Nosey?

Not a great deal of news lately. We have had no fuel for 17 days now and we don’t know when the country will get any. What a way to run a country?
The good news is that one of the scouts saw a wild dog the other day chasing hartebeest. Because I didn’t have any fuel I could not check this out. The other news is that 2 people independently heard lion about 1 km from the main camp while they were out collecting mopany worms. I checked this out on foot but didn’t see any spore. We did come across a herd of elephant which could have been a bit dodgy but we managed to walk around these. People have seen herds of up to 32 elephants lately which is very promising for the park. The most I have seen is 21 which I saw at the lodge a few days ago.
All I have on camera lately is bush buck although the other day I did manage to get the above photo. It is really interesting but I think the elephants play games with the cameras. I have several pictures where the elephant seem to be standing very close to a camera and actually looking into it although the elephants eye is not captured on film its stance suggests this. From what I can tell they have not tried to damage any or remove them the tree but seem to respect them.

Leopard at her kill

Leopard number 2. The monkey people, while looking for their vervets, came across a common duiker that a leopard had recently killed. They informed me so we put up a couple of cameras to see what was around. The leopard came back for her kill and now I have an excellent photo. By comparing the 2 photos of the 2 leopard I have, we can now conclude that there are at least 2 leopard in the park.
I managed to get some fuel yesterday. The whole of the country has been without fuel for over a week now so I can at last move around for a while.
The rains have started now but they are not heavy yet so I can still get around.
There is no other news at the moment but will keep you informed if I get any more developments.

Black mamba, 'what a beauty'

There we were driving along minding our own business when ____ snake, mamba!!!!!
I came to a grinding halt about 15 ft from the snake. He popped his head up showing a small hood, dropped it again and disappeared off in the opposite direction. It appeared to be a very large black mamba, it seemed at least 8 to 10 feet long. He shot through the short grass and up a nearby tree which he proceeded to climb. Up he went and then across and then down so that his body was higher than his head. He looked very plump for a mamba so I imagine he has recently eaten.
This was a chance too good to miss, I have seen several mambas out here but they usually disappear quickly. I grabbed my cameras and proceeded cautiously to within about 15m of the tree and proceeded to take some shots. He even ‘smiled’ at me, as they do? If you know black mamba you know what I mean.
Nothing much else to report other than my camera that the hyena ate has packed up because some bugs got into it and have blocked the sd card slot. (5)