We spent our last lunch break sitting on our little sun deck enjoying the river views. It's now become the norm to see Ian, binoculars in hand, watching and identifying the numerous birds that are constantly on the go, particularly the Pied Kingfishers.
As I've said on many occasions, I can now (mostly) get a decent picture of a bird on a stick but birds in flight continue to thwart me, so you can imagine how pleased I was to get this one of a PK diving.
Sadly though, I missed his entry into the water on every occasion
Over the last week we've seen how quickly the water levels are dropping, giving more and more places for the crocs to sun themselves.
Then we were off for the afternoon and back to the elle crossing (choices are now limited due to lack of water) and despite having already taken 100s of pictures, I still took more searching for that illusive, perfect shot! I quite like this one
but there really needed to be 3 elements, so maybe ...
or one of these
and so it went on. Then another, larger parade, crossed towards us from the opposite bank
Then proceeded to shower themselves in sand and saunter straight past us (unfortunately being high up in the truck makes the perspective quite weird).
These wallowing hippos looked like stepping stones
Once again, Sandy's instinct for what was happening and where was spot on, we spoke about seeing some big cats for our last evening and drove round a corner - bang leopard on floor in bush with kill. Unfortunately he was quite an aggressive animal and snarled at us quite seriously so I didn't have the guts to take many photos in case he objected to the shutter noise and sprang at us. So, once again branches across the face.
He then wandered off and we followed for a while but it was clear it didn't want to pose so we left him alone
This warthog was unusually co-operative, they generally trot off quickly when they see us.
We stopped off for our sundowner at a fairly uninteresting and open place, near the hippo skull (we had to be careful this evening as there was a lot of activity on the ground)
We then decided to go back and check on Grumpy Leopard but on the way bumped into the Hollywood Pride planning an attack on two buffalo we'd passed in the bushes; a couple lying down, more just quietly walking towards them. Then it all kicked off, the buffalo took flight and I'm pleased to say, got away.
Rubbish photos again
It was one of the most unreal experiences of our lives, there we were in the pitch black (well OK, Juston had the spot on), in the middle of the bush, with 11 lions walking past us; the last of which was so close she brushed against my side of the truck - heart in mouth!
Then we were lucky enough to see this Porcupine scurrying along.
And finally, back to check on Grumpy Leopard, who was closely guarding his kill and still spitting at us.
Couldn't ask for a more dramatic final evening's drive.