This might look like a scene from a horror movie, it was the beginning of our final morning game drive…
This male Nyala was the first animal to present itself for our cameras…
Closely followed by this male White Rhino…
Too busy marking his territory to be too concerned about us…
We also found the three lions that we had heard vocalizing the night before…
Doing what lions do best on a full tummy…sleeping!
Not even an ear flicked as vehicles arrived an departed!
We moved onto Hippo Dam where we found a sizable pod of Hippos…
This particular seemed to be interested in us for a short while…
Aside from the Hippo,we also spotted…
A Goliath Heron…
A Crocodile…
This pair of Egyptian geese…
And this tiny Blue Waxbill…
Our tracker,Colbert feeding a pair of Crested Francolin…
A very pretty bird…
We found this juvenile Bateleur in a tree not too far from the dam…
There was a small group of Ellies waiting for us just around the corner…not sure who was more surprised,them or us!
And then the prize of the day…or so I thought at the time…this stunning male Leopard…
And not hiding in the bush…but lying in the road…
But,as they say in the adverts, “That is not all”!
Rhino…tick that off…
Lion,tick that off…
Elephant,tick that off…
And,of course, our stunning Leopard…tick that off…all that was missing was Buffalo to complete our “Big 5” drive…and were back to the banks of the river to see if we could spot them to round out our morning
While looking for them, we spotted this Croc…and not one that you would want to wear!
We also found some more Ellies…and then a shout from Lucy in the back found us this…
My lost hat…hanging in a tree about 20m from where I thought I had lost it!
I cannot describe how ecstatic I was to see it again…I really believed that it was lost forever( two days and a night in the bush and it was no worse for wear!)
As a thank you to Lucy and to honor her spotting skills she was allowed to ride back to camp in the tracker seat…
And if that was not enough, we found our Buffalo…lying on the lawn at Nyati Lodge!
A stunning way to end our stay at Leadwood Lodge…
