June 12th. It was
SOOO hard to wake up this morning. I was pooped. I finally dragged myself out
of bed around 5:45 and got ready. We left at 6:30 on two cars. Team 1 was with
Lukas again. It was sooo cooold. I literally had two long sleeve shirts, a
zip-up hoodie, and a thick jumper on, plus I wrapped my lower half in a thick
blanket. The sun was starting to come up, but there was no warmth to be found!
We drove all the way up to Pidwa North, and starting look for lion tracks. By 9
or so, we had only had two general sightings; I think it was a giraffe and
waterbuck. We went to a really pretty dam to have a look, but still nothing. We
had found lots of hyena tracks, some fresh rhino tracks, and some old lion
tracks, but nothing super good. We did some more tracking lessons, as well as
some tree ID as we went. Then, Lukas picked us a piece of a plant they call the
magic guary. It is rumored to bring the Big 5 to you. Sure enough, not 5
minutes after we picked it, we turned the corner, and there was a heard of
elephants! We spent about 15 minutes with them, until they moved into the
block. We continued on a way, and finally found some fresh lion tracks! It was
one male lion, and it looked like they were from a few hours earlier. We began
to follow the tracks, and luckily for us, he stayed on the road. We followed
his trail, sometimes losing it for a while, and then picking it up again, for
an hour and a half! Around 11:30, we lost it at intersection of 3 roads. By
this time, we were all getting hungry, and the plan was to meet up with the
other truck, driven by Toko, and Andrew would bring us lunch. So we tried to
contact them, and they had us drive all the way back from whence we came to
meet. When we got there, they had changed their minds, and we drove all the way
back where we had tracked the lion almost. Finally, we settled in a spot around
12:30. We all made sandwiches and had fruit, relaxing by the Selati River. Most
of the girls ended up taking off their shoes and socks and wading in the river.
We all took pictures and relaxed in the sun, which had finally heated up the
area. We stayed there until about 2:30, just resting, hanging out, and
stretching a bit. When we left, we found lion tracks right near the river, so
we followed those for a bit. The tracks were pretty sparse, because the area
was rocky. We reached a dam, and suddenly, the lion disappeared! Literally, we
looked on all three roads of the T-junction, and around the dam, and he was
gone! But we did find another set of lion tracks, coming from the opposite
direction! I’m pretty sure he was walking backwards just to trick us! We
circled around the block to see if we could pick him up again, but nothing. We
passed a sable breeding camp that was enclosed, and got some close views at
some beautiful sable antelope. There was even a baby! :D Then we returned back
to the intersection we had lost the original tracks at before lunch. We weren’t
able to pick them up again, so we headed across the river. The Askari group
told us they had two females along the fence line two days ago, so we headed
there. We found tracks of two females traveling up on some roads there, but
nothing fresh. We did explore most of the north side of the river, which is
something I have wanted to do all month, so that was cool. Lukas took us to a
nice open area of plains, which is like what you see in the movies. Open
grassland stretching out everywhere! We enjoyed the view there and took some
pictures of birds and some wildebeests grazing with the mountains as backdrop.
Lukas said to me, “Now imagine one of the Big 5 moving into the clearing.” To
which I said, “That would be awesome. But I would take anything moving through.
Actually, it would be really awesome to see giraffe running across the open
plains.” Just then, I looked up to two giraffe, and sure enough, they were
RUNNING across the plain! I got so excited! I jumped up on the door of the car
to video. My grandmother had told me that giraffe running on a plain is the
most graceful thing, even though you wouldn’t expect it. And they were indeed
graceful and beautiful! I was so excited to see that! It was starting to cool
down, and we had to think about heading back soon. We all decided that the
magic guary had used its special powers to bring us the ellies, so we asked
Lukas to pick us a new piece for the lions! He did, and we set off to see if we
would have any luck. We stopped at a really pretty area right on the river for
a nice view. We got some nice pictures of the sun getting lower and reflecting
off the water, but it was a little too early to wait for the sun to set. Along
the road on the way, we saw a giraffe in the trees and stopped, on Bushbuck
Road. Then, two bushbuck walked right out of the bush onto the road. We saw
some bushbuck…. on Bushbuck. What are the odds?? Then, we headed back along the
river, looking for any predators we could find. We passed a lot of perfect
habitat for leopard and cheetah, but nothing! Once it got dark, it got cold
really fast, so we set off on a straight course home. It still took almost an
hour to get back to camp, because we were so far north. We saw something in the
road that we thought might have been a civet, but Phil got some awesome
pictures. It was a small hyena! Really cool to see, since we haven’t located
any dens. The rest of the drive home was pretty uneventful, just very cold
again. We got home around 6:30, which gave us a 12 hour day! I went straight to
the kitchen to help Courtney and Kayla with dinner, which was roasted chicken
and butternut squash, with mashed potatoes and peas and carrots. Yummy yumm. Then we all cleaned up the
kitchen together. Now we are watching the Lion King. So typical :) Also, Zazu is
a Red-billed Hornbill. Which we see all the time here. Sooooo coool! Tomorrow
we have bush clearing, so we get to sleep in a bit. Yay! :D
Morning meeting with the ellies.
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