Friday 27 September - Drive to Jambile Campsite, Hwange National Park

Another really cold night - we had forgotten to put the blanket into the roof tent which was a big mistake.  Woken from our shivering slumbers by lions roaring soon after dawn. From the roof tent we could just see the male lion, 2 females and 7 cubs on the other side of the fence to our camp.  We watched whilst they played 20 yards from our tent.  When they moved a little bit further away, Ian clambered down and grabbed our cameras.  After half an hour they wandered off into the distance.

By 7am the first of the safari vehicles arrived on the track of the lions - we directed them in the right direction.  By the time we had decamped the safari vehicles were back - they had managed to catch a glimpse just before the lions headed into a private concession area of the bush.  Was amused by one of the Americans from one of the vehicles - they were staying in a tented lodge and he seemed completely amazed that anyone would choose to camp on the roof in a tent in a camp with such basic facilities.  Headed off a 8 am having tipped Frankie $10 - no idea what the going rate is.

Saw 2 more dead elephants but also buffalo, zebras, giraffes and warthogs.

Popped into Jambile Campsite to find it in a pretty bad state of repair and certainly not in line with the Safari Drive description which had stated it was newly renovated!  We decided that it was fine for us to camp at though although it might need us to dig a hole!

We drove on towards Dopi Pan where we sat and watched a group of giraffes drinking.  On our return to Jambile Pan there were dozens of elephants, some of which were a bit jittery!

We were back in the campsite by 2pm and sat enjoying the sun shine.  We also set up the hammock just as proof that it was worth bringing it.

There were loads of elephants at the waterhole but we could only really hear them as the view was really limited from the campsite.

The afternoon was spent listening to the elephants walking past the campsite through the bush.  Just as I was climbing into the tent there was a big hullababloo.   It was difficult to see anything in the murky light but I glimpsed something running through the bush.  My initially reaction was that it was lions so I shouted to Ian to get him to get into the tent! In the end it was 2 hyenas being chased off by an elephant.