I was still jet lagged and was awake at 2am, so I just lazed in bed until our alarm went off at 5:45am. It was much quieter at night in the savannah than the Borneo rainforest, just the occasional grunts.
It's chilly in the mornings so we layered with our mid layers for the morning game drive. First a quick snack of freshly baked muffins and tea, and then we were off on the game drive at 6:30am.
We saw three giraffes and hundreds of zebras, Cape buffalo and Jackson hartebeest. We spent a couple hours looking for lions and elephants. There are anthills dotting the savannah which look very similar to sitting animals at a distance, which make it harder to spot game. After a few false alarms from us (our guide didn't have any issues recognizing anthills), we saw an anthill beside the dirt road, which turned out to be a lion! Spartacus (the staff name the lions) walked a few metres and then settled into the shade of a bush. We offroaded to get a good angle for pictures and then watched the lion for about 10 minutes.
We got back to the lodge about 10:00, and had a big brunch. Then there was free time until high tea at 3pm and the afternoon game drive at 4:30pm. We spent most of the time in the main lounge area watching the animals taking turns at the watering hole. There's a pecking order - the buffaloes are at the top, followed by zebras and then waterbucks. The warthogs jump in whenever they can.
It was still quite warm when we headed out for the evening game drive (about 30C). First we tracked some elephants -two groups of 10, and then a smaller group of 5. We waited about 100m downwind and let the elephants walk past. It was pretty cool. Next we slowly drove through a herd of over 2,000 buffalo.
For the sundowner we drove to a rock promontory overlooking the park and watched the sunset while having our drinks.
Back at the lodge, cleaned up and had a yummy dinner. Another great day at Apoka!
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