We were awakened by Joe and the staff at 6 am, dressed quickly and headed to the mess tent for tea and toast. By 6:45 am we were in the Land Cruisers for our morning game drive. It started off slowly, as we saw many tracks and paths but few animals. We saw many repeat animals: elephants (including two males at very close range), impala, guinea fowl (with many chicks), sleeping vervet monkeys, playful dwarf mongoose, giraffes and dik-diks (right by the road and unconcerned). There were a number of new sightings, though, many of which were birds: grey kestrels, kingfishers, lovebirds, Egyptian geese, a male pin-tailed whydah (whose tail was about three times as long as his body), a steppe eagle and a bateleur eagle. There was a turtle sunning itself by a pool and a pair of jackals in a dry riverbed. We also saw lion paw prints, then ears and a tail sticking up above the grasses, but at the end of the morning we came upon a breeding pair! We waited about 45 minutes as they slept in the grass very near the road, then watched them mate (very wham-bam-thank you ma'am, with purring and growling added).
We headed back to camp for a big lunch: vegetable soup, bacon quiche, veggies and fruit (Jer demolished a number of mangoes, and Jess was very enamored of the fresh pineapple), with sweet potato souffle for dessert. Then it was time to clean up and relax in the shade. The shower was marvelously hot, as the camp staff put warm water into the shower bag above each tent's shower stall, and the sun further heated the water to a lovely temperature. It was very refreshing.
Our afternoon game drive was a little disappointing, as all of the new animals we saw were birds. On the other hand, we did see ostriches, a marabou stork (which looked pretty from a distance, though Jer said they are ugly up close), a little brown hammerkop feeding in a pool, a pair of brown hornbills, a white-bellied go-away bird (named for its call, which sounds a bit like "go"), a light brown cuckoo and a goshawk. We also saw a large harem of impala, several dik-diks, a giraffe browsing on a thorn tree right next to the road, vervet monkeys, waterbucks and several running warthogs with their tails held aloft. The highlight of the drive was seeing a herd of elephants up close, including two young ones play-fighting (though were not terribly effective, as they had not yet mastered their trunks). We also saw a hole in a baobob tree that Shange said housed bees, and he pointed out the wooden pegs the bushmen (of the Hadzabe tribe) had pounded into the trunk so they could climb up and gather honey.
We returned to camp at sunset for drinks by the campfire, then dinner. Once again, the cooks did a marvelous job: tomato-ginger soup, fresh bread, salad, tilapia with peanut sauce, rice with peas, green beans and red beans, with rhubarb crumble and custard. Duly sated, we stumbled back to our cabins and fell into bed.