Nearly "The Big Five"...

Started the day with a 6am morning safari with the rangers (cold). Straight away - about 100 m from the lodge they spotted some fresh lion tracks... we drove on and tried to find the group. The tracks lead us to an open area where there had been a killing. A couple of hyenas were chewing on a big bone they must had stolen from the lions... despite great effort and the rangers getting out of the vehicle walking in to the bush searching we didnt see the lions. On the rest of the tour we saw a group of buffalos, giraffe, crocs, hippos, zebras etc. But the highlight was when a leopard was spotted as they are extremely secretive animals. To get anything other than a fleeting glimpse of one is a tremendous bonus. In the sun on a tree a female leopard was lying and she had a little cub hiding in the grass. This stealth-hunting animal is gorgeous to look at...! Best wildlife experience down here so far..

After the drive I took a walk with one of the rangers through the bush. He was carrying his riffle of course.. but still. It was so exiting! The ranger of course gave the well-known instruction before the walk: " Whatever charges us dont run, just stand still..." He wanted to see if he could find that group of lions so it was pretty intense walking behind him in the high grass and through the thick bush.. At a dry riverbed leading to a lake we bumbed into a massive hippo lying in the sun. Thought it was a rock at first. Was told to sit down and be dead quiet as they are bloody dangerous and are actually the animals that causes most casualties in Africa. It heard us and turned around and looked at us but fortunately it decided to go the other way...

At lunchtime I left the guests at Idube and took the long 5 1/2 hr drive back to home Pretoria to have dinner with four new guests... Fantastic week but also good to be home..