Lazy Day the Hoanib Way

Jutta and I decided to take the morning off, have a bit of a sleep in, and enjoy some of the comforts of camp. Christiane was leaving this morning, and we will miss her company on the game drives and at dinner. Jutta went over to see the lion tracks between tent #1-2…….Christiane was in #2…….Rocky felt the lions might come to the waterhole after their meal last night, and he was right once again. We hiked over to what we called Ring Rock, and up on a rocky rise for the pano view of the camp. We wouldn’t be going out for the evening ride until 5pm, so it was a totally lazy day, and something we both needed.

Lion tracks

On our evening excursion we were joined by a young couple on their around the world honeymoon trip. Rocky drove out of camp on a familiar route and I knew we were headed west into the riverbed. It wasn’t long before he spotted some giraffe tracks and decided to follow, leading us back up onto the high sandy banks on the south side of the river, then, bingo, one giraffe, then two, then five, then we didn’t know how many. The final count we settled on was 15…….all ages, male, female, large, small, and I know this number is almost laughable for some of you who have been to Africa and have seen herds of 50-60 or more, but this was a record for Rocky and the Hoanib Camp. Very unusual to see this many giraffes together here in the desert, and they were surprisingly calm in this larger group……….usually individuals and pairs bolt as soon as they see you, but we were able to set up for sundowners with the herd feeding around us just a short distance away. A beautiful sunset made this the perfect way to wrap up our stay at Hoanib.