The sunrises are pretty spectacular here.
As we headed out on our morning drive, we didn't get more than 100 meters from the lodge before finding a few of our old pachyderm pals.
A few moments later we spotted some vultures up in the trees.
The phrase "look alive!" ran through my head as we passed the carrion crew.
Eagles were out in full force this morning as well.
We saw some Southern Ground Hornbills jumping around on a log. Apparently there are only a couple thousand left in all of South Africa.
In the morning, monkeys don't mind hanging out up in the trees. The eagles don't start picking them out of trees until they've left their own perches and start soaring about.
Ah, zoom... what would I see without you.
We rounded out the "Big 5" with a rhino sighting (mother and child actually!) midway through the morning.
Here's a close-up of mom. She's got a bird in her ear... looks uncomfortable to me.
We stopped for some tea/coffee near a waterhole and watched some baboons playing on the opposite bank.
When walking around the bush, you have to pay attention or you might find yourself stepping into a large pile of elephant dung... which is pretty much everywhere.
Back on the road again, we saw a herd of impala, which are almost as ubiquitous as the elephant dung... though tastier for a hungry leopard I suppose. Check out the two tussling in the back of this photo:
We stopped by a waterhole full of hippos. Caught one in mid-snort:
Never did see one out of the water. Glad I didn't though, because as it turns out the hippo is the deadliest animal in the bush (to humans anyway.) More humans get trampled and killed by hippos than any other animal related fatality out here.
We saw a few lion tracks, but didn't catch up with the pride.
We got back, had breakfast, went on the bushwalk, and I went straight to bed. Ming went back to the gym again and then had a spa treatment (I still can't believe they had a spa in the middle of nowhere.) Before the afternoon drive Ming took the Land Rover for a spin.
I was the tracker.
OK, not really. Richard just let us take a few shots while it was parked outside the lodge.
The afternoon drive started off with a few lazy buffalo. These poor guys. They just sit around baking in the sun all day with insects buzzing all about them. When they don't have insects in there eyes, it's only because there's a bird perched on there face pecking at them. Seems like a miserable existence to me.
Once again we saw Salayexe, but this time she was sleeping in a tree.
We drove right under her, took a few photos, and she didn't even stir.
We moved on to let her rest (her cubs were probably sleeping nearby.) A waterbuck was posing not far off: 
Wildebeest were grazing on the airstrip, a long field where the tiny planes landed for the super-rich folks who wanted to avoid the 1.5 hour drive from Hoedspruit and fly in directly.
When we caught up with Salayexe again, it was dark. She was active... tense in fact. Other predators were starting their nightly rounds.
Three hyenas, truly ugly animals, started making their way towards Salayexe and her cubs. We saw one flee up a tree to safety, and the other one dart off towards the riverbed. Salayexe stood her ground and let out a hiss (as cats do) when the threat came close. When the hyenas were about a meter away, Salayexe slinked away.
We left them like that. One cub up a tree, Salayexe and cub number two escaped on foot. Hyenas can't climb so it's likely that no cats were harmed that night. Richard said that the hyenas were probably looking to steal some food if Salayexe had recently made an impala kill or something like that. Regardless, it made for quite an exciting night.
Another outside dinner around the fire and we hit the sack.
Sunrise, warebuck, leopard and hyena shots truly amazing!
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