As always, Monday started with a test, but this time we had three – geology, birds, and sights and sounds. We let our hair down afterwards though with a relaxing day by the pool before a big botany lecture (I thought I was mostly finished with plants after university!). We tried to have a film night in the evening but only half of us made it, and despite loving the Incredibles 2, we were all asleep on the desks in the classroom after 10 minutes… we need to start going to bed earlier!
Tuesday, we started on our drives again, and still there was no sign of any leopards. We were instead rewarded with our first lion sighting! One big male called Stompie (because part of his tail was missing) and a younger male were relaxing by a small dam in the waning sunlight. Sadly, I didn’t get a good picture because the light had already faded too much, but the memory of Megan almost crying with happiness and being so excited sat next to me will do a good enough job. The most annoying thing was that I was having trouble with my eye at the end of the drive, meaning I ended up with the reddest eye ever and tears streaming down my face – not a good look. I’d already taken 4 anti-histamine tablets with no luck, so a doctor’s appointment was scheduled for the following day.
Although most of our driving group aren’t keen birders, Wednesday was one for the birds. Vaughan managed to get some fantastic pictures with his fancy white Canon lens, including the hilarious one below. At this point, I had already decided to upgrade my camera even though I probably should be saving money to survive the rest of the year… but good photos are just too tempting! So, I put my deposit down for a shiny new Canon 80D, despite being almost guilt tripped into getting the 7D mark II which is definitely outside my price range – cry.
I then headed into town with Sharin (Bushwise’s admin manager and our adopted camp mother) to get some orange dye dropped into my eye. Luckily all was fine and I just had a small ulcer from something scratching it and a few antibiotic drops would sort me out. When we got back, I’d missed the social media lecture, but got to drive Kim (Bushwise’s sales manager) out on the game viewer for our afternoon drive. We again got lucky with a beautiful sighting of a pride of lions sleeping on one another by a waterhole in the shade as the sun set. Being so close to them really reminds you of how big and powerful they are, even when they’re just lying down. I really am so privileged to have these amazing animals on my doorstep every day!
Thursday was the day we’d been looking forward to all week. We did our usual morning and afternoon drives, but instead of coming back to camp at the end of the day, we drove to our sleep-out spot in Makalali Reserve. On the way, we had a fantastic sighting of a bull elephant shaking a marula tree by a dam and eating all of the fruit that fell, a very special sight. We set up camp, collected firewood, found a toilet spot, and most importantly declared the girls’ sleeping area on the nicest bit of sand by the fire. The evening was filled with laughter, an amazing braai, and some stargazing. We then started our watches which were one hour each during the night, with two to three of us on duty at one time. I drew the short straw and got the graveyard shift at 1am, which was surprisingly quiet – I didn’t see anything. I woke the next shift up and got back into my sleeping bag, a bit disappointed that nothing cool had wandered towards my vehicle.
The next thing I knew, I was woken up by drizzle on my face and the whole camp jumping into action to keep everything dry, but most people were gathering at the front of one of the vehicles and were looking in the direction of the spotlight. As I made my way there, I was told a small pride of lions had walked right up to camp in the morning and were stood wondering what on earth was going on with these weird sleeping humans. They watched us for a while and Caroline roused the trainers before they moved off. Sadly, I didn’t see them up close, but I did see them walking past our camp around 50m away – what an adrenaline rush! Just seeing them silently walk through the bush illuminated only by our spotlight really reminds you of how close they can get before you even know they’re there, and by then it’s too late!
On Friday morning, we were all tired and wet, but on a high from the sleep out and our lion encounter. We got lucky yet again on our way back to camp, finding a relaxed lone bull elephant browsing on the trees and crossing the road in front of us. We then ended up having a very chilled day back at camp before going on a tree walk in the afternoon for a bit of revision. An early night was had by all as it yet again started raining. It’s very strange getting used to rain being a good but rare thing here, as it’s our normal in the UK. I no longer groan when it rains but breathe a sigh of relief for the wildlife and for us as the temperature drops a little, though we’re now getting a bit cold so it could warm up again please!
We’ve all been told the stories about the resident leopard on campus, but some didn’t quite believe it until Saturday morning, when we found her very fresh tracks on the road between camp and the classroom. She had been very active around the road where we also found lots of antelope tracks, maybe she had some luck hunting. I’m still dying to see her though!
As far as our Saturdays go, it was a relatively quiet one as our usual watering hole was closed for the evening, so we instead went to Hoedspruit for lunch and shopping in the day, before heading home for some dinner and a nice fire. On the way back, however, we saw the three cheetah males from the neighbouring reserve walking along the fence line. We followed them for a while and they were completely unfazed by us, barely even looking our way. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our cameras so we’ll have to hope that we meet the spotty boys again soon.
Sunday concluded a very chilled weekend of playing in the pool and revising for the next set of tests to come. We also started to plan our off week which is coming up very soon, how has time flown this quickly?! They do say time flies when you’re having fun, but this is crazy!
Keep your fingers crossed for a leopard sighting next week, hopefully I’ll have good news!
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