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Some of Nhongo Safaris Fleet of Open Safari Vehicles

The photo shows some of our fleet of Open Safari Vehicles used while on safari in the Kruger National and Hwange National Parks. These ve...

Wednesday 20 May 2015

On safari With Karen 18 May 2015

18 May 2015

With a breakfast on the go we started early this morning for what would be our last game drive of this safari. On this trip we saw four large families of baboons (one of them on the R40 down to Nelspruit!). The first one was soon after we left camp and the sun hadn't really risen yet, so the baboon’s sat huddled close together to keep warm. It was indeed a chilly morning! Our second family was already awake a bit more as they were slowly starting to forage. Mothers with babies holding on tight passed the car in search of food and youngsters quickly crossed the road eyeing us wearily.

But it was the third family that gave us a great sighting. Just like yesterday's troop of baboons in the end of the day, these guys were all happy and playing around, grooming each other and much more. Wherever we looked, baboons were entertaining us. One brave youngster was even being chased by an angry mob of vervet monkeys which he probably had disturbed while waking up. 7 vervet monkeys versus 1 young baboon, he quickly went another way!

Our second highlight was handed to us by a bushbuck (our new animal on this safari!). Usually they are quite skittish, but this one came bolting out of the bush in utter terror. So much so it didn't stop or flinch for our vehicle braking, something they usually are very wary of! That, we needed to investigate and we entered the next looping road that showed us the riverbed, which was about 20 meters in front of us. While driving down a common grey duiker came pelting out in opposite direction as well. Looking down at the riverbed we didn't have far to look to see what caused these animals to get lost: 4 hyenas were on the prowl. We had a good view of them when they started walking up the bank and one of them even coming very close to our vehicle! An awesome sighting!!

Other animals seen: we are still not bored of impalas, kudus, two more bushbucks that stood still long enough for photos, two giraffes hanging out with a bunch of zebras, a lone elephant and two lionesses.

And we could add some birds too: a tawny eagle chick on a nest and his/her mother or father, yellow-billed and red-billed hornbills, crested francolins (noisy little buggers!), a flock of chinspot batisses and pied wagtails.

Unfortunately it was our last day and we really had to leave the park. Matt and Luisa returned to Johannesburg where they would wait for their flight to Brasil to continue their honeymoon around the world!! I hope they will have just as much fun as we had on safari. Thanks for coming on safari and have a great time on you travels!


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