We’re up and out early again. It’s just Dick and I with Reggie on the morning drive. It’s nice to have him to ourselves and we score big on the drive. We’re not ‘birders’ which is kind of a shame as the bird population here is very diverse with something new to see everywhere you look. Wish we knew more. The staff has given some of the birds interesting nicknames. The Crested Guinea Fowl is known as “Bob Marley” due to its tufted, black head feathers. The Helmeted Guinea Fowl is the “Suicide Bird”, named for its interesting habit of trying to run back and forth in front of the land rover instead of moving to the side. Another interesting bird is the Trumpeter Hornbill which sounds just like a baby crying. We came across a large troop of Baboons and a herd of Impalas.
The highlight of our morning drive was locating the local “Kanga Pride” of lions. It’s a good size group of 5 females, 7 cubs (this year’s babies) and 4 subadults (last year’s babies). They were just relaxing in the grass exhibiting very ‘cat like’ behavior (grooming, napping, playing, etc.).
We could hear the male lions roaring and Reggie tracked the 2 of them about a kilometer away. Interestingly, the males do not typically hang with the pride unless there is a kill.
Our camp companions have all departed, so it’s only Dick and I for lunch. We had some great conversations with Joyce who is the camp host. Joyce is from this part of Zimbabwe and has been working at Kanga camp for about 3 years. She runs a tight ship. Big Mark showed up at the dining area then headed over for a scratch at the tree near our tent. He stopped by the swimming pool looking for a drink. Alas, it’s been drained for cleaning, so he headed back into the bush. After lunch we sat on the deck and watched a herd of female Kudu and a group of Warthogs drink at the pan.
On our evening game drive, it is just me, Dick and Reggie again. A couple, Barbara and Patrick, arrived just before we departed. They had a long drive to get to camp and decided to relax and get settled instead of joining us for the drive. We drove back out to the Kanga pride site and enjoyed watching the cubs suckling their mothers and playing with their siblings. Reggie found us a beautiful spot to enjoy the sunset with Sundowner gin & tonics.
We sat around a nice fire in the common area before dinner and talked with Barbara and Patrick. He is from the French side of Switzerland and she now lives in South Africa. Evidently, they were together a long time ago and went their separate ways. They have now reunited as a couple. He has difficulty with English so Barbara does a lot of translation for him. They seem like a nice couple.
It’s early to bed as these are very early mornings.