On Safari With Gert From 29 April 2016

29 April 2016

We headed out early for our morning drive and had a fairly quiet morning, the highlight being a visit to a small waterhole where we had a good few hundred Impala congregating in the area. This would have been several herds together and they where quite loud, from the females contact-calling to keep track of the youngsters in the chaos, to the males doing several versions of their rutting-calls and trying to simultaneously chase off rival males while keeping their own herd females in check! A family of Warthog and a lone Giraffe browsing in the background completed the scene.

On our afternoon drive, while watching a few young male Kudu browsing close to the road, a female leopard came trotting out of the bush, crossed the road in front of us and continued into the bush on the other side, disappearing out of sight - a quick but very good sighting. Further on we found 5 very lazy lions, males in their prime, sleeping in a shady spot, obviously bothered by some flies, as they were constantly flicking their ears and tails to get rid of them. 2 of them got up while we were there, but only to change position and get more comfortable again!

In the end, a very successful day and we can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

30 April 2016

After an early breakfast we loaded luggage and departed for our final morning Safari.

While having breakfast we could hear Spotted Hyena calling close-by and about 300 meters into our drive we found 5 of them in a drainage line close to the road. They must have made or found a kill earlier in the morning, as they were feeding on what was left of a male Impala, tugging at the carcass and one trying to claim all of it, carrying the carcass off into a thicket; some good action to start the morning!

Driving along the river front we also found a couple of very large Nile crocodiles basking in the morning sun as well as a young hippo grazing on the bank.

We managed to find another very lazy male Lion sleeping in the shade of a tree and had a quality Elephant sighting at a small waterhole, as a breeding herd of about 30 individuals, joined by 2 very large adult males, drank and splashed around, also having a few mud-baths. They were quite vocal and there was certainly some tension between the 2 large males, spilling over to some of the younger males, all very excitable, chasing each other around, but keeping their distance from the larger males!

We exited the park just before noon, which signaled the end of another successful safari!