Day 14 10/25/10

This morning was our last safari at Arathusa, which I found out means “to help” in a local African language. The ride was uneventful until the last hour, we saw a large bull giraffe, the dominant bull rhino weighing in at 2 and a half tons. We got up very close to the rhino and the guide told us we were very lucky as he is usually in a foul mood and has been known to charge and ram vehicles. But the best was yet to come we finally saw the male leopard (previously we had only spotted female leopards) and he had a kill up in the tree, he was sleeping off his big feast on a termite hill. It was the icing on the cake. Sadly we had to leave Arathusa lodge, and headed off to Kambaku which means “great tusker” or Old Elephant bull” after a large bull elephant that lived in the area! We had some interesting sightings along the way, two very large hippos behind an electric fence right off the highway, as well as seven, yes seven giraffes. Kambaku is very different from Arathusa, it is traditional African in it’s structure, in a very exciting 1930’s African safari movie way. In about 45 minutes we are due to go on our first safari ride at this lodge. I will post more after I return. This evening’s ride was slow, we saw a few giraffes, one baby giraffe was about 2 weeks old and you could still see the umbilical cord was still attached, a jackal (a first time sighting on this trip), the impala are always out as are the zebra, we also saw some elephants. One elephant even chased a crocodile back into the water, and then proceeded to harass two Egyptian geese! He must have wanted the watering hole to himself as he proceeded to give himself a mud bath. As a general observation I find it strange how you almost have to be right on even the largest animal before you can see them in the bush. You would think it would be difficult to hide an animal as big as an elephant! When we returned we cleaned up and had a nice dinner. It was suppose to be under the stars but the stars were behind the clouds and rain seemed to be a sure bet so we ate in the lodge. It was a very nice meal with good conversation despite the temperature being 99 deg. as well as high humidity. We are grouped with a Swedish family, Michael, Eva and their children Carin and Martiin. They asked if we could start the morning ride a bit earlier, originally an full hour but it was agreed upon at an extra half hour earlier so we need to be up by 4:30 to make a 5:00 safari ride. When we returned to the room we cleaned up and got ready for bed all by hurricane lamp light. Showering, brushing teeth and shaving is much more difficult when you are doing it in low light. Another thing to chalk up to having experienced it and can check it off what ever cosmic list there is to keep track of such things. Tomorrow our first morning safari ride. I am off to bed!