20th December – Mystery Solved!

Photo of the Day

A crash of rhinos

Morning Drive

(Chad, Andrea  and Shaddy)

6 x lions (Timbavati Pride – 2 lionesses and 4 cubs) – Mbali, Antheap Corner Rd

1 x rhino

1 x breeding herd of buffalo – Argyle, Argyle Dam

3 x buffalo bulls – Vielmetter, Sweetwater Southern Access

1 x breeding herd of elephants – Peru, Klipgat Crossing

1 x breeding herd of elephants – Peru, Lily Pan

1 x elephant bull – Jaydee, Nkombi Pan Link

Afternoon Drive

(Chad and Andrea)

3 x rhinos

1 x breeding herd of buffalo – Argyle, Argyle Dam

1 x breeding herd of elephants – Argyle, Lover’s Leap

1 x breeding herd of elephants – Mbali, Mbali Dam

Daily Synopsis

My mission for the morning was to find rhinos, and a leopard wouldn’t hurt either, so again I began checking along the northern boundary to see if there was any sign of Argyle Jnr and her youngsters, but alas, we only saw steenbuck, impala, waterbuck and some more birds.

We sat with some zebras for a while before moving to the west, but we didn’t come across any sign of rhinos, so on hearing that there were tracks for some in the south, I headed over there, but it proved a fruitless search made more difficult by the presence of multiple sets of tracks and a group of buffalo bulls – we did manage to see a lone elephant bull, but overall it was quiet in the area.

Even moving back north was not the most eventful, but I had hope for the afternoon, especially as Johannes had found some lions...and not the 6 from last night, but rather our mystery lions...and my second suspicion was correct, it was indeed the Timbavati Pride way out of their territory!  There were two lionesses and the four cubs, but they settled, so I planned on visiting them in the afternoon; Johannes also did even better and found Makepisi male leopard in the far north late in the morning.

I thus began searching for the leopard to no avail, but did get lucky around Argyle where we had a herd of buffalo leaving the water.

On Piva Plains, we found a herd of elephants and followed them to Lover’s Leap where they had a drink to the displeasure of the resident hippo there!

On the plains, there were loads of impalas, waterbuck and some kudus.

Carrying on in the direction of the lions, we saw a lot more waterbuck and impala, and a herd of not so cooperative giraffes!

Just as we saw a distant herd of elephants, we got news that some trackers that had been following up on some male lions found a crash of rhinos, so I rushed off to help relocate and managed a wonderful sighting of three rhinos at a mudwallow before the came grazing past the vehicle and moved off.

With daylight running out, we shot back to the area where the lions had been, but despite searching around, we couldn’t locate the lions; we had a drink and tried once more after dark, but as seems to have been my luck the last few days, it didn’t quite work out!

I now need some leopard luck desperately, and with tomorrow being the end of the world, I might be hard pressed to find one!  Oh well, guess I’ll have to try anyway!

Maybe chat tomorrow again!