Moremi Game Reserve - Day 4

The Xini pride was on our list for this trip. 

It was dark when we left after a night of few sounds except the scops owl and distant lion and hyena. Our plan was to head to 2nd bridge to check out the flood damage before heading back to the gate and then driving to Khwai. 

We were out first hoping to catch something on the road, but when we got to the seasonal waterhole at the Blackpool turnoff, we still hadn't seen any tracks. We stopped for a moment to listen and at that moment a lion roared. Although far away, we took the Blackpool turnoff in the hopes of catching his tracks but he was nowhere to be found. 

Giving up and turning back we headed further down the road to Xini lagoon but were soon stopped by the alarm calls of some guineafowl. We were pretty sure a predator was around but it could be a bird of prey or owl as the guineafowl will shout for that as well. It wasn't showing itself and we could hear cars coming. 

One of big boys of the Xini pride poses for a shot. 

Choosing rather to be the first on the road in order to see tracks we moved off and carried on until we got to the Xini turnoff. We headed in to see if we could find anything but it was pretty quiet with no cats and very few antelope. 

Until we came across 2 game drive vehicles sitting off road. They were near a herd of impala and since there was no way they'd be off road for just that, we got the binoculars on them and soon discovered why - a lioness was stalking the impala. There was no chance we were going off road but we figured we could get close by driving around as we could see there were roads available to us. 

Dad and kids watching Mum and the pride sizing up a hunt. 

And a few minutes later we were rounding the corner to find the pan that had the lioness. Except it wasn't just her - she was quite far in the distance. But close by were a couple of male lions resting on an anthill and just a bit further were at least another 3 lions perched on a termite mound watching the stalking in action. 

Cubs remained hidden till the would be hunt was over. 

Not long after we arrived we saw the impala herd suddenly bolt and all run. It was a chase but not much of one and soon though the binoculars we could see a sheepish looking lioness heading back towards the pride. We were so focused on the lions in front of us that we almost missed the highlight. Dru glanced in the opposite direction just to make sure there weren't any more lions and there sitting were 7 lion cubs! They had come out from their hiding place just after the hunt and were sitting there waiting to be photographed. 

Nothing matches a male lion roar. 

Then they decided to head to the nearest lions which happened to be the males and we were treated to a nice sighting of male lions with their offspring. We repositioned the car a bit to take advantage of the sighting and then unexpectedly one of the males got up and started to roar while walking towards us. It was an awesome encounter both seeing and hearing this male roar while the others looked on. Eventually he crossed in front of the car and went to sit down nearby. 

Hanging with Mum.

By this time the cubs had moved off to the mound with the sub-adults and the sub-adults had started to play, so we moved the car to see if we could get some shots but unfortunately they were just a bit too far away. Then one of the lionesses started to walk towards an anthill closer to the road, so we drove there and were rewarded with the cubs coming to greet her. One by one, the young lions started crossing the road and headed to the waterhole that we'd been to yesterday with the new channel of water. We were hoping that they would come to drink in the newly formed little waterhole. 

Dad joins the pride for some quality time. 

Strangely, we couldn't find the little waterhole until we realized that it was now a massive lake of water! The channel of water had flowed so fast overnight that it had filled the small depression and then just continued to get bigger and bigger. In the end the lions walked one by one into the veld and then one by one walked out again back across the road. Almost all of them except the cubs went to rest on a termite mound next to the road so we were able to get some nice photos of them. 

Chilling with the pride. 

Eventually though they started heading into brush and we knew the sighting was done. The lion cubs were all together in the grass but it was a bit off road and we didn't want to disturb them so we left what was an awesome sighting and continued our drive, now somewhat in mid morning and a bit too hot for any other predators. 

1st bridge, we crossed in dry sand to the left the same time last year. 

It took a while to get to 1st bridge and we could see how much water there was compared to last year. Last time we'd crossed the dry river bed next to the bridge as it was impassable but now there was water too deep to cross. Luckily they'd fixed the wooden bridge and we crossed with no problem although the water was starting to lap at the edge of the bridge and soon it would become problematic. 

1st bridge is already getting messy and this is the easy cross!

2nd bridge a few kms further down was an absolute disaster. Firstly the bridge was completely broken and no one was going to cross that. The wooden poles that were needed to fix it had arrived but they too were lying in water. Where we had crossed in sand now was a massive channel of water at least 20 meters wide and easily a car height in depth. No one was crossing that for months. 

2nd bridge was down the detour was too risky for us but folks were getting through.

We had seen the detour sign on the way in and after taking a few photos we headed that way to see what the crossing was like. We had spoken to a couple of cars coming out of 3rd bridge and they had told us it was doable but we also knew that people had got stuck and weren't willing to take a chance on our own. It's a bit of fun if you're in a convoy, not so much if you're stuck in the water for a few hours until hopefully someone can pull you out. 

The theory was to avoid this shallow looking mud for the deeper sand crossing. We turned back!

The detour crossing looked a bit treacherous. There were 3 water crossings you had to make, the 3rd one being the nastiest of the 3 as it was quite a long stretch. We'd mmmed and aaahed about whether we should cross all the time leading up to this trip, but there was a reason we'd made an alternative booking - so we wouldn't be forced to do this crossing if we didn't want to. And we didn't want to, especially not for 1 night and having seen how fast the channels can rise; it wasn't a chance we were willing to take.

Glad to have seen 2nd bridge and the water crossing, but deciding to be cautious we started the drive back and got to South Gate just after lunch. We'd had lunch along the way so after paying our park fees, we headed straight onto the 35km service road that takes you to Khwai. We got there just in time for a game drive along the floodplain. 

Horseshoe lagoon, prime game driving territory in Khwai.

Slow moving game drive vehicles alerted us to the chance of seeing a predator and we found out from them that lions had been seen in the morning but they'd disappeared into the forest and now no one could find them. We did find a Verreaux's Eagle Owl perched on a branch which was a nice surprise as we hadn't seen one in years. 

More looking for lions but none were to be found and we decided before the sun set that we'd leave the park as we still needed to get to our campsite which was 12km from North Gare. The drive goes through the sleepy village of Khwai and then through the grassland where we spotted a few elephants grazing at the tree line. The camp is well signposted and we got to the camp reception before sunset. 

The camp setup is similar to Magotho in that it is a large wild area with campsites dotted around with shared ablutions. This gives you plenty of privacy as your nearest neighbor is far away but so are the toilets so you need to drive there. As the sites are not marked one of the staff have to show you where to go. And with a packed car there's nowhere for him to sit so it seems the way to do this is for the guy to just stand on the sidestep of the car holding onto the roof and directing you from there - an amusing solution. 

Car full, no problem for the guy showing us around, just hand on outside. 

We had to cross a little channel to get to our campsite but it was really stunning under a massive tree with the channel right in front, and you could see hippos grazing about 30 meters away in the water. We decided to quickly have showers first so headed to the ablutions, luckily with hot water from a donkey belly and then did some washing of our dishes before heading back and lighting a fire. It was a lovely peaceful evening made even more special when first a hyena called and then a lion roared not too far in the distance. It made for a great cap to an awesome day.