This morning as we loaded up in the jeeps, the guides told us there had been sightings of some African painted dogs, hunting in the area and since they were an animal we hadn’t seen yet, we all agreed that we should go and try to find them. We were pretty excited to hear they were in our area, as we’d been told they are really hard to find most days.
Our drivers all split up and we began the search, and it
wasn’t too long before one of the drivers spotted them and said they were on
the run. This is where the guides experience really comes in handy as they knew
where to head and what to listen for, and they got us into the right area in no
time. We were able to spot them moving
fast through the woods, but it was so hard to get any kind of photo of them. We eventually got to a spot in front of them,
and could see them coming up fast behind us, but I still don’t know if any of
my photos will turn out as we never seemed to come to a complete stop anywhere.
At one point we did stop and listen to where they had gone,
and next thing I knew, a Steenbock flew across the road in front of us,
followed by a painted dog in full sprint. They were gone as fast as they
appeared! I’m still amazed by how fast both were moving… it was amazing. That was the last I saw of the painted dogs,
and even though it was very brief, it was so cool to witness.
The guide told us there was also a report of a pride of lions
that had gotten a kill the night before, and she said he had an idea of where
they were, so off we went to look. It took a little while to find them, but we
did and then got to spend an hour watching the pride rest, eat, rest some more
and even have a bit of a squabble with each other when someone got too greedy
with the meal.
There were a few times when we would watch a cub take a
piece of meat or bone and kind of waddle away with it to their own little spot.
Is it wrong to say it was kind of cute to watch?
After a crazy morning, we headed back to camp for lunch and to
finish packing our stuff as it was time to move on to the next location this
afternoon.
The flight was a smooth and easy one, and we got checked
into the next location before afternoon tea.
The next few days are going to be spent on the river and
will likely be a nice break from bouncing around in the jeeps, if tonight’s
river cruise is a good sign of things to come.
We had our first trip out on the boat after tea, and mostly
just got used to the setup on there. The boats are configured perfectly for
photography. You sit in a seat in the middle of boat that spins in 360 degrees
and has a great camera mount that allows you to spin your camera in any direction
you like. I think this will be fun. We got a hint tonight, so looking forward to
the next 3 days.
It's late now and time to get to bed so we can start bright
and early.
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