02 March - The Final Search

Photo of the Day

Morning Drive

(Andrea)

Wild Dog (pack of 10) / Ingwelala/Ntsiri – Argyle Road

Rhino (Mother and Calf)

Elephant (Kambaku) / Peru – Lily Pan Road

Afternoon Drive

(Grant & Andrea)

Leopard (Xinopi) / Umlani – One Way

Buffalo (Breeding Herd) / Vielmeter – Hide Dam

Lion (1 lioness) / Peru – Sohebele Dam

This morning was incredibly exciting. Whilst doing a general check around Argyle Dam, Grant radioed in a pack of wild dogs he had spotted on the tar road on his way back to Motswari. I rushed in their direction, the problem being they were heading south and I was trying to catch up with them from further north. Luckily we met them just before Ntsiri airstrip. It was a great sighting and then suddenly, further up the road, a leopard popped out. It got the fright of it’s life on seeing the pack of dogs, and dogs being dogs, could not resist a cat chase. The pack flew off after the leopard and disappeared into the bush. The cat was too quick for the dogs that soon lost interest and returned to the tar road for another good view before taking off into Ntsiri.

We continued along, and found a Little Grebe (formerly known as a Dabchick) with her two chicks on their floating nest. As they swam away, we noticed one of the chicks catching a free ride on mom’s back.

 

We then responded to a rhino sighting and sat enjoying a female rhino and her very young calf as they slowly fed and moved eastward. It was a very beautiful sighting and quite an honour that this mother allowed us in her and her youngster’s presence.

The afternoon brought in a radio call from the south inviting us down to a leopard sighting. Having not seen this male, we started the long journey down south. Unfortunately for us, by the time we got there, he had jumped down from the tree and taken rest in a drainage line in very thick grass. All we could see was a pair of eyes peeking through from above the grass – at least he had incredibly beautiful green-blue eyes.

Grant will be taking the blog over from tomorrow again, so I hope you have all enjoyed my last posts and I will see you again soon.

Until then,

Ciao