Photo of the Day
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| Autumn rhino |
Morning Drive
(Chad and Shadrack)
3 x wild dogs – Scholtz, Mananga Cutline
1 x leopard (Umfana male with impala) – Vielmetter, Entrance
Dam
5 x rhinos
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Vielmetter, Vielmetter
Access
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Vielmetter, Hide Dam
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Vielmetter, Nyosi River Rd
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Java, Java Access
1 x elephant bull – Vielmetter, Sweetwater Pan
Afternoon Drive
(Chad and Herold)
12 x wild dogs – Scholtz, Mananga Cutline
1 x leopard (Umfana male with impala) – Vielmetter, Entrance
Dam
5 x rhinos
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Java, Java-Mbali Rd
1 x breeding herd of buffalo – Motswari, Xinatsi Dam
Daily Synopsis
Having fulfilled my guests’ wishes for lions and elephants
yesterday afternoon, they put the ball in my court and asked what I wanted to
see today, so I explained my plan to go check an area for rhinos briefly before
trying on our hyena den, and then to make our way towards where Nthombi had
been yesterday, hoping to tick off their leopard wish (alternatively, they
could have stayed with Robert, our other night watchman, after he had twice
seen a young male leopard walking along the camp’s pathway last night!). Easy!
It was my first drive on the “winter schedule”, and it was a
perfect time to leave camp at 6:30am, and we still got to watch the sun rise as
a few impalas showed themselves along the road.
Fresh buffalo droppings didn’t turn too much, but when we soon found
tracks for a crash of rhinos, Jacky didn’t hesitate to jump off to follow up on
foot. As Shadrack had taken a couple of
hours to track them in the same area a few days back, I thought Jacky might
have his work cut out for him. A bit
further along the road I found tracks for where they had been sleeping on the
road and headed south, and was about to inform Jacky when he called to tell me
that he had already found them...so much for having his work cut out!
With a couple minutes I was back with Jacky, but the rhinos,
being skittish, had run off. I was
preparing to walk into them when he suggested I try a bit further along the
road in the direction that they had run in, and sure enough, about 200m away, I
found the five rhinos. Being a thick
area, I thought that this would be an awful sighting. I was wrong!
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| Crash of rhinos in the thickets |
The herd slowly moved into the open and we enjoyed a view of
them at about 40m, and even glimpsed a hyena running past us on the other side
before returning our attention to the rhinos.
Something then spooked them and they ran off.
I wasn't prepared to drive off-road after them, but I didn’t
need to as a short distance away, I found them approaching another road, and
once more, they stood and watched me for some time, allowing me to snap up
probably my best ever rhino photo!
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| Getting much more relaxed these days! |
Shadrack was approaching, and having had a far better view
than I expected, I left. I was amazed to
hear that a short while later, Shadrack, having actually followed them off-road
left them all having fallen asleep about 25m from his vehicle!!! These skittish rhinos are getting relaxed
very quickly!
I carried on with my two species on the wish list, and
although we saw another hyena along the way, it was a massive herd of elephants
that caught our attention. There was a
large herd around Java Airstrip, including our crippled calf, but there was
audio for others further south, and even more down on Vielmetter – easily over
100 elephants in the area.
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| Elephants aplenty |
It was great morning light and we enjoyed watching them
before trying our hyena den – albeit after a stop at some dwarf mongooses that
my guests had actually also asked about last night. The hyena den sadly was not active this
morning, so we left it in favour of following up on Nthombi.
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| Great morning light and autumn colours! |
A tracker from the south had found Rockfig Jnr leopardess
too, so I was not too fussed about Nthombi if she wasn't around, as we had a
back-up plan! And, as it turned out, we
needed it! While Nthombi’s one kill was
still around (and survived the Mafikizolo pride walking within 80m of it!),
she, sadly was not. I checked the area,
but it was exceptionally thick, and she didn’t show herself, but a brave
bushbuck ewe did. We opted for coffee at
Elephant Dam instead, and then planned for some leopard afterwards.
The familiar pattern started to repeat itself, and sadly the
southern stations had no luck finding Rockfig Jnr in a vehicle, so no sighting
was ever established, so I tried Nthombi again with no luck. Heading out via Sweetwater, we found another
very large herd of elephants, but time was ticking away, so we passed by, and
found another elephant at the pan itself.
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| Elephant drinking at Sweetwater Pan |
A bit further along we had a nice sighting of a female
giraffe and her calf, and some impala drinking at Nkombi Pan before hitting
Argyle Rd in the direction of home. It
was thus a touch annoying that only then did Shadrack call me to tell me that
he had just found the animal I was looking for, a leopard! After having found wild dogs earlier in the
drive (but sadly they crossed straight off the property), his luck was better
this time and he found Umfana male leopard with an impala kill up a tree at
Entrance Dam! I was sadly too far off,
but at least it was something for the afternoon!
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| Giraffe and calf! |
I didn’t have much luck on the way home, seeing very little
besides steenbuck, impala and some more giraffes, but it was still a very
pleasant morning.
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| Impala drinking |
I threw the ball back to the guests and told them to once
more choose their species they wanted, not what I wanted! They asked for buffalo and elephants...so off
we went; as Shadrack had seen tracks for a small buffalo herd heading to
Xinatsi Dam, I started off checking there, but had no luck, and left the
area...it was thus a touch frustrating that Herold, leaving late, found them
at...you guessed it, Xinatsi Dam!
Still, I didn’t actually care, as my drive out in the east
was wonderful, and totally epitomised the reason why we “risk” driving in the
east. Firstly, I didn’t see a single
impala. But then I also didn’t see
another vehicle driving around (until I handed over a sighting to Giyani).
I had a feeling about the wild dogs, and also wanted zebras,
so I headed along the Sohebele River, hoping the dogs might turn up there, and
its always a potential buffalo spot.
Prior to arriving there, we saw two warthogs bums as they ran off, then
the bums of a few zebras as they too ran off.
It seemed like it would be one of those afternoons, especially as the
next zebra herd we saw was also well hidden in thick mopane.
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| Zebras in a mopane thicket...still loving the colours! |
I had literally just mentioned to Jacky that I doubted the
rhinos ever came on the road we were driving on, as I had seen no tracks for
them when we rounded a bend and there stood a crash of rhinos on the road!
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| Found this herd of rhinos again in the afternoon - pleasant surprise indeed :) |
Once more, these five rhinos astounded me as we viewed them
and they stood and watched us, and for the first time, I drove off, leaving
them static in the same spot – Herold even got to see them over an hour later!
Following that, the drive quietened down, but as always, the
east had that air of anticipation. When
we reached our southern boundary, I mentioned to my guests that this was where
the wild dogs had been, and that they must keep their eyes peeled for fluffy
white tails and big ears, and within a couple of minutes, what appeared on the
road in front of us? Fluffy white tails
and big ears! We had struck gold and
found the whole pack of 12 wild dogs!
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| Definitely not the worst traffic jam to be caught up in - 12 wild dogs!!! |
They were getting active and ready to hunt and we spent
about half an hour following them as they headed north, deeper into our
property. It was a real treat to see
them again, as I personally hadn’t seen dogs for some time – in fact, I don’t think
I have seen them this year (well, except during the floods when they pitched up
at camp).
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| Wild dogs on the hunt |
Giyani and Herold came to see them, and it appeared I left at
the wrong time, as shortly afterwards, the pack flushed four warthogs from a
mound and tried to catch them before they ran into another mound from which the
dogs tried to dig them out! It all ended
well for the warthogs and the dogs carried on north-west, so there is a good
chance we will find them again tomorrow.
I carried on and enjoyed
a sundowner before trying for the leopard. Passing the old hyena den near Hide Dam, we
found two adult hyenas there, and now wonder if they have not moved den sites
again? Will definitely follow up again
soon.
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| Hyena at a new potential den |
We soon arrived and found our fat leopard fast asleep up in
the weeping boer-bean tree, with the remains of his impala lying in the same
tree, but disappointingly, he was in no mood to perform and simply slept off
his indigestion!
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| Umfana male fat and sleepy |
We carried on back north and had a good trip back to camp –
we passed within metres of a herd of elephants feeding on the side of the road,
saw some kudus, a large-spotted genet, a well-spotted chameleon from Jacky, and
a bunch of hippos (at a distance) feeding around Argyle Dam.
So all in all, it was a really good day, and probably my
favourite day of my 5 week cycle, and with one drive left, I hope this good run
continues!
