tuesday (i think) oct 16 (i think)
patsenojexpedition
patrick and susan jones
Tue 16 Oct 2007 14:58
was really hot today---i suspect it was 35 C or more in the early afternoon. no wonder lions sleep during the day.
this morning we started out as usual at 6:30 and i was once again convinced that we would see nothing special. and lo and behold we found a sleepy lion just next to the roadside, who was too sleepy to even open his eyes as we almost ran over him. he looked hungry (not a swollen stomach, nor breathing rapidly, signs of just having eaten a big meal). i can see why he looked hungry, because he probably slept at night too. this was probably a low IQ lion.
then we moved on and again by surprise found two leopards in a tree overhanging the road, one of which snarled at the 4x4 i suspect for making noise while he was looking for breakfast. one then dropped to the ground and went to another tree vantage point and kept up a vigil for 30 minutes. once discovering a lone impala not too far away, we followed 40 feet behind him as he stalked the impala. the impala was also a low IQ specimen because she just kept chewing her cud as the leopard inch by inch crept forward. leopards are only successful 2-3 times out of 5, so he was trying to make this one count. we waited and watched for about an hour, and could see the leopard crouching in the grass behind a tree and the clueless impala chewing her cud only maybe 50 feet from the lion. but then the impala got some allies: the birds started making warning sounds and the squirrels strarted chattering so the whole world was telling the impala to get the co bwebs out and pay more attention. soon, several more impalas showed up on the scene and the leopard clearly was spotted (clever choice of words, eh?). so the leopard finally did what he only could do at that time and place---he took a nap and gave up.
yesterday afternoon we had spend about 90 minutes trying to find rhino. normally you would think that this would be an easy project, since all you do is look for tracks in the road, and follow the freshest dung balls (another soundbite for daniel). but very quickly we found ourselves offroad and it was like being in a vegematic--after 90 minutes of this everything in your body is homogenized
together---spleen, stomach, liver and other related parts all get stirred and shaken well, especially in the raised rear seat of the 4x4 (which by the way is a land cruiser, and not a land rover, in case anyone wants to know). didn't find any rhino, but did see 1, 583 dung balls of various agings.
sent a couple of pictures, but not sure that it actually worked. too difficult (slow) to send pictures on this pc, but will try again for the blog.