Bug spray towelettes made it in our luggage. good thing - this must be national fly week. many more than I remember on past trips - and the bug repellent is getting them out of my immediate vicinity.

We did not have a woman pilot, but we did have a computer engineer/award winning photographer as our trainee co-pilot. :D Christo did a fine job of getting us to the camp, including dropping off a few passengers for the Singita property near Limpopo. Two landings for us!

Our morning started off with two young giraffes, their mothers and a male who was checking for signs of 'reproductive potential' amongst the ladies. The little ones couldn't have been more than 3 weeks old. The older one tried to get the younger one on the move, so kicked him in the back legs. They bounced around for a little while, and the bull giraffe fortunately left both of them alone.

The Timbavati brothers (2 of the 3) have grown remarkably since we were last here in Sept 2008. One was more interactive with the lionesses and the cubs. Watching the cubs swarm him when he came near was quite a sight. There was massive squabbling over which of the littlest ones would get a chance to nurse. They think 8 of the 9 cubs are male. The smallest is the female - and she didn't fight for space to nurse until a few of her brothers were in a food coma. Absolutely Christmastime for experiencing nature. By this afternoon, the entire pride had moved on and none of the rangers or trackers knew where they were.

We headed back for breakfast, naps, showers, lunch and general relaxation. Dinner features leg of lamb this evening, along with chicken and side dishes. Warren came up to greet us and asked if Ngaire was still coming over here. That explained the leg of lamb on the menu. Gary, of course, ordered one of each from the dessert choices on the menu. King's Camp had sighted the wild dogs on Monday but they took off along their merry way.

So .. the scout vulture was still in his tree, meaning Tumbela (a/k/a Rockfig III) was still enjoying her kill. No lions .. so what's a range rover to do? We pulled along part of a cape buffalo herd. They were quite edgy and had the bad manners to keep their rear ends in the good afternoon light. Their little dogies were well sprinkled through the crowd. This lead to talk of their resemblance to Texas Longhorns and the inevitable 'git on home, lil doggie' mindset in the herd.

Next thing we knew, we were headed to the airstrip. Lots of birds were chattering and impala were exceptionally jumpy. Down at the far end, we saw two range rovers. Hmmmm ... what does this mean?

Yep .. a dog day afternoon. There were 5 of the little beauties in all of their party colored coats with bright white blazes on their tails. The only clear shot I got of the one wild dog was while s/he was engaged in the elimination function, and it was in very low light conditions. This is a job for Photoshop. They move so quickly it is tough to get a clear photo of them.

Aha! Leopard hills must have helicoptered those doggies over here .. but where was Ngaire?

Umm .. nice thought, but it was not to be. The pack of 7 showed back up over lunchtime. We knew Ngaire and the group were singing 'Joy to the World' over at leopard hills, so off we crashed after the dogs. We tracked them for a little while, then they played games with us by running on either side of an old, steep riverbed.

We're back and preparing for dinner on this most wonderful of days and for this Three Dog Night.

Cheers, Anne