Final game drive day

In keeping with our good fortune on this trip, we successfully tracked a leopard! And by 'successfully tracked a leopard' I mean that we spent 3 hours following tracks unsuccessfully before Muffin responded to another guide's radio call that a leopard was spotted!! Woohoo! Muffin sped to the spot in minutes and was willing to drive over trees to get us the best view of that leopard (who was on a hunt for red billed horn bills). Beautiful cat and it's amazing that anyone found it considering it's size and how well it blends in with it's surroundings! This game drive also gave us another steenbok, who obliged us with a few still seconds to get a photo, and a large herd of buffalo.
Had a great lunch back at the lodge and took a nap during siesta.
The afternoon game drive was a bit weak. Found a few kudu (bad picture below) and a sleeping female lion by breaking the rules and driving off-road. Other than that, pretty slow. Hyenas still did not behave tonight.
Back at the lodge, buffalo and elephants were mingling at the water hole. We had a huge dinner (since they brought me the wrong dish first and then the right one after, both of which were great!) and then, after dessert, came out singing and trilling with a 'happy wedding anniversary' cake. It was lopsided and frozen and had very strange sour cream frosting on it, but we all felt obligated to eat some. 😁
While eating a few week old elephant came to the watering hole. Sooo cute! 🐘
Muffin (Maphani officially) has been great at going wherever he needs to to get us to the animals we want to see. His English isn't as good as Sello and Onx's, so he misses some of our (great!) jokes, but he is very nice and has done an excellent job. 👍 Staff at all the lodges have been very friendly and helpful.
Tomorrow morning will be our last game drive in Botswana. On to the final leg of our trip tomorrow.Read more