Thurs. 13th June ’24
We have a full day at Sango Safari Lodge and so we have been told the schedule is a wake up call at 5:30, followed by breakfast around the fire and off for a morning safari drive at 6:30, so that is the plan then. Sure enough we were woken from our slumber by the sound of our names being called. The transition from lovely warm bed into the cold dark outside world was hard but we wanted to see how the leopard was doing with his warthog meal. We headed back into the Khwai concession to see. The concession is some 180 square km and administered by the local community.
The leopard was sunning himself under the tree which held the remains of the warthog. He was quite relaxed and not bothered by the safari vehicles, which soon surrounded him. The leopard even rolled onto his back like a cuddly cat asking for his big full tummy to be tickled – no takers for that job!! As we had spent an hour with the leopard last night we soon moved on as we still wanted to check out the hyena pit.
Sadly the hyena pit was empty. Paco explained that the young would be below ground in the holes we could see in the sandy ground and the adults would be somewhere in the surrounding undergrowth. Oh well, there was still the river to explore and see what we could find. Dave spotted a fish eagle on a tree but he was too far away to get any decent photos. Later he did catch this fellow in flight.
After a couple of hours driving around enjoying our nature lessons from Paco we now know that when elephants walk they place their back feet on top of their front footprint and although their prints are oval it is possible to see which way the elephant was heading by a small scuff mark at the front. All this new knowledge was soon followed by the mention of a coffee stop. No Starbucks but just an open plain devoid of any animals likely to be bothered by us and Paco soon produced coffee and muffins, yummy.
We then enjoy time seeing a mixture of common animals like zebra, impalas and even guinea fowl, as this is Richard and Susan’s first safari, so everything is new and exciting to them. We were even able to show Susan what a live warthog looked like as she had only seen the dead one up the leopards tree. Driving along the side of the river was quite quiet until Paco pointed out a female lioness walking along the far side of the river. We could hear a fellow lion calling her from within the bush, and after a few minutes she was gone deep into the bushes away from us. Whilst we were busy watching the lion we missed seeing a kingfisher diving and catching some food from the river. Oh well can’t see everything.
Contented we headed back to the lodge for brunch and to talk to the German group who were on our sister safari truck this morning to compare notes and have some down time before we head out again. We are looking forward to our afternoon /evening activity, which is going along the river on a mokoro, which is the local cross between a canoe and punt, each with its own guide to propel us along. We so enjoyed this activity eleven years ago here in the Okovango Delta that we hope it will as good.
There are twelve of us split over six mokoros and we head out to see the hippos. Passing two groups of Japanese also in mokoros and staring into their long lensed cameras was quite a traffic jam. The hippos refused to put on any sort of show, no big yawns, no fighting, just stationary with their eyes above the water. Oh well, maybe we will have better luck with the frogs we have been told about, or maybe not. Still, it is very relaxing just floating through the reeds enjoying the afternoon experience. The rollers dart from reed to reed, tantalising us into trying to take a photo before they fly off.
As the sun begins to get lower in the sky it is time to clamber out of the mokoros onto the bank, where one is overturned so it can be made into a makeshift bar for sundowners. With the twelve of us it is quite a task to sort all the gin and tonics as well as wine. We all get chatting, with English being the Common language of us, the Germans, the Aussies and the guides who paddled us here. All to soon it was time to camber back in the mokoros and a much quicker ride home.