Kapishya Visit - Monday Afternoon Rafting

We enjoyed lunch, poolside, rested a bit then took a ride up to a bridge for a raft trip back down to the Lodge.  African humor, but the children we saw swimming loved having the hippo and croc heads to hold onto.

 Believe it or not, this is the "bridge" we launched from, somewhere beyond the tall grass in the foreground.

On the raft, beginning our intrepid float downstream.  Will there be crocs?

Tom mans one of the oars, our guide manned the other.

Mary, ready for another adventure.

So far, fairly tame .. still looking for crocs.

Oh, no, even more calm water!  Paddling time.

Oh, a bit of turbulence (which is a real stretch on the meaning of the word.)

Reedy areas, in little calm ponds nearby.

And water lilies, prime croc territory, no? "No."

Rocks were rather abundant along the way, this one quite large.  Just a little push with the oar and we missed hitting it.

Surely, here is where a croc would be, right?  "No, boss."

This part turned out to actually be tricky to maneuver through.  We turned around and started to float backwards.

Still no crocs.  We were beginning to suspect we were back in Disney World.




Rather odd tree I missed when we were going down the right way.  Caught it while going backwards, then they got the raft turned right.

Crocs?  "No, (what are they asking about crocs for?)"

Looking down in the water.  Sunlight reflection makes it appear murky in the photo, but the water was clear, and plenty of algae type moss on the rocks.  We spotted a few small fish swimming, but no crocs.

More branches to dodge and duck under, and the water picked up a bit more steam.

But, short lived.  Back to calm waters.  Smoke in the background from burning brush (and trees when it got too hot.)

And finally back to our chalet.

Guess we'll have to content with the croc in the swimming pool.

We changed into swim suits and headed to the hot spring for one final soak.  Tom and I enjoyed nice gin and tonics (strictly medicinal, of course) and Mary a lemonade.

Another special part of the Lodge is the Spa that Mark built.  He has 4 local women who are trained to give massages and pedicures.  Tom and I opted for a relaxing back, shoulder and neck massage .. nice way to end our day!

Shiwa Ng'andu Game Drive

Following this map from the manor, we managed to get on the correct road to drive out to the family boat house on Shiwa Ng'andu (the lake) and game drive.  And fortunately for us, Charlie Harvey was behind us on the road when we almost took a wrong turn.

At the lake:

After leaving the boat house we drove parallel to the lake, and stopped to investigate this group of wildebeest.

 As we approached them from behind a grove of trees this group of zebra surprised us (and we them)

We kept walking closer, slowly, of course, but got quite close until the leader of the group snorted and they trotted away.

 And here is the group of wildebeests coming along the lake to the side of the grove where the zebra are.

 The "leader" of the zebra kept his eye on us the entire time.

Back in the our Patrol, after walking back, we drove and stopped when we spied this new animal on an island in the lake.

Something caught our eyes on the left side, in the trees.  

 These animals are well adapted to blend in, but Mary's sharp eye was able to locate what we heard.

 On the opposite side, way out in the field was another animal.  Tom let me get out, and creep closer, trying to get a better photo.  These were two lechwe, male and female.   The male kept his eye on me.  I went as close as I felt comfortable ... and went away with a few battle scars ... long sharp grass, with seeds intent on penetrating skin, clothes and leather boots.  They made foxtails appear domesticated.

 Tom captured a much better picture, which you will see in a bit.

 These next three were attempts at taking photos of more skittish animals, and try as we might, could not determine is we caught them or not.  Can you see anything?  They are there, but blend in extremely well.

 

We heard movement, but have absolutely no idea what it was, or even if they were captured in the photo.

Another grazing pair:

And then this group of puku ahead of us on the road.

 They didn't stand around waiting for us.  The animals in the beginning photos, across the lake were likely puku and lechwe.   Look closely at these photos, and note the black stripes on the rump .. typical of impala.

Here is Tom's great photo of a lechwe.  They have wide spreading horns.

In the profile of the one I photographed you can see how long the horns are.  Same type of animal, they have very distinctive black markings on their front legs.

Another group of wildebeest, much closer to the road:

 And as they were entering this small tree grouping this animal popped out the other side.  A nice close shot of a puku.

On the road back to Kapishya, through the farm, Mary took these.  The Estate does offer horseback riding, but only for experienced riders.

This boar was attempting to push his way into the pen where a sow was busy with her little nurslings.  Quite honestly, we would have felt much more threatened confronting this huge guy in the bush than the animals we did see.  What an amazing, completely unexpected treat this morning had been!

Part 5 will be the afternoon of this day, captured as the camera battery gave out.  Our next planned purchase in the States will be an extra battery.