Big Game, Waterfalls and WIlderness: Kaingo

Well we’ve arrived at Kaingo, the one we’ve been waiting for the whole trip. It was clear from the very first lodge that Michelle at Safari Consultants knew her job and things were only going to get better and better. However my initial thoughts as we turned the corner into camp and saw the reed screens and thatched roofs was that we’d arrived at Tenko (for those of you who don’t remember the early 80s TV series – it was set in a Japanese POW camp – ‘nuff said!)

However we were greeted by the warm, welcoming smiles of Liz and Ruth (Liz and husband Garth are the managers and Ruth is the chef). We went through the usual camp introduction formalities and Ruth very kindly double-checked on my fussy eating. Then we were shown to our chalet

We’d been told by some Aussies at the last camp that it was rather dark and dingy but that’s totally not the case – it's lovely. OK, not the size or opulence of the last place but we never had the time to enjoy or appreciate that anyway.

Each chalet has its own private deck overlooking the river.

And it is the first time we’ve been anywhere with an outdoor bath where you can wallow like a hippo whilst watching hippos wallow.

Surely unique!

We then had an hour or so to freshen up and when the trucks got back from the morning drive, we met everyone else (max 12) for brunch. All seem very nice.

After brunch we opted to go to the Hippo Hide but as it was the heat of the day not a great deal was going on

but I did get a snap of this little interaction - no idea what's going on but I love the smile on the right hippo

Then it was off to another waterhole to watch some elephants and as we sat there in the truck another herd came up right behind us. Sandford (Sandy) our guide said that although we were in their path, elephants respect the rights of who is there first and sure enough after staring at us for a good while, decided to just walk on past the truck – almost within touching distance. Although we’d been fairly close before, this was quite unnerving!

The two herds mingled together in the water for quite a while

One of our fellow guest is Chris Haslam, a Sunday Times wildlife photo journalist (front LHS) who is taking pictures for a feature on the effects of poaching (we think), he was really interesting and had some great stories to tell from his travels.

And this little one decided a roll was in order

We watched for quite a while and I took far too many photos and then we were off again, this time we came across a pride of lions resting under a tree on the banks of a dried up river bed.

There was also a small film crew from Plimsoll Productions there who are apparently making a documentary about lions for ITV (due to be aired sometime after Easter 2017) but they’re not staying at Kaingo, although I think Garth the manager is advising them on the lions and the area.

I’m working on my little laptop so I can’t tell if these really are as good as they first look – I just hope !!!

Watching the Hooded Vulture up in the tree

It’s hard to put into writing the emotion we both felt watching these beautiful animals playing around, it was amazing to watch and we probably stayed with them for a good half to 3/4 hour. What a privilege and honour it was. Of course they were fully aware of us but not remotely bothered – in fact the little ones seemed to enjoy watching us and posing

And then, just as the light was fading we moved on ……….

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kaingo (the name of our Lodge) means Leopard in the local language and this place is famed for its sightings, so much so that the staff see some of them so often, they’ve named them and recognise them by sight.