The afternoon drive starts just after 4. We’re just 4 in the vehicle, us and another couple, and one other vehicle with a family of 3. Way below the 22 guest capacity of the camp.
Like at Little Kwara the area turns out to be much prettier than from the air with good wildlife viewing from the start – zebra, impala, red lechwe and elephants.
Stopped at a pond crammed with hippos beautifully lit.
We go far north towards the Lagoon sister camp, a fire had burned this area recently.
The guide had seen vultures in the area and wanted to check it out. Not much going on with the vultures, just finishing off a red lechwe carcass. A few scuffles with the Malibu Storks.
Wild Dogs
We get a call from the other vehicle that they are following wild dogs and go to track them. The dogs are spread out. Amazing how close they get to the vehicles yet not seem to be bothered by us.
Some of them have cornered a warthog in a burrow. A skirmish ensures with too much dust to really see well. I just keep shooting, not really sure what I’m photographing. The dogs eventually back off and the warthog lives to see another day. (This is what I wrote that evening, but my photos captured a clearer picture than I could see at the time.)
It’s getting dark past sunset.
The dogs have spread out again. We follow one group on the way back to camp. The other vehicle follows the others and observes them take down a female impala. We get a call to ask if we want to see the devouring. It can take less than 10 minutes for dogs to finish off the carcass. We catch the tail end of the devouring with the light getting very, very low, nearly dark.
When the cameras could no longer focus in the darkness we start the long drive back to camp. Not much game. Hippo crosses the road. The guides here do not shine spot lights on the hippos.
Get to camp at about 8PM and go straight to dinner.
Beef fillet, potatoes gratin, gravy, baby patty pan squash, red cabbage, cheese cake for dessert.
August 27, 2016
For links to all the posts in this series see the Botswana/Zimbabwe page.