After we had done our very interesting drive through the wild game management area in the morning with Mike, we returned to the camp to prepare for our trip into the Park. One of the interesting sights we saw when were driving through there was a hippo with one of his teeth growing sideways out of his mouth. Poor thing. We also saw a woodland kingfisher that was very colorful right above some puka on the ground. We decided to fix ourselves sandwiches and would enjoy them within the park. I walked over to the self-catering kitchen with my head in the clouds and not paying attention to what was going on. I got within 15 feet of the door and looked up and there was Gilbert by the kitchen. He flared his ears and took a step toward me. I started and then, WHAT DO YOU DO? They tell you to freeze, remain calm, and slowly back away. I can tell you, the first thing you do is panic! I was first tempted to jump into the bush but then moved slowly away and when I got out of his sight, walked as fast as I could back to our tent. Robert said I was as white as a ghost!
Mike drove me back over to the camper kitchen and we fixed the sandwiches and were off to pay our fees at the park gate. When you enter the park you, the pass is good for 24 hours. Because we entered at 1:00 pm, the permit was good until 1:00 the next day. Since Mike has been to the park several times, he had a good idea of where we could go. His main focus was looking for lions but we enjoyed other animals and birds along the way. Since he is driving a Land Rover, he was enjoying taking off on some of the small tracks that quite often petered out and we had to turn around and go back. His comment as he turned off onto these roads, "This is not a problem for a Land Rover!"
We enjoyed the puka and impala that were out in great numbers. We stopped at one waterhole and saw black egret, open billed stork, and African spoonbill. At another lagoon type area, we saw hippos gliding through the water lilies. At one point we were amused when a gray heron landed on the back of one of the hippos and it appeared that he was surfing as he was standing still on the hippo back and being propelled through the water.
We saw some a magnificant kudu male with his fine horns and nice markings. We saw Swainsons's francolin running back and forth across the road. We saw a very large herd of buffalo on both sides of the road. We continued to drive and explore areas of the park we had not been in. We saw elephants and a family of giraffe, the baby running back and forth.
