Out of Africa: Day 3 (Morning)

The morning game drive was all about BIG cats.  Within minutes of leaving the lodge, we found ourselves mixed up with a family of lions.  One old male, two females, and two cubs.

I'm sure I stopped breathing for 20 minutes.

Old male shown in photo below is rolling in elephant poop to disguise his scent from other lions.

We had now seen THREE of the Big Five:  elephant, rhinoceros and lion.

From here, our guide took us on a speedy journey to the north of the park at the border of South Africa and Botswana where he skillfully found four of only five cheetahs in the entire park. 

The cheetah is pretty elusive, and therefore it's hard to move them from park to park for breeding purposes.  At Madikwe Reserve there are no female cheetahs left; only four brothers who roam the park  as a unit, and a lone male who sticks to himself.  There are no wild female cheetahs in the world available to introduce to the park because other conservation areas/reserves are holding onto theirs.  The female cheetah must be wild, or it will be killed by the others.

It wasn't a high-visibility sighting, but it was fun trying to find them. 

After the cheetahs, it was back to our cool lodge for a huge breakfast.

Almost.  First we had to fix a flat tire, then breakfast.

Our house.

The baboons are quite clever.  It's necessary to close every door and window while you're out, or else they will wreak havoc inside.  We closed everything, but forgot to do the pin on one bathroom door.  Luckily, Abby and I happened to return to the room and scared about 15 of them away before they could do too much damage . . . they only dumped my toiletry bag and ate my multivitamins. Not sure if that will make them healthier or make them sick.  :-)

The watering hole next to the lodge:

Elephant strolling by the human swimming pool:

Elephant strolling near the lodge bar: