YET ANOTHER REWARDING TRIP *

[steamtrainfan]

WEDNESDAY 15 OCTOBER 2014 Part 2/4

We have not seen one of these dragon fly before.



A nice mixture of animals and birds at Ratlhogo Dam.



A white-faced duck trying to be an ostrich.



Another first for us. Klaas's Cuckoo at Kubu picnic spot. Exposure not too good as I had to take the photo straight into the sun.



Moved around a bit to try and get out of the sun but it was still very bright.



And another first - violet-eared waxbill - female.



A very long distance photo of a black-shouldered kite.



Citrus swallowtail. I have tried so long to try and get a decent photo of one of these but they never sit still long enough. This one did.



To be continued.

[steamtrainfan]

WEDNESDAY 15 OCTOBER 2014 - Part 3/4

European bee-eater coming in to land.





A lovely sequence of a yellow-billed hornbill having his lunch.

GOING



GOING



GOING



GOING



GONE!!!!



Normally a steenbok is extremely shy and will dash off as soon as the car stops but
this little lady came up next to the car, scratched at the ground.........................



.................and proceeded to do her toilet.



To be continued.

[steamtrainfan]

WEDNESDAY 15 OCTOBER 2014 - Part 4/4.

We came across these two lioness near Mankwe Dam Hide.









They then got tired of being in the limelight and decided to move off towards the hide but taking a wide berth around it.



We tried to follow them but there was such a bun fight going on we did a U-turn and pulled in at the hide.



On the opposite bank to the hide we saw a pair of fish eagles on the ground.



Next moment they were busy mating.





After this the male flew off a couple of metres away. A plover started dive bombing the female.



We never enjoy leaving Mankwe Hide as we know it is the end of another amazing day in Pilanesberg.

On the way back to camp we came across this Bushveld Kebab.



Our last photo for our second last day was of this rhino at Tilodi Dam.



As mentioned earlier our last day at Pilanesberg normally surprises us at the last moment with a very nice sighting. This trip the last day really outdid all the others as we had three fantastic sightings - morning, noon and late afternoon.

More of this next time.

[steamtrainfan]

The one lioness looks as if she has had cubs recently

Hi Lisbeth. That is for sure. We are sure they were pretty close to the hide as well. A few days after we left Pilanesberg these same lions killed a zebra in the same spot as where our first photos were taken. One guy on the Pilanesberg Facebook page actually took a video of the kill from start to finish. Amazing camera work.

[Toko]

This is going fast

The Klaas's cuckoo is so hard to find, but you did, how lucky is this - extra cool

And of course I love the hornbill celebrating his meal and also nice to find the lions close up and personal

(The dragonfly is a Banded Groundling male)

[steamtrainfan]

THURSDAY 16 OCTOBER 2014 - Part 1/5

A very good morning to everyone from an amazing Manyane. This was to be the start of a very good day sightings wise.



Our first sighting was of a black-backed jackal trotting along Tilodi loop. As we followed her we wondered if this was the same one that we saw yesterday morning.
All of a sudden there was a rustle in the grass and four pups came running out to greet her, tails wagging twenty 20 to the dozen. Unfortunately we could not get photos of the greeting but we did get the following series after she had regurgitated some meat into the road. I will let the photos tell their own story.















To be continued.

[steamtrainfan]

THURSDAY 16 OCTOBER 2014 - Part 2/5.

A lovely early morning shot of a Crested Barbet.



Joan and I at Fish Eagle picnic spot.





Grey Hornbill.



A European Bee-eater with rather bloodshot eyes.



Another Golden-breasted Bunting.



Ratlhogo Hide.

A Fork-tailed Drongo taking a bath.



Rhino and wildebeest share the local drinking hole.



Our annual photo taken at Lenong viewpoint. The wind was blowing a gale and it was quite unpleasant up there. Just look how my hair is blowing around.



NEXT: On our way down we meet up with our second elephant encounter.

[steamtrainfan]

THURSDAY 16 OCTOBER 2014 - Part 3/5

AN EXCITING ENTHRALLING EXHILIRATING ENVIGORATING ELEPHANT ESCAPADE NUMBER 2


Another elephant escapade. Coming down the Lenong View road we saw this big elephant strolling down the road at 12:05.

At 12:13 a car passed us and promptly braked as he saw the ellie. We both followed him very slowly down the road.



Every now and a again he would stop and munch from some scrumptious shrub on the side of the road. This photo taken at 12:30.



At 12:32 the ellie found a nice shady tree next to the road and decided to have a snooze.



Eventually at 12:47 the car in front of us passed him very slowly. No reaction.



At 12:55 a lady came up the road, stopped next to him, took a few photos and carried on up the road. No reaction.



At 12:57, after waiting almost an hour in the very hot sun for this ellie to move on we decided that if he let two other cars through he would also allow us through. So we rolled on slowly toward him.



I can clearly remember looking up at him and saying "Gee, look how peaceful he is."

With that he shook his head and came at us with a fantastic turn of speed and Joan's head disappeared into a pillow.

Yvonne had the presence of mind to turn around and take a photograph at 13:00:08. I am now including seconds as things happened very fast from here on.



For the next photo Yvonne just held the camera up and pointed it out the back windscreen at 13:00:26. The above photo was heavily cropped but this one is in its original size to try and give an idea of how close the ellie was to us.



Another car coming up the road immediately engaged reverse and shot backwards and hit the dirt road at the bottom of Lenong View Loop with an almighty bounce and came to a shuddering stop. The lady passenger in this car had had a camera pointed out the window all the time. As we reached them we gave each other those sheepish grins and went on our way.

Yvonne had in the meantime at 13:00:52 , while all this commotion was on the go, managed to take a final photo of the ellie walking peacefully in the veld as if nothing had happened.



Can you believe that from the time he started to charge and the time he was walking in the veld was less than a minute.

It only struck us afterwards that the lady in the other car must have got some amazing photos of an elephant chasing a Polo down the road.

Joan eventually emerged from being buried in a pillow asking the question " Where is he?"

To be continued.

[steamtrainfan]

THURSDAY OCTOBER 16 2014 - Part 4/5.

Our only sighting of Eland with a youngster.



Mankwe Dam by the sea. We have never seen waves like this on Mankwe Dam. The wind was actually making game viewing very uncomfortable.



This Capped Wheatear was hanging on for dear life in the wind.



Our second major sighting for today. The one and only herd of buffalo in the park were walking past the Pilanesberg Centre heading towards Tlou Drive.



We then drove up to Tlou drive hoping to see them cross the road. But it seemed that other folk had the same idea so unfortunately all the cars blocked the road and prevented the buffalo from crossing. The buffalo then walked alongside Tlou Drive waiting for a gap as we were sure they were trying to get to Rathlogo Dam.





We then drove to Rathlogo Dam where some ellies were enjoying the little bit of water that there was.



There was another group of people watching the ellies when suddenly another group ran into the hide laughing loudly and shouting " We are in the wrong place - we must be at another dam." With that the whole bunch of them ran out of the hide shouting at each other and laughing loudly.

With this the elephants also took fright and ran off.





This poor little one seemed so confused he ran in the wrong direction and then realised his mistake and turned back and ran like mad after the herd.



We later learnt that it was company having a conference at Sun City and, as part of team building, come into Pilanesberg to play " The Amazing Race."

Final instalment to follow.

[steamtrainfan]

THURSDAY 16 OCTOBER 2014 - Part 5/5

On our way back to camp we saw these two;

Black-headed Oriole.



Ground Scraper Thrush.



Closing time on our final day was fast approaching so we popped in to look at Tilodi Dam for the last time.

On the way we came across about 6 cars parked on the side of the road. A kind lady pointed out two male lions lying under a bush.





Just as we were about to leave, as it seemed as if they we were not going to do anything, the younger got up and started walking towards our car closely followed by the older one.







In this photo one can see how the wind was blowing.



We ended our trip with the traditional last night dinner at Manyane restaurant.



The meal was amazing - my fillet steak with apologies to R.P. for "food again".



Once again Pilanesberg did not fail to disappoint us on the last day, except this time with three major sightings and an elephant charge.

Thanks very much to everybody for staying on board and also for all the fantastic comments.