Day 5 Ruaha

Much quieter last night, no animal noises at all, I miss them, not really even any birds singing.  This may be the most massive bed we have ever slept in as well.   We fill up a basket with dirty laundry, something that is included here, looking forward to some clean laundry when we get back.

We have a wake up call for 530 am and then leave on safari at 6pm. Wake up call here means someone delivers you coffee, tea and biscuits and juice, or whatever you want.  Wake up this early also means you get the most beautiful sunrise right from your bed!  We will be having our breakfast while on safari.  Turns out breakfast is absolutely fantastic, out in the bush.  Bacon, sausage, pancakes, yogurt, fresh fruit, granola, breakfast sandwiches, I can’t imagine what they will be serving back at the main camp for breakfast is if this their box breakfast.  Another touch they have at this camp is they have blankets on the seats of our jeep this morning, with hot water bottles! 

The morning drive from Ikuka reminded us a bit of the early morning descent into the Ngorongoro Crater, such fantastic light!

Such beautiful light at 6AM

A beautiful way to start any day, giraffes

Grooming time

African Fish Eagle

Back to the river bed and snoozing lions

Lions still have more meals from this poor baby giraffe

Black Backed Jackel

Vultures are waiting for any leftovers

Black-faced Sandgrouse

Bare faced Go-Away-Bird

White bellied bustard

Grants Gazelle, we don't see so many of these here

Water Think Knee

Grey-capped Social weaver

Breakfast this morning was at a spot we had lunch earlier this week.  Bonus about this spot is the nice bathrooms!  Second bonus along a sand river, which always leaves opportunity for excitement

Breakfast prep

Elephants in the distance coming for a visit

Giraffes come by for a visit at breakfast as well

Elephants come right into our breakfast spot, they are hungry too

The best must be way up top!

 The thrill of this morning is we find a momma cheetah with 4 cubs.  We feel very lucky to see them, I guess they are quite elusive.  The cubs are nearly as big as Mom now, I wonder how much longer this family will stay together.

These guys know the cheetah are near by and keeping a very watchful eye

Family picture time

 

Elephant mud bath again

Mom showing baby how to dig a hole in the sand for water

They dig a hole for cooler cleaner water

Bee hive

Back to camp for lunch at 1PM and then we have time for a quick swim in the pool, showers, and then off again on safari at 4pm.  Marcs wife Chloe has also arrived in camp today with their 2 daughters, and we see them out and about while on safari this afternoon. 
We have also found out the names of some basically impossible birds to find from Marc the camp manager, and have told Lazaro that we would like to see these birds.  It is going to be very comical the next few days to see how he does. 

Bathing suits drying on balcony, time for a quick nap, what a view!

We have met so many people the last few days from all over the world.  Must people have been from the UK, some other Europeans, and very few from North America.  At the last camp we met a woman travelling solo from Hawaii.  She has many many safaris under her belt and has come to Ruaha for 6 nights.  I thought we had long travel times, Hawaii would be so long, especially for only 6 nights.  We saw her in a jeep today and were able to send an Aloha to her, she greeted us with "The Canadians".  We see so few jeeps out during the day, it is fun to see someone you know.

Our afternoon drive:

Red-Necked spurfowl

Little Bea-Eater

 We came across a herd of hundreds of cape buffalo heading for the river for a drink today

Traffic jam

Blacksmith Lapwing -  I love this reflection

 

Sundowners again while we are out, this time we have rum and coke, and vodka and juice on board, so we are all happy people.

 

Back up to camp and we have an amazing fish curry dinner. 

The stars are so amazing here at night, I don’t think I’ve mentioned that so far.  Andre has set up his tripod to try to capture the milky way and night sky while I try to update the blog with notes from today.  So amazing when there is no light pollution, it seems to get brighter by the minute.