We headed to our airport gate and waited for our flight. Rich said he heard a vacuum cleaner- but it turned out to be a departing plane #4. Oh oh. - We were #5. Our “vacuum cleaner” was a 14 seat Cessna (including pilot). There was no flight attendant ( perhaps due to the hand width aisle), but we were told to help ourselves to snacks in the back. Nobody was brave enough get up and leave their seat at our bumpy cruising altitude of 7000 feet to help themselves to any chips. Rich kept an eye on the gages (especially the one the screen that read “fall” as well as watching our fuel dwindle from 11 to 3 1/2), but we arrived safely.
And the view was great.
We were picked up at the airstrip by our safari guide Dylan, who is the brother of one of the presenters, Brandon, on the Safari Live broadcast we’ve been watching at home for months. Rich told him about my internet crush for James Hendry, another safari live presenter, and he told us James was his cricket coach in school. He wasn’t as impressed or star struck as me. Our first sighting on the drive to our local due at Chitwa Chitwa was a warthog
and some impala and kudu. We were greeted at the lodge with homemade ginger ale and then shown to our room where we enjoyed lunch, and our first swim in our private plunge pool. Our place is stunnng - I’ll share pictures on another post.
But not much time to relax, as after more drinks and refreshments were served before heading out with Dylan to our first game drive. Our vehicle includes guide. Dylan, tracker Ransom, some British newleyweds, and Dorothy and her companion Davinia, also British. Not even 5 minutes in we found our very first lioness, a mother and member of the Styx pride.
Elderly Dorothy has turned out to be an hysterical companion for the drives - full of dry commentary and stories of her exploits driving tanks, and hanging out at the Vegas home of Siegfried and Roy, who apparently had tigers lying about on their sofas. Dorothy also likes her gin and tonics, though she scurried back to the vehicle when an elephant decided to join us for our sundowner drinks.
The most amazing sightings were probably the leopards - both up in trees. This is a young male named Thamba.
The other had an impala it had brought up into the treetop (the lions are guilty of stealing leopard kills, especially if left on the ground). In fact we passed by this guy completely on our way to the leopards
Dylan correctly assessed he wasn’t going anywhere and we could see him later, but the leopards are more elusive.
Add in some giraffe and elephants and I’d say we had a pretty successful first day on safari.
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