrise at 5:45 and another full day safari planned for our final day. We were joined by a young French lady, Gwen, who was traveling alone.
We had only just left the campsite when I saw something moving in the long grass at the side of the road. We reversed and were delighted with our first sighting of the day being a leopard. There was a second leopard close by which Mowledee believed to be Fundi, made famous by a television program filmed a few years ago on the big cats of the National Park in Ruhua.
As we headed out again Mowledee spotted this young female leopard who had killed vervet monkey.
As we headed out again Mowledee spotted this young female leopard who had killed vervet monkey.
We continued on our journey and again had not gone too when Mowledee asked Nightie to reverse the jeep. I took us a while to spot what he was actually pointing at but in a hollow was a Bat Eared Fox, who feed mainly on termites.
During our drive we were really lucky to have some beautiful sightings of many of the animals we had already seen, specifically the giraffe who we spent a while watching drinking down at the river. When the giraffe are drinking they are most at risk from predators and they rely on their herd to warn them of any predators that could attack them.
We stopped for breakfast at a river picnic site and Mowledee kindly took this photograph of us
After breakfast we were informed that a leopard was resting in a nearby tree so we headed to off to see. This leopard was not an ideal model as she was very well hidden in the tree and was fast asleep. We did get quite close which enabled me to take some close up shots of her feet and beautiful coat.
Leopards are solitary animals and come together just to mate. They live within a "home range" in which they continually advertise their presence through calling and scent marking. All possible steps are taken to defend territories through scent, signs and signals rather than physical conflict. As a solitary hunter, leopards cannot afford to become injured and avoid confrontation.
One to three cubs are born blind and helpless and it is six weeks before they emerge from their den. Weaning takes place at about three months but it will be a year before they are able to fend for themselves.
Females range over smaller territories than males and there is often an overlap between mothers and their mature daughters.
Leopards are the ultimate opportunists, feeding on a wide range of prey from winged termites, rodents, to duiker, warthogs, bushbuck, impala and young zebra.
Leopards are most active at night but are not strictly nocturnal which was lucky for us as the day progressed!!
We were amazed to see these two giraffes chewing on a bone out on the plain and even more disturbed when Mowledee told us it was the leg bone of another giraffe which had been killed a few months earlier. Apparently they do this to increase their mineral levels....strange but true!!
Very cute elephant family crossing the river bed
We stopped for lunch at another picnic spot (no lions for Nightie today!) but Mowledee said "be careful of the hippos though"....as the river bed looked completely dry I thought he was joking!!
Beautiful picnic lunch of roast chicken, pasta salad, ratatouille and fresh salad, laid out by the lovely Mowledee
Sitting with my back to the river bed I asked Mowledee what the noise was and he said "I told you it was the hippos" and sure enough behind us were hippos. It is amazing the different habitat to those we saw in Lake Manze and how they have adapted during the dry season.
Very ugly and quite scary Southern Ground Hornbill who preys on large snakes, they appear to mate for life and everytime we saw them they were in pairs.
Not long after lunch we came across the gorgeous Bushbuck pride who we had seen the day before with the buffalo kill but this time the whole pride was together and were obviously still full and contented after their feed the day before.
The beautiful cubs gave us a lovely display of rolling over, sleeping as well as enjoying a long feed from their sleeping Mum.
Anyone up for a game of sleeping lions?
Reluctantly we left the pride and headed back towards camp, as we drove round a corner we came across this large bull elephant just off the side of the road. He was so close and huge. Mowledee explained that they sleep with their trunk resting on the ground and it acts like a radar, picking up vibrations of approaching animals.
Their feet are amazing....glad I don't have to cut those toenails!!!
We were waiting him rest and had been talking quietly, I asked Mowledee a questions and as I did the elephant decided we had disturbed him enough and he raised his trunk, opened his ears and came towards the vehicle....quite scary at the time and he was so imposing and just showed how careful and respectful you need to be when viewing these animals.
Further along the road we once again stopped and Mowledee pointed towards a couple of small trees. It took us a little while to finally spot our second Bat Eared Fox basking in the sun...in fact it took Gwen about 5 minutes to final spot it.
A beautiful African Hawk Eagle
We were heading back towards camp along the fantastic rocky area when we had a further leopard sighting. This one was just siting in a bush right alongside the road.
He then crossed the road behind out vehicle and then sat and relaxed, watching up again.
We then received news that their was another leopard further down the road near the dry river bed where we saw the male leopard yesterday. When we arrived their were about 5 other vehicles there who had not been as lucky as us during the day and this was their first leopard sighting. We watch him for a short time and then as a couple more vehicles arrived we decided to head back to camp.
A much needed beer when we arrived back to camp after our final full day on safari.
The welcome sight of our tent and a nice long shower as the sunsets
A giraffe visiting us in camp at dusk
Storm lamps were lit every evening outside and inside the tent, although the lack of light could be challenging at times as it is so dark with no light pollution but it really added to the atmosphere in camp
Showering in the open air as the sunsets
Having read the full post I can see why you and Graham chose to rise at 5.45, oh the horror, what a super last day!
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