Pic Of The Day. |
(
Grant, Herold, Andrea & Chad.)
Elephant
( Kambaku) / DeLuca - Mpela–Mpela Pan.
Buffalo
( Dagha Boy) / Motswari – Motswari Northern Access.
Rhino
( Female & Calf)
Afternoon
Drive.
(
Grant, Herold, Andrea & Robin.)
Leopard
( Makipi's Male) / Peru – Jacks Camp Crossing.
Elephant
( Breeding Herd) / Peru – Giraffe Kill Rd.
Elephant
( Kambaku) / DeLuca – Drongo Drive.
Daily
Synopsis.
With
one of my family's choosing to sleep in on their last morning, having
seen some incredible sightings over the last three days, Jacky and I
could concentrate on fulfilling another families safari dreams. On
our radar for the morning was either Rhino or Lion with a number of
general game to occupy the time in between. Having seen Buffalo from
camp at morning coffee we chose to head to the West in search of
Rhino but on hearing that a number of other stations had, had the
same idea we quickly re-routed and headed off South towards were we
thought the Mafikizolo Pride may pop up.
Herold
headed off to the North East to check if the Lions that we had tracks
for yesterday leaving our traversing area had, had a change of heart
and turned around. Although he did not get lucky there he did
relocate on the camps Buffalo and later found himself and his guests
an impressive Bull Elephant as well. Andrea chose to head to the
North West were she was in search of Zebra and Giraffe and it did not
take her long before she found both in the same spot. Chad, well
hmm...... all I'm saying is he and his guests were stopping for
coffee within forty five minutes, and that is being generous, of
their delayed start.
While
others seemed to be having success we seemed to be choosing the
routes of everyone else and had to once again deviate from our plan
as we heard the area's we were heading had already been checked. Our
luck would change though while sitting watching a very nice herd of
Zebra taking a sand bath out in the open on Java airstrip. We
received news that our relaxed female Rhino and her calf had been
located and not very far from where we were, I guess all the
re-routing was fate.
We
arrived at the sighting to find mom and baby feeding in amongst a
thicket surrounded by tall grass, not the greatest view ever but it
looked like we would catch another break when mom headed in the
direction of a clearing to the West. Rushing around we positioned
ourselves in a good spot and waited for them to break through
unfortunately baby decided this cool thicket with its long grass was
the ideal spot to take a nap and it promptly lay down and
disappeared. Mom proceeded to feed in a circle around it and also did
not offer up much of a sighting. With not that much interest being
shown in the sighting and the next station being some distance away,
we decided to sit tight and hopefully they would move on. Shortly
before we pulled out the sighting mom continued her journey into the
clearing as she had now run out of feed in the immediate vicinity of
her sleeping youngster. Not wanting to be left behind baby was up and
following rejuvenated by it's power siesta it became very playful and
began running about the place like a spring lamb, at one point even
charging to within ten metres of the vehicle. I'm not sure if it was
the increasing size of the approaching vehicle that stopped her in
her tracks or the noise of the shutters of all our camera's going
crazy as this cute youngster took us on. We continued to follow them
for a while as both of them were very unperturbed by our presence and
we had ourselves a great viewing of the two of them. With Andrea
having also made her way down to view them we made space so that she
could also enjoy the spectacle.
After
stopping for morning coffee we were very content with our mornings
sightings and we made our way slowly back to the lodge taking in some
of the smaller things on the way home.
Our
afternoon started with myself and Herold heading off to the North of
camp to follow up on Kuhanya who had been seen earlier on in the day
lying in a Maroela Tree on the entrance road to Motswari. True to
form she was no longer there when we arrived so Herold, myself,
Goodman and Difference hoped off and tried to locate tracks so that
we could get a direction to begin our search. Having seen a Jackal
sniffing around in the area shortly before we arrived and then
heading off to the East we were pretty sure she had headed that way.
This was in fact confirmed by the tracks we found thirty minutes
later. Knowing the direction we could now check the roads in the area
to try speed up the process. With Herold checking the roads from the
South and myself the ones from the North we both met up not having
found any tracks crossing a parallel running road. So either we
missed the tracks, quite probable, or she was still in the block.
Returning to the last tracks we had Herold, Difference and Goodman
set off on foot while I headed off in search of other game in the
area. It was not long before I received a call from Herold informing
me that they had heard Kuhanya calling while they were walking and
had located her on foot and were now trying to relocate her with the
vehicle. Not being far I joined them and together we drove the entire
area trying to find her, stopping every couple of minutes to hear if
something would give away her position but alas not. Having covered
the entire area and not having anywhere else to check we decided to
take sundowners in an area that she was last heard calling hoping
that she would give herself away during our break. Drinks came and
went and apart from a large Bull Elephant that joined us to drink in
the nearby riverbed we found nothing else.
Needing
a change of scenery we left the area back to the West once again
given the slip by our resident female. With a little over an hour to
drive Goodman and I decided to drive a loop to Vyeboom Dam see if we
could get lucky with something else. Just as well we decided to head
in that direction as it was not long before we received a call from
Robin saying that he had found Makipi's Male along the Tsharalumi
River. Andrea joined him as she was in the area as they both had
travelled South to visit a breeding herd of Elephant a little further
along the river. While the two of them kept hold of the sighting we
made our way there hoping he would not disappear into the thick
riverine vegetation. Luck was on our side this time as we arrived
with him slowly making his way along the riverbed and although it was
a distant visual by our standards we did get to see him clearly.
Unfortunately it was not long lived though as he wove in and out of
the surrounding bushes having us crossing frantically from East to
West and back again. Eventually he too gave us the slip when he
walked South onto Mbali Dam wall. Not that we could have followed him
much longer as our time had now run out and we headed back to
Motswari for dinner.
I love the rhino pictures, with all the poaching going on you relise what a special sighting that is, and she is so cute.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the updates
Kerry
Wonderful! Baby Rhino is very special! look after it! Inge*
ReplyDelete