25 December 2015
The sunset drive
went by tonight without a sunset as the sun had been hiding behind clouds most
of the day. But the guests were pleased to see their first animals of this
safari.
Apart from a
buffalo that was walking along the fence line of the lodge, they encountered
several other game species on their drive: giraffes, zebras, impalas,
waterbuck, kudu and elephants.
26 December 2015
We set off in
the morning thinking the thin cloud layer in the sky would dissolve and it
would become a lovely warm day. We were wrong. Half an hour into the drive the
guests were wrapped up in blankets as if it was winter, but we still enjoyed
our drive.
Our first
highlight was seeing our first herd of elephants. Little did we know that we
parked right next to a fantastic patch of grass to eat. As the elephants came
closer to the road they came more and more out of the bushes. They were feeding
on grass and branches. Slowly one elephant started feeding next to the truck.
Not a care in the world about us watching them, she kept on plucking the grass
right next to us. Soon she was joined by two others. The gentle giants were
within touching distance and we sat watching them in silence. When the tuft of
grass was plucked empty they moved off (and some of us started breathing
again). In the end the entire herd crossed and we had a great sighting of these
magnificent animals.
Our second
highlight was coming across three cheetahs. They were unfortunately walking
away from us, but with binoculars we had a good visual. We then lost visual of
them as they disappeared behind bushes. But we saw an impala in the general
direction of where they are moving. While everyone gave up we decided to hang
around and see what happened. And it paid off as suddenly the impala got wind
of something and stood alert. Then he bolted. Two cheetahs gave a half-hearted
10 meter chase but the impala was long gone. A missed chance!
Other
interesting sightings: kudus, a chameleon, common grey duikers, a hippo,
giraffes, waterbucks, more elephants, a white rhino, warthog mummy with two
piglets, zebras, impalas, hyena, baboons and two herds of buffalos including a
calf so young that it was just able to walk.
27 December 2015
Eager to see
lions we set off this morning in the hope to find some. And we were in luck as
we came across two male lions eating off a rhino carcass. It was a highlight
and a lowlight in one as we were confronted with the horrible truth of rhino
poaching. The carcass was clearly a victim of poaching with half its nose
hacked off. Its last stance was to provide food for those two nomad lions. As
it was quite close to the road we were treated to some excellent lion shots to
take pictures.
In the
afternoon we sat watching two elephants swim for quite some time. It looked like
they were having much fun as it was still hot we would have loved to join them
in the "pool". To stay safe though we stayed on the shore in the car.
They were using the full length of the dam and came closer and closer to a pod
of snoozing hippos. Soon they made some noise to deter the elephants but they
didn’t seem to notice or care. Then a few scared ones scattered but most hung
on to their spot. The elephants drifted away a bit again which gave the hippos some
peace. But not for long as the boisterous elephants were pushing and shoving
each other closer and closer to the hippos. So much so that they chased the
entire harem in all different directions under loud protest. It was like a tv
show!
Other interesting
sightings: herds of elephants, very cute hyenas, a distant visual of wild dogs
but as they are rare it is always a treat, terrapins on the back of a hippo,
steenboks, warthogs, waterbucks, blue wildebeests with babies, lots of zebras,
impalas, giraffes, buffalos, kudus, common reedbucks, vervet monkeys, a baby
crocodile and baboons.
