Another amazing afternoon and then this morning amazing as well.

The crappy game drive
In the afternoon the highlight for me that I had never seen before was following a big male rhino heading to his midden. (where they poop)and seeing him do his business. Preparing where he pooped, the act itself when he pooped, and then getting it on his feet to mark his territory.

Then we followed the leopard with the cub (cub must have been left behind) and she obliged by stopping right next to the side and f our vehicle and also did a poop.

It appeared everything we saw was doing a poop - hence the crappy drive.

Morning game drive

Kim and Alice had a great giraffe sighting I am leaving that for them to share. More leopard for some vehicles including the mother leopard and cub drinking at a waterhole and the mother grooming her cub.

We asked our ranger for zebra and warthogs that some had not seen. All the big game was handled (except wild dog and cheetah). I did my normal order - Wild dogs please. So we got all the missing animals handled and tracked a male lion that we could not find.

Then our ranger obviously was on a mission. We crossed over to an area they share with another camp that borders Mala Mala. I immediately had a suspicion that we were heading to wild dog. No other reason to come here as the game is not as good, it had to be something big. There they were WILD DOG laying in a beautiful setting on a Mala Mala river bank seven wild dogs with an extremely pregnant alpha female. The dogs were all sleeping with one "sentry" dog alert. It was so odd they are always moving. We waited and watched sleeping dogs. I was happy to see them but what makes them special Is their energy and constant activity. Our ranger said they had just eaten as they all had full bellies.

The other vehicles left and we stayed. Here we were at a wild dog sighting ALONE an amazing situation as normally it is a standby sighting with vehicles waiting for a turn to see the dogs. Our patience was rewarded when two woke up and started playing with each other. Then we saw a dog go into the reeds on the riverbank and we saw there was a kill. So the killed a kudu right there, eaten their fill and were not leaving the kill so they could feed again. Now it all made sense. Then the
dogs started running and playing in the water and jumping on and off the big boulders in river. So I am in dog heaven. Sorry Mary Ellen, I thought of you and wished you were here.

The good thing is they were on Mala Mala land so I hope they will stay there and hunt. They are obviously looking for a den site and that alpha female is ready to pop so maybe they will not go far and we can see them again with this group and the next group.

We had a wonderful bush breakfast and then headed home.

The weather continues to be warm. Not as hot as the first group but we are getting rain now in the evenings. Yesterday it really rained and we had to call off the bush dinner. We all were wearing ponchos. I have not worn a fleece and worn gloves only once on the first group. I wish it would cool down and stop raining.

Tomorrow we leave for Mala Mala; I will be sorry to say goodbye to this wonderful stay at Lion Sands. All the Rangers will be on leave so we will have a whole new group of Rangers. However I am looking forward to the experiences awaiting us at Mala Mala.

Doing back to back groups is working well. Ken and I have the stamina to handle this and I love leaving a property knowing I will be back. It takes a little time to get these camps to do things "OUR WAY" as we change almost everything about their normal routine. After they adapt they all tell me they really like the later starts and ordering meals ahead of time and finishing dinner early. The rangers are all doing things different too as we share Rangers and it works better than they anticipated it would as they get involved with everyone in the group.