November 4, 2021

1515, Umlani Private Game Reserve

Short post -

Sitting in shade at picnic table outside my bungalow on a hot, breezy afternoon. Arrived on Tuesday afternoon but didn't go on game drive for reasons I won't go into but which involve frantically looking for a certain document (sort of a blue booklet with my picture in it) that had fallen out of my pocket and without which I wasn't going anywhere else.  Fortunately, all well.... Tuesday was crazy hot when we arrived but shortly afterward a front blue through with strong winds and dropped the temperature by 20 degrees. Very strong winds throughout the night.

Wednesday game drives were primarily about lions. Leaving camp at 0500 on an overcast Wednesday we found hyenas and then lions within maybe 500 meters of camp. The lions - three males and three females - had taken down a buffalo cow overnight. Somehow with the wind we didn't hear any of it. The males were beautiful - really gorgeous prime males - but very skittish and nervous. We shot some at the location in the morning, and then continued the drive.

It was great to back in the bush. I'm sharing the vehicle with guide Amos and tracker Clarence, guests Peter, Meg and Kirsty (Andrew Beck of WildEye's parents and sister) and Luke. We saw many of the usual suspects, including many, many giraffe but the highlight of the morning was the lions. 

That afternoon we went back out and the lions were sleeping so we continued to drive spending time to shoot ostrich, dwarf mongoose, buffalo and then circled back to see if the lions were moving. One male and one female had left the kill for some reason by that time. Lions eat enormous amounts of meat and digesting all of that protein generates a lot of body heat and they must drink water. The males got up and began to walk toward the pan that sits across a dry river bed from the bar deck of the lodge. We quickly drove to get ahead of them and position ourselves on the opposite side of the pond and waited for them to come drink. Results were spectacular. Beautiful males drinking water, side by side, with sun in their faces in beautiful lighting.  Couldn't ask for more.

This morning's drive was cool and, while the light was beautiful, relatively quiet. Then a short nap, shower and light lunch.  While eating lunch, lots of drama at the waterhole as buffalo, elephant, giraffe, zebra and hyena all showed up to drink while an adolescent male elephant attempted to drive them all away, I assume because teenage boys are just generally kind of jerks.  But great fun to watch and nothing more than feelings were hurt in the process.

Now to get ready for a hot pm drive.