8th Satara continued
I had opened my mouth the previous day about a bacon and egg breakfast for the Cow’s birthday, so I got cooking, but for the first time we had brought a small electric frying pan along that the old lady gave us, so I could set up on the table outside and cook, which is far better than fighting with the “KNP stove” in the kitchen.
The Cow then spotted some Wood Hoopoes and sent me on a mission to get pics of them grooming each other, while she went after squirrels with Albert. I’m not a “bird person” but this lot fascinated me also because all the Hoopoes were grooming 1 so it must have been the “queen bee” or full of nits. Hopefully a birder reads this and can advise.
We started our afternoon drive at around 3:30pm and first I had to get used to a new thing going on with a “selfie stick” as Hawkeyes conned me to buy her 1 prior to the trip and was waving it around the car for the first time. In my day a “selfie stick” meant something else which I won’t mention on a public forum, but according to my kids I’m still living in the “dark ages”.
All wanted to head back down to the S33 to see if the leopard had scored and to our amazement there was still only 1 car parked off and it was the same people from the morning. The leopard was still there but snoozing behind a rock.
10 minutes later some impala looked like they were going to come for a drink and this got his attention for a few minutes.
We stopped at Kumana Dam for a few minutes on the way back to check out 2 ellies having a drink, but there wasn’t much else happening until we got close to the Sweni Bridge where 4 tuffs of grass looked out of place.
Suddenly the one tuft started roaring, but the others just rolled around with their legs in the air. After a few yawns the loud chap decided it was time to check out a new spot and headed straight towards us which got the Cow flapping to Hawkeyes about her window, however he stopped a few meters from the car, checked us out and then proceeded to take a dump next to us, which set all the rats off, but Albert was horrified “Disgusting Lion!”
After the dump he cruised up to the car, around us and then started roaring again before settling down on the other side of the road. I knew they would soon all get up but time was ticking, so took 1 last pic before heading back to camp.
We took the rats for those R29 mini pizzas for supper while the Cow and I chowed a toasted sarmie which wasn’t a great birthday treat but our plan was to test Mugg and Bean at Lower Sabie on the last night, so had to save the cash.
To be continued
But the leo was still a brilliant sighting 
Isn't that ellie a tusker already... 
Sharp Alf 