It was a relatively short journey from Third Bridge to Xakanaxa. On a few occasions we had the dilemma of which track to take, and as always you question if you took the best route. However, that not always such an issue when its such a lovely landscape and with no stress over time we ambled our way in a North East direction. Picking up the odd sign that affirmed we were going in the right direction and with the trusty GPS for a bit of back up! We continued to encounter sandy tracks and large wet areas as we tracked close to the Delta. However, the terrain varied from that which we encountered around Third Bridge once we came within a few KM of Xakanaxa. Dry open pans open had been replaced with larger Marshy areas and small forests with denser vegetation along the road side. We were truly in the heart of the Delta here and the opening to a huge water world. Plenty of game such as Impala, Elephant and Kudu were all seen along our way and on that drive only one other vehicle! As we arrived within 1.5km of the campsite we spotted Lion tracks and when your with 'The Skinners' that means only one thing! You gotta find 'em! Anyway before Lion antics could start we wanted to check out the camp and settle for a bit in the shade.
The campsite was again unfenced and positioned just off the main track and in woodland, opposite a Marsh, just a few KM for the airstrip and gate. It was a gorgeous setting as per the last two campsites. Once again we had a fire pit and a braai grill. This designated pitch was a little closer to the ablutions than previous pitches, around 100ft away. However, we faced the back of the block, the camp was quiet, pitches spread out so that really not an issue and turned out to be rather useful!! It was a really nice pitch with great views all around.
We had been around camp for a little while before Andy starts cooking pancakes whilst I sort a few bits out, charging cameras and all that boring stuff. Until I heard a crash in the bushes behind me, around 200 feet away. Stomping out come three big bull elephants. I warned Andy as they are on a bit of a mission to the vehicle and being in their way did not quite feel right! I initially got in the car until Andy says no, lets go to the ablutions block that was just behind us. Andy managed to clear a bit of stuff up away from the elephants but they were there rather rapidly. The elephants had little interest in us and more in what was going on in camp. Standing by the block, out of harms way we watched them circle the vehicle, no aggression or signs of stress shown at all as they casually investigated the vehicle with their trunks. It did not take long until they reached the camp table and there we suddenly saw a plate, bottle of cooking oil and a big bag of sugar left there. Needless to say one of the bulls immediately starts picking up the plate and playing with it, then sniffing the table until then it found the holy grail! The bag of sugar! It disappeared into its mouth within seconds! Unbelievable! We felt terrible that we had not had a chance to put it away, we don't condone feeding elephants but this was not intended we promise! Next to go for the trunk investigation was the cooking oil but that was not to the liking of the elephants as they casually discarded without consuming fortunately. We watched in amazement as the three elephants just sauntered right against the vehicle, on a couple of occasions you could see the Land Rover gently rock slightly as they rubbed against it softly. Thank goodness not causing any damage! The most annoying thing is that the cameras were in the flipping car! This would have made the most amazing video or photo so I am afraid you are just going to have to trust us that this happened!
The elephants eventually ambled off and browsed the trees in the camp, one moving onto the Marsh, another onto the nearby track and the third biggest bull wandering off through other pitches along the way, someone was about to have an elephant with a sugar rush in their camp!
We cleared up the dribble from the table and retrieved the plate and cooking oil, amazingly we saw the pancake mix still left on the bonnet and untouched in the bowl, despite them looking at it! What does that say about Andy's pancakes! Now we faced cooking pancakes again, but to be quite honest they tasted pretty vile with lemon juice and no sugar!
It was around 3:15pm and we had decided to do a boat trip in the Delta, we had found some local operators earlier before we went into our campsite and has booked a private boat at 4pm to take us right into the Xakanaxa Lagoon in the Delta. As were getting ready for the boat I turned to see that the biggest bull that had visited us before was back. This time on a mission to the camp pitch behind us that shaded under Marula trees. A family of mum, dad and two kids were in the camp reading and doing chores. Like us though they were soon stopped in their actions as the elephant marched up to the vehicle. Mum and the kids jumped in the car, whilst dad stayed outside.
The elephant seemed totally at ease with the human occupants in camp, he stood under one of the Marula trees and shook it with his tusks, causing many fruits to fall onto the cars roof and on the ground. He stood with a veritable feast in front of him as he hoovered up the fruits and continued to shake the tree again. He then moved right to the vehicle and putting his trunk into the open boot of the car in camp, with the dad stood just at the front bonnet!! The elephant starts trying to drag various things from the car, pulling a childs seat from the back and then treading on it , amazingly without breaking it ! He played with various items and fiddled with boxes for absolutely ages before then deciding to come and visit us again!
We moved away from the car, just again under the ablution block so we could watch him properly and in safety of course! This time we grabbed the little camera and took photos as the lone bull ate a few fruits from the top of our vehicle that had fallen earlier in the day. He sifted through our firewood and played a little with the roof tent, before moving off again, toward the ablution block where he fed on the bushes, very relaxed and stayed for another 15 minutes or so.
It was just the most amazing experience to again encounter elephants that so confidently come into the camp and yet so relaxed with human inhabitants, to watch them feed so close was incredible to watch and look at the detail of these amazing animals. Although I would never want to suggest being this close this is always safe! This chap was fine and we allowed him to go about uninterrupted but even so it got the adrenalin going!
After all that excitement we made it to the boat and had the most gorgeous ride into the Delta. The water was totally still, beautiful flowering lilies dotted the surface, with the occasional bubbles to reveal the submerged Hippos. We saw a phenomenal number of African Darters and a good number of Fish Eagles, their awesome calls being heard all across the area. It was nice to get out of the vehicle and spend some time on the water, an area so tranquil and so untouched. It was stunning and fantastic way to spend the afternoon and we watched the most beautiful sunset from the boat before making our way back to the banks of the delta and dry land. Having seen elephant and Red Lechwe on one of the islands on the way back.
Night in camp was as pleasant as every night before, hearing a couple of lions roar quite some distance away and wandering if they were the 'owners' if the tracks we had seen earlier. We still wanted to find them!
In the morning we packed up, collected the night cameras (that had captured Impala and Hyena in our camp) and headed off just before first light. We sat and listened but had not heard any roars this morning. However, went on the search of fresh tracks as we headed toward the area where we had heard roars in the night. We failed to find any fresh tracks other than that of a Leopard, that was nowhere to be seen.
We moved slowly scanning all around and by now around 5km from camp and roughly where we had taken a 'reading' from the roars the night prior. As we entered an area that felt like prime lion habitat we scanned hard and wide. We had only been in that area for around 15 minutes when we finally caught sight of two lions, as the tracked out of the reeds and into the forest. With totally full stomachs a sub adult male (around 2years old) with an older female moved a couple of hundred feet before slumping into the grass in a dry area. We sat with them for sometime, there was little expectation for any activity from these two full lions but it was still lovely to sit with them and watch them sleep for a while and occasionally groom themselves. As always happy to be finding lions!
After spending around 45 minutes or so with the lions we left them in peace and now it was time to start tracking in the direction of our next campsite, around 2-3 hours away in the Northern part of the reserve and where would stay one night before leaving the Moremi reserve and onto Savuti.
En route to Xakanaxa
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