Day 16 Kimondo Kusini

I have arranged a 06.00 wake up call. My morning game drive commences at 06.30 and we shall take a picnic breakfast. First of all, we shall see if we can find last night’s cheetahs. We have not travelled far when we spot a lone cheetah cub. It is sitting and calling for its mother. It is still quite dark so I cannot capture a very clear shot but the video is good and records the cub’s high pitched calls which are heart-rending.

We guess that hyenas must have come upon the kill in the night and the cheetahs would have fled in all directions. We drive away hoping that the cheetah family will soon be re-united. Luckily other guests report later that morning that they did indeed see the whole family back together.

We search some rocky outcrops for lions but have no luck. A giraffe casually observes us through a thicket.

Time passes swiftly and it is already 08.30 and breakfast time. Holle stops on a beautiful wooded slope. Impala graze in the background and pretty white and pink flowers adorn the ground.

I love bush breakfasts. I am always hungry after bouncing around in a jeep for a few hours. And everything tastes great. There are fried egg sandwiches with bacon and sausages, fresh fruit, pancakes and muffins. The coffee is particularly good. It is surprising that I always enjoy fresh coffee for breakfast when I am on holiday. In England I would only ever have tea. While Holle packs up I try and take some bird photos. There are lots of grey-breasted spurfowl in the undergrowth. They are shy but I succeed in the end.

Before we continue, I use the bush toilet (i.e stoop behind the vehicle). Oh to be a man on these occasions – it feels pretty exposed! You never quite know when a predator or another vehicle may appear.

After breakfast we come upon a lone adult cheetah. This is cheetah central!! It saunters through the bush, resting occasionally in different poses to provide quite excellent photo opportunities.

We then find a pride of 9 lions; 3 lionesses and 6 cubs. Initially they lie in the bushes doing what lions do best i.e. laze away the day. We observe them for quite a while as the cubs are pretty cute and are particularly delighted when they all start to move. The cubs are playful, chasing each other and nuzzling their mums and better still they are all out in the open. What a treat! I take lots of video as the inter-action is super.

We stay with the lions for over an hour and reluctantly move off but this is obviously big cat morning as we now hear a leopard has been seen. We set off to find it and eventually spot several vehicles parked on the edge of a gully. There is dense undergrowth on the far side and apparently the leopard is in there somewhere. This is going to be a waiting game. It is mid-day so cracking open a beer seems a good idea while I wait. Eventually after half an hour or so the leopard emerges. We follow it through the bush which involves traversing several gullies. The vegetation is dense and thick; the going bumpy. Trying to keep our eyes on the leopard is difficult but with the aid of numerous binocular stops we succeed and follow it to a tree, which it rapidly climbs and sprawls out on a branch to snooze the day away.

I arrive back for lunch at 13.00 – a sensible time. Great I think. I can have lunch and edit some photos. Best laid plans….by now I really should know better! I end up having lunch with Margot and we talk until it is time for the afternoon drive. Hey ho – I shall just have to write my blog in England. In any case the WiFi here is useless and I decide to stop trying to use it for anything other than a quick text message.

We hear the migration is now making its way to Kusini so this will be this afternoon’s challenge. There are myriads of birds here. It would be wonderful to stay for longer and focus on the birdlife. Huge flocks of collared doves takes flight as we pass by, spur fowl seem to be hiding under every bush. Lilac breasted rollers flash between the bushes with their beautiful turquoise blue wings. Everywhere there are birds in flight and I would love to have more time to photograph the numerous different species here.

We spot a group of lions lying by the side of a large pool of water. They look so hot, yet as they are lying in the burning mid-day heat, I think they must be obtaining relief from the damp earth that they are resting on.

We drive a few hundred yards and find 3 more lions. Sleepy as they are we are amused to see one of the males continually prodding the female on her bottom. He is obviously after a bit of afternoon romance but she is having none of it and does not bat an eyelid. I have totally lost track of the number of big cats I have seen on this trip. It is all the more astonishing because there seem to be vast tracts of land with very little plains game. There must be plenty to eat because, out of all the many cats I have seen, I have not seen any that are particularly thin or unhealthy. In fact most are fat cats!

We drive on across the scrubby heathland but still see no sign of the migration. Eventually we start to encounter zebra and hyenas and then wildebeest. The herds increase incrementally and then there are thousands of animals teeming before us.

The plains are punctuated by occasional waterholes and gullies. Zebra frolic in the pools accompanied by their noisy ‘Eeaw, Eeaw, Eeaw’ and mini wildebeest migrations take place as each gully is crossed.

The gullies may be small but many hyena use them as resting places so they are certainly not a safe place for animals to linger. On this occasion we see no predator action, but I have certainly seen thousands of animals today, both big and small. Numerous hyenas and jackals appear on our drive back.

As usual we are greeted by beaming staff clapping and singing. They are led by the totally charismatic camp manager – Richard who is always smiling and appears to run everywhere. We are late back so I decide to order my bucket shower for after dinner and I shall wash my hair then. I have a brief change and semi-freshen up and then head for the camp fire. Conversation flows and dinner is another fun, communal affair. We are told dessert is a bush surprise. The lights go out then all the staff start singing and dancing around the table. It turns out to be two peoples’ birthdays. Cake appears and dancing continues with everyone being grabbed and made to join in with the dancing and singing. Richard says “Caring is sharing” and the cakes are cut and distributed.

When I return to my room I shower and wash my hair and think “I shall treat myself and use my hairdryer”. My hair goes a bit wild with the humidity so, if I can use a dryer, tomorrow I might look a bit less like Monica in Friends when she goes to the Caribbean. If you have not seen this episode just take it from me – her hair is wild indeed! I dry about 10 strands of hair before I trip the fuse. Fortunately the lights work but no power. Everyone has now gone to bed and there is no way I am owning up to my sabotage tonight. Clearly the room power sockets are only designed for charging batteries and phones. I can now do neither, my phone and laptop batteries are flat and I am flying to Mahale tomorrow, which is a four hour trip. I swear and go to bed with wet hair – grrr! I always sleep on my back so I pull my hair tight behind me on the pillow and think I can perhaps straighten it out in the night. Miraculously it works and looks pretty OK when I get up in the morning!