12 July - A Grey Day!

Photo of the Day

Morning Drive

(Peter & Andrea)

Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Peru - West of Buffalo Pan

Rhino (1 solitary male)

Afternoon Drive

(Chad, Peter & Andrea)

Rhino (mother and calf)

Elephant (Kambaku) / Motswari - Reception Road

Elephant (2 Kambaku) / Peru - Buffalo Pan

Buffalo (1 Daghaboy) / Peru - Tawny Eagle Road

Lion (6) / Ingwelala - Viewed from Vyeboom Dam

Grey does not refer to my mood, or the natureof the game drives at all - rather to the overcast weather and the main animal colour we saw out in the field today. With only two Motswari cars out on drive this morning, and waking to a grey and wide sky, it was no surprise that it turned out to be a relatively quiet drive. I headed in a more westerly direction, checking Vyeboom Dam towards Buffalo Pan. Just beyond the pan, we found a breeding herd of elephant, heading north. It was a tricky approach as they were moving rather quickly and we had to hurry a bit to catch up. they soon moved into thick mopane, and I decided to leave them be instead of crashing through the bush after them.

 It was incredibly windy and the general game very nervous which made viewing difficult, We did however, find a warthog who was so busy digging up rhizomes that he didn't care about the wind. Having been in search of anything that resembled a rhino, we immediately turned around when Morne from Kings called in a rhino in the area we had just come from… it was a bit if a rush as he was moving quickly to the boundary and there was a big chance of losing him, Luckily he stuck around long enough for us to take a look but was still relatively unsure about things so kept his distance.

Starting out a little later than the others, we were graced by a large male elephant right next to reception. He had magnificent tusks and was slowly feeding his way down to the water of the Shlaralumi river. My plan was to check the hyaena den while all of us spread out quite nicely across the reserve. Chad and Marka got a visual of the lion pride of 6, however, it was on Ingwelala property and they could only view at about 500m as the pride rested up in the riverbed…I certainly hope they decided to cross over to our side tomorrow! I headed through Mbali, where we picked up a male buffalo resting up right next to the road. He had a large growth on his side and his coat was looking rather poorly. He is definitely an old boy who has seen his best days. Luckily though, the light glowed on him beautifully and with an impressive set of horns, he still made for some interesting shots.

We continued on, having a very brief view of a herd of wildebeest as they headed into thick bush. By the time we got to the hyena den, the two youngsters were out - no sign of the little one who must have been tucked up inside the den. As we watched, the two playful youths chewed Pete's tyres and played around, while the mother lay nonchalantly with her head just poking out of the den. Eventually she stalked off into the night, leaving the two youngsters to their games. We watched them for quite sometime before heading off for a quick drinks stop before the light go the better of us.

En route home Patrick spotted a chameleon lying flat on a branch - i have no idea how he managed to spot it and apologies for a rather poor shot but an impressive find nonetheless. 

I think Chad is back on blog from tomorrow so thanks all and I will hopefully share again soon,

Andrea