Moremi Game Reserve - Day 5

The iconic Khwai river bridge at North Gate.

The campsite was quiet when we left in the morning after packing up and visiting the ablutions. We arrived at north gate just after opening while it was still dark. We weren't surprised to find the office still closed so we headed in and went straight to where we suspected the lions had been seen the day before. But the lions had long disappeared with not even spoor to give us an idea of where they had gone. 

North gate or Khwai entrance lost the entrance cover with the rains last year. 

We found the Giant Eagle Owl almost where we had spotted him the previous day and quickly worked out why when we heard a call to answer his - there was a nest that the female owl was sitting on while calling in unison. We suspect the nest is actually a hamerkop nest that has been commandeered by the much bigger owls. 

Cannot resist a shot of the Lilac breasted Roller, common but a gem. 

We had some really nice photo opportunities of lechwe in the water but otherwise it was pretty quiet on the campsite side so we crossed over past the gate and did a bit of driving on the hippo pools side. Despite a few vultures in trees we couldn't find a predator and eventually hit the main road and started the 30km drive to Xakanaxa arriving at our campsite just before lunch. 

Pink eye lids and large size makes the Verreaux's an easy call to make. 

We still had campsite chores to do including putting diesel in. We calculated the fuel we had left and worked out that we could put our 2 extra plastic cans, plus one of our usual jerry cans. Our calculations were off somehow though and the third can went spilling everywhere, leaving quite a mess with diesel on the ground and all over Cheryl's hands. All cleaned up and the rest of the chores done, we heated our leftover stew with pasta and enjoyed it under the shade in the campsite. 

Xakanaxa campsite.

There were fruiting trees in the camp making for plentiful birds, including a few additions for the bird list. We'd seen the lodge guys driving past the campsite rather than the direct road past the lodge and we suspected that the roads had water on them so we went to check after lunch to work out our game drive routes. Turns out we were right. Close to the lodges there were deep channels filled with water. The lodge guys may be able to get through but we definitely weren't going to take the chance and get stuck. So we retraced our steps and slowly made our way out of the camp area and find a way to get into the Jessie's hippo pools region. 

These are some of the highest water levels flooding the road between the camp and lodges. 

A guide had told us earlier that both lions and wild dogs had been seen near Jessie's hippo pools - we just had to find the roads that could get us there. A lot of driving and then turning around when we hit water we finally made to Jessie's pools. As expected the lions and dogs were both long gone, no doubt having crossed into one of the tree islands we couldn't get to thanks to the flooding. 

The beautiful massive old trees around Xakanaxa. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon meandering down to the 4th bridge area. We'd heard that it had been closed due to the waters, but we couldn't get anywhere near it. It was in stark comparison to the previous year when we'd been able to drive right up to the old bridge. We wandered back to the entrance gate with no predator luck but plenty of zebra and impala with a massive herd of buffalo being the highlight of the drive. 

A lone elephant in charge of the Xakanaxa gate. 

We stopped at the gate to see whether we needed to register as there'd been no one there when we'd arrived. No need to register but were told to check out paradise pools that was a nice area to drive and only a few kms away. We duly headed down to paradise pools and it is a really nice but small area to drive around. It's open with short grass surrounded by tall trees or water channels. A big herd of lechwe were grazing and we had some nice shots of a yellow-billed stork unsuccessfully fishing and then the unexpected catch of a few pygmy geese, a small duck that we rarely see. 

Yellow Billed Stork, a common water bird in the swamps. 

We headed back just before sunset and were rewarded with a scene of young bull elephants tussling on the road with the setting sun in the background. Back at camp and it wasn't as peaceful as we'd left it as our neighbors had arrived - about 25 people in total just setting up camp. It made for a loud night but luckily they settled down by the late evening. We made sure we got showers out the way before they trekked to the bathrooms and we were able to enjoy the last of the night in peace before heading to bed ourselves.