Here's Looking at You, food....

Third day on Safari and drives  4 and 5.

From 5 onwards we swapped out to another guide and tracker, Joel & Robert.  

The second 5:30 rise wasn't quite as easy as the first but we managed to drag ourselves out of  bed and get all wrapped up to head out for a quick cuppa and get on the jeep.

It was a bit of a quieter day animal wise but we still loved the long drives through the african landscapes.  

We did spot a nest of mongoose - they are so cute! We saw some buffalo up really close (today's extra picture).  We also watched a pride of 5 female lions laze about in the morning.  This pride is known to the guides as the Southern pride due to the area of the properties that they occupy.  They were so relaxed with us just watching them - the guides tell us that they grow up used to the vehicles driving around so it doesn't bother them.  I did ask the question about the incident elsewhere in South Africa where a tourist opened a car window on safari and was attacked by a lion.  They said that they believe the lions were fed from cars so they are used to expecting food when a window opens - where as here the cars don't provide food as they are living totally wild so they don't see the people in the vehicles as prey.  Interesting.

In the evening ride as it was getting dark we came across this male leopard - again, beautiful beautiful animals.

In the evening we returned to our room to find our bath full of water and bubbles, with flower petals and also a small bottle of sparkling wine for us and a card wishing us happy honeymoon - how lovely!

We headed up to the lodge for the pre-dinner drinks and our waiter then took us to a private table with candles lit around it where we had our own space for a romantic night.  It was a lovely lovely surprise!