March 12 - A Jampacked day!

Photo of the Day 

Morning Drive

(Marka, Grant & Andrea)

Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Peru – Tawny Eagle

Rhino (5)

Rhino (2)

Leopard (Rockfig Jnr) / Vielmeter – Entrance Road

Afternoon Drive

(Marka & Andrea)

Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Argyle – Long Road

Leopard (Rockfig Jnr & Cub) / Vielmeter – Entrance Road

Lion (Mahlatini Males) / De Luca – Drongo Drive

I apologise that the blog is a day behind, but unfortunately the internet was not co-operating with me yesterday, but here it is. With a solid plan in my head I started out this morning with great confidence, however, I soon took the wrong road and ended up going in the completely opposite direction to what I had originally planned. However, it was not too much of a disaster as we managed to see the same large breeding herd of elephants from yesterday. With not too much time on our hands, after a quick view we headed on. Peter from Simbavati called in some rhino and we happened to be quite close so went to check. The rhino were quite skittish though and in thick bush so although we managed to see them, it definitely did not make for great photos! It is always special to see endangered animals like this, especially in a group. 

Rockfig Jnr had been seen with a kill on Vielmeter and having minimal time as my guests had an early departure, we raced along. I suddenly found myself on an extremely eroded road and we bounced and scraped along. We got to the sighting with little time to spare so after a quick (but lovely) view, we shot off back to camp, stopping only for a herd of wildebeest on Java airstrip.

New guests arrived, so I started by heading towards Argyle Dam. We found the herd of elephant drinking in the river and drove around to the opposite side for a better view. It was an entertaining sighting, with youngsters fooling around with exposed tree roots and splashing in the water. Sitting in the sun was getting a bit too toasty though so we headed on.

Rockfig Jnr was still in the same place from this morning so we joined the line-up to see her and as we came into the sighting we got a brief glimpse of her cub. Although it was only for a few seconds, it was magnificent and certainly enough soul food to last me a while! The cub ran and hid, and the mother continued to feed on her impala kill.  Unfortunately the grass was quite high so the visual was not amazing, but the sounds of crunching bones made up for it. It was a privilege of a sighting! 

 

On the way back home, Petros spotted this little chameleon peering out cautiously from a combretum tree!