Sept. 24 – Early to bed, early to rise

The schedule at Flat Dogs is a four-hour Jeep safari before breakfast (starting at 6 a.m.!) and another one from 4 to 8 p.m. We had to adjust both our eating and sleeping patterns to get the best chance of seeing the animals. On the morning drive, we watched two male elephants engaged in a battle of the tusks, and the sound of ivory clacking was loud and unsettling. Later, we saw two elephants lying down, sleeping under a tree. It was the first time Mal and Judy had ever seen elephants off their feet.

The highlight of the day was the evening drive, when we saw not one but two leopards!  The first one was camouflaged in a tree and a bit hard to spot, but we were able to photograph him. The second was sitting in the bush after dark. As we watched, he got up and went in search of prey. Seeing leopards had been a trip goal, especially for Malcolm, so we were excited and grateful for this drive.

Unfortunately I started sneezing in the morning and by day’s end had a full-fledged cold.