We saw lots of great wildlife from our room during the Wednesday afternoon siesta. We hoped it bode well for the evening game ride, and we were not disappointed. Turning out from camp, we saw a couple zebra and large herd of impala. Next we saw a mom and a cute baby elephant. Morne then pointed out a white backed vulture. We returned to our quest for Ravenscourt the leopard and came upon a crash of 5 white rhinos, including 2 calves. It was impressive.
We saw some Cape buffalo and brindle gnu, and a large herd of elephants. More vultures were spotted along with 3 giraffes. We stopped for a sundowner along the river. It was very picturesque. Rickie and I are getting better at climbing out of the truck.
It was getting dark so we headed for camp but stopped to go off-road and came upon 2 trucks. They were watching the leopard, Euphorbia (named for a tree in the area), lying in the grass digesting a kill. The kill (an impala) was up a tree out of view. We hoped he would get up and go eat some more, but he never did. We got some photos in the spotlight, especially of his piercing eyes. According to Morne, he is more aggressive towards humans on foot than Ravenscourt. We observed him for awhile, then headed back toward camp. Along the way Morne stopped in a field to describe the various constellations, including the Southern Cross and Scorpio. He explained how you can find Celestial South and a bit of the mythology behind the positions of Scorpio and Orion in the sky. Back at camp we had a final night dinner with Rickie, Ralph and Morne. I had eggplant Parmesan that was delicious, and Nick had a pork ribeye. We were walked back to our room by our “Uber driver” for one last time.
Thursday morning we learned that Rickie would be skipping the morning drive, so Ralph and I took the first row of seats, and Nick sat in the second row. Amazingly, Ralph said it was easier climbing down from the second row than the first. We saw some Kudu and brindle gnu. We drove for awhile, and I could tell from the radio chatter that someone had located Ravenscourt. Sure enough, we rounded a corner, drove off-road and found 2 trucks looking at him sitting on a termite mound. When one truck left, we got primo viewing position, and then he got up and walked right past our truck on my side. I could’ve petted him if I wanted to. He settled down watching some impala, but made no move to hunt one so we moved on.
We saw some giraffes and then stopped on a causeway on the river to look at some hippos in a large pool and 2 crocodiles sunning themselves on the bank. These were the largest crocs we’d seen and we stopped to snap some photos. When Morne tried to restart the truck, it would not turn over. He tried and tried but it just clicked - the engine would not start. He asked Advice to get a Coke for him, which he retrieved from the back. They proceeded to open the hood and pour the Coke on the engine. The crocodiles were eyeing us. One slid into the water and swam toward us. Luckily the Coke worked and the engine started. Something about corrosion and the solenoid part on order.
We proceeded to cross the water, at one point driving into the river itself and climbing up the other bank. We drove for awhile and stopped to watch a family of giraffes that included a 2-month old baby.
We then pulled over for our coffee break. We climbed down from the truck and Morne and Advice headed toward the back to grab the coffee and muffins. Morne asked Advice if he forgot to close the back of the truck, and Advice said No, of course not. But it turned out he did. There are supposed to be 2 coolers in the back (they call them hot boxes). The coffee one was there but the Amalura one was missing. Amalura is a liqueur they put in the coffee. Also in that box were the cokes and other soft drinks- but they were not worried about those. They just kept wondering where the Amalura box fell off, and asking whether hyenas got ahold of it, and were ready to wreak havoc. We jumped back in the truck to retrace our steps. Morne was mercilessly teasing Advice. We passed our giraffe friends and rolled up and down several hills. It looked like we were going to discover the box fell out when we drove up the river bank. But all of a sudden we turned a corner and there it was in the middle of the road, pristine as could be, sitting as if someone had placed it there on purpose. We all laughed with relief. We stopped in another place for coffee and blueberry muffins, and no one had any Amalura. It sounded like Morne was going to hold this over Advice for a very long time. After these adventures, we returned to the lodge, checked out of our room, and waited for our 2 pm ride to the airstrip. Tonight we fly to Windhoek, Namibia.
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