Day 12 Selous

Our last full day of game drive today.  We are having breakfast in camp then bush lunch and a full day game drive.  I feel a little sorry for our guide and driver, we really don't stop.  Today is the first day we see a cape buffalo in front of the tent, this along with elephants, impala, hyena, monkeys, hippo, and so many birds right outside has made this an absolutely amazing place to stay. 

 Today we are hoping to find the dog pack of 22, which includes some puppies, but sadly our luck has run out, they were not to be found.  We will be travelling to an area we haven't been to yet.

Our drive starts with some guinea fowl, first we have seen in Selous.  We see another owlet, which poses for a picture, unlike the one from earlier this week that we chased for about 30 minutes between trees.  We see a few zebra, which we haven't seen a lot of, and now we pronounce zebra correctly, as the rest of the world except for North Americans we have learned. 

View as we start out today, so many impala at the lake

Pearl-spotted Owlet

 It was a bit of a "slow" safari morning today.  We were stopped taking pictures of these 2 squirrels chasing each other around the tree when another jeep pulled up beside us.  I'm sure they were trying to figure out what they were missing!  We had just also seen the yellow winged bats again in a tree, but they were way too fast to capture, so we moved onto squirrels.

Crested Barbet

The size of some of these Baobab trees is simply amazing, full tree in shot below.  we were told that every 6 feet in circumference equals 100 years of age 

young baobab tree, hard to believe it will turn into the tree above if the elephants don't get it first!

Calm

Run!!!

Then calm again

We crossed a beautiful dry river again today, a new area for us

 We see where Frederick Courteney Selous is buried, he was a British explorer and conservationist who was killed here in 1917, the Selous Game Reserve is named after him.

We cross another dry river, Msine

Blue-cheeked Bee Eater

Blue-naped mousebird

African Pied Wagtail

We have lunch at another spot on the lake that we did earlier this week, we were all ready for a bit of relaxing and to get out of the jeep. 

As we leave lunch today Andre spots this guy, our guides have homework again tonight, they have never seen this lizard before and want to do some research.  (next day we are told this is an Agama changing colours)

African Darter

African Fish Eagle Nest

Hippos making more hippos

Our next stop is at the Beho Beho hot springs near Lake Tagalala which we had passed on visiting  earlier this week as we were so late in the day.  It is a nice walk up to the springs, though I really wish we had better shoes on, it is so hot we have all been wearing flip flops every day, I would definitely have been more comfortable in sneakers here.  These are natural hot springs that flow through 3 spots, the top one being incredibly hot, and getting a little less hot as they flow down to the 3rd one.  At one time you could go for a dip on the last one, but a crocodile has been spotted here so our camp recommends you no longer go in, we didn't need to be told this twice.  One part I hated about the walk is Zack showed us a poison tree, he broke the branch and white milk came out, this is poison to the touch, and can blind you if you get it in the eye. Great, now duck under this tree to get onto the path, oh brother. 

Sunset moth, not moving much!

Heading back to camp




Immature Martial Eagle

This guy looks like he has been in a fight with a tree, and the tree won?

Is this the back or the front of this owl?

 

 

 Got back to camp a little earlier than we have this week, are excited to have showers in the light instead of the dark, but that really didn't happen as there were elephants by the lake again so of course had to take some pictures.  Shower time and a millipede is running along the top of the wall where our shower is outside, so made Andre take care of that, yuck.  I finish my shower and am getting dressed and monkeys are coming up the path to our tent.  Some climb the tent poles and get on top of the tent, others have climbed the tree beside us and jump onto the tent.  This is a racket that I am really glad I saw what it was or I would have really been scared. 

Shots from outside our tent tonight



Monkey coming for a visit at our tent

I am finishing up this blog for today as we wait for the Masai to come and get us for our 730 walk over to supper.  Right now I can hear hyenas howling outside, this is going to be another long perhaps sleepless night...I wouldn't trade it for anything.

We usually go over at 730 for a drink before supper and then supper is served at 8.  Tonight’s excitement was while having drinks Ron and I were both bitten by ants, ouch, the same ants we saw yesterday parade through the bar I guess.  I got 2 bites, Ron had one.  Ron thought  I was being overly dramatic until he was bitten, they really do take a chunk out.  We also finally see one of the bush babies that are around here, we were told there were 3 that are living here, and now we've finally seen one.

Sundowners tonight

Millipede

Yes, there is a bush baby in there

This guy visited at supper too!