We’ve heard spectacular claps of thunder in the middle of the night which have made us nearly jump out of our skins, and then stayed cosily tucked up in bed listening to the rain hammering on the thatched roofs of our cabins. Other nocturnal noises have included the whoop whoop of hyenas outside the boundary fence, the throaty croak of frogs as soon as it started raining, and the call of the biggest owl we have seen. It was posing for us on a very handy tree near the track during a night drive.
We were rewarded for being confined to the lodge for two days due to rain – as soon as we could go out, we went on a night drive and saw the two big male lions walking in the road right outside the lodge. At one point we thought they were going to turn into our ‘driveway’ but they carried on past the entrance. Needless to say I shone my torch around constantly as I was walking down to my cabin that night!
The next morning dawned clear and bright and our aim was to photograph birds. Within two minutes of leaving the lodge we had a gorgeous lilac breasted roller within our sights.
Five minutes after that, we heard over the radio that there were some hyenas on a track, so I made the quick decision to abandon the birding idea for a while, and to go and find the hyenas as none of us have seen them yet. There were 8 of them, and a couple walked right past our truck. As they disappeared into the bushes they started ‘laughing’ – I’ve never heard it before and it’s a fantastic sound:) The hyena below had half of its nose ripped off in a fight some time ago!
