FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Big Cats, Fast Cars and a Stolen Phone: Southern Africa, Portugal and Brazil

Nov 27, 2019, 10:34 am

#17

swingaling

Join Date: Apr 2017

Location: PVD, BOS

Programs: AA EXP

Posts: 1,664

Chobe National Park (Day 2 - AM)

Chobe National Park
Kasane, Botswana
Day 2 - Morning

I'd booked a 6AM game drive, so I was up at 5AM. The tour operator assigned me the same driver/guide as the previous afternoon, so I met up with Gabby in the hotel lobby and off we went. We were among the first group into the park, so it was pretty quiet for a time.

Buffalo by the River

African fish eagle

Elephants

Baby Elephant

Elephant

Baby Elephant

Elephant

Baby Elephant

It was really cool to get so close to such a young elephant. Gabby told me the elephant was likely only a few months old.

More baboons

Baboons don't sleep, they wait

Young Baboon

Helmeted guineafowl

Lion

Lilac-breasted roller

Evidently, this croc had been essentially unmoved from this spot for weeks. It was slowly eating the elephant corpse and guarding it between meals.

Nile Croc guarding its food

Gabby got a call over the radio that a lion had been spotted guarding a fresh kill, so we went to check it out. Apparently, the lion had managed to separate a baby elephant from its pack sometime during the night (elephants have poor night vision). When we arrived, the lion was digesting and guarding the body until he could resume his meal.

The below image is a bit graphic, so I've hidden it with a spoiler tag.

Spoiler

Lion Post-meal Nap

Not Really Napping

Fat Belly

Scene of the kill
An iPhone shot for a sense of scale and distance

Next we stopped at a picnic area for some tea before continuing the drive.

Tea Time

Tea Time

Tourists

We happened upon a herd of elephants eating some topsoil because of its high mineral (potassium, magnesium, sodium, etc) content.

Elephants eating soil
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