We were fortunate enough to see a pride of eight lions three days in a row. They reminded us of house cats. Every time we saw them they were warming themselves in the sun or sleeping in the shade. One afternoon we had our sundowners with them. One of the juvenile males was six feet away on one side, while a juvenile female was the same distance away on the other. It was quite intimidating. In real life, everything about them is big...their heads, paws and teeth! We kept thinking they would get hungry and start hunting, but no such luck. At least they didn't go after us.
There was also an abundance of hippos at Footsteps. They love their water holes. In most cases, all you can see as you approach is the tops of their heads sticking out of the water. They disappear under the surface, only to reemerge a few minutes later. Hippos are quick to show their displeasure when you get too close. They raise their heads and shoulders out of the water, open their mouths wide and show their teeth. We also saw them at night on our game drive. They were scuttling across the plains, munching on sweet green grasses. We must have seen a hundred of them over four days.
Another highlight was the male and female leopards we saw not long after arriving at Shinde. The leopards had been sighted in the morning so we started searching the area around their last known location. We searched high and low. We were just about to give up when we found them sleeping at the base of a shaded tree. They looked dead to the world. Moses explained that they were mating and they would have sex often, so if we waited, we would likely see some action. Sure enough, it happened. For safety in the wild it only takes about five seconds and then they both went back to sleep. It was amazing to be so close to two such beautiful creatures.
The morning we left was full of excitement. There was an elephant hanging out between our tent and tent three. He was enjoying a feast of jackal berries and made it clear he was not leaving. As we prepared to say goodbye to the staff, Noah ran up saying that he had spotted wild dogs. We yelled for Craig and Moses, quickly said our goodbyes and jumped into the truck. We caught up to them on the road. It was apparent they were hunting. They kept raising their heads to sniff the air. We followed them as far as we could, but we had to give up. We drove towards the mokoro crossing and about a km away from it the wild dogs appeared on the road in front of us. We watched them disappear into the tall grasses. Before we could move, a big male leopard shot across the road and startled us. He was going in the same direction as the dogs. We took off after all of them, but we lost them. It was exhilarating and disappointing all at the same time.
We arrived at the airfield early which was incredibly lucky. Sitting on a termite mound at the edge of the airstrip were two of Africa's finest kings. One of them was sound asleep, but the other one was alert and surveying his domain. He got up and started to move so we repositioned the truck. He came directly towards us and sat down in the shade of our vehicle. He was no more than three feet away, closest to Moses and Craig. Moses wasn't taking any chances with these big boys. He asked the driver to put some distance between us. There were a few tense moments as the engine failed to turn over, then it sprung to life. We moved a safe distance away and continued watching them as long as we could.
Footsteps was amazing. We saw so many of the animals on our list (lions, leopards, hyenas, hippos, and wild dogs) and others that we didn't even know existed (tsessebes, reedbucks, lechwes, and genets). We marvelled at the thousands of stars in the night sky and enjoyed the company of our Bostwana hosts. As we boarded our plane and headed to the Khwai airfield and Sango Safari Camp, we feel incredibly fortunate that we have the desire and the means to have had these spectacular adventures.
Lots of photos
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