Some Elephants are left handed!

5:45 came way too early this morning, but we upped and dressed in layers as we were pretty cold the night before.  We headed up to the main lodge and Themba was there to great us with coffee and some rusks and fruit.  We had a quick bite and then were off on our morning drive.  Themba said we were going to try and find the elusive leopard and maybe lions.  10 minutes in we heard from some of the rides ahead that there was a leopard sitting- but alas by the time we got there he was gone.  The leopard, black rhino and male lion are all solitary animals and therefore almost impossible to find as they like to stay well hidden.  Disappointed that we missed him we drove on and within a few minutes saw a heard of Buffalo - these are really huge animals and the horns of the older ones in the heard are so scarred- so you can tell the older ones from the younger.  As well as the Buffalo,  around the next corner we almost drove into 3 White Rhino- a male and his 2 "wives".  They seemed very docile, just grazing away at the grass.  Apparently they are blind and the only way they knew we were a few feet away was by listening for us- they was definitely apparent when one of the females walked up to the jeep and was maybe 2 feet away from our tracker!  As we were watching these crazy, prehistoric animals we heard on the radio that the lions were a little ways up.  We had to wait for a jeep to leave as only a couple should be there at a time.  We edged on and there in a little clearing sat a pride of 3 lionesses.  They were tearing apart a Nyala carcass that they had caught for breakfast.  The 2 seniors had eaten and the younger one was feasting on the remains- mostly the head and spine.  Sitting there a few feet away watching these giant cats was quite something. They are so huge and yet look like a giant house cat- but we knew that one swipe of their paw could do some serious damage.  The cats would look up at us once in a while but seemed mostly uninterested.  We got to watch these majestic lionesses for a long while as they lounged around after their feast.
Then we took off again and were on search of a spot for some coffee and snacks.  The sun was fully up by now and the day was getting warm, as we cruised along our tracker stopped the jeep and jumped into the car (he sits up front until we see some danger and then hops in to the passenger seat). Themba pulled off the road as we were still trying to figure out what he had seen, and there all of a sudden was a make lion disguised in the long veld.  Had we been driving along by ourselves we would never have seen him.  We got up right next to him, which didn't seem to bother him at all as he promptly lay down and went to sleep.  Asleep in the bush one would never ever see him unless you stepped on him- crazy. Finally after all this excitement we stopped for a coffee and cookies.  Then we  were headed back with not much else to be seen- some HUGE Kudu and various other buck.  Back at the lodge we headed up for breakfast- which was off the hook.  Frank and I had eggs Benedict with biltong, the girls some French toast.  They then all headed back to the room and I stayed behind for a photography class with Christian the resident Thanda photographer- it was a very informative class- I learnt a thing or 2 about shooting wildlife.
Back at the room (I use that term loosely as this is really a luxurious 3 room suite)! The girls took a plunge in the pool- but it was so cold.  I had a devine hot rainshower as I looked over the hills and saw the Nyala grazing.  Then Delaney and I settled outside on the Kings size lounger and read some. What an amazing day so far.
At around 2 we started getting ready for our afternoon drive.  Once again we layered up and headed up to the lodge.  We had an afternoon tea and then found out that we would be the only people on the tour!  Off we headed in search of elephants.  Themba and Xax are amazing trackers and showed us the foot prints, what direction they were going in and how fresh they were.  We passed a few other jeeps who say no there was no sign of them- but we pressed on.  After about 1.5 hours or driving Xax jumped in the car- he had spotted the oldest of the elephants- the dominant bull.  He was snacking on some dry thorn bushes and we drove right up to him- unbelievably huge and so magical.  After watching him for a bit we were off in search of the rest- Themba said we would have have to back track and then suddenly he stopped and we could hear ripping and trading in the dense throne trees- they were there- not sure how many.  But we pulled around to an opening where they would have to cross and after so much noise they started to appear one after the next- until a herd of 23 had us surrounded.  We felt so small, but oh what an experience.  They slumbered past the jeep one at a time all in the same line looking up and some of them putting on a trunk show for us. We even learned that  one tusk is usually shorter than the other - the longer tusk is their dominant side- turns out we had a few lefties in this heard.  After they passed we headed up to the next clearing as they all lumbered through again.  What an experience.  We pulled over after that for some sundowners and then headed back to the lodge in the dark- looking for hyenas but to no avail.  We would have to be happy with 23 elephants!!
Dinner tonight was lamb for Dani and I and Sole, for Frank while Delaney had some chicken.  followed by sticky date pudding- what a perfect ending to a perfect day.