First tour of the season

As it's been a while since the last post, I want to share some memorable moments from past tours.

Early on, our driver Leonard, realized that the bus wasn't behaving as it should, but he was hoping for the best as a replacement vehicle would take a whole day to arrive. The real break-down however, didn't occur until we had just reached the Lowveld, with half an hour left to go. We stopped at a small kiosk where people had gathered with their vehicles at the junction, playing loud music and mingling, as it was Saturday night. Tired but intrigued, we joined in on this weekend activity for a couple of hours, as darkness settled.

We were picked up by Karongwe's staff and left poor Leonard to wait for help on his own. When we eventually arrived at the bush camp, it was decided that we'd have a late start the following morning. I think we all appreciated that, as the night temperature of two degrees made us all want to go into hibernation. Needless to say, I managed to stay out of the swimming pool, even though it looks very idyllic.

The bus breaking down and the cold nights are probably two of the memories of this trip that stand out, but one of the highlights was a female cheetah with four cubs that we encountered on foot the first day.

This female has been part of a breeding program and thus is not too bothered with human presence, but in an effort to keep the cubs wild, a respectful distance is still a must.
 

Usually on a tour, there's one or two guests celebrating birthdays and this time was no exception. The bush lunch we had on one of the guests' 70^th birthday was truly a memory for life, as the setting couldn't have been more beautiful. When having meals in the bush, many expect sitting down in the dirt, eating chunks of meat with bare hands, cave man style...

This is however certainly not how we usually do it. We were soon joined by some of the other local primates, but luckily they were content with watching our feast from the treetops.

/A