Cool Looking Lizards

We’ve seen so many amazing things on this trip that we might be getting a bit jaded – today, after driving up to some rocks with female lions sleeping on top, Bruce took a look at the inactive cats and lack of good photography light and said “well, there’s a cool looking lizard in front of them”. Life is pretty good when you can see one of the world’s fiercest predators lounging in front of you and be more interested in the tiny reptile at its feet.

Today we got lots of cats – lions and cheetahs – and more huge lines of wildebeests. The park we’re in doesn’t allow off-road driving, so when someone finds something good there is a bit of a paparazzi feel as vehicles come rushing in from all corners to get a look. We had a cheetah that had just killed a small gazelle to ourselves for about a minute before the cavalry came charging over the hill in the morning, but in the afternoon we went to a different corner of the park and managed to get a cheetah completely to ourselves. The next park on the itinerary supposedly allows off-road driving, so it may again be possible to escape the “crowds”.

Aside from the animals, today’s excitement came from driving after last night’s rains – everything was muddy, and the tires didn’t have a ton of tread, so we were slipping and sliding all over. Just before lunch we veered slightly off road to pass someone and there was a crash – our vehicle had broken through an aardvark hole and was stuck. Since being stuck in the bush isn’t exciting enough, our breakdown was right in front of a young male lion. While AAA might be hesitant to service a vehicle with a giant carnivore watching, the guides here had no such qualms and we were extricated fairly quickly.