My birthday... certainly a memorable one. I took the luxury of sleeping in, as opposed to waking up to the drums as usual at 6:00 AM. Jan went on a macoro ride in lieu of the morning game drive. Macoro are small, canoe-like wooden boats seating only 2 people, and 'powered' by a poler who stands and uses a pole to propel and guide the craft through the reeds and shallow waters of the river delta. They no sooner got started out on the macoro than the poler got a call on his walkie-talkie that the others had sighted a leopard, a rarity these days as the leopard population has considerably, due to poaching, decreased the last several years. So they came back in from the macoro and hopped into the safari vehicles and raced off to try and see the leopard. Lincoln, our relentless, cowboy driver/guide was driving and Jan said it was really like riding a wild bull from her seat in the back of the vehicle... she loved it! And they DID indeed find and see the leopard, lounging around in the late morning heat in a tree. Score!!!
On the evening game drive, we again saw lions copulating from a very close vantage point. And, oh yes, we got lost driving off the beaten path with none other than cowboy Lincoln at the wheel. It was fun, really, with Lincoln and Muzilla confering in Shona or some language the rest of us couldn't understand... at first we thought they were tracking some animal through the brush, but soon realized they had lost track of where the road (path, really) was. Muzilla had the machete out and was hacking away and moving fallen trees out of our path. YeeHaw!
We got home safe and sound however and, after another gourmet meal in our rustic lodge, retired to our tent. Our escort to the tent pointed out the tree beside our abode and noted that some weeks ago it had been a favourite nighttime haunt of one of the local leopards.
The birthday boy...
Getting ready to go out on the macoro...
The leopard...
He went through the wet wild wood, waving his wild tail, and walking by his wild lone, but he never told anybody. ~Rudyard Kipling
Good Bye Moremi...
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