day 8

Our new well travelled friends were with us for the morning game drive before they left for us to have Prosper, our guide, to ourselves. Prosper's knowledge is amazing and he was so much sharper and more informative than Mpoto in the Selous (and we had thought he was amazing). He claimed to be able to identify all 570 bird species on our list of Tanzanian birds in the Ruaha National Park. He immediately got the 59 species we ticked off on our few days visit and I have no reason to think he would have hesitated on any of the others. The bird life in the area took me by surprise, the variety and colour of them is something to behold and for us was equally as important as the big 5.

The 2 drives today had again failed to spot leopard but it is like looking for a needle in a haystack when you are the only people out there. However the game list did include lion, deep in a thicket, vervet monkey, baboon, jackal, warthog, hippo, nile crocodile, large terrapin, tree squirrel nest, impala, giraffe, water buck, kudu, zebra, mongoose etc etc. The highlight came right at the end of the day when suddenly a large herd of elephant came into view and they just kept coming and coming. Over the dry river bed and past our vehicle. The young males mock charging us and trumpeting they were boss, the babies winding between legs, the herd moved forward as one grazing as they went. 2 days earlier we had counted 55 in a herd but this one was much bigger, we estimated more than twice as big ! It was a privilege to share their space and witness their graceful and quiet movement through the bush. We went back to camp very happy even the guide was pleased to see one of his largest herds.

extras; vervet monkey, elephant, young male lions, vulture, agama lizard, hippo