After yesterday‘s excitement with the cheetah, we decided that lions would be the target for today. We started the day, as usual with our 6:00 am wake up call from Darren, our Ranger. Then trying to wake up, get dressed, put together the stuff we need for the morning drive, and walking to the main building for an early snack. The snack is coffee or your beverage of choice, with some muffins, cookies or fruit. While Phinda has a dining room that’s mostly closed to the elements, they leave it open whenever the weather permits. In this case, that means temperatures in the 50s with guests dressed to go on a game drive.

Unfortunately, having the folding windows open is viewed by the monkeys as an invitation to enjoy the snack buffet. They particularly like the muffins, but are also partial to bananas and apples. This morning, they emptied out the muffin bowl and all of the apples.

Darren and Mandla had information about the area where some lions were seen the night before, so we headed in that direction (1). After driving around for a while to no avail, they decided that a foot search was required and they left us alone in the car, with strict instructions to stay put. Much like the cheetah mom told her cubs yesterday. Then Mandla and another tracker went off into the bush. They both came back, and we took off to drive around to where the lions were resting.

We found the lions sitting in the grass. There were maybe six or eight; it was hard to tell as they were all cud (2) cuddling with each other. Then they all heard something, got up and walked into the bush.

Having now seen lions, albeit not a very active sighting, we went off after lunch to look for hippos and elephants. Hippos are difficult to see, as they spend their time submerged in the water. Often only their eyes are visible. Apparently, the main reason (3) they spend their time submerged during the day is that they sunburn easily. Sun sensitivity seems to me to be a really bad adaptation to living in this climate. They don’t do any of their daily activities in the water; they eat, mate, and sleep on dry land once the sun goes down. And since they look like large boulders, it would be very hard to see them at night.

So the elephants were still on the list. They had been sighted quite a long way from us across the preserve, so we set off to drive over. Along the way we had an unexpected encounter (4). The first was a group of rhinos grazing along side the road. Three of them graciously posed for us.

After a long ride, we found the elephants, but it was pretty disappointing, as there were only two or three, and they were very far away from us up on a ridge. And it was almost 5:00, about 35 minutes before sunset. I’ve lightened the picture to make it easier to see, but daylight was already starting to fade.

On our way back to the lodge we had our second unexpected encounter for the day: a large herd of buffalo was on both sides of, and on, the road. It’s hard to take a picture of the entire herd that gives you a sense of how big and impressive these animals are. The top picture is just a sample of all the buffalo we saw there.

We ended the day as we often do, with a sundowner (5).

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(1) The rangers and trackers all cooperate with each other to find elusive animals, like lions, leopards and leopards. So there were other vehicles in the area that were on other roads looking for signs of the lions. This preserve never has more than three vehicles actually converging on a group of animals so as not to annoy them.

(2) I’m writing this while sitting on the deck at our next lodge, several days later. I was interrupted mid-word by a herd of seven or eight giraffe just across the Sand River, a few hundred yards away. So I had to take some more pictures.

(3) I want to know who asked the hippos why they stayed submerged. Maybe they just like swimming.

(4) Animal sightings are what happens while you are busy looking for other animals.

(5) “Sundowner” is a delightful safari tradition of drinks and snacks taken while you watch the sunset.