2023-08-20: Safari Day 6 (Mfuwe Lodge)

It’s our last safari day, but our first full day at Mfuwe Lodge. Our wake up call was at 5:45am this morning. We were moving a little slow this morning. We got ourselves dressed and packed up for the day and headed to the main lodge. We met up with Fenwell and had some breakfast. The breakfast was a little fancier at the lodge. They had pancakes, muffins, fruit, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, and toast available. Ther was a hippo and some impala grazing off the lodge’s patio while we were eating. After enjoying our breakfast, we headed to the front and loaded into the vehicle.

Just around the corner from the lodge we came across the pride of lions we saw yesterday. They were relaxing under some trees. There was evidence of blood around some of their faces and their bellies looked full. Fenwell was pretty sure they had a successful hunt last night. We took a few photos and moved along.

We drove along a small gully where we admired some birds when Fenwell spotted a crocodile swimming in the water. He was waiting for some unsuspecting prey to grab a drink in the gully. Very rude! The rest of our drive focused on the birds of the area. We saw flamingos, rollers, bee eaters, hornbills, grouse, and storks. We also saw some zebras, elephants, giraffes, hippos, and cape buffalo.

They surprised us for brunch this morning. Instead of having it at the lodge, they set up brunch in the bush beside a pond. They offered a lovely buffet including chicken, eggs, sausage, bacon, veggies, and starches. We enjoyed our lunch while discussing politics with Fenwell and admiring the view.

After lunch, we made our way back to the lodge. We came across a young deceased baboon on the road. Around the corner Fenwell spotted a juvenile eagle in a tree. Then he spotted the adult a few trees over. While we were watching the eagles, he also spotted their nest. These eagles are known for trying to take down small animals like young baboons. Fenwell figures the eagle knocked the baboon out of the tree which killed it. He saw other baboon tracks around the body so is guessing the other baboons protected the body for a while before accepting it had died and moved along, keeping the eagles away for a while. He thinks they will be enjoying their kill shortly.

We returned to the lodge and spent the afternoon relaxing. Our chalet has it’s own pool so the kids were eager to give it a try. At 3:00pm we returned to the main lodge for afternoon tea. They had a cake with caramel icing that Michael really liked. He decided to have a second piece. When the snack was finished, we headed out front to meet up with Fenwell and Chadwick.

The afternoon drive was pretty eventful. We came across a lone female giraffe which Fenwell said was odd. Females usually stay in groups and he assumed there were some others nearby that she was travelling with. Michael had asked to see another leopard so we went on a search. We passed another vehicle and Fenwell had a chat with the driver. They had seen a leopard not too far away. Fenwell rushed over to where they said it was. A couple of other vehicles were there already. We waited our turn and then pulled in between some bushes where we could see the leopard. Fenwell was familiar with this leopard and said she had a cub as well. There was no sign of the cub though. She must have hidden it somewhere safe. We took a few photos and then moved along. Fenwell wanted to stay in the area and come back a bit later to see if we could spot the cub.

We admired some birds in the area including a group of lovebirds and a white-browed coucal. We went back to check on the leopard, but there were bunch of vehicles waiting around her still. Fenwell suggested we have an early sundowner. When the other groups are having their sundowner, we’ll come back and try to get another look. We agreed so he headed to find us a nice spot for a break and a drink. Along the way we found some more elephants and some white-throated bee eaters. We also some local fishermen along the shore and in boats on the river.

Fenwell found us a nice spot along the river for our sundowner. We were accompanied by a family of warthogs. One was having a snack while the other two were napping. We watched the second one wake up and have a quick snack before waking up the third warthog. They all had a snack along with us.

When we were done our snack, we headed back to take another look at the leopard. She had moved along. Just down the road we saw a few vehicles looking at something though. It was the leopard! She had moved to a tree. We watched her for a few minutes. We saw her stretch and sharpen her claws on the tree. She was looking in the area of some impalas. She got up and jumped out of the tree before heading in the direction of the impalas. We followed her for a minute and she jumped onto a fallen tree to watch the impalas. She was getting ready to hunt. Fenwell asked if we wanted to stay and watch or move along. Leopards are very patient and she could sit there for a couple of hours waiting for the impalas to get closer. Michael wanted to watch a little longer so we decided to stay. As the sunlight started to dim, we saw the impalas moving closer. The leopard jumped off the tree and crouched in the grass beside it. She was ready to pounce. Fenwell backed our vehicle off and hid behind some trees. If the impala saw our vehicle, they would be on guard and would make it harder for the leopard to be successful. We couldn’t see the leopard but waited to hear any action. After 5 or 10 minutes we hard the impala alerting. Fenwell quickly drove us to where we left the leopard. We saw the impala looking at her as she skulked away. Obviously she failed in her attempt. She will have to move to a different area where the impala aren’t alerted and try again. It was an interesting process to watch.

We moved along and started our night drive. We found a scrub hare, genet, mongoose, hippos, elephants, and another honey badger. Fenwell was excited to see the honey badger. Around 7:00pm, they let Patrick take over the spotlight. He found another genet, a scrub hare, and some hippos. We saw some jeeps right near the turnoff for the lodge. We went to investigate. It was the pride of lions. They were just chilling out. We watched them for a few minutes and then returned to the lodge.

Dinner was about ready when we got back, so we didn’t bother returning to our room. We headed straight for the dining room. We found Fenwell and our table. It was a buffet style dinner. They had some butternut squash soup as a starter. It was BBQ night for the main course. They had a variety of meats on the grill that you could choose from including chicken, beef steak, lamb chop, sausage, and pork of some sort. They had various side dishes including salads, vegetables, and something they called jeweled squash. It was a butternut squash bottom filled with cream corn. Kind of odd…

After dinner we said goodnight to Fenwell and returned to our room. We start our journey home tomorrow so we had to finish packing before calling it a night.