Freemans on Safari: 26 January 2013 - Lagoon camp at Linyanti

Australia Day. Ian & Sarah the Aussie father/daughter in camp had an Australian flag which they hung while we had our very early breakfast at 5.30. I'd asked the cook to prepare meat pies for brunch.

Off we set in the jeep at 6. Saw lots of zebras, impalas, giraffes, hippos and elephants. Also birds.

The birds

Tawny eagle

Hyena

Francolin

Hippo

Hippo "tete a tete"

Morning tea

Knobbilled duck

Martial eagle

Termite mound

African fish eagle

Family of baboons

At one stage a female elephant thought we were too close to her herd which included a number of baby elephants. She charged the jeep from about 100m away. Spencer told everyone to hold on and took off through the bush. We thought the elephant had relented when we got about 150m away so Spencer slowed down. However, Terry looked around and saw the elephant charge again so we took off. After 500m the elephant gave up. A very unusual experience but teaches you never to take the wildlife for granted. This elephant was substantially bigger than our jeep... We drove back to camp with a great story to tell.

Unhappy elephant

Brunch included meat pies which were similar to empanadas and served with "ketchup" along with the usual fare. Great fun. Siesta until 4 then back out in the jeep.

We followed some wild dogs for their afternoon hunt but they headed into very thick bush and we couldn't follow them anymore. Saw loads of zebras and some other giraffe who tend to hang out with zebras; elephants who didn't charge, impalas, kudu and hippos. Had our sundowner drink near the hippos waterhole. They did their yawning trick so Kalman eventually got his photo. Back to camp.