Last week Shavaughn and I followed the path taken by Bambi and Chanel from the floodplains to the mopane. We sampled several sites along the Gomoti and managed to drive all the way along to the fence. Unfortunately, there was a very wet and sticky backwater there that thwarted our best attempts to get across. We had to go back upriver until we hit a road and then drive all the way around to the gate and along the fence. That lost us a couple of hours, but we made it all the way along the fence and into mopane before camping on the second night. There were a couple of sites along the route that we could not access, but we managed to sample the majority of them. The next day we sampled points that they had used in the area that they reach, on the eastern side of NG34, close to the hunting camp. We had to give up on reaching the last couple of points as they had disappeared into really thick stuff. We did manage to sample 44 sites in 3 days, which is the most that I have done so far!
We only saw one buffalo on that trip, which was a juvenile that was being eaten by the fattest young male lion that I have ever seen. As we headed for home, we came across 3 female lions and 8 cubs, just at the right time of day to be able to watch all the cubs playing, which was really delightful.
We spent one night in camp and then headed across to Chitabe the next day for another 2 nights camping. We stopped off at Chitabe to say hello and they were very interested in all our goings on. Apparently they can ID 24 leopards in their area and are working on a photo database for them, which is impressive news that I have passed onto Dog Camp.
We somehow managed to avoid any serious downpours, which was a blessing, but I have still ended up with a nasty cold.
Two more of my collared animals, again in one herd, moved across to NG43 yesterday. Shavaughn is leaving on Thursday and my next assistant (Jennifer) is arriving on the 2nd, so I will be itching to go by then.
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