Moremi Game Reserve - Day 2

Tues 15th June
Last night after I wrote the blog I was looking at some of the photos when a Praying Mantis came and sat on the screen as it was nice and bright; he sat there at the bottom of the screen for over 20 mins when a mosquito landed near the top of the screen; the hunt was on; he crept up the screen and then out shot his hands and he grabbed his prey and sat munching for another 5 minutes; it was safari in miniature! Then later we went to bed with the Hippos honking from 3 different directions, they are noisy, big brutes! They do 4 honks then wait 5 seconds and then repeat until another responds from somewhere else.
At about 4am we were woken by what sounded like rain, but it was just a strong wind that apparently is common this time of year, and it continued for the rest of the day making it bitterly cold when you were caught in it without protection from the trees.
Our first stop today was a visit to an area from which you can get taken out into the delta in canoes. On the way we saw Reedbucks leaping through the tall reeds at the edge of the river; then we nearly ran head first into a large male elephant in musk coming in the other direction. Males in musk look like they have been crying with some fluid oozing from just above and back a bit from their eyes. He was definitely a little bit flustered when he noticed us and flared his ears before making a detour off the track to avoid us.
When we got in the canoes, Celso was propelled by Glen and Tris and I were in a second canoe propelled by Action. They were both very knowledgeable about the plants and wildlife of the delta. We stopped for photos of beautiful lilies that change in colour after pollination from white and yellow to pinks, blues and purples, then the flower is withdrawn back under water and becomes a fruit. We found 3 fruits and ate two; I didn't think much of it, it was full of tiny pips that made the texture like eating grit and the nutty taste didn't make up for it; however, Celso and Tris munched merrily on them! We also found some water figs, tiny berries on a bush that grows in the water, they turn from yellow to red when ripe and Tris and I found 1 ripe one to munch on, again it was very gritty but this time a tiny bit sweet too. Glen spotted the tiniest frog that I have ever seen, barely 2 cm and looked like wet sugar, glistening and slightly green. He was clinging to a reed about a foot above the water and he was no thicker than the diameter of the reed itself. Action spotted another slightly larger frog later on, also clinging to a reed about a foot above the water, he was about 4cm and brightly coloured, orangey brown with cream coloured stripes and spots and bright orange feet; he leapt away onto a lily pad which was the perfect photographic opportunity. At the furthest point on our canoe journey we entered an open bit of water where the crocs can get up to 6m long; I'm quite glad we didn't see any as I felt quite vulnerable in the wobbly little canoes, then we left the canoes and crept around the edge of the water to watch a pod of 4 hippos, a large male, 2 females and a baby; however the wind was blowing and they were avoiding coming out of the water as much as possible so the sightings weren't that good. We spotted a kingfisher; no trees here to sit on a look for the fish, here they have to hover above the water to spot their prey.
After 2.5 hours out on the water we were cold but happy with our sightings and we returned to a welcome cup of hot tea and then headed back into the drier area East towards the River Kwai again but on a rather protracted route due to the many track closures due to flooding. We again were treated to some fantastic wildlife viewing. First we ran into the male elephant in musk again, then 2 lions (young males) lazing in the sun, one with his head on the others back looking very contented. Then a hippo out of the water and munching on the grass, another Hammerkop duck, a large male warthog with his antenna tail, 3 large Topi (the fastest antelope), a flap necked chameleon that we nearly ran over as he tried to cross the road, he was yellow, camouflaged against the sand but turned green as we picked him up and then brown as we released him on a tree - incredible. We stopped and had some lunch and watched a huge ant colony carting away our bread crumbs and blocking the hole into their nest with a largish piece which caused quite a commotion for a while as they sorted it all out. As we started off again a Honey Badger crossed the road about 10m in front of us but the road was so bad at that point that it took us ages to reach that point and all we could see was his bottom disappearing into the bush. He/She is such a funny looking creature, sort of the shape of an earwig, very low to the ground but with a hairy skirt rather than a shell, it just looked like some sort of dry elongated mop head shuffling across the road. Our next encounter was a little hairy; a tree had fallen across the road in the winds and Lenti decided to try and pull it out of the way with the truck. As we left the truck to attach a rope to the tree Celso joked that it was an elephant that had pushed it over to block the road in some kind of protest, then Celso shouted 'Elephant, Elephant!' and we looked up to see a large male with ears flared tramping towards us from out of the brush. Tris, Celso and I dived into the truck, but poor Lenti who had had head down fixing the towing rope didn't have a clue where the elephant was and didn't know which way to go... we laughed about it afterwards! Luckily the elephant decided not to do a full charge and stopped about 5m away behind some bushes at the edge of the road, then turned and went away. So after the tree was successfully moved we got under way again and came across a huge herd of elephant, mums and toddlers, at a water hole. There were, perhaps, 25 to 30 individuals and some posed and drank beautifully for us. As we neared our next camp we surprised a group of Vervet monkeys foraging on some fallen wood, they leapt up into the trees and watched us pass. We are staying at this camp for 2 days so the guys have even set up a small canopy tent for our dining table, it is all very civilised - oh yes, I tried the loo and it's fine, you just put some soil down the hole after each visit!