Third – no, last time’s the charm

During our visit we saw so many amazing things it was an unforgettable experience, but there were a few things on our checklist we missed. Make that big things; we actually only saw about half the mammals and a tenth of the birds in the park over eight days. But there were a few special things we had hoped to see. A male lion. A good look / photo of Dave’s favorite bird, the lilac breasted roller. Painted (wild) dogs.

When we left Chindeni, Dave had unscrewed the monopole from the Camera, inserted all the lens covers, and carefully packed all the camera equipment in his rather overstuffed backpack. “We’re just going to be driving back full tilt, I’m not going to bother trying to take photos,” he said.

We were literally three minutes into the two-hour drive back to Mfuwe lodge when that ended.

There were a few birds that Dave liked but had only been able to snap shots at a long distance because they were skittish. And there, sitting twenty feet away, where three of them doing “look at me” poses, and held them long enough for Dave to unpack the camera, telephoto lens, monopole, assemble the entire thing, and frame the shot.

It turned out well, because not only did he get his bird shots, but the camera was ready fifteen minutes later when we ran into the male lion.

Shortly after snapping two dozen photos of the big cat, we started off again. After a few minutes, the guide pulled to a stop, pointed to a bush that was maybe ten feet away, and sitting there was a lilac breasted roller, chirping its little heart out. Dave actually had to ask the driver to pull away a bit because the telephone lens wouldn’t focus on something that close, which the driver did, and all the while the bird just sat there waiting patiently for Dave to take the perfect photo.

We got underway again, only to be stopped by a migrating buffalo herd that stretched from horizon to horizon; the driver estimated it to be about a thousand buffalo.

After the tail end of the line finally finished crossing the road, we drove on, when the guide said, “I just heard on the radio that the painted dogs have been spotted a little way off the road to the lodge.” So we drove over and had a close encounter which what turned out to Dave’s favorite animal from the trip.