We had some amazing experiences in Moremi! We arrived there late in the afternnon and were not too sure if the rangers would let us in as we did not have a reservation. I think we can say that we got lucky as they let us in and told us to go to third bridge camp for the night, 50km from the entrance gate. Third bridge is the wildest camp site in Moremi and we kept some found memories of it from our last visit here.
After a short drive inside the park, the sun started to set and offer some golden opportunity for photography, unfortunatly very few animals were around to greet us. The night drive, which is usually forbidden in the park, turned out to be very rich in sighting of animals. Our powerful light was a major benefit at this time, showing us all the glowing eyes around us.
The first mammal to be spotted was a leopard, around a blind corner of the track. He appeared shocked to see us there and we were certainly very surprised ourselves to have such an encounter! Sighting of leopards is quite a rare thing and one should feel very lucky to experience it. The leapoard was a mere 20 feet from our vehicle and stood in the middle of the road for some time before wandering off to a more secluded area, rubbing himself on a tall tree like a house cat would do!
Then we noticed a myriad of little mammals and were uncertain as to what they were for quite some time. They were the size of rabbit and would jump like kangoroos. We soon realized that they were the nocturnal springhare... an animal people rarely see as they come out only at night. Cute creatures... but the best was yet to come.
We were only four kilometres from the camp and we were joking that we had yet to see a lion before the end of the day. Little did we know that there was one waiting for us shortly after that. We spotted him on the across an open field. We stopped the truck and decided to watch him go by. He was fully aware of our presence but was not prepared to change his plan or alter his course of direction for us. He kept on walking towards us, slowly but with assurance. As he got closer, we noticed he was wearing a collar... he was being monitored in the name of science. Ten feet from our vehicle he stopped and our hearts stopped beating too... he marked his territory in front of us, walked another ten feet and made a resounding roar!
What a perfect way to start our stay in Moremi!!