20 July - Late Again!

Photo of the day

Morning Drive

(Herold, Peter & Andrea)

Rhino (1 male)

Elephant (Breeding Herd) / peru - Pan Road

Elephant (Breeding Herd ) / Vielmeter - Blue Thorn Road

Buffalo (Breeding Herd) / Vielmeter - Blue Thorn Road

Buffalo (5 Daghaboys) / Vielmeter - Vielmeter/Albert Cutline

Leopard (Nthombi female) / Vielmeter - Steep Shlaralumi

Afternoon Drive

(Herold, Shadrack, Peter, Chad & Andrea)

Rhino (1 skittish male)

Elephant (2 breeding herds) / Peru - Peru Entrance

Leopard (Nthombi and cub) / Vielmeter - Steep Shlaralumi

Leopard (Makepisi & Shindzuti) / Peru - Mbali River Road

Chad has passed his curse onto me, its a definite. Not the leopard curse but the always being late one, or I just have very bad timing on drives for a usually very punctual person. Either way, today seemed to hit an all time record of being late back at camp. The morning started incredibly still making the reflections acrid the water seem like mirror images. Myself and my guests sat for quite some time photographing the reflections of trees and birds in the water. We then headed on, find a particularly large kudu bull with some of the biggest horns I have seen out here in the bush. He was magnificent. We had a lovely elephant sighting, as a large female demonstrated to us exactly how to uproot a tree and get to the nutrient rich roots which are important this time of year.

Nthombi female leopard was then called in on Vielmeter. My guests had been dying to see leopard, and although we got two yesterday - neither had been particularly good visuals so I therefore responded to the leopard down south. By the time we got there Nthombi's cub was out of sight, but we did get a true "timbavati-style" leopard sighting with Nthombi - she really is a beautiful girl! My guests were delighted.

I was now terribly late for breakfast and it was only too typical that as we were heading home we came across 5 Daghaboys, a herd of giraffe and a herd of elephant. These same guests were checking out so we could not linger too long before pushing back to camp. Needles to say, I was still half an hour late.

With new guests in the afternoon, it was a clean slate. We started near Argyle Dam were the general game was there in numbers; waterbuck, impala, kudu and a steenbuck. We even witness a fish eagle swoop down and land at the edge of the water for a drink! As we heading over the hill down to Peru Entrance, we could see an enormous herd of elephant below. By the time we got there it became apparent that there were in fact two herds and they split into two directions. After spending some time with the one herd, we moved on, looking for a drinks spot for the evening. 

Shortly after drinks, Chad called in to say that he Shindzuti leopard with the crocodile carcass that had been killed the day before. Hopefully he will put a few pics up as what followed for me was too quick before I could raise my camera. Basically. I rushed to the area and by the time I got there the leopard was gone and a hyena was feeding on the crocodile, however, as I pulled into the sighting Shidzuti burst out of the bushes and attacked the hyena less than 5 m from my car! The hyaena turned and fought back. After an explosive scuffle, Shindzuti ducked back down into the riverbed - it was incredible. We sat watching the hyena for a while as she gruesomely pawed at and ate through the crocodile. The sounds and smells were potent enough to put one off dinner. We looped around some bushes to try get visual of the leopard and instead of find one, we got two! Both Makepisi and Shindzuti were sulking behind some bushes waiting for the chance to get their dinner back. Not being able to pull myself away from this spectacular sighting, I arrived back at camp so late that I had to take my guests straight down to boma scraping in just before the starters came out. Phew, close call but amazing day. 

Chad is back on blog from tomorrow, so I will see you all soon,
Andrea