Monday 4 March 2013

2 & 3 March - Things slow down!

Makepisi male
 02.03.2013

Morning Drive
(Andrea)

Buffalo (1 Dagaboy) / Mbali – Klipgat Crossing
Elephant (small Breeding Herd) / Peru – Legevaan Road
Tail of a leopard (Makepisi male) / Peru – Lion Pan

Afternoon drive
(Andrea, Shadrack, Petros & Robin)

Rhino (x 1 male)
Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Peru – Mbali River Road
Buffalo (1 Daghaboy) / Java – Tamboti Wallow

03.03.2013

Morning Drive
(Andrea, Shadrack, Petros & Robin)

Rhino (x 2 males)
Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Vielmetter – Blue Waxbill
Elephant (Kambaku) / Peru – Phiva Plains
Elephant (Kambaku) / De Luca – Arygle Road

Afternoon Drive
(Andrea, Shadrack, Petros & Robin)

Buffalo (x 2 Daghaboys) / Peru – Long Road
Leopard (Makepisi male) / Argyle – Vyeboom Dam
Elephant (Kambaku) / Peru – Sohebele Plains
Elephant (Kambaku) / Peru – S-bend

Apologies – another double blog!!! The truth is though, that things seemed to have come to a bit of a halt out here as well as the internet being down. The morning started off extremely quietly with only one buffalo that bolted into thick bush the minute we spotted him (rather inconsiderate I thought!). Things got pretty exciting at our drinks stop when we watched a croc kill a baby Egyptian Goose! It happened so fast and unfortunately my camera was in the car!!! Sad and spectacular at the same time. As we started off on drive after drinks, Jimmy called in a male leopard. We were quite far and by the time we got there, the visual was lost – just my luck! We checked the area for quite some time and had the briefest glimpse of the tail but no real sighting. En route home we did find 3 elephant, including one very old female.











We had a lot of guest arrivals and 4 cars out from the lodge. Everyone spilt into different directions. I headed towards Mbali property slowly heading along down the river. Rounding a corner, we found one lone buffalo standing in a mud wallow. We unfortunately gave him a bit of a fright (which is not hard to do when it comes to old buffalo!) and he took off into a mopane thicket! Just then a male rhino was spotted further south and we headed off in that direction to relocate. We found him quite easily and sat with the large male for a while. The clouds were darkening and with my guests wanting to be back at the lodge early, we had a quick drinks stop and headed home.












The next morning began with an hour-long visit to Argyle Dam. We watched the sunrise as a hippo made his way back to the water. As we were happily watching the hippos, a croc started thrashing around and with that we watched our second croc kill in two days as this one skillfully killed a fish! Other than that, we had a rather quiet morning spending most of the time up north. We had some great general game with impala, waterbuck, giraffe, zebra and kudu.


















The afternoon brought a bit more excitement with Makepisi male leopard making an appearance – he really has grown up so much and is looking healthy and well! We also managed to see two more buffalo bulls and plenty of waterbuck. We had long, relaxed drinks stop watching the sun go down and slowly made our way back to camp.














Until tomorrow,
Andrea

2 comments:

  1. Nice to see the Makepisi male making an appearance. He hasn't been around much lately.

    Thanks for sharing these with us, Andrea. I enjoyed them as usual. I especially enjoyed the croc action shots. They may not be the most detailed photos, but they do a good job telling a story on their own.

    ~Zach

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  2. Sheila in Hove4 March 2013 at 15:02

    Hi Andrea, Interesting about the croc kills. I guess though that a baby goose and a fish are only for starters and not sufficient for the main course.
    How long was the green snake and was it harmless?

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