Day Off

12/12 Sunday: The arrangement here is for us to have off one day per week, and honestly, we were looking forward to sleeping in. Even the possibility of missing out on lions and cheetahs was no match for sleeping in past 3:30. We managed to sleep until the late hour of 5:45 and spent a good part of th emorning reading and relaxing in our hut.

The kitchen is quite basic but includes a mini-oven, so, as is common on our Sundays, we gave in to our sweet tooth by baking some cookies. We played a game of Canasta (or, Kick-Your-Asta, as we call it) while they baked. It was perfect weather for that and sitting on the porch, just the right temperature and overcast. It wasn't like we totally missed out on seeing wildlife, since we got to watch warthogs, wildebeest, and impala right here in camp.

We decided that we didn't want the full day off, so joined in on the afternoon drive. We didn't manage to sight the dogs, but we did get to see the lion! We found them in a copse of trees very close to the road. There was the Mom and her four one-year-old cubs -- all five of them practically the size. We learned that the two female cubs will stay with their Mom's pride, while the males will be kicked out at 2-3 years old to find their own pride. Part of wildlife conservation here is to make sure the gene pool stays strong, so at that time the males will be moved off of Thanda. The cats had just finished eating a wildebeest, so they were just relaxing and yawning (a lot). They were mostly ok with us watching them, although the Mom did snarl at us a couple of times. Philip was very excited to see them so close.

After the lions, we checked back at the rhino to see whether the hyena had visited. They still hadn't, but we got to watch the vultures some more. The other hyena baited trap had been visited: From the evidence, hyena don't like bacon, preferring chops and filets. At least that's what we deduced from what was left behind.

Speaking of chops, the meat for us volunteers is almost exclusively environmentally-friendly wild game. We take turns cooking, and the other couple had chosen to do a barbecue. With warthog chops. They were kinda gamey and like chewing on a shoe, so maybe they were meant more for a stew. We've previously eaten impala sausages and hamburgers, which were much tastier and easier to eat. We don't usually eat a lot of meat in any case, but it seems to be the key part of the South African diet, so when in Rome...