13th February – Return of the Elephants

Photo of the Day

Not a great photo, but a fantastic sight!

Morning Drive

(Chad and Grant)

8 x rhino (unknown crash of white rhinos)

1 x breeding herd of elephant – Mbali, Terminalia Rd

1 x breeding herd of elephant – Mbali, Mbali Dam

1 x breeding herd of elephant – Mbali, Mvubu Crossing

1 x breeding herd of elephant – Peru, Timbavati Boundary Rd

2 x elephant bulls – Peru, Mvubu Crossing

1 x elephant bull – Peru, Concrete Crossing

Afternoon Drive

(Chad and Grant)

3 x elephant bulls – Peru, Sohebele Dam

1 x elephant bull – Peru, Long Rd

1 x elephant bull – Peru, Appleleaf Rd

1 x elephant bull – Peru, Giraffe Kill Rd

2 x elephant bulls – Peru, Woza-Woza Cutline

2 x elephant bulls – Argyle, Argyle Rd

1 x buffalo bull – Argyle, Argyle Dam

Daily Synopsis

Sunday, being the day of rest, proved to be no different in the bush today and it appeared that most of our animals chose to take the day off.

The morning started out promising, with a wonderful sunrise in the east, and with the golden light, I headed into the eastern sections to enjoy some views over the rolling landscape.  I wanted to go up the Kruger National Park cutline, and as I turned onto the road, some dark shapes in the distance caught my eye.  My first thought was rhino, but Petros’ first thought was buffalo or elephant, as there were many of them, but he soon agreed it was rhino.  I lifted my binoculars expecting to see 2 or 3 rhinos walking on the road....instead I saw 8!!!  Wow, a crash of 8 rhinos!  I have never seen such a large crash, so I parked on the road and watched from a distance as they ambled south towards us.

Crash of 8 white rhinos!

Sadly though, as they emerged from a dip about 80m away, they saw us and ran off east into the Kruger.  I don’t know what amazed me more, the fact that I saw 8 rhinos together, or that despite their supposed poor vision; they spotted my stationary vehicle from such a distance!  Despite that it was a highlight of the morning for me, so much so that I didn’t even bother to respond to two other white rhinos that were located near Lion Pan.

Grant did a birding morning, and ticked off many species, including his highlight – a snow white coloured red-billed quelea!  Seems like the Timbavati is the place for white animals!!!  Speaking of which, the guides tried their best to follow tracks of the white lions as they headed back north, but had no luck.

What we were having much better luck with were the elephants.  Besides a small herd feeding on the marula’s near Elephant Crossing, we had a herd arrive at Mbali dam while we were enjoying coffee, and another 2 bull elephants and a nice breeding herd arrive below Mbali Dam wall when we drove past there.

The afternoon remained a bit quiet too; no luck with lions or leopards, but plenty of elephants in the north.  Grant saw 5 sightings of bull elephants and some fair general game; I also saw some of the bull elephants that were splashing around in Sohebele Dam.  We both missed out on three breeding herds of elephants that arrived simultaneously at Argyle Dam – I did however see one buffalo bull there.

I searched the east for a herd of buffalo that had been seen there around midday, but had no luck – I did have some nice hippo at Mojambi Dam, as well as nice giraffe, zebra and impala on Kudu Pan Clearing.  Other general game included waterbuck, kudu, nyala and warthogs.

Impala, giraffe and zebra - its not always about the Big 5 :)

Suddenly the pressure is back on to find some pretty cats tomorrow; but we are always hopeful that they will show themselves, especially as when we arrived back in camp, there were fresh tracks for Kuhanya leopardess walking along the path in camp, right past reception again!