Day 5

We got up at 7 after the hot water arrived. Breakfast was at 7.30 and we were due to leave at 8.30. We had heard lots of grunting during the night, probably from the wildebeest. During breakfast we saw plenty of Zebra, gazelle, wildebeest streaming across the plain some distance from the camp. Some Thomson gazelle were closer by and started running, then we spotted a hyena running across the path no more than 50m away. The camp is a haven for birds - even some nesting in the tree outside our tent. We saw among others, rufous sparrows, mosque swallows, red eared cordon bleu, white headed buffalo weaver. Kim arrived and we climbed in to start our trek to find the migratory herds. Almost at once we stopped to see a dead juvenile giraffe. The drivers thought maybe a leopard had killed it and then left. Soon the hyena and the vultures would find it. Driving along muddy roads we could see plenty of gazelle, zebra, giraffe; but Kim wanted to find bigger herds as the rain should have brought them in. Still we kept seeing plenty of birds - hornbill, roller, woodpecker, barbet. We noticed the Cheetah project van parked in the bundu and some safari vans on the road near it, so drove over and we saw three cheetah in the long grass. There was a big herd of Burchall’s zebra away to the right and then along the road we found a big group of wildebeest. Also we spotted half a dozen elephants under a spreading acacia tree on the plain, in the distance. Gradually making our way back, we saw a pair of Ostrich - the male chasing the female, but he gave up when he saw us! By the first hippo pool we had seen two small crocs lying on rocks, now we approached the second of the day and the hippos were lying like rocks in the water with a black crake pottering about on their backs.
Ahead were more parked cars and Kim noticed a tail hanging down from the tree. Here was a lioness hiding in the foliage. We could see the colour of her fur in amongst the leaves, but no clear view of her head. On again and there was a great collection of vultures and marabou storks wandering about. Then under a tree we could see a cheetah. Apparently there had been a kill and soon the vultures had come and chased off the cheetah that then retreated under the tree. Now the vultures had almost finished, leaving the jackals to try and grab a bite as the marabou moved in to scavenge on the bits. They don't have the right beaks to tear the flesh themselves, so they wait to pick up bits left behind. We moved on and stopped to watch a serval cat pouncing on little rodents, but not catching anything
On the way back, we saw the smaller bustard, hammerkop, Kori bustard , coucal and just before we turned in to our road we came across the giraffe kill from earlier. Predictably there were lots of vultures around it and Kim reckoned that the hyena had been and gone. Then we drove up to the camp for mince and chips for lunch and some people have had a siesta! Before he dropped off Alan counted up that we had seen 34 birds, that we could identify plus all the ones we couldn't. Thunder is rattling around again and it will rain. We are due out again at 4pm.

It was raining when we set off, but Kim was hopeful of us seeing lots of interesting stuff. We were going to drive across to the hippo pool, with plenty to spot on the way there, hopefully. Indeed we hadn’t gone too far before Kim started peering into the rain. He thought it was a buffalo in the beginning, but gradually we saw that there was a hippo strolling along in the bush. It looked like a large, glistening black rock, slowly advancing towards the road. We watched with bated breath, but eventually it turned back into the trees and was lost to view. Kim thought it was probably hungry and had ventured out of the water before nightfall in search of pasture. It was certainly not going to dry out in the persistent rain. After it had gone, we did see some buffalo and antelope and gazelle in the rain. Then we arrived at the hippo pool – and the rain held off for a while.

This is an unbelievable sight – the hippo wallowing in their own shit, which they spray out and waft about with their tails. It’s a bit ‘high’, especially as some of them roll over and over in the water disturbing all the stuff from the bottom of the pool. There were over a hundred of them, all slipping and sliding across and yawning at each other. Some were even mating in the water, the males almost drowning the females in the process. The young hippos trying to stay by their mothers as everyone moved around.
Meanwhile, unbeknown to us, there had been a huge storm at Ronjo camp. When we returned, they told us that it had rained ice – a hailstorm! We borrowed brolleys and walked to the tent only to discover that it had somehow rained in and there was a pool of water at the front. I went back to the mess tent and asked for some help and one of the men followed me back with a hand towel. This was a little less than he needed as investigating further we found that about a third of the tent had a couple of inches of water lying. Luckily everything was either on the bed or on the other side of the tent, so no problem there; but clearly we couldn’t stay there tonight. A new tent would be made ready for us, but the hot water had already been delivered, so would we mind showering in no 2 tent before moving? This was a fine solution, and after warm, quick showers we moved out to no 5 tent. When we passed to go to dinner, the beds were stripped and stacked and the mats were removed and the water was being mopped up. They thought that a lake had formed under the tent as so much had fallen, and it had seeped up through the floor. We just have one problem in that there isn’t any water coming into the flush loo at tent no 5, and we don’t think they quite understand that it needs to be turned on.