Safari: Pom Pom Day 1

Posted by barb on Nov 23, 2016 in Pictures, Recreation, Travels |

For our flight to Pom Pom, I took my camera with me. Here’s Andrew in the plane:

Andrew in the plane

I grabbed some pics of the landscape.

Okavango Delta from the air

There were elephants dotting the way.

Elephants from the air

And we arrived safely.

Pom Pom airstrip

We were being ushered into the lodge, when I spied this guy:

Elephant greeting

The lodge manager indicated that he could be a bit naughty, and it was best to wait a moment before entering the lodge. She grabbed our guide and he tried to get the elephant to move on. The elephant didn’t move for a normal hand-waving, but our guide then discovered that he didn’t like having water hosed on him!

With the elephant safely moved on, we entered the lodge, got our normal greeting and safety briefing, and then were shown to our tent, which was another gorgeous accommodation.

Our Pom Pom tent

This was our view:

View from our balcony

After unpacking, changing, and lounging for a bit, we took off again in a safari truck. Our first site was a wildebeest.

Lounging Wildebeest

And a baboon up a tree.

Baboon in a tree

And then our guide found this guy – this beautiful male lion. We’ve seen lions almost every day of this trip, but this was the first male lion we’ve seen.

Full-maned lion

Then along came his brother. This coalition of lions held the territory together. The two of them made an impressive site.

Enter the lion

Grooming lions

Grooming lions

We were no more than 10-15 feet away from them. Andrew and I were in the middle seat of the truck, which meant our feet were up on the wheel wells – feeling like our legs were exposed as fresh white meat for the lions. I felt him lean a bit toward me and whispered, “Scared, honey?” He nodded yes.

The lions settled in for a moment and groomed each other.

Grooming lions

Grooming lions

Lion Coalition

Lion Coalition

Then the lions moved on, our truck followed, and suddenly I was on the same side as the lions. I leaned over to Andrew and said, “I see what you mean!”

These boys clearly have had a hard life. One of their canines is chipped, there are flies swarming their faces, and there were a number of scars across their faces.

Lion

One of them laid down for a moment, and I marveled at their giant paws.

Lion chin!

Lion pads!

Then we moved on. We spied a rainbow on the way.

Rainbow skies

And then happened upon a pride of lions munching down on an antelope carcass. Among them was this naughty little fellow.

Approaching lion cub

He rolled around …

Troublemaker

Silly cub

… and then re-joined the rest of the pride at the carcass, but was wholely uninterested in eating. Instead, he was playing with the antlers.

Chewing on the horns

Chewing on the horns

Attack the antler!

Chewing on the horns

Chewing on the horns

Chewing on the horns

I just wanted to scratch his little ears!

Chewing on the horns

Our return trip took us past a group of tsessebe – including a shy baby.

Tsessebe

We also passed back by the male lions. This guy was just lounging in the middle of an opening with sunset over him.

Sunset lion

We moved on to find a good spot for our sundowner. The sunsets never get old.

Okavango Sunset

And again our evening ended with dinner as a large group. However, I was getting tired of so much togetherness. This time there was a group of guests who all spoke German, so Andrew and I felt left out of the conversation. We ate and then asked our guide to bring us back to our tent.

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