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We were woken at 6am for a 6.30 breakfast - but I had been awake on an off since 4am and could here the deep call of an eagle owl in the tree behind us, along with fiery necked nightjar and a hyena just before 6am.
At 7am we headed off on a walk further along the lagoon with Phil and Gregory a ranger from the National Parks Service. It was a warm if windy morning - we saw puku making their way to the drying lagoon to graze along with puku already there.
We became fascinated with the trees, the torch wood - which was flowering - it usually flowers two months before the rains, which is making people think the rains will come early i.e. October instead of November, pod mahogany, lead wood in the final stages of decay - no doubt after many many years on the planet as it's such a hard wood and sausage trees - one with a few sausages and lots of vibrant red blooms and another full of sausages. We also witnessed the force one hits the ground when blown off by the wind - it's hard outer case cracked revealing the fleshy inside - it looked like a marrow. As we knew it was good for skin ailments and tetse fly bites I decided to rub some on mine from yesterday and it did reduce the redness!
We also saw grey heron, egrets, little bee eater, waxbills, fire finches, the go away bird and red necked spur fowl; lots of poo - lion, hyena, civet, kudu, porcupine and waterbuck and termite activity - encasing elephant dung as it fed on the plant matter.
Before lunch we enjoyed the panoramic view over the lagoon from our chalet. ( I photographed a Puku jumping over a small muddy depression - today's photo.)
In the afternoon, we were joined by guests from Germany - a German guy and his Chinese wife and went for a safari in the boat down the Kafue river. The weather became cloudy and cooler but we were lucky as animals still came to the river and there was plenty to see - a large male elephant feeding, puku and waterbuck to drink, small, medium and large crocodiles basking, bushbuck and baboons passing through and a variety of birds - pied and giant kingfisher, white fronted cormorant and African darter. After a leisurely float back down the river we got back in the jeep and did a night drive back to camp - lots of prey animals but no predators!
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