Day 34

We spent the first part of the morning bird watching. Our sightings included lots of herons, secretary birds and several eagles as well as a little bee eater.

Little Bee Eater

Steppe Eagle

Secretary Bird

As the morning went on we saw more and more zebra and wildebeest. The herds are really quite large now and will obviously form part of the migration. 

We also notice lots of little birds flying alongside our car. We think they were barn swallows and wattled starlings. We also notice the wattled starlings on the backs of the wildebeest.

It seems that many of the wildebeest and zebra have now given birth to their young. We saw one young wildebeest calf that appeared to have lost its mother. It kept trying to feed from other wildebeest but they kept pushing it away - very sad to watch.

Other sightings this morning included a kori bustard and some zebra enjoying a dust bath. We also see lots of hyenas, this is clearly a good area for them.

Kori Bustard

We are also pleased to see an Abdim’s stork which we had not seen before.

Later Alladini pointed out a bees nest up in a tree. 

Then in the distance we saw a golden jackel, we actually thought it was a dog at first!! It was a long way away so the photo isn’t great.

By now we had reached an area called the hidden valley and to our delight we came across a group of 9 lions. We stopped and watched them for about 45 minutes with no other cars around. During this time the lions were constantly moving so a real pleasure to watch. The group included several cubs of various ages, a male and some females, one of whom had a damaged leg. We took loads of photos, so below are just a few, including some with a good reflection in the water. 

Whilst we were watching the lions a group of zebra were moving closer and closer, I don’t think they could see the lions. The lions all looked like they had just eaten, so the adults only seemed to show a passing interest in the zebra. However 2 of the cubs set off towards the zebras. After a while they stopped and looked back to see if any of the others had followed.....they hadn’t!! So they just sat down and watched the zebra, who eventually seemed to sense their presence and left.

It was now time for lunch so we drove off and stopped under a tree to eat our lunch boxes. 

Setting off again we found ourselves driving through a tsetse fly area so didn’t stop much. Once out of the area we did a bit of bird watching but the sky got darker and darker and soon it began to rain. 

Wattled Starlings and Superb Starling in the middle

Black Faced Sand Grouse

Tawny Eagle

The road up to the camp is not good so Alladini wanted to get back before the rain got too heavy so we headed back. Luckily we arrived just before it got really heavy. We spent some time this afternoon in our tent, listening as the thunder rumbled all around us. After this it was just dinner and bed.