When we arrived at the kill site, the hyenas were trotting away and five painted dogs were moving in. The giraffe was killed the previous evening by another male giraffe. The two males had fought and this one made a mistake. Perhaps half his body was already gone. As the painted dogs feasted, the buzzards were waiting their turn behind them.

The previous day, we’d departed Vic Falls in a van, and arrived at the Kazengula Border crossing about an hour later. We walked from Zim into Botswana and after clearing customs, boarded another van for transport to Kasane. There, we flew on a puddle jumper to our Camp at Sable Alley. (See callout to Karen Dewhurst, and Sikeleli African Safaris at the bottom of this blog. The coordination during this part of the trip was simply amazing.)

Getting off the plane on the clay airstrip, the hot air hit us like a brick. We were in the Okavango Delta at the hottest time of the year, and it was much hotter than Zimbabwe. We would find ourselves drinking untold amounts of water over the coming days.

Our guide, Zambo, took us out that afternoon on our first safari with him. We tracked and eventually had a siting of a leopard on the move. We viewed more elephants, and other animals, then drove back to camp. It had been a long day.

After cleaning up, we returned to the dining area. It had cooled down as the darkness fell and there was a fire going. We had gin and dry lemons while sitting around the fire before dinner, and then switched to a Chenin Blanc with our first course – Cold Broccoli and yogurt soup with a blue cheese crumble. The night continued with a very fine dinner, more wine, dessert, and after-dinner drinks. Eventually, we were escorted back to our tents and a deep sleep (for all of the safari camps, because of the animals in the area, you were not allowed to walk from the main area to your tent after dark without a guide – sometimes they were armed, sometimes not).

The next morning at breakfast, Zambo told us about the giraffe kill, which he’d just heard about on the radio. We drove there first thing. After watching the dogs, and then the buzzards feed on the giraffe we moved on to look for other animals. We came across hyenas with pups that moved on quickly, and then another leopard. This leopard was known to the guides, and they called him Nicholas. It turns out that Nicholas was comfortable with vehicles, and the noise didn’t scare him away. We actually would see him two more times during our visit.

Later that afternoon, we returned to the giraffe kill site, to see if lions, or any other animals had come to the feast. We arrived to find an adolescent hyena sitting in the center of the giraffe carcass. He was fending off the wild dogs and the buzzards who were all trying to get more of the meat. We asked Zambo why the hyena was there alone, and he said he was young and had made a mistake. He wanted more food after the rest of his pack left, and so he stayed. He could hold off the dogs indefinitely, but when a lion arrived, he would be trapped in the carcass and killed. He should have left with his friends. It only takes one mistake.

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This is the sixth in a series of short blogs about our trip to Africa in September and October of 2018. I’m not trying to be exact in detail, rather, I’m trying to give a bit of the spirit or feeling of the various parts of the trip. Read at your leisure. Or not.

Related Blogs about the trip to Africa:

Vic Falls – The Smoke that Thunders (5th Blog about the trip) https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/18/the-smoke-that-thunders/

First Safari Camp, at The Hide (Fourth blog about the trip) https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/15/first-safari-camp/

Fishing and Elephants (Third blog about the trip) https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/12/fishing-and-elephants/

The Drive to Lake Kariba (Second Blog about the trip) – https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/08/the-drive-to-lake-kariba/

Harare (First Blog about the trip) – https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/11/02/harare-zimbabwe/

Zimbabwe (Just prior to departure) – https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/20/zimbabwe/

Pink Gins (The Genesis)- https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/pink-gins/

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I’d like to do a call-out to Karen Dewhurst, and Sikeleli African Safaris, our travel consultant who arrange the middle part of our itinerary during our time in Africa. She did all of the work to coordinate our trips to: The Hide, Victoria Falls and the Ilala Hotel in Zimbabwe, and Sable Alley and Rra Dinare Safari camps in Botswana. All accommodations were amazing, the food and wine excellent, and the animal viewing exceeded all expectations. Additionally, I can’t quite imagine coordinating all of the travel arrangements themselves during this portion of the trip – the vans, puddle jumpers, planes, pick ups and drop offs. It all worked perfectly. If you are coming to this part of the world, I highly recommend them. You can reach Karen, and Sikeleli African Safaris at:

Karen Dewhurst

karen@sikelelisafaris.com / (+263) 78 310 6561 (Zimbabwe)

Sikeleli Africa Safaris Ltd.
(+1) 604 281 3274 / Toll Free: 1-844-972-3274 (North America)
https://sikelelisafaris.com