The alarm jolted us out of a sound sleep at 4:55AM. Next, Luke was outside our tent with a large tray of preparations for hot chocolate, tea and coffee. Charlene and I each had a half cup, threw on our clothes, brushed teeth and gathered our items: binoculars, hat, sunglasses, cameras (phone, small point and shoot and my iPad), scarf, and water. We applied bug repellent and sunscreen. Then we rushed down the path by 5:30 AM to meet Luke, our tracker, Jack, and two other couples (one from Illinois and the other from Belgium) whom we had met last night at dinner. We were all hoping to catch the animals awake.
Our vehicle was an open top Land Rover with a seat outside in the front for the tracker, a typical front seat and three rows behind, each one slightly elevated like stadium seating. Charlene and I sat in the first row behind Luke and then we took off. As we drove, there was quite a wind from the movement of the vehicle, so we quickly took out heavy weight ponchos from their storage bag attached to the seat in front of us. Thank goodness for these ponchos! It was so cold that at one point I had on my broad brimmed hat AND the hood of the poncho.
The first animal sighting was two sister lions just relaxing. Later we saw some nuzzling as they showed affection. Next was a solitary leopard which is rare to see they say. Then Luke picked up a sizable hunk of dried elephant dung which we passed around like a rare gem. It was comprised mostly of undigested hay and mud. Quite light weight, it also had no smell.
White rhino was next on the agenda when Luke spotted one in a pan or small body of water. It was almost invisible as so many of these animals blend right in to the landscape. We kept our eyes on him and got to see him get out of the water and walk onto land.
We stopped for a short picnic of coffee, tea and biscotti before heading for a clearing where breakfast was cooking over an outside grill in huge iron skillets. We joined the buffet line for any sort of eggs, lamb sausage (not my favorite), bacon (best I've ever had), some roasted veggie mixtures, toast with homemade jam, and fruit. We sat at picnic tables and enjoyed our meal.
For the remainder of the morning and early afternoon, I edited pictures, relaxed on our deck, viewed a baby giraffe and mother feeding in the dry river bed below our tent and possibly even dozed off.
Fortuitous, since the late afternoon/early evening game drive was next.
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