A knock on our door woke us up at 5:15 on Tuesday morning for the 5:30 game drive. For the first hour or so we weren't seeing anything. Our guide was trying to track a lion but he was alluding us. While we were hunting lion, we heard over the radio that there was a young leopard stalking some impala close to where we were, so we went to investigate. The leopard was a teenager and up against the males of the impala heard, who were making the most bizarre noises to try and scare him away. [They sounded like our dogs blowing their noses. I'm not joking, we came home and picked the puppies up from the kennel and they had little puppy colds, and they sounded EXACTLY like the impala's warning calls...gross, yet impressive]
They were standing in defense mode between the young leopard male and the impala females and young. It was pretty incredible!
As if you can't tell from our photos of our leopard friend, he was super peeved that we were were there, crampin' his style. This was his day to prove to his mom and brother [who we learned lived and hunted together while mom was waiting for her boys to mature enough to move on, as leopards usually fly solo] that he could put the proverbial bread on the table. That scowl! I mean, he was pissed.
After Mr. Leopard realized that there was no way he was taking home his very own impala, he stalked off in the opposite direction to pout, and we continued on our game drive. We saw hippos, a variety of birds, some water buck, an anti-social buffalo [he tried to scare us away, and when we didn't leave right away he went and hid], and Mr. Leopard's mom napping in a tree.
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| ^this is our hut, by the way! it was super comfy cozy, we had a nice big bed a little desk, and a bathroom, it was perfect! |
On the Tuesday evening drive we finally saw rhino and giraffe! Since rhinos are pretty dangerous, our guide kept his distance and we appreciated their strength from afar. They are seriously so massive. Not far from the rhinos we ran into some more impala as well.
The giraffes were probably one of our favorite animals on this trip! They walk differently than any other animal, as they move both legs on one side together, comparative to how most animals move their front right leg at the same time as their back left leg [does that even make sense written down? I don't know...just look at the second giraffe photo, its pretty clear..] They reminded us of dinosaurs! Graceful dinosaurs.
We looked again on the evening drive for lions, but saw hide nor hair. We did see a spotted hyena female [sorry, no photo], and I feel like hyenas have a bad rap. She was actually super cute! I don't know why er' body hatin' on hyenas all the time. Just before sunset we stumbled upon four water buck who were waiting in line for who knows what...but they stood just like that for the whole 10 minutes we sat watching them.
I like to think Arizona has the most amazing sunsets, and as far as sunsets go we do get the best of the best. But my goodness, that African sunset took my breath away. Straight out of The Lion King.
For dinner on Tuesday we were served a traditional South African braai [pronounced BRY], which is basically their barbecue. We had Kudu [gamey and delicious!], pap en sous, beef sausage with coriander, "monkey gland" which is essentially barbecue sauce, and sosaties [kebabs, chicken]. We were actually really lucky to have it on a Tuesday night, since it's usually only served on Saturday or Sunday. It was soooooo goood! We stuffed ourselves and headed to bed.
*also, sorry it took me so long to just get Tuesday up! Man, I'm slow!*