26 February 2014
This morning it was cloudy but dry so we set off right after
breakfast and saw some buffalo deep in the bush shortly after leaving camp. We
drove along Napi and spotted a nice elephant bull not far off the road. He was
busy demolishing a silver cluster leaf tree, so we stayed and watch. He gave a
couple of big pushes and we heard the tree groan, but the tree managed to hold
on and only lose a couple of branches to mister elephant who happily chewed on
them.
Along the way we spotted a couple more bull elephants, one of which really close to the road next to us and at a different sighting one in front of us on the road dictating our pace. It took a while but we also saw our first impala of this tour along the way, later followed by lots and lots of them.
Around a bend in the road we suddenly saw some oncoming traffic with a pack of wild dogs right in front of them. One walked by us really closely and the rest decided to take a nap in the middle of the road. The pack was snoozing so spread out they formed a road block, but a nice one to watch as wild dogs are a pretty rare carnivore and not often seen. Unfortunately another car wasn't as patient and "pushed" the wild dogs off the road into the high grass ending the sighting for us.
Just before we stopped for coffee at Skukuza we spend some time watching zebras graze and alarm calling. We also saw baboons playing in a tree and a couple walking past our vehicle.
After the coffee we followed a call from Curtis down to a side road of Doispane as he had found lions. We were in luck as even though we were far away, the lions stayed in the same spot snoozing and we had a great sighting of 3 lionesses. There were more of them hiding in the bush but they never came to our sight. Nonetheless it was very much enjoyed.
On the way back to the lodge over Doispane and Albassini we saw more impalas, zebras and elephant but also leopard tortoises of all shapes and sizes, vervet monkeys, whitebacked vultures in trees and flying, a brown snake eagle, dwarf mongoose and kudus.
Just before turning back onto the tar we saw a dark chanting goshawk having a bath in a puddle. He dipped his head twice, then his bum and then shook the feathers. He had a whole rhythm going as we watched for a while. Dip, dip, bum and shake.
We returned to Numbi to pick up some new guests and then went to Nkambeni for lunch. There we were surprised by a nice elephant bull feeding right on the fence line of the lodge, close to the dam. This was a nice start to the safari for the new guests!
In the afternoon our numbers had grown to 6 people who were on their first safari. And as some of them were only here for one night, we decided to see if we could find the lions again so all of us would have seen them. So we started off towards Albassini, and then would follow Doispane and return the same way.
We just left camp and then got straight away distracted by a white rhino on the side of the road. It was a lovely sight to see him graze.
On Albassini we had a slender mongoose crossing the road and saw our (first for some) impalas, kudus and an elephant crossing the road.We saw two rhinos out in the open close to the road which gave us some lovely photo opportunities. They were followed by a lot of cattle egrets.
We heard then that the lions were still around so excitedly we drove towards the indicated new spot. On the way we passed another great sighting of a crash of 5 white rhinos together. All 5 of them were looking at us. We continued towards the lions. They were there alright. All 6 females and 1 youngster were lying out in the open in a drainage line for all of us to look at. They were not moving an inch in the 10min we sat with them, but that was unfortunately all the time we had.
We turned around and on the way back to the tar we were once again greeted by the 5 white rhino, which, in contrary to the lions, had moved a bit further away from the road and just like us were a little less interested this time around. Novelty had worn of quickly after all those rhino sightings! On Doispane we then had a nervous moment when an elephant bull in must was waiting on the road just around the corner. We gave him some space and we bit our nails when he came walking down towards us in a typical big musty bull swagger. He stopped about 20m away from the car and then had doubts to either threaten us, play with us or just leave us be. We waited in silence and luckily he decided we weren't worth the trouble and moved on the side of the road and past us where he then started feeding.
Some of us took a deep steadying breath and we continued down towards Albassini. We found the same two rhino from earlier but this time we didn't even stop (so spoiled already, and running out of time). We did however stop for our first sighting of giraffes of the day. Apparently one of the females was in heat and the male followed her closely from behind. At one point he tried to mount her, but she wanted none of that and broke away. We watched a while longer, the guys rooting for the guy to make his move, the girls feeling sorry for the girl who looked half his size and so breakable under his weight. But nothing happened after the one attempt while we were there.
Then we drove back to the lodge after having a very good day of game drives today!!
Along the way we spotted a couple more bull elephants, one of which really close to the road next to us and at a different sighting one in front of us on the road dictating our pace. It took a while but we also saw our first impala of this tour along the way, later followed by lots and lots of them.
Around a bend in the road we suddenly saw some oncoming traffic with a pack of wild dogs right in front of them. One walked by us really closely and the rest decided to take a nap in the middle of the road. The pack was snoozing so spread out they formed a road block, but a nice one to watch as wild dogs are a pretty rare carnivore and not often seen. Unfortunately another car wasn't as patient and "pushed" the wild dogs off the road into the high grass ending the sighting for us.
Just before we stopped for coffee at Skukuza we spend some time watching zebras graze and alarm calling. We also saw baboons playing in a tree and a couple walking past our vehicle.
After the coffee we followed a call from Curtis down to a side road of Doispane as he had found lions. We were in luck as even though we were far away, the lions stayed in the same spot snoozing and we had a great sighting of 3 lionesses. There were more of them hiding in the bush but they never came to our sight. Nonetheless it was very much enjoyed.
On the way back to the lodge over Doispane and Albassini we saw more impalas, zebras and elephant but also leopard tortoises of all shapes and sizes, vervet monkeys, whitebacked vultures in trees and flying, a brown snake eagle, dwarf mongoose and kudus.
Just before turning back onto the tar we saw a dark chanting goshawk having a bath in a puddle. He dipped his head twice, then his bum and then shook the feathers. He had a whole rhythm going as we watched for a while. Dip, dip, bum and shake.
We returned to Numbi to pick up some new guests and then went to Nkambeni for lunch. There we were surprised by a nice elephant bull feeding right on the fence line of the lodge, close to the dam. This was a nice start to the safari for the new guests!
In the afternoon our numbers had grown to 6 people who were on their first safari. And as some of them were only here for one night, we decided to see if we could find the lions again so all of us would have seen them. So we started off towards Albassini, and then would follow Doispane and return the same way.
We just left camp and then got straight away distracted by a white rhino on the side of the road. It was a lovely sight to see him graze.
On Albassini we had a slender mongoose crossing the road and saw our (first for some) impalas, kudus and an elephant crossing the road.We saw two rhinos out in the open close to the road which gave us some lovely photo opportunities. They were followed by a lot of cattle egrets.
We heard then that the lions were still around so excitedly we drove towards the indicated new spot. On the way we passed another great sighting of a crash of 5 white rhinos together. All 5 of them were looking at us. We continued towards the lions. They were there alright. All 6 females and 1 youngster were lying out in the open in a drainage line for all of us to look at. They were not moving an inch in the 10min we sat with them, but that was unfortunately all the time we had.
We turned around and on the way back to the tar we were once again greeted by the 5 white rhino, which, in contrary to the lions, had moved a bit further away from the road and just like us were a little less interested this time around. Novelty had worn of quickly after all those rhino sightings! On Doispane we then had a nervous moment when an elephant bull in must was waiting on the road just around the corner. We gave him some space and we bit our nails when he came walking down towards us in a typical big musty bull swagger. He stopped about 20m away from the car and then had doubts to either threaten us, play with us or just leave us be. We waited in silence and luckily he decided we weren't worth the trouble and moved on the side of the road and past us where he then started feeding.
Some of us took a deep steadying breath and we continued down towards Albassini. We found the same two rhino from earlier but this time we didn't even stop (so spoiled already, and running out of time). We did however stop for our first sighting of giraffes of the day. Apparently one of the females was in heat and the male followed her closely from behind. At one point he tried to mount her, but she wanted none of that and broke away. We watched a while longer, the guys rooting for the guy to make his move, the girls feeling sorry for the girl who looked half his size and so breakable under his weight. But nothing happened after the one attempt while we were there.
Then we drove back to the lodge after having a very good day of game drives today!!
27 February 2014
As we had a very lucky day yesterday we would take it easy
this morning and just enjoy the environment and all the wildlife that crossed
our path. We drove Napi until Transport Dam. Soon we came across our first
animal of the day: an elephant bull, feeding. We came across a lot of them
today but we also saw a mother elephant and her youngster crossing the road in
front of us which made it special.
We saw 3 white backed vultures preening themselves in a tree and zebras, but except for some nice birds like a lilac breasted roller, green pigeon and white fronted as well as carmine bee eaters Napi was pretty quiet today.
Until we turned onto the road towards Transport Dam. The road itself was in a pretty bad shape, but the humps and bumps were worth it soon we came across giraffes quiet close to the road, as well as zebra and waterbuck. Down at Transport Dam we saw the hippos in the water popping up and down, a nice male waterbuck, woolly necked stork, Egyptian geese, whistling ducks and another elephant.
After enjoying the sight for a while we returned to Napi. On our way to Pretoriuskop for our coffee break we saw two tawny eagles hopping about in a tree. Some smaller birds nearby were screaming at them so they might have been eyeing some prey, but except for hopping up and down branches nothing happened.
We also saw female kudus and a little bit further two brilliant kudu males with their big horns entangled in bushes while feeding off its leaves. We stopped for a dung beetle rolling its ball into the high grass trying to navigate the easy way up the hill. And a large family of dwarf mongoose came to say hi on the road. The little babies were not yet acquainted with cars as they were hypnotized by our tyres and one by one they came closer to investigate. Two of them even dared to touch the tyre until and adult called alarm and swiftly they all disappeared in the grass once more.
Just before reaching Pretoriuskop we had a two way crossing in front of us. Giraffes crossed from right to left and behind them a herd of elephants crossed from left to right. The elephant straightaway disappeared from view but the giraffes hang around on the side of the road, all watching the car. Who's on safari?
After a short break we didn't have much time left. On the short stretch to Numbi Gate however we finally spotted our first impala of the day! And we followed a large family of baboons for a while. The big leaders sat lazing in the shade as it was getting hot, while the little ones played around and stopped at all the marula trees on the way to eat some of the fruit.
At Numbi we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Sairah, Tayba, Feeza and Tanya (gosh I hope I spelled it right), who had only joined us for one night. We hope to see you back some day!
In the afternoon we took a slow drive along Fayi Loop. We saw spoor and fresh dung of various animals, but none of them came into sight. We continued driving to Shithave Dam where we sat admiring the beautiful nature, white fronted bee eaters dipping into the water to drink and wash themselves, and 2 hippos popped up their heads. After a while we also saw a new animal: a smallish crocodile drifting on the opposite side.
On the way back to the lodge we saw some vervet monkeys playing in the trees, kudus, a herd of impalas and more waterbucks. To top it all off a small herd of elephant crossed the road to the lodge in front of us.
We saw 3 white backed vultures preening themselves in a tree and zebras, but except for some nice birds like a lilac breasted roller, green pigeon and white fronted as well as carmine bee eaters Napi was pretty quiet today.
Until we turned onto the road towards Transport Dam. The road itself was in a pretty bad shape, but the humps and bumps were worth it soon we came across giraffes quiet close to the road, as well as zebra and waterbuck. Down at Transport Dam we saw the hippos in the water popping up and down, a nice male waterbuck, woolly necked stork, Egyptian geese, whistling ducks and another elephant.
After enjoying the sight for a while we returned to Napi. On our way to Pretoriuskop for our coffee break we saw two tawny eagles hopping about in a tree. Some smaller birds nearby were screaming at them so they might have been eyeing some prey, but except for hopping up and down branches nothing happened.
We also saw female kudus and a little bit further two brilliant kudu males with their big horns entangled in bushes while feeding off its leaves. We stopped for a dung beetle rolling its ball into the high grass trying to navigate the easy way up the hill. And a large family of dwarf mongoose came to say hi on the road. The little babies were not yet acquainted with cars as they were hypnotized by our tyres and one by one they came closer to investigate. Two of them even dared to touch the tyre until and adult called alarm and swiftly they all disappeared in the grass once more.
Just before reaching Pretoriuskop we had a two way crossing in front of us. Giraffes crossed from right to left and behind them a herd of elephants crossed from left to right. The elephant straightaway disappeared from view but the giraffes hang around on the side of the road, all watching the car. Who's on safari?
After a short break we didn't have much time left. On the short stretch to Numbi Gate however we finally spotted our first impala of the day! And we followed a large family of baboons for a while. The big leaders sat lazing in the shade as it was getting hot, while the little ones played around and stopped at all the marula trees on the way to eat some of the fruit.
At Numbi we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Sairah, Tayba, Feeza and Tanya (gosh I hope I spelled it right), who had only joined us for one night. We hope to see you back some day!
In the afternoon we took a slow drive along Fayi Loop. We saw spoor and fresh dung of various animals, but none of them came into sight. We continued driving to Shithave Dam where we sat admiring the beautiful nature, white fronted bee eaters dipping into the water to drink and wash themselves, and 2 hippos popped up their heads. After a while we also saw a new animal: a smallish crocodile drifting on the opposite side.
On the way back to the lodge we saw some vervet monkeys playing in the trees, kudus, a herd of impalas and more waterbucks. To top it all off a small herd of elephant crossed the road to the lodge in front of us.
Keep watching for more!!
No comments:
Post a Comment