Day 2 Part 3
When we got to reception, there were already a lot of people waiting for then truck to arrive. Lucky for us, we were so many people that booked the drive that after the first truck was full we got to choose if the 10 of us that were left wanted the other big truck or the smaller truck. We asked our driver, Tevin, what he preferred and he said the smaller truck can drive quicker and we would be able to cover more ground so we climbed in the small truck. Mum in front with the guide, she had then best seat as the heater was on and the guide told her a lot of exciting stories whilst we could only hear wind in then back.
Our first stop was about 3km from Satara on th H7 to listen to the rules and check out the sunset…
We got to Nsemani dam an saw an old daggaboy rolling in the mud, we turned unto the little dirt road to check out if there were anything good next to Nsemani and then we got to see a small traffic jam, it was great to know that we were on then sunset drive as everybody had to move to get to camp on time and we could get a great spot to search for whatever the people were seeing. It was a young female leopard playing in the riverbed, there were a lot of bush obscuring the view. But I was able to take a few shoddy pics…
We then moved on and stopped at the rhino carcass, a few more lions joined the party and a big siesta was going on, the lighting was bad so very gagga pics, the lions weren’t happy with each other and there were a lot of growling going around. We enjoyed their antics until when they ripped a part of the rhino from the carcass and the most vicious smell entered my nostril, there were a few gag reflexes going on in the truck and we begged the guide to move on, but he turned around and very mischievously said that we can sit here the whole night and enjoy the lions… When he saw the desperation on our faces he turned around and started the car leaving the big truck to their own device.
We then turned unto the S12 and I was thinking why couldn’t we just do the Sweni road… But the guide knew better. We drove past some ellies and after a few kilometre I saw something dash across the road and immediately uttered ‘HYENA!’ the guide shaking his head just calmly said ‘no, leopard, guys be quiet’ He was waiting for us next to the road and we had an amazing sighting…
He moved off and then we were on our way again, we had a few sighting of civets and a hyena and genet and a rhino, then we parked off next to a chilled out ellie. Our guide just love them and said that he can just sit with them for hours. If I could read them like him, then I would sit next to them as well but I keep my distance so I don’t ever experience them like we did that night. It was truly amazing sitting with such a huge gentle giant and feel at peace…
The bigger truck passed us and when we were almost on the H7 again I got another heart attack as I spotted a lion in the road… First thing said to me was ‘shhhhht’ from the guide, but I have to utter with my loud voice whatever I see… It was two male lions chilling in then road and they weren’t happy being bothered by us…
The clock was ticking and we had to move on to camp so we left the bigger truck with the golden cats…
We got more civets on our way and I was able to take a proper pic of one…
And then about a kilometre from the H1-3 I spotted another leopard sleeping in the grass, we were flabbergasted with the amazing sightings we have seen today…
This male wasn’t happy with the lights and after a few minutes stood up, our guide said that there were a few minutes left and one of the guys on the truck mentioned a mating pair of lions that they saw the afternoon near the H6, we moved south… We didn’t see any mating lions but we did see an AWC
We got to camp just after 20:00 and the truck was bubbling with excitement as we had an amazing drive, we saw the big 5 and then had 3 leopard and 2 lion sightings as well… It was freaking amazeballs.
We got to our bungalow and whilst having a beer and chatting another AWC trotted to us, posed and us not having a camera and just staring at him stunned, lost interest and disappeared into the dark. Satara was so very good to us, we went to bed very happy.
To be continued…
Great sightings so far. 
