Gloomy Tuesday/Wednesday

 It will be difficult to top last night’s mating leopards, but we set out to try. Rickie and I climbed into the front row of the truck, while Nick and Ralph took the second row. It was still chilly but not as windy as yesterday. I brought along my new Leopard Hills fleece jacket. A slight mist was in the air, and Morne offered ponchos. Rickie later took advantage, but I held out until the afternoon drive. 

Within 100 yards of camp was a herd of elephants including several juveniles and a small baby. The matriarch was huge; Morne guessed she was 50 years old and, amazingly, she had swollen breasts which meant the smallest baby was hers. We watched for awhile and headed out, coming upon a herd of Cape buffalo hunkered down in the grass. Morne explained they may look like cows but they are far more aggressive. They have a hierarchy, and the top class is placed in the center of the group where they can be protected. 

We saw some impala, and Morne explained why they are the most successful antelope in Southern Africa. During the mating season or rut, a new male takes over the harem every two or three days. He also said they have a unique ability to delay giving birth for a month or two, depending on the rains, ensuring better survival of the babies. We next saw a large herd of zebra and then a pack of African wild dogs, featuring 7 adults and 10 puppies. Some of the adults were gone and when they returned the puppies pushed at their cheeks, and the adults regurgitated food for the puppies. The puppies were very cute and playful, coming up to and all around the trucks. Morne said there are an Alpha male and female and a Beta male and female in every pack. When the beta female gives birth, the alpha female sometimes kills the puppies. The alpha female then has a built-in babysitter. (Google does not support this factoid based on cutting edge research.) They can have between 10 and 25 puppies in a litter. 

After spending a considerable time watching the adorable dogs scamper around, we moved on. We saw some white-backed vultures and a hyena running down the road. The hyena went into some thick brush where we could not follow. We drove through a beautiful dry riverbed where we saw a gray duiker and, amazingly, a hippo out on dry land. Morne suspected it had been forced from a nearby pool. We saw some wildebeest and a tawny eagle. We turned a corner and had a clear view of a striking giraffe. He stood placidly as we snapped many photos. We had a coffee break near a hippo pond and then drove around looking for leopards. This time we were unsuccessful and returned to the lodge for breakfast. 

I had eggs Benedict and a smoothie, and we chatted with the British guests. Then we went to our room to nap, shower and catch up on the news and games. The Wordle streak lives. It was too cold to sit on the deck, but from our glass wall we watched in wonder as the wildlife paraded around the nearby waterhole. First a group of impala showed up and then a family of kudu. A bit later a rhino bull appeared, and then some Nyala, a large striped antelope that is common around the camp. We thoroughly enjoyed the show. 

The afternoon game drive was not as eventful. The weather was worse, and I was forced to resort to the poncho. Morne kept having to remove his glasses as they were covered with rain. We saw a gray bird known as the ghost bird and lots of impala. We saw a rhino cow and year old calf and 2 ginormous bull elephants. We passed a couple of young elephants and then went off-road and found two lionesses lying in the grass. One was totally asleep but the other showed some signs of life, but never got up to hunt as Morne had hoped. After spending about 15 minutes watching them as the light faded, we returned to camp. We had dinner in the Boma, and it actually rained on us a bit while we were eating. Morne told us about his background and training for becoming a guide, and Rickie and Ralph told many stories of the nutty people in their condo. We enjoyed the dinner and returned to our room around 9:30 pm. Having taken Melatonin, we never heard the leopard come around the room at 4:00 am like our next door neighbors did. 

Wednesday morning we awoke with hopes of better weather, but it was not to be. It was possibly a bit warmer, but the mist was thicker, and turned to a steady rain at one point. We all eventually took advantage of the ponchos. Worse we spent hours tracking the leopard that had visited the camp at night, but never found it. It was very frustrating. Advice and Morne got out of the truck several times to search for tracks in the bush. At one point Advice became covered in ticks. Despite all their efforts and those of several other trucks, no leopard was spotted. We did manage to see male and female nyala, which look quite different from each other, a giraffe, some baboons, two grizzled old Cape buffalo, and a little bee eater, a beautiful green bird. It was not a pleasant morning, with the miserable weather and slippery steps to climb in and out of the vehicle. At breakfast we learned that the morning’s Federal Air flights were canceled- leaving some of our fellow guests stranded. We returned to our room and were treated to a wonderful show, as giraffes and elephants visited the watering hole right behind our room. The weather is clearing, and I have high hopes for our afternoon drive, which may be our last game drive at Leopard Hills.