13 January 2016
Off we went
this
morning at first light and unfortunately a drizzle of rain. But luckily
during the day it cleared up.
Overall we had
a great day in the park with lots of amazing sightings! Our first highlight was
seeing a herd of elephants really close to the road. We had seen an elephant
yesterday, which, as it was our first, was pretty exciting. Then this morning
we came across a herd of
elephants half hidden in the bush and two of them were
playing around and pushing and shoving each other which was a fun sight. But
the best was our sighting after breakfast of a herd of elephants snoozing under
a tree about 5 meters from the road. The older females were properly snoozing
with their eyes closed, but the young ones had enough of naptime. Some were
already moving around, picking bits and pieces of bushes, trying to kick over a
small tree and throwing sand over themselves. There also was a baby no older
than 6 months, half hidden under mum, which of course got a lot of attention!
Our second
highlight was coming across two lions. We were there just at the right time as
shortly after our arrival at the scene they got up and walked to the water.
Having their fill to drink they crossed the river at a small point and came
slowly walking in our direction. Surprisingly suddenly two buffalos sprinted
out of the reed beds! We hadn't seen seen them there as they were well hidden
but obviously they felt uncomfortable with the lions coming that close! The
lions looked at the buffalos running away, but they decided to go in a different
direction along the riverbed.
That was our
cue to move along too and await them along the way in an open area.
This gave us
excellent opportunity for some great photos and it was thoroughly enjoyed as
the two lions came rather close.
Other
interesting sightings: steenbok, leopard tortoise, waterbucks, impalas, zebras,
warthogs, giraffes, two separate leopards, herd of
buffalos, sable antelopes,
hippos (including one outside the water), baboons, white rhinos, kudus, vervet
monkeys, blue wildebeests, hyenas, bushbucks, nyalas and a giant plated
lizard.
Birds included
many marabou storks, white-backed vultures, pale morph tawny eagle, bateleur,
yellow-billed hornbill, grey hornbill, african fish eagle, european rollers,
lilac breasted rollers, african cuckoo, red-billed oxpecker, blacksmith
lapwing, cape glossy starling, goliath heron, pied kingfisher, wahlbergs eagle
and forktailed drongos.
