Laikepia
The alarm was a horrible and rude awakening at 5:40, a well and truly stupid time of morning especially when away on holiday. Coffee, juice and a couple of cookies were bought to the tent to encourage us out of bed. Once we were ready, we wandered down to the mess tent for some fruits and juices.
We were then taken out on a long drive for the morning. It was a rather chilly start to the day and Nim had left his jumper in the tent so we wrapped up in a blanket in the back of the truck. We had decided to go on a mission to find some of the lions. There are a couple who are collared to help with tracking ( this has been done by a neighbouring ranch ) which made it a bit easier. Only trouble, is that the range for the electric tracker is 10 kilometres, rather a large area to scan! Along the way, we had the pleasure of seeing elephants, a journey of 28 giraffes, lots more dicdics, impala, a water buck, a spotted hyena and her two cubs and lots more. We did manage to get a small glimpse of the lion, but he didn’t stick around for long, the rumble of the truck didn’t seem to impress him very much.
We headed down to a viewpoint where we met everyone else and had some lunch, very much needed as we were both rather hungry! Afterwards, we headed back to the camp to change into swimwear so we could go and have a play in part of the river. The water was extremely murky and chilly but we had some fun playing and gliding down with the current. Nim decided we should “swim like the otters do” and hold hands while we floated.
Post swim, we came back for showers, tea and cake and decided what the plan was for the afternoon. Steve and Ollie decided to take us and another of the families staying on the camp up to ‘Baboon Rock’ for sundown. This meant a short drive before abandoning Ollie with the car and walking the rest of the way. We scrambled up the rock face, vans maybe weren’t the best option of footwear but they are definitely better than flipflops. After a wander through a lot of grass seeds and bushes, spotting a scorpion or two and seeing an ant trail where all the workers were bringing back food, we came across a spot overlooking a waterfall and a small pool. We had sundown sitting on some rocks, admiring creation in all it’s beauty!
We headed back to the tent to get ready for dinner when we heard someone calling from outside explaining that there was a leopard settled just outside of camp and we should come and see it ( if we liked ). We quickly ran to the truck and bumped our way down the path to where the leopard was. She was so calm and chilled, not minding the truck’s headlights at all. We all had time to admire her before heading back to camp for food. Dinner consisted of steak, crispy potatoes and a chocolate toffee pudding which was most delicious. Bedtime was most welcome and sleep wasn’t hard to find as it had been a long day.
