We are woken up early this morning by the morning prayers - they are broadcast over loudspeakers. Today we will go on a number of game drives. The first one leaves at 7:30 AM, so we just have a quick tea before heading down to the truck that will drive us around. After we load everyone on (they will take up to 30 passengers on the truck!!!), we head off. The game drive is about 2 hours, and we see a number of animals as we drive along.
We see lots of birds, including the abyssinian roller.
We stop off at one of the four fresh water springs in the park, which put out huge amounts of water that is at a temperature of 31°C.
We see other animals, such as baboons, wart hogs, crocodiles and water buck.
After getting back to the campsite, the cook group prepares a breakfast of fried eggs and toast. After breakfast, we do some household items like laundry and working on our journals and maps. Before lunch, we decide to head down to the hot springs for a quick wash. The spring pours out millions of liters of fresh water each day that is at a constant temperature of 31°C. We have a great swim and hang out for a while in the water, before heading back to the truck for lunch.
The cook group has prepared onion soup. After lunch, we decide to head back to the springs for another quick dip. It is a great spot to hang out and relax. Just before 3:30 PM, we head back to the truck to get ready for our second game drive of the day. We see a bit more on this outing into the park. We start off seeing some Water Buck.
We then see some Harte Beest.
Half way through the drive we get off the truck and wander through this area where there are a number of small caves that have been carved into small cliff faces. It is believed that they were used by some people that were trying to escape the wars and the slave trade. They are small entrances in the rock face that are interconnected to form rooms.
As we walked along, we also met "Tarzan"!!!
There were the usual monkeys and baboons, crocs, wart hogs and birds.
We then were lucky to see in the distance a hippo as it came out of the water and walked up towards land.
We then started to head back to the lodge, and when we where quite close, we were very fortunate to come upon three lions. There are a total of about 35 lions in the park, so we were quite pleased. One was injured and was limping.
We get back to the truck a bit late - we were delayed looking at the lions. While the cook group prepared dinner, Lars worked on the computer, updating the journal. Dinner was chili with rice. After cleaning up, we decide to head down to the hot springs for a quick swim before dinner. It is great. The air is a cool and it is nice to jump in and enjoy the warmth. When you stick your wet head or other parts of you body out of the water, they would get quite chilled - it was great to then duck back under the hot water. Getting out was at first a bit cold, but after drying ourselves off and putting on dry clothes, we felt great. We returned to the campsite and to bed. It was nice to crawl into our warm sleeping bags.