The Adventures of Bra Grylls 2- it's all about the Lions

2 days in and. I am still alive, and WOW what a bloody adventure this is going to be!!! 

Day 1, we check out of the Sedia hotel and spend the entire day travelling to our camp in Xakanaxa (pronounced Kakanaka)

On the way to camp, saw a battleur eagle, very cool... Red beak and talons. Took several photos of a saddle billed stork, and watched the endangered ground hornbills walking around.

Then we heard it. The sound of a male lion calling. We followed his bellows u til he could have been sat in our laps. Instead, he was maybe 15 metres away, lying flat out on his side. Every bellow we could feel through the vibrations in the floor through the Land Cruiser. I can't even begin to describe how powerful that was. 

So we drove a little further only to find the rest of his pride, 3 lionesses and 9 cubs of 2 litters, one maybe a month older than the other. 

The lionesses had to cross a small channel of water, maybe 6 feet wide, but we're clearly not happy. Like you would expect your own tabby to do, she tiptoed, dipped, stressed and changed her mind about a dozen times before finally leaping across the strait, only to fall short by a foot. She was not impressed at her dunking, came out muddy and cold.

She then chuffed and called to the cubs to do the same, but o my they weren't as keen. Half an hour later, they eventually swam, leapt, kitty-paddled across and all 12 of them strolled muddily over to their next adventure- an elephant carcass (of which we smelled that sickly sweet stench long before we saw it) in the watering hole, until the 3 suspicious mothers realised there was crocodile hiding behind it, waiting for unsuspecting opportunists to fall off, and they dutifully called their cubs back to safe dry land.

We arrived at camp later that evening and I had a tour of the shower (1/3 of a bucket per shower) and the short drop toilet which was essentially a hole dug in the ground with a frame and a toilet seat over it. You do what you need to do and use a trowel to cover your "do" with soil.... But please don't use too much toilet paper.

("I'm sorry what????")

So the first day was amazing but emotional- saw lions as I've never seen them before and slept in a tent for the very first time.

The next morning I woke up wondering how I managed to sleep through the cacophony of the bush.... Cicadas, scops owls yowling at each other, a hippo down the road laughing hysterically at us  all, hyenas barking. But (possibly aided by a few alcoholic beverages I was out like a light.