Today we are up early for a game drive in Waza National Park. We pack up our stuff and head off at 6 AM. We drive to the gate of the park, where we pay and pick up our guide. We plan to drive around for about 3-4 hours.
The sun is just starting to come up and we get a wonderful view of the sun coming up over one of the waterholes.
We then start to see animals and birds on a regular basis. We see a number of different antelope, wart hogs, giraffes, jackals, lots of birds ...
... including these vultures ...
... and pelicans and storks (you can just see the baby in the center of the picture - we saw it being fed by its mother).
We ended up by seeing a couple of elephants. We got back to the campsite mid-morning and prepared a brunch. It was a feast - french toast, regular toast, baked beans, fruit salad, fried potatoes and fried eggs.
After brunch, we went up to the hotel bar to relax and have a drink over looking the plains below. At 2:30 PM, we headed back to the truck to go on another game drive in the park. We had another excellent time.
We first saw a bunch of giraffe. They are great to watch. Either they are standing totally still, looking at you, or they are walking/running away with that funny giraffe gait. We saw them a couple of times on this drive.
Besides seeing a number of other animals, such as wart hogs, Rowen antelope and lots of birds, the highlight of this drive was the herd of over 150 elephants that we saw. They were a fantastic sight. We came upon them feeding as they were slowly moving along. We drove up quite close and watched them. After they had watched us for a while, they continued to eat and then continue to move. But it turned out that we must have been in their path, because they started walking around us on both sides. At one point, we were effectively surrounded by elephants. It was great.
There was the old elephant that showed his years, and ...
... the young baby elephants.
We finished off the game drive with an ostrich. We were on our way back to the campsite. We got there just before sunset. While waiting for dinner to be prepared, Lars works on his journal.