Chobe National Park - Day 5

This guy had huge issues with the Northern pride on his doorstep.

We were up at 5.20 to get going by 6am and don't water valuable first light by fiddling around, just get out. As self drivers, it's critical you pick up as much intel of the night activities to work out where the predators are moving. The lions had roared the whole night and had not moved going by the roars. A Honey Badger had got in and emptied our bin! Just cannot keep these guys out no matter what.

Our starting point was the lions and we found one almost immediately at the pumped waterhole nearest camp. He was fast asleep so we left him to look for the others.

Fast asleep from a night out!

Half awake

We checked the waterhole behind but there was nothing that we could see, neither were any of the lions at the waterhole they'd been at the previous day and there was no sign of activity at the elephant carcass.

A displaying Kori, switch off to listen to awesome sounds of this display. 

We took a long detour around through some and bush and got a bit lost but thanks to Tracks4Africa wound our way back to the lion area. And found the lion had disappeared. But we found him a moment later when we arrived at the amusingly named disaster stretch point as he was sleeping next to the waterhole, the only one that has a hippo in it, no doubt annoyed by the presence of a predator.

Spending quality time with lions, still only 5 minutes from camp. 

We spent some time with him, but he was dead to the world, so we entertained ourselves with the impala that was heading to drink along with a lone wildebeest. The wildebeest started to paw the mud and that woke the lion up enough to raise his head. That spooked all the antelope as they hadn't actually realized he was there and suddenly there was a chorus of alarm calls as the impala abandoned the drinking and headed off.

Didn't expect to see a Hippo in Savute.

This prompted the lion to get up as well but he didn't do much more than able off into the bush to carry on sleeping. We did another round to look for the other lions and found the lioness was back on the carcass. She didn't spend much time on it and was soon walking off but not before doing some contact calling. And to our surprise we suddenly saw the male heading in her direction.

 

She drank at the seasonal waterhole and not the sweet water hole. 

He ended up walking in a circle because they finally ended up at the same waterhole he'd been sleeping. She had a quick drink and then headed into the bush while he slowly ambled behind her - possibly the beginning of a mating pair. 

Another guy with a problem with 3 massive males lions in his zone. 

Satisfied with our morning lion fill but always hungry for more, we decided to look for lioness that we'd seen the previous day walking down the road around twin hills. We were keen to know if she was heading for the pride females or cubs perhaps. 

While following up that lead, we got some intel about a leopard and some lions in the Marabou pan direction, luckily on the road we were on. The original info was a bit vague but a subsequently a guide was nice enough to give us good directions to the leopard, and honestly we probably wouldn't have missed it as it was right next to the side of the road with at least 3 cars sitting there.

Mid day reflections, pumped waterhole Savute. 

We were just a fraction off with our timing though as the leopard - who had had a kill in a tree - was busy dragging his prize under a dense bush and we got there just as he was disappearing into the bush. You win some you lose some but we did have a Leopard with a kill which is always a win! 

The acacia bush was so dense that he could hardly be seen through the branches except for one small gap so it was a procession of cars trying to get a shot of this somewhat skittish leopard. We gave way to a game drive vehicle who in turn gave us precise directions to the lions. It was 2 lionesses and 6 cubs, part of the well known Marsh pride of Savute.

Leopard

We decided to leave the leopard for the moment and headed to find the lions and they were exactly per directions, passed out under an acacia next to the road. The cubs were about 6 months old and a couple of them stirred as we sat there with one getting up to have a drink of milk but the 2 mothers didn't even raise their heads while we were there.

Covered in mud, wedged between the pride females, a lion cubs gets some sleep. 

We ran between the sightings as they were so close together but there was no movement from with predators and at midday we decided to leave them and have lunch at the nearby Marabou waterhole.

Think we woke them up from a deep slumber!

For the next few hours we chilled out watching a few elephant bulls come to drink and generally enjoying the shade of a flowering tree in the heat of the day whole having our lunch of pasta salad made conveniently the day before just for this kind of scenario, where we are miles from camp and need to have lunch but cannot head back to camp.

The prize sighting for us was always going to be the leopard so our plan was to see if he was around before making our way to the lions. Its always a worry that predators will move away while we're not there and at first glance we couldn't find the leopard. But it turns out that he'd moved out of the bush and was now sitting in the shade of the bush enjoying the cooling breeze in the open and there was no one else around.

 

A leopard in the open is prize catch. 

We spent ages with him and he was very chilled out allowing some nice photos. But eventually the cars started arriving and since we still wanted to check the lions before heading back to camp we left him very happy with our patience having paid off.

In the open for the afternoon

The lions were a bit more in the open but they were all still fast asleep. The one lioness did wake up for a moment like she spotted something in the distance but the rest were flat cats.

One female has seen something but the rest are sound asleep. 

Eventually we had to leave and started the trek back to camp. We made better time than expected so did a quick recon to see if the lions near to camp were out but we only found a black-backed jackals happily chomping on a pigeon he'd caught.

A Jackal will steal from a lion or catch a pigeon.

We did find that the vultures had discovered the elephant carcass as there were dozens perching on every tree within a 200m radius of the carcass and a ton of them on the ground feeding. A pleasant sunset to end the game drive and we were back to camp. 

Dru spoke to a couple who told him that they'd been in Ihaha the day before and that they'd endured a massive thunderstorm so it seemed like the lightning that we'd seen passing over us the previous night had been dumped on them and hopefully for us it would be clear nights for the rest of our trip.

Beautiful skies over Savute. 

Braai going with steak, boerewors and ribs and we headed to bed to the sound of the lions roaring all around the camp.

Savute sunsets were as special as the sightings.