Out early again this morning, first off we found 8 or so lions
from one pride walking purposefully along, Charles was sure they were going to
drink at a nearby waterhole so we set ourselves in position and waited.
Unfortunately they all just walked straight on by - clearly on a mission.
Yet again, they headed across one of the gullies, I'm sure the animals get together at night and excavate these areas to make life difficult for us safarists to follow them (and I for one wouldn't blame them if they did)
It was interesting to watch how they interacted, some would go ahead and then wait for slower ones to catch up. One lioness was always at the back and her son eventually went back to get her but she never did catch up.
They came to a fairly open plain on which sat 10 or so hyena and apparently they had a bit of a squabble but unfortunately we missed it because Charles had anticipated something different (his ideas are often a bit off). It was quite clear though who had won the scuffle - the hyena - two lions remained, sitting in a very submissive pose and every time one of the hyena approached, the lions would lower their heads even further. Kings of the Jungle - ha!
And the view from the lions' perspective.
I quite surprised myself taking loads of pictures of hyena, face on they are actually quite pretty animals, it's their sloping back I really dislike - makes them look so shifty.
Eventually the lions just sloped off, their tails very much between their legs.
I can't remember why this random American White Backed Vulture dropped in (maybe it saw lions and hyena and put 2+2 together = food)!
Word came over the radio that there was a leopard sighting so we headed off for that. Goodness knows how he was spotted, he was so well hidden in the bushes.
He didn't look like he'd be moving soon so we sat and watched him while we had breakfast - I did think about throwing a sausage his way but decided I better not, he might jump into the truck looking for more. Almost an hour later he finally got up and walked off, clearly eyeing something in the distance.
Unfortunately he didn't go far before slumping down once again hidden in the undergrowth.
But he was a little bit closer to his intended victim - an unsuspecting Impala at a mineral lick and licked his lips in anticipation.
He made further progress and crossed another gully, I love how they slink along as close to the ground as possible.
You'd think this number of vehicles around would make prey suspicious but Charles says because trucks aren't always around when there is a kill, the prey do not associate the two.
We suggested we left them to it!
Gosh it's all go, we then went off to some more lions, cute and cuddly under a tree.
Then it was their turn to eat and suddenly not so cute and cuddly.
Obviously it wasn't very funny for the poor zebra but we chuckled as this little one tried in vain to stop the carcass being carried off.
Then down came the vultures.
A rather handsome Marabou Stork then arrived to join in the feast.
Not exactly which part of the intestines this one had.
We haven't seen much in the way of primate this trip, just the odd baboon and a few vervet monkeys, so it was nice to find a fairly large troop of baboon.
And a very handsome Topi
Time for lunch, I think!
When we got back to camp, the lovely Abraham was waiting with our drinks
A dead ringer for Mo Farah don't you think?
