Camp Okuti

After our marvelous flight from Kanana, we arrived at Okuti and met our guide for the next 4 days, Solomon. He drove us back to camp in his squeaky jeep (at first it was annoying that it squeaked every time it went over a bump, which was all the time, but by the end we didn't really notice it). Camp Okuti had raised wooden walkways all around it so you would always be walking about 3 feet off of the ground. This way you didn't have to worry so much about hippos charging at you because they're too big and fat to get up onto the walkway.



We were greeted at Okuti with yet another bottle of complementary champagne, which we managed to drink at 3pm. Then, we went out on our first game drive. The game at Okuti was amazing. By far the best game we saw on the entire trip. Within five minutes of our first drive, we had found a leopard. However at Okuti, leopards are easy to spot because they are wherever all the jeeps are. At Kanana, there were no other camps around so our jeep was always the only jeep in the area. At Okuti, there were 3 safari camps located right next to each other so sometimes there were 8 or more jeeps looking at a single animal, all bunched up together trying to get the best view. And since Okuti was located in a national park, any yahoo could drive there from the airport or a neighboring country and follow the jeeps around if they so desired or even try to safari on their own.

Back to the leopard. He was in a tree. Leopards sleep in trees during the day and come down at night to hunt. They are incredibly hard to spot and it makes you wonder how many leopards could see us at any given time that we were unaware of. Our guide Solomon told us that we would come back to the leopard around 5:30 because that is when he would come out of the tree and do something more interesting than just sleeping. So we moved on and we saw zebras and waterbucks (antelope with a white ring on their bums that looks like they sat on a toilet seat with wet white paint on it) and elephants and a pride with 11 lions in it! Our first lions. And they were easy to find too because they were lying in the middle of the road. They were not very exciting though because they had just eaten a buffalo and their bellies were enormously full and all they did was lie around and sleep. One got up to drink out of a little stream nearby and that was about it. But they were our first lions so they were awesome! And, one of the males (there were two grown males in the pride) got up and walked right up to the Jeep where Martin was sitting and peed on it! That was pretty exciting. We all were sitting very still, barely breathing because even though you're fairly sure the lion won't jump up into the jeep and attack you ... you just never know.



Then it was 5:30 and so we headed back to the leopard because he was magically going to come down at that exact moment. Interestingly, as soon as we pulled up to the tree that he was in, he got up! And, wild dogs chased some impala right under the tree and the leopard jumped out of the tree into the middle of the running impala and tried to catch one. He missed though. But it was really exciting that we literally just pulled up moments before all the action. Solomon knew what he was talking about! And, now that we had seen some wild dogs, the chase was on. People get very excited about wild dogs. They are apparently nearing extinction because they catch viruses from regular dogs and people and die from them. But they're quite entertaining - like dogs with ADHD. They never stand still. We got one blurry photo of the ones we saw and that was it. Usually all you see of them is a blurry streak as they run by you and Solomon shouts "wild dogs!!!" and you all pile into the jeep and take off after them but never catch up to them. But now we know that wild dogs come out at 6pm every evening, right as the sun is setting, and they chase things and catch their dinner.

Our leopard friend:



Here's our blurry wild dog pic:



How can you beat such a great first game drive? Well for several days we didn't, really. We saw a lot of elephants and followed around the same pride of lions while their food digested, and followed around the same leopard from tree to tree. One morning we went out to open areas to try to find a cheetah but had no luck. One interesting bit was that each morning the leopard had caught a new impala during the previous night. Leopards drag their kills up into trees so other animals can't eat it or take it away. So we got to see several dead impala hanging in trees at odd angles, in various states of being eaten, as the first sight of our morning drives at 7am right after breakfast. It was pretty swell.



A grey lory:



On our second night at Okuti, just like at Kanana, we were led off to a secluded spot for a romantic dinner. This time we were up on a raised platform just big enough for a little table and two chairs. There were lots of lanterns and candles lighting the walkway and stairs up to the platform. And, while we ate our private little dinner, hippos grazed in the grasses around the camp. They didn't bother us since we were up on a platform but it's interesting how quiet hippos are. They're big, but stealthy. The following night there were three hippos munching on some grass right outside of our tent.



On our last morning at Okuti, Solomon took us to where the lions were usually sleeping in the middle of the road, but they weren't there. Solomon managed to find their tracks in the roadway for us to follow. Animals always walk on the roads because they're lazy and it's easier than walking in the grass so they always left nice neat tracks for us to follow. Solomon tracked the lions 6km, using their pawprints and also some fresh patches of buffalo dung to determine the direction they had gone in. We finally found them asleep in a pile in the middle of a field. With a herd of about 200 buffalo just 1km away! The lions seemed fast asleep but Solomon assured us that they were following the buffalo and would soon get up and possibly hunt and kill a buffalo. And, lo and behold, about 15 minutes later the lions got up and headed over to the buffalo. It was great fun following them around while they were active, playing with each other and climbing trees - they have the same habits and mannerisms of domestic cats, except they're much bigger and would eat you if they were hungry. The female lions soon fanned out to hunt some buffalo, but then it was apparently just too hot for them and they all walked into the shade of a big tree, flopped down in a pile, and fell back to sleep.

Lazy lions:



We drove back over to the lions and buffalo on our evening game drive that day, but neither group had moved and the lions were still asleep so we left and never saw the kill. Lazy lions. They literally get up and walk five feet and then lie back down and fall asleep again.