Mata Mata Day 2

We were awoken at 3am by lions roaring close to camp. This was the first time we had heard them since we got here and it was exciting. They kept roaring and doing contact calls until 4:45am when it was time to get up anyway.
After a couple of coffees we were 7th out of the gate just after 5:30am. There were the usual muppets behind us that got up late and then flew out of the gate wanting to overtake everyone and not spotting but waiting until whatever car was in front of them stopped to see something. Chancers profiting of everyonelses sightings.
The sun came above the horizon at 5:50am and it was right in our eyes. Spotting was a nightmare and by 6:30am we hadn’t seen anything to note except a big herd of giraffe. 7am came and went and we drove around every waterhole and there was nothing. After 20 kilometres of driving we knew we weren’t going to see the lion that had been roaring. So we decided to stop for an hour at the 13th waterhole and only saw a wildebeest.
At 9am we gave up and took a slow drive back spotting a martial eagle and a spotted eagle owl. We finally got back at 11am very disappointed with the day. It seemed pointless going back out for an evening drive when it was only going to get hotter.
By 2pm I was bored rigid and beginning to regret our decision to come to Mata Mata for 5 days. This is supposed to be prolific for lion, leopard and cheetah sightings but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of anything here. Tomorrow we are going to take a packed lunch and snacks and drive further.
Just before 5pm the Meerkats came into the camp site but they didn’t visit us until just gone 7pm when we were having dinner. There is a baby Meerkat so small it doesn’t look like it should be out of the nest yet let alone on its own. While I was eating 2 of them were tapping my leg but Ellie told me not to feed them.
After dinner we headed over to the hide again and just as we were giving up at 8pm a jackal came to the water hole. Once the Jackal had gone we went back to camp and watched TV in bed.Read more