Breakfast Walk and Night Drive

My granddaughter was to go on a morning walk this morning and she set her phone to alarm at 6:00 so when it went off I woke her up. It was hard to get her started this morning. But eventually she was off-dressed and sun screened. She came running back for the camera. The walk took about an hour and she saw zebras, gazelles or antelopes etc. She took only 2 photos. There was another couple with her (French) and a guide and a ranger.

zebra

She said her feet weren't tired but she said she got into some acadia thorn/stickers. Then they had breakfast (table cloths and everything) right out there on the plain
.

breakfast outside

Land Cruiser and cooks

dove in an acacia tree

Meanwhile I was unable to find my inhaler. I had it in my pocketbook in the box but the box was empty. I guess I will use the rescue inhaler instead. I never thought they did much for me anyway. I went up to lodge and discussed the food problem. Finally found out that they cook with soy oil and my granddaughter has had a reaction to soy in the doctor's office. But my daughter said she can eat soy beans. Maybe the oil is more concentrated. Or maybe that's not it

I decided just to relax today and not go out again in the Land Cruiser. So after breakfast, I went and lay down and finished a book in my Kindle that I started on the plane. We are to go on a night drive tonight.

I came up for lunch and to use the internet. Lunch was strange - the bread is good. I had spinach soup and they brought my granddaughter fries and a salad. They said they would bring her pasta but they brought it to me (along with sausage which is another thing she likes). So I traded plates with her and made cucumber sandwiches from the salad with the bread.

We were to have a night drive tonight, so I thought that when I came up that I would do the internet up at the lodge, have dinner, and go on the night safari and they would not have to push me up and down the rock path but once. So I came up with the computer bag and sat on the couch and did the internet. I had some bathroom issues and I was trying to limit my fruit intake. I found that not only are there 7 steps up to the lodge headquarters, but there are steps down from there to the bathrooms. Definitely not handicapped accessible (although they do not say that they are) They do have some cabins with electricity for CPAP machines.

My granddaughter did go up to the lookout point without me to see the sunset

sunset

We had dinner and it was an "African dinner" but there wasn't much African about it. It was pork, rice, two kinds of potato and salad. My granddaughter tried each thing a small bite and waited for a reaction, and she got a mild one with the pumpkin.

We had an open air vehicle for the safari with just my granddaughter and me seated in it. There was also a driver, a man with a spotlight and a ranger. (The rangers have the guns) The other people had to stand in the vehicle that followed. Apparently in this area, off-roading is allowed. It is not allowed in the National Park.

We saw an aardvark, spring hares, white tailed mongoose, and dikdiks but didn't get a photo as they ran away too fast. It was tricky to take photos of animals which were moving and where the spotlight was also moving. Sometimes the spotlight made the place where the animal was too bright. My granddaughter got reasonably good photos of a rabbit, a Genet cat, jackal

rabbit

Genet cat

Genet cat

Jackal

Jackal

jackal

and some of a family of hyenas.

hyena

hyena

hyena

hyena

hyena

hyenas

hyenas

The baby hyenas were really cute and completely unfazed by the spotlights. They came up and sniffed the tires of the vehicle and one of them even walked under it. I suspect that the guide knew approximately where this group could be found because a lady who did the drive the night before mentioned them.

baby hyena

baby hyena

baby hyena

hyena

hyena

hyena

I did a little better with the impalas, and the eagle

antelope

impalas

impala

impala

eagle

We went to bed before packing, but I found my inhaler in the bottom of my pocketbook. I read the directions about the morning walk and the night drive and found that they were extra, so I took the money for them out and put it where I could pay in the morning.