Day 3 part 2 - Big 5 complete

This safari schedule is pretty tiring. With the early mornings and late post-evening drive dinners, one of us decided a little nap might be in order.  If you look through our previous vacation blogs, you can probably guess who that might be.  Time for Rich to snap our obligatory “ Kat nap” photo. 

While I was resting, Rich watched this waterbuck drinking while sitting on our porch. 

We walked back to the main lodge for lunch and found our Chitwa Chitwa hippos had finally left the water of the dam to come out and feed.  It was in keeping with our baby animal day that we also saw a baby hippo. 

You can also see that hippos don’t travel alone - they come with a lot of symbiotic birds called ox pickers that like to eat the insects that live on the skin of hippos and rhinos.  

We also watched one of our resident crocodiles fishing - he would corral the fish into a little bay and then open wide.  We could see some of the fish trying to leap over him to safety.  PS it was fish and chips for our lunch too - but with a lot less work. 

In safari, many people have the goal of seeing the so called “big 5” large mammals, which include lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo.   As many of you know, this was our so called 555 trip representing our anniversary and birthdays this year, so it seemed fitting for us to also pursue the Big 5 attempt.  I’m happy to report we were able to complete it, and it’s only our third day! 

First up, Cape buffalo.  They aren’t so common here, so we got lucky with this sighting of these fine fellows.  Buffalo are very unpredictable, which makes them dangerous. But these guys just glared at us and didn’t charge.  

Next up we found some zebra, and learned that the collective noun for a group of zebra is a “ dazzle”.  They are quite dazzling. 

We seemed to be driving endlessly, and we had chosen to ride in the top back of the rover, which makes for a bumpy and precarious journey dodging branches and bouncing along.  But in the end we were able to locate the last of our big 5 animals - a white rhinoceros.  He had a little wound on his side, and we saw those ox picker birds happily drinking this poor fellows blood.  

Time for our sundowner and sunset. This is our crew. 

Til we meet again tomorrow.