From the itinerary: July 26, 2024
Early wake up
Breakfast
Morning game drive
Lunch
Rest
High tea
Afternoon game drive
Dinner
Bed
Weather: Sunny and 15 in the morning heating up to 31 in the heat of the day.
In the dark in the morning I heard something with nails running across my patio…. My room does have a nice scratching post in front, maybe it was a cat.
Breakfast was very dark and was a buffet. Things were rather confusing and the group of 10 went through like locusts. I was waiting for the options for the hot cooked breakfast, but there were none. Oatmeal finally came out after everyone was leaving. I ended up with yogurt and a piece of toast.
As we left the lodge in the jeep we found some very fresh lion tracks, so the lions we heard were right in front of the entrance to the lodge.
This morning we drove over to the Moremi game reserve - here is our route.
The route took us to the village of Kwai. It is not clear upon initial viewing how this village survives. It looks very poor and dusty. We later learned their main source of income is the lodges.
To get to Moremi we had to take the bridge over the river Kwai which was made of the same technology as the other bridges. These bridges looked very rickety and the Kwai had water in it. We made it across. I later learned these bridges were made of materials from S. Africa.
As we got to Moremi we had to be registered
and crossed into an area with better roads (at least initially) than around our lodge.
As we were driving, we saw a monitor lizard slip into the river. It reminded me of the Galapagos. We also saw some zebras - one of which was mauled by a lion. Chief says he will survive.
In the morning we saw lions twice. First time was a mother with 3 of her children
The second time the juvenile male lion walked right to our jeep and had a seat in the shade of our jeep.
and more wild dogs - no pups this time.
We had a break near the water, watching hippos.
On the way back to the lodge we had the chance to see more lilac breasted rollers
and a saddle billed stork which looks quite beautiful and unusual.
As we left Moremi I saw a whiteboard where tallies were kept about the type of wildlife seen. I was a bit concerned when I saw a column for fatalities...Thankfully none were listed.
and back over the River Kwai
Lunch was down on the grass next to the river.
Unfortunately, Rob was having some tummy trouble, so a bit indisposed and we all decided to skip a full second game drive (too much jostling). Instead Lisa and I went on a sun-downer together, more on this later)
It was hot upon returning and I took the opportunity to soak my feet in pool. It was so cold I couldn’t keep them in for more than about 30 seconds at a time.
We were surprised to learn that we were entitled to a 20 minute helicopter ride. The helo was a single rotor without doors and seats 4 (including the pilot), so was small.
This was more interesting than I expected and I got to sit in the front seat which I loved. I didn’t realize there were so many hippos in the area. I also didn’t realize they were out of the water so often and can run up to 40 kph for short bursts. Hippo trails were very visible from the air.
Seeing elephants from above gave a different, and interesting, perspective.
20 minutes was about right and I was ready to come back down
I spent the afternoon watching the game from the lobby porch - something I have been dreaming of doing for many years. There were many hippos, elephants and water bucks relaxing while drinking from the river.
For the sun-downer we drove past an area with a dead hippo - dead for about a month from a fight with another hippo. What was interesting was the two male lions that were also in the area.
Our sun-downer drink was near another part of the river (away from the smell of the dead hippo) and where we could see another saddle billed stork- this time we could actually see the saddle.
Back to the lodge for dinner.
Dinner was a disaster - spinach soup that was cold (was supposed to be hot) and kingklip fish that I thought was to be fried, but was baked in paper. It was so bad that I couldn’t eat it- it didn’t smell fresh and was also cold. Thankfully the potato’s and vegetables (only barely warm) were ok and I had some cookies in the room.
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