We had a lovely long lie in followed by yogurt and toast. We got to the petrol station to find loads of vehicles waiting and a rather fraught attendant saying “cash only, internets down”. So we went to the front of the queue and paid cash…how long the people who had already filled and now couldn’t pay, would have to wait heaven only knows…it just reinforced my philosophy that you must carry enough cash to see you through infrastructure hiccups….

Off we went before we got to the gate John selected Zebra as first spot and I said wildebeest…….shucks….before we actually got out of the gate we saw a herd of zebra grazing…in-fact we didn’t see wildebeest until much later, although I hastened to add they out numbered the zebra by the end of the day…anyway they put John on 4 wins so the score is 7-4…. Yikes he’s catching me up 🤣

We quickly saw a few giraffe and a rather handsome kudu, who insisted on being camera shy.

We went down the S100 and saw some wildebeests hiding from the heat of the day under a thorn tree/bush.

We were just commenting that the extreme change of temperature …today it was 33 degrees Celsius, was keeping the mammals hiding away from sight…suddenly we saw 2 WBV on a nest in a tree…a lovely sight.

We turned onto the road which links the S100 to the H6….this road is not for the faint hearted .. most the top soil/sand and gravel has gone….you would think that would be a good thing as it can’t be corrugated….but what it actually means is that you’re picking your way slowly across rock…trying to find the flattest way through, without driving over sharp bits or bits sticking up which could damage your tyres or your sump….it is hard driving…no rest for the driver and absolutely no way of using cruise control……on top of this, the road crosses several fords/ pontoon bridges with water flowing over them…some deeper than others…one in particular you get half way across with the water about a foot/30cm deep and suddenly the car drops down another 10 inches/24 cms…I wouldn’t even try it in a saloon car…it certainly makes you think you’re about to end up in the river…but hey Ho we’ve done it several times and I just hold my breath and pray…. I actually stopped in the middle this time to view the impressive bed of purple water lilies…one has a bee on it ….

…..and a little further across we found a young crocodile hiding in the lilies and reeds.

We got to the H6 without incident….we stopped at the dead giraffe and saw a swish of a tail.. and then it turned over it was a lioness and her cub. Lions sleep 20 hours out of 24 hours so catching them awake is always difficult. Lions usually live in groups of 10 or 15 animals called prides. The females are the hunters, if their pride has any males after the hunt the males eat first then the females. When food is scarce up to 80% of cubs can die of starvation as they are the last to get to eat. An adult male’s roar can be heard up to 8km away.

We watched for a while before driving on…we located the hyena den but could see no sign of them…they were obviously in their den..a culvert under the road. Heading back to camp for an afternoon rest we came across some more elephants and Chacma baboons. We pulled up next to a wonderfully sociable wildebeest and ate our lunch in his presence.

Back at camp we rested until 4.00pm when we went to join the Parks Sunset drive. This time we were with Tiani and her truck was full. She set off down the tar towards Orpen gate and turned onto a parks board only road…it ran parallel to the tar. She had a companion with her and they took it in turns to talk about each animal…zebra, wildebeest, warthog and giraffe. To be quite honest it was a little tedious especially as she seemed focussed on sexing the animal other than looking at the more obvious genitalia. She turned back onto the tar and went to the dam. There was a lovely breeding herd of elephants. They crossed the road in front of the truck and there was a tiny calf, which was between a week and a month old.

Retracing our steps we we saw very little until she turned on to the H6. We stopped for a sunset shot.

She stopped at the hyena den and sure enough they were out next to the culvert.

Further on we saw the same lions just off the road near the giraffe kill. A few kilometres further there was a loin on the tar…like the Chacma baboons they often sleep on the tar to enjoy its warmth.

On our return we saw two more lions near the road,

….a few more hyenas around the den and a marsh owl.

The sightings were superb but they weren’t spotted, they were seen because the animals walked out into the road.

Our sightings count for the day was 99+ impala, 1 hoopoe, 1 yellow-billed hornbill, 99+ zebra, 2 vervet monkeys, 13 giraffe, 1 kudu, 32 waterbuck, 2 WVB, 2 bateleur eagle, 25 elephant, 99+wildebeest, 7 lion, 1 crocodile, 1 steenbok, 3 lilac breasted roller, 18 Chacma baboons, 5 hyena, 2 warthog, 1 marsh owl.

We ended the day at The Cattle Baron, using their Internet…then back to the rondavel for a game of cards.