3/2/07 The Hippo hole

After a good breakfast and watching the birds, of several species, steal food off of the stack of dirty dishes. We left the lodge around 8 AM. There were three Cape Buffalo within 200 yards of the lodge. (One of them may have been killed by lions the next day) As we approached the turnoff to the "hippo hole" we noticed the two ostrich we had seen last night, only closer and in better light. Not far past them Eustace spotted our first Secretary Bird sitting on top of a tree. Then on to the hippos. In addition to the 30 + hippos in the pool there was a new born calf on the shore. It had apparently been born this morning or late last night. There were a number of young in the water. First you would see there head and then the mother would surface underneath it to support it. There were at least four crocodiles on the nearby rocks also.

One of the funniest things was watching a large hippo rear come up out of the water while it defecated, while doing so its tail wagged furiously so that the "product" was scattered over a wide range. It reminded me of watching a farmers manure spreader fertilizing his fields.

Leaving this area we headed south and saw Grey Frandcolins, a white-bellied bustard, and cute D'Arnaud's Barbets. We stopped for lunch around 11:30 at a ranger station/nature center/picnic area. Yesterday a strut or shock absorber had broken loose and needed to be welded, so Eustace took the car for repairs while we enjoyed our lunch and a tour of the center.
We enjoyed our picnic lunch surrounded by birds and mammals. Tree Hyraxes and pigmy mongoose, adults and babies were along the edge of the grass here and many weavers of several species picked up any scrap of food "accidentally" dropped by the many visitors here.

There was a nature walk up into the rocks here along with many interesting metal sculptures representing some of the animals that occur here. there was also a video of the harrowing migration of the one million or so Wildebeests that winter here on the Serengeti and summer in Southern Kenya, a 1000 mile round trip.

Eustace returned around 1:30 PM with the repaired vehicle and we continued on our game drive. Highlights of the afternoon included seeing two leopards in trees and a dik dik up close. We were able to get close to the first leopard and got good looks. The second one was larger but over 200 yards away. Another neat bird spotted was a European Roller. The vehicles are required to stay on the current "roads" unless they become impassable so that an alternate route has to be taken around the bad spot. Thus we couldn't drive near the second leopard. We returned to the lodge around 5:30 and had the buffet supper around 7:30. Each day they provide two "free" bottles of water to each room, but if you want water with your meal there is a 2800 Shilling charge per one liter bottle.

Steak and fish were the grilled offerings tonight. Carolyn and I both tried the steak. One of the pieces I got was the toughest I've had since the "Chuck waggon" meal we had in Colorado Springs back in the 70's.

All the rooms are shaped like the round grass roof native buildings except they are much larger with two rooms downstairs and one on top. All the grass roofs are covered with chicken wire to discourage nesting birds and animals.