Day 13 - Serious scat chat.

Beautiful male Kudu - shame he's in the shade

Grumpy warthog, not liking my lens

545am the in-tent phone went with our wake up call. Tracey had been up for hours keeping watch for hippos and so was pretty shattered before we started, but 615am Joshua arrived to escort us to the lodge for our 630am game drive with a truck load of Americans. This time we were led by a different guide, called Martin. Very knowledgeable but obviously had no idea we had been on the drive last night and proceeded to repeat the entire Baobab tree sermon again. Thankfully we were spared a repeat of the lesson on Aardvarks too, and instead were treated to some interesting lessons in animal toiletry; Herds of Impala like to all use the same spot and create a massive pile of poo pellets to scent mark their territory and to help them find their way home if they get lost. The hyena produces white poo, a bit like chalk, on account of all the bones they eat as scavengers and we learnt how to tell if Elephant dung has been left by a male or a female based on the positioning of the pond of pee in relation to the poo - on top is a female and in front is a male. Obvious really. What was not so obvious was the fact about the weaver birds that make their nests in the western side of trees. We had thought that the 15 or so nests in each tree were a flock of Weaver birds, each with their own nest. Turns out that all 15 nests are made by the same pair of breeding birds and only some are used. One for nesting, one for roosting, one for dining etc. and a number as decoys to fool predators. Talk about living life on the edge.
Numerous species were spotted on the drive; more waterbuck, impala, guinea fowl and warthogs, but also some impressively coloured birds; the Lilac-breasted roller, the white-fronted bee-eater, and my favourite of the day; the Giant kingfisher.
We returned for a leisurely breakfast before spending the rest of the day chilling on our balcony watching the wildlife and looking through photos. Someone came to clean our pool, another person came to restock our fridge and before we knew it, it was time for our last game drive of the trip.

Maribou Stork coming in to land

This time we went out with a highly experienced guide called Nofias from Hwange, and a Japanese couple with their two small girls, one of which squealed in Tracey's ear before falling asleep and the other was actually quite well behaved, that is until she saw a zebra and promptly squealed loudly, sending the zebra dashing over the road. Young children should not be allowed on safari. simple. It should be one of those adult-only treats, like prawn crackers and poppadoms were for me as a kid. I fear children these days will have nothing to save for, or look forward to, they have everything and are allowed to do everything. They are treated like miniature adults who don't have to work or clean up after themselves, but get to do all kinds of things I could only dream of as a kid. There, jealous rant over.

Baobab tree at sunset

We got back to the lodge in the dark after a gorgeous sundowner beer with the Baobabs and a run of about 8 giraffe in 3 different groups - two of them we saw only as silhouettes, which was fortunate as they were mating at the time, and after watching the baboons "at it" earlier and stifling giggles like kids ourselves, I was relieved we didn't have time to hang around.
When we got back to our tent, I needed to wash. So I decided to try out the shower that was installed inside the tent, (it was too dark for me to brave the outside one). There's something both liberating and a little weird about standing naked, in near darkness, under a hot rain-forest shower in a very large open plan tent, with no shower curtain surrounding you, or even a shower tray to stand in. The tent was erected on a raised platform of wooden planks, with the shower head fixed to one wall, so you just stood under it and the water flowed down between the slats. Lovely and hot though, with a cracking range of smellies to choose from.
We knew the staff were planning something for Tracey's birthday at dinner, but I was expecting maybe a cake or even just a candle or two on the dessert, but the staff had gone to great lengths (and inconvenience) to

sharing birthday cake with the staff

set us up a private dining table right down on the end of the boat jetty with our own waiter, Nkanyusi ("Tokyo"), The poor guy had to traipse backwards and forwards all evening down the long walkway to our table to serve us an amazing 3 course dinner with free-flowing wine and topped off with a chocolate cake, complete with candles and an African "happy birthday" sung by a couple of the team. So generous and such a lovely way to end our trip. We giggled, we ate, we drank and we reflected. Then Tracey cut the cake into about 40 pieces and we took it back to the restaurant where the Manager, Andrew, called all the staff out into the dining area for a piece each; sharing a cracking end to a cracking trip.