Today it was leopard

Not a cloud in the sky this morning and sunrise was splendid. The wind has dropped completely and the world is looking good.

Our guide informed us that the lions had moved back into Zimbabwe but not before spending some time by our water hole, pity it was at 3am this morning and none of us saw them, but we did hear them.   Considering the improved weather conditions the animals were very much in hiding during the first 90 minutes of our game drive but then we spotted some elephants back in the river bed and it does not matter how many times you see these majestic animals you never get tired of it.

Our next sighting was of a beautiful female leopard who kept us enthralled for a long time, marking her territory, grooming, sleeping and basically doing what all cats do, nothing.  More elephants were around this morning and as we were heading back to our lodge we came across a large group of zebra and wildebeest and a lone eland all drinking from one of the small pools of water in what is a dry river bed.  To see a reasonable size herd of plains animals is also such a treat.  The day was getting hotter and it was time to head back to relax before the evening drive.

Again heading out around 4:30 we drove down a beautiful dry river bed and the afternoon belonged to the birds with sightings of Lilac-breasted Roller, Kori-Bustard, Korhaan, weavers, Tawny Eagles and many others.  The sunset again was magnificent and on our night drive back we saw a bush baby with it’s large eyes just starring at us, so cute.  With no cloud cover the stars were out in full and there on the horizon was the Southern Cross, even if it looked a bit different as it was sideways from it’s normal position back in Australia but it is so distinctive with it’s two pointers that you cannot mistake it.  Wonder what tomorrow will bring.