This morning is the last game drive for my stay at Exeter River Lodge, with our usual 5.30am departure. It hasn’t rained overnight by the look of it, but there are still large puddles on the dirt roads and in low-lying areas. A quick drive along the access roads looking for signs that the pride of 14 lions has crossed back into Exeter from Singita’s property proves futile. It’s unlikely that the Othawa pride of 2 lionesses and cubs have moved from their Kudu kills, so we head toward where they were last located.
3 of the fattest lion cubs imaginable are sprawled on the ground, stuffed to the brim with Kudu, they look like soccer balls with heads and limbs. The lionesses are not far behind. One cub is determined to suckle from its mother, despite both being so gorged on kudu they can hardly move. The cub receives the usual smack on the head from the lioness for its efforts.
This morning I want to follow up on the leopard and her cub from Friday, with the hope of a better visual. One of the other vehicles has located her in the drainage line in front of Dulini lodge (which looks very nice from the outside as we drive past). The initial visual isn’t great, and there is a lot of bush-bashing in the vehicle to try to get a decent view of her. She is not happy with a troop of baboons that have arrived to check out her kill hanging in the tree above her and moves her tiny cub away to safety, which requires more bush-bashing to track her down.
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The vehicle that initially found her has 6 passengers, who lose interest after 30 minutes or so. The advantage of a private vehicle is that I can do what I want, so the next 3 hours are spent with this leopard and her cub. An outbreak of sunshine has the leopard and her cub snoozing in the sudden warmth, with the cub out of view. Patience proves to be a virtue though, as after a 30 minute catnap, the leopard and her cub are willing to play together, providing an awesome visual.
A herd of elephants drinking at the waterhole on the way back to the lodge is a nice conclusion to my stay at Exeter….
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Six days at Exeter River Lodge has flown by, and it’s now time to pack up and leave for the shuttle flight back to Johannesburg. In a bizarre coincidence, we meet Norman (my tracker from Ngala Tented Camp last year) driving arriving passengers from the airstrip as we head to it. He’s a long way from Ngala, but anyone that is assigned him as a tracker is very lucky to have him indeed.
It’s a full flight again, and the bonus is that it isn’t stopping at the other airstrips on the way. An hour later after a very smooth flight, we’re on the ground at the Federal Air terminal at OR Tambo airport. The complimentary shuttle to the Intercontinental Hotel at OR Tambo is a welcome reprieve from hauling luggage from the airport to the hotel.
Having packed in an awful hurry, I’m in search of a replacement lens hood for the Canon 100-400 II lens, and USB3.0 cables. A train ride to Sandton City on the Gautrain is three straightforward train stops from OR Tambo airport, and a 5 minute walk to what turns out to be a huge shopping centre/mall. The local camera store (Cameraland) is very well equipped with high end camera gear, but the Canon 100-400 II is too new for them to have the lens hood in stock. They are also very helpful in pointing out the electronics store in the mall that sells USB 3.0 cables. The search for a USB 3.0 cable with the right connector is also fruitless, so I end up buying an (expensive) 2TB portable disk to get the right cable.
Another quiet night at the hotel tonight, with the fastest room service delivery I’ve ever experienced, complete with follow up call to check that everything is okay. Tomorrow it’s a short hop to Windhoek for 17 nights in a country that everyone I’ve met raves about.
