Day 16: July 9, Hwange Park

Last night, Joanne and I heard a lion calling right outside our tent. It's so weird that I can now recognize the sound of a lion call. (It's even more weird that I could fall asleep while listening to it!) In any case, when we walked to breakfast, we saw several tracks on our pathway - apparently two male lions had met up right next to our tent during the night. Wild stuff.

I walked through a lot of poop today.

I opted for the game walk this morning, which was a nice break from bouncing around in the back of a safari jeep. We didn't see as many animals on the walk, of course, but what we did see was great. I don't think this Vervet Monkey was sticking his tongue out at us (I think he was eating a berry)... but I can't be absolutely sure: We also wandered across the bleached bones of a giraffe, re-assembled on the path:
A huge bull elephant was close by as well, and knocked over an acacia tree while we were watching. He was eating the roots, and we could smell the scent of the roots from where we were standing:

We saw lots of poop (elephant, impala, giraffe, zebra, and leopard)... and now I know how to tell the difference between male and female giraffe dung. I'm sure that knowledge will come in very useful one day in New York City. We also saw tons of tracks (porcupine, elephant, giraffe, buffalo, spring hare, hornbill) and we followed the tracks of a leopard as well, but only caught a fleeing glance of him through some underbrush before he disappeared. At one point, we found an area where elephants had lay down for a rest, leaving their prints and dents in the loose sand. Overall it was fabulous.

It's hard to believe that this journey will be over in just over a week, and that our bush trip will be over in a few more days. Then it's back to civilization - Victoria Falls and Cape Town.... then home. Slowly, curiosity about things like my job, apartment and life have been creeping back into my brain. It's hard to fathom not having access to any form of communication for over 2 weeks now. Wow. I've been unknowingly going through an information and technology withdrawal. I've also been going through a chocolate withdrawal, but that I have known about for a few days. Haha.

Really the only regret that I have about this trip is not being able to share it with someone. Ah well, one day... I'll just have to come back... As I write this in my journal, I'm watching the Vervet monkeys play outside our tent. Three are sitting on a log in front of me, and it looks as though they're gossiping... but they're probably just waiting for us to hang out our laundry so they can steal it and hang it on the tree branches around camp...
Afternoon:

Our drive started slowly, but we did catch some interesting sights. Here is a wildebeest crossing:
And we finally found our ostriches! These two males were "fighting" over three females that were off to one side. One male would approach, and then the other would "chase" him off. Then the first would doggedly return, trying to interrupt the second ostrich's attempt to mate with the females. This happened three times in a row. I put all of this in quotes, because neither ostrich ever walked faster than about 6 inches per second. They just walked around each other. It was like watching a soap opera love story one... frame... at... a... time... in... very... slow... motion... (hysterical.)

We also spotted a bat-eared fox (which I've been hoping to see for a few days now):
and finally spotted the silly giraffes striking a most unflattering pose in order to eat some grass:
I like this photo:
Then, we saw some elephants digging for minerals. Since elephants don't get much nutrition out of their grass diet, they seek out mineral deposits in sandy areas, dig them up with their tusks, and toss the mineral-laced sand down their throats. Here, the bigger elephant is trying to dig up a rock to access the minerals underneath:
As this big female tosses the mineral sand into her mouth (they don't chew it, since chewing would grind down their teeth too quickly. Instead, they simply toss it to the back of their throats and swallow it.) The baby with her is trying to get his share too:

And then, the baby started frolicking. I have never seen an elephant frolic before, but it was hysterical. At one point, the cute little thing actually tried to charge the vehicle... hee hee:
We also saw:

- Steenbok

- Kori Bustard

- Lilac-breasted Roller

- Baboons

- African Wild Cat

- White-tailed Mongoose

- Springhare

Sunset was gorgeous... as usual:

I love the color gradation in the sky:
And finally, FINALLY we reached the climax of the evening! We have, so far, seen four of the Big Five game - Elephant, leopard, buffalo, and lion. The guides told us that we probably wouldn't see the rhino, so just forget about them. Tonight, just as we had started our spotlighting for the evening, we came across a pair of rhinos! A male and a female. It was quite exciting, and the guide was nearly jumping out of the seat he was so happy. It was too dark for any of our cameras to get anything close to a good photo... but I got the best that I could:
At least you could see the horn shape... (*shrug*)

Meanwhile, it's definitely colder here than at any other camp, and the morning drives are brutal, especially with the winds whipping through the vehicles. Honestly, though, the hardest part is simply getting out of bed and putting on cold clothing! Brrrrrrr!