We slept soundly at last. It was woderfully relaxing being in a tent with the cool air round us and wool blankets over us. Our twin beds were comfortable and life was good, except for the outrageous sound of a tuba player, my vote; a giant in the throws of passion, Fred's vote; a flatulent elephant, third choice. Wrong! All wrong! At breakfast we were gleefully told the sound was a young male lion exhibiting his macho tendencies. Julian said the lion was just purring. A full grown lion's roar would have leveled the tent. Ignorance is truly bliss.
Our first early morning event was an encounter with a full grown male lion. He was a majestic sight, but hardly looked as if he would level a tent. Not that he wasn't scary. Not that he wasn't huge.
He was just too content lying in the road to look very menacing, but we didn't try to coax him out of the way. With much respect we drove around his highness.
The rest of the morning was filled with wonder after wonder. The drive lasted seven hours with a breakfast stop, of course. We left around 6:30 and stopped around 9:00 for a "typical" bush breakfast. Coffee, tea, quiche, cornflakes, pineapple, bananas, muffins, marmalade (wonderful English bitter orange marmalade), butter and the daily morning sausages - oh, and hard boiled eggs. We did not dare to leave a scrap of biodegradable or non-biodegradable litter behind. The park belongs to the animals, not to be polluted by humans.
The morning and into early afternoon was astonishing. Hundreds and hundreds of zebras racing along beside the car and stampeding across the road. Buffalo as far as the eye could see racing in front of us until all that was left was a huge mass of dust. Giraffe close up and regal. Wildebeest running with the zebras. Cute little mongooses scurrying around and the petite, hard-to-spot dik-dik racing in the tall grass. (The dik-dik is a small deer and very difficult to photograph. I don't think we have a picture of one.) Warthog, fat and ugly. Baboons funnay and endearing wth their young and the sight of the day, a huge bull elephant lounging, bathing, drinking in the river ad finally curious enough to come up and get a better look at our Land Rover. I had bee sitting on the roof of the car thouroughly enjoying the huge, playful animal until he got too close. I dove into the car to the great amusement of our guide.
Back for a spaghetti lunch, a short nap and another three hour drive before dinner.
Evening was really dull. By this time, we were used to seeing zebra everywhere and giraffe peeking around trees, impala gracing the savannah and the Grants gazelle leaping in the high grass. But then, but then, we spotted a cheetah lying in the grass beside a rock outcropping. She treated us to a yawn and stretch and a meander on the path so we could see the sleek, slinky, feline walk. WOW! A fantastic reward after a ten hour day in the bush; Shower ritual when the water is fired up. Lovely dinner, noisy campfire, a sighting of three lions at the camp water hole, a bush baby in a nearby tree, and a welcoming flop into bed. Yes, the tent was secured for the night.
