We had one more 12+ hour day today - that is, so far. We will be going on another 2 hour night drive tonight. We began the close encounter day with a leopard about 20' up a tree and the ability to drive right underneath it. We all were giddy the entire day with such an amazingly beautiful view of this cat. Hard to believe our luck with leopards! Later in the day we came driving up to a group of elephants that were off the side of the road. As we slowed down to watch them they began to approach the road, so we came to a stop. Two of the big males came right alongside the car - within 10' of the side that I was sitting on!!! I held my breath for about 5 minutes until the first one wandered off behind the car and crossed the road, and the second one backed up away from us when Brenden started the car's engine. Then one of our other close encounters was with a bird that caused no anxiety whatsoever - Southern Ground Hornbills. Just big hurrahs at our success on seeing them. Also had very close views of Dwarf Mongoose (cutest little animals I've ever seen!) that were going in and out of burrows in a huge termite mound beside the road. And then there were the 3 hyenas, and 8 more lions for the day. Birding today seemed a little bit slower, but we DID see some new species, such as Saddle-billed Stork, Spotted Eagle Owl and Ostrich. Brenden has shown us upwards of 250 species of birds now in 6 days. His goal is to break 300 - and we still have most of 2 days left to go.
Photos are of the up close leopard, a Southern Ground Hornbill, dwarf mongoose, hyena, lions, and Saddle-billed Stork.
Love the leopard shot!
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