We are just so sad for Louisiana right now. It is so hard not being home to help and so weird to be this far away with everything happening. Thanks to everyone keeping us up to date on everything going on.
True to their word, we were woken up at 5:40 this morning with coffee to get ready for our first drive. By 6:15 we were on the truck ready to go. It was very overcast this morning and not nearly as cold as we expected, but the guides had blankets and hot water bottles on our seats ready for us if we got chilled.
The ultimate thing to do on a safari is to see the “Big 5,” that being the 5 most elusive animals in the bush: lion, leopard, rhino, cape buffalo and elephant. So we were off to look for them.
It was just turning daylight as we drove out of camp. It was another great day for animal sighting. The first thing we saw this morning were 2 white rhinos, a young mother and her son. They were just waking up and very curious about us. They came right up to the truck.
Sorry to say our first warthog was lion kill! Not long after seeing the rhinos we saw a big, full male lion sleeping on it’s back. About 100 yards away was another male lion and a pride of 6 females with the remains of the warthog kill. Our tracker also found the remains of a zebra they had killed, so the group had been well fed overnight. We sat 30 yards or so from the pride and watched for quite a while. About 2 hours into the drive we stopped for tea and coffee and a little snack and to stretch our legs. Again, it was a fantastic ride for sightings.
Back to the camp and breakfast, where we had the company of about 10 elephants right below the deck. Carol and Tom headed of for a nap and Mark and I sat on our deck watching monkeys and baboons playing in the trees around our patio. We have a small pool on the deck and the monkeys and baboons came up to drink while we were sitting there. At one pointo a good size monkey came and sat on our deck about 5 feet from us and just scratched himself and watched us. Such a funny phenomenon. A few minutes later and I looked up and saw a male and female nyala eating about 20 feet from us.
We left for our evening drive about 3:15 after a light lunch, or tea as they call it. To borrow the phrase from Katie and Whitney, between the fabulous food and our day drinking, we are going to be “the big 4 looking for the big 5” by the end of this trip!
We were on the lookout for a Cape buffalo and sure enough our tracker spotted one fairly quickly. It was a good distance away from us and turned away from us, so we kept on the outlook for more, but never did see any others. We did see several type of antelope this afternoon: Impala, nyala, kudu, steinbok, along with more giraffe, a large troop of monkeys, hippos, scrub hares, crocodiles, elephants and more herron and storks. We also saw several types of eagles and vultures. So all in all it was a good afternoon.
We stopped again for our sundowners before heading back to camp. We were on the lookout for the nocturnal animals that feed at night. Unfortunately no leopards or lions, but we did watch a huge croc fishing and splashing around.
We got back to camp and our dinner was an African barbecue in a boma, or enclosed area that used to be an enclosure for livestock. The area was lit up with candles and lanterns and it was very festive. After another delicious dinner, we all headed to bed to be ready for our early morning drive.
Mark and Freda's Wanderings 
Freda and Carol, I have loved seeing the posts and photos. What a marvelous trip you all have been on. By now you are probably on your way home. H
ave a safe journey. Katie has done a yeoman’s job of taking care of her Louisiana friends. Cant wait to see you all! I saw Ms. Barbara yesterday and she looked gorgeous as always and seemed to be doing fine. Love you guys….hope that airplane flies fast!!!! Hurry home!