Photo of the Day
The wild dogs return...just a day late for my guests that wanted to see them...but glad to have them back! |
20th February Morning Drive
(Chad and Grant)
1 x leopard (Tingana female) – Argyle, Lover’s Leap
1 x leopard (Umfana male) – Vielmetter, Double Highway
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Vielmetter, Back Nine’s
1 x elephant bull – Vielmetter, Double Highway
1 x buffalo bull – Java, Java Dam
20th February Afternoon Drive
(Chad, Grant and
Andrea)
2 x rhinos
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Peru, Lion Pan
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Java, Airstrip
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Java, Peter Pan Access
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Java, Plains Rd
1 x buffalo bull – Argyle, Mfene Crossing
1 x buffalo bull – Peru, Lion Pan
1 x buffalo bull – Java, Java Dam
21st February Morning Drive
(Chad, Grant and
Andrea)
2 x leopards (Rockfig Jnr and her son) – Vielmetter, Double
Highway
1 x buffalo bull – Java, Java Dam
21st February Afternoon Drive
(Chad, Grant, Andrea and
Shaddy)
14 x wild dogs – Peru, Inkwazi Access
1 x leopard (Tingana female) – Argyle, Argyle Dam
1 x leopard (Argyle Jnr’s boy with impala kill) – Peru,
Snare Rd
1 x breeding herd of buffalo – Peru, Peru Entrance Rd
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Peru, Voel Dam
Daily Synopsis
Slowly slowy...that is how im doing catching up on these
blog posts from the last few days!
Actually sitting in Johannesburg updating this, wondering what the guys
and gal are seeing out there – no doubt loads seeing as I left the reserve for
a day!
These two days were quite good, to say the least, and quite
wet! Once again, we received a heavy
downpour that got the rivers flowing and complicated matters for us once
more! While the north only got 36mm of
rain, the catchment areas got 70mm or more, and the Nhlaralumi was pumping on
the 21st. The 20th
was a lot drier, and we had a very nice day that began with me checking the
areas around Argyle Dam for the leap of leopards. Seeing old tracks for Tingana (Argyle Jnr’s
girl), I didn’t pay much attention to them until I looked up and saw her lying
low on a termite mound next to the road!
What a stroke of luck!!!
She was close to the road, and didn’t run – amazing how she
has changed in less than 2 weeks! She
did soon move on as she spotted a waterbuck, and then disappeared. As Andrea was desperate for leopard, I spent
some time trying to relocate, and we managed to do so and found her sitting in
the grass. She was very chilled and
casually walked behind a bush with her tail held aloft, but we didn’t see her
come out the other side, so went around...and around...and around...and
around. She vanished! Andrea still came into the area but sadly was
unable to relocate on the leopard.
I ventured more south, seeing some great little things on
the way – impalas, carmine bee-eaters, and a curious business of dwarf
mongooses. At Java Dam we found a
buffalo bull that had lost his eye, and very recently by the looks of
things! Ouch!!!
As usual, the zebras and giraffes were all around Java
Airstrip as I went in search of elephants, but every elephant herd seemed to
evade me! Only when I was heading home
did we get to see a lone bull, and a small group of elephants; it was while
watching them that Marka radioed to tell me that he had another leopard, Umfana
male, about 500m from my position, so I went to see him, but all I saw was his
backside as he walked down the very rocky No Name River and disappeared. My time was up, so we headed back to the
lodge for check outs and to prepare for the afternoon drive with some new
guests.
The afternoon started off warm and sunny, but the wind
picked up and the clouds soon came rolling in; it turned out to be a bit of a
quiet afternoon, and again, I was perpetually frustrated by disappearing elephants!
Grant found elephants, buffalo and rhinos in close proximity
to one another, but as I had already seen a buffalo in the Sohebele River, I decided
to go for his rhinos and elephants...we enjoyed waterbuck, impala, zebra and
giraffes on the way, and arrived to find the rhinos grazing in the area still,
but the elephants had vanished...again.
After the rhinos moved behind a bush, we drove around to relocate them,
and just like the elephants and the leopard this morning, they too had
vanished! Just wasn't my day today!!
We went for a drink stop in the Nhlaralumi with a nice herd
of waterbuck and a troop of baboons, before moving back towards the lodge; the
trip back was a tad quiet, but we did find a chameleon.
Just as dinner was ending, the heavens opened and the rain
came down hard, and combined with the strong wind, it was almost raining
horizontally! It was enough that in the
morning the Nhlaralumi was again flowing bank-to bank, and once more all our
crossings were closed.
It was still winding in the morning, so the game was quiet
to say the least, but we tried anyway, even with no off-road driving. The good thing with rain is that it brings
out the smaller things, so we enjoyed snails, chameleons, tortoises and even
some smelly terrapins!
Driving around on Java and Vielmetter produced very little
game – impalas, giraffes and a nyala – but some wonderful scenery as we stopped
for drinks on a stretch of the flowing river.
Grant and Marka had found Rockfig Jnr and her son, but they moved along
the Machaton River and were lost quite quickly.
I tried the area anyway, but had no joy – luckily I bypassed
Java Airstrip on the way back to the lodge and were spoilt with impala, zebras,
wildebeest and a very large grouping of some 21 giraffes! It has been a long time since I have seen
that many giraffes together, so spent a lot of time watching them before going
back to the lodge.
The afternoon was considerably better though, thanks mostly
to one Johannes Mkhari who clearly took the right medicine today! He tracked down wild dogs, a leopard with a
kill and also found breeding herds of buffalo and elephant all within 3km of
one another!!!
Needless to say, this caused a lot of interest, so Grant and
I avoided the rush and chilled a bit more in the north-east, and just as well,
as Grant found another leopard for us as he was following up on some alarm
calling guineafowls, the same guineafowls I was heading to follow up on! Prior to that, I had seen warthogs, impalas,
waterbuck and a quick glimpse of a hyena.
The interesting thing with the leopard was that the
guineafowls were sitting alarm calling in a tree with an eagle! Usually the eagle would make them alarm on
its own, but the fact they were up in a tree meant that there was a more
serious ground threat, and that threat was Tingana, and again, she was relaxed
enough to allow some nice viewing, despite spending her time in a mopane
thicket.
The wild dog sighting was now quietening down, so Grant
headed there first and I took my time enjoying zebras (a rather large group of
19 on Piva Plains), impalas and waterbuck before moving to the wild dogs once
Grant was done, and while getting in last, we had a great sighting as the pack
of 14 ran around playing with the remains of their latest impala kill! What a treat to see them – and even more so
for the guests that arrived from Kruger today, as they had actually seen “our”
pack of 30 dogs in the Kruger too!
It was getting dark, so we left the dogs and went for a
drink before moving back to the lodge for a much drier, but equally enjoyable
dinner in the boma.
I hope the wild dogs stick around for a while now!
Nice sightings Chad. I must say Tingana is a beautiful looking leopard, one of many in the timbivati :-).
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Lourens
Another great blog and thanks for being here in Johannesburg when updating. Very very special visit to Johannesburg. Thanks so much.
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