Day 13: Game Drive 7 and 8

 Wednesday afternoon the watering hole was full of Warthogs. They start out like this.

Then roll and roll in the mud and end up like this.

They are really fun to watch.

For game drive 7 we tried to find the pride of lions we had been watching the day before. It was a beautiful drive, but the lions won. We did see rhinos and elephants.

This is an amazing photo with our tracker in the distance looking for the lions.

We were lucky to see the Blue Supermoon--the second full moon of a calendar month.

Drive 8--our last drive at Thabamati--may have been our best drive ever. We started with a herd of giraffe.

And then woke up a gigantic herd of Cape Buffalo.

With lots of babies.

We then found the pride of lions we saw on our 1st drive. They were sleeping--their main job!

During our coffee we shared the space with a Tawny Eagle. Spectacular!

Then--the biggest treat of the day--a leopard. We followed him and then he just stopped and posed for a bit.

And to top things off--my favorite African bird--the Lilac-Breasted Roller.

Our stay at Thabamati was fabulous.  We hate to leave.

Day 12: Game Drives 5 and 6

Tuesday evening we went out for our 5th game drive.  We drove back to the large lion pride to see if they might get up to hunt. On the way there were many sightings including these zebra. I have never seen them rubbing up against each other before.

I have taken a zillion zebra portraits, but I can't stop myself. They are so beautiful.

This is a wooly-necked stork.

So, when we got back with the lions they had moved about 100 yards from their morning spot. They were yawning and moving a bit, so we had some hope they might be ready to hunt again.

No such luck. They moved about 20 yards. Still, we spent most of the day sitting with the pride. This had been one of the highlights of any Safari I have been on. Hanging with the lions--what a magnificent experience this was. 

When we got home, a rose petal bath was waiting in our tents. Wow! 

Wednesday morning was game drive 6. We started by tracking a herd of Cape buffalo that was just starting to wake up.

We even saw a nursing baby calf.

We also saw rhinos and warthogs, but I din't get good photos. Then we ran across a couple of small herds of elephants with youngsters. Wonderful to see.

This game drive was another great experience. 

I am still obsessing over our tents. As I'm sitting in the chair on the left (while writing the blog) I'm looking up at the tent ceiling. This construction is pretty much a masterpiece. I went online and found out there are a number of companies that make these luxury tents. Who knew?

Back at the watering hole we have the usual suspects--but some are doing unusual thing.

After drinking, this group of zebras went up on road of the dam and stood in a line. You can see a couple of hippos in the water.

I spent a lot of the afternoon sitting in a comfortable deck chair watching the hippos. I've been very curious about them and found out a lot of interesting facts about them.

• They can sleep with their head under water.  They can hold their breath for 5-6 minutes and then automatically raise their head to breathe without waking up.
• It's unusual to see the hippos out of the water as we have during the day. Since it's winter, their sensitive skin can stand being out in the sun.
• The red stuff you often see on hippos acts as a sun screen.
• They graze most of the night.
• They are really loud.

It is really cool having the time to watch them. There are three new hippos in the watering hole today--upping their numbers from six to nine. This guy is taking a snooze on a buddy.

I watched this little guy in the middle wander around for quite a while before finally finding a place to sleep between these huge behemoths. 

Wow!!

 

Day 11: Drives 3 & 4 and (of course) the Watering Hole

Monday afternoon--Game Drive 3.  Of course we couldn't start out without high tea :-). The food at Thabamati is exceptional. Here, along with salad, we have mini chicken and spinach pot pies, cauliflower puffs, and a donut-type dessert. Yum!

This afternoon it was rhinos and and hyenas.  We were lucky to see a couple of different rhino moms with calfs.

We started seeing lone hyenas. Apparently they aren't just pack animals. This one seemed very curious about our land cruiser.

Sunset with the rhinos.

Tuesday Morning--Game Drive 4.  This turned out to be another fantastic drive. Bret found us a pride of 14 (count 'em) lions. I've never seen such a large pride before and apparently 3 lions were absent. They were lying around on top of each other.

There were the majestic faces.

And the sleepy heads. How cute are they?

What an amazing treat to see so many lions in one place.  As we were having our coffee by a watering hole a hyena came down and took a dunk. I've never seen this before.

And a few others followed.

Driving back to the lodge we came across a mother giraffe with a very young baby.

Here we are with Bret and Oscar on this mornings' drive. They are wonderful!

When I was walking back to my tent after breakfast, I realized this was a good view to see that my accommodation really is a tent. When I'm inside or on the deck it feels like a luxury suite. I guess this is the ultimate glamping.

 

This lodge is special for so many reasons--great food, great staff, beautiful accommodations, only 4 tents, but the watering hole makes it extraordinary! Lots of cool birds.

Blacksmith Plover

Egyptian Goose

Gray Heron

Yellow-Billed Stork

And I can't get enough of the hippos. I could happily sit and watch them all day.

Mom and baby

This guy must be having a great dream.

There were multiple groups of zebra.

And the water bucks were around nearly the whole day. For a while I had a large herd right in front of my tent.

A small kudu family

I am so privileged to be able to make a trip like this. Very thankful!