5 January 2016
After an early
breakfast at camp, we started our morning game drive at 06:00. The day started
off pretty well, when we saw a heard of 8 young male elephants having an early
morning swim and mud bath at a nearby waterhole. We found most of them half-
submerged in the water, splashing around while some of the others were using
their trunks to cover their sides and backs with the mud - a very effective
sunblock and also an indication that they were expecting a rather hot and sunny
day! One or two of the Bulls also found convenient scratching posts to sort out
a few itches and get rid of some ticks in the process.
It was also a
good morning for buffalo sighting as first up we saw a very large herd,
sleeping a bit late, all lying down and huddled together in tall grass. In
addition to that we saw many quite old Buffalo bulls, one of them a real old
boy with 2 broken and significantly worn down horns.
A little
further on we spotted a herd of Sable Antelope, by the looks of it all females
and young. It is always special to find these majestic animals and we watched
them for a few minutes until they also decided to lie down in fairly tall grass
which meant we couldn't see them that well anymore.
Next up was a
colony of one of my personal favorites; Dwarf Mongoose, all hiding in a hollow,
fallen over tree trunk. Although they were quite shy, we could see some of
their heads popping out through holes on the log, curiosity getting the better
of them.
On our way back
to camp we responded to a report of a Leopard in the area. We found it exactly
where it was reported from - lying on a granite slab in the thick shade of
overhanging trees. It appeared to be an adult male and we watched in lazy
grooming and cleaning itself for about 15 minutes before getting up and off the
rock into a more private spot with the heat of the day approaching, us losing
visual and moving on, back to camp for lunch and a relaxing afternoon to bring
an end to another great safari!
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