lotsadonta africana & ruminant blues singers *

[leachy]

i failed to mention in my last travel tale,,

that during the four weeks that i spent in kruger during december/january ..

there were 3 things that made an immense impact on every day existence..purely because of their plentiful presence.

these things were :

impala (ah duh!), woodland kingfishers and elephants...........

i thought at the time that the elephant was so prominent because of its size,



but no ...... it was because of its presence in numbers... not in stature.........

october of this year was no different........



i took a journey to the mystical forests of the pafuri

with punda maria as my base camp

before returning home via the tuskers of the shigwedzi and the kanniedood desert......

[leachy]

so... my port of entry was of course phalagat

where i had the honour and privilege of being able to enjoy the hospitality of sprocky and his lovely wife around a braai fire with a few cold beverages....

entry into the park at the phala gate was a brief and pleasant experience.....

unlike the youngster and his female passenger who were stuck at the gate due to possession of banned beverages........

and as is customary. .......
the first destination was sable dam....
looking nice and full......


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the next stop was on the ngobeni loop

where this gyppo was performing his morning ablutions.......
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and some impala had come down to the pools for their morning drink.
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it seems that this one had got dressed in the dark this morning and put his horns on the wrong way
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and this chap was badly in need of an ox pecker or two......
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so....... continuing along the loop one encounters that wall of rock,,,,

almost looks as though it has been purposely placed there by some pre-historic mega-force
however,,,,,

this was the performance stage for the first of my ruminant blues singers...

here at "oppiekoppie"

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he was quite chilled out



on what could have been some klippies on the rocks......

but he was crooning away..all on his own mission........



ooe..bah. doobee whoobee whaa..bahdoobeewoobee whaa oh yeah !!

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[leachy]

so.....

having enjoyed the performance..



i figured i would continue northwards.......

some time later.. i spotted this, what i think is a not so juvenile gabar goshawk,

but i could be mistaken.....
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and then,, i was absolutely gob-smacked

to see the climbing, or should that be, jumping ability of these blues singers.

take a look at what seems to be a replica of the pinnacle near graskop in mpumalanga
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i just managed to see the second of the duo

as he was clambering down from the summit of this monolith,
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how the heck did they get up there ?????



then........ a herd of kruger cattle
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and my first tsessebe for this trip, somewhere near mopani.
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and so too......

this majestic adansonia digitata on the hill near mopani.......
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and a short while later

what reminded me of a kruger chrismas tree with its own unique decorations of petite namaqua doves...........
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then,, somewhere near joao water hole

i beheld this grand old tusker
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who.. i think is machachule
(have not checked with aat as yet)



some people reckon that he is in the top 5 biggest in the park......
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[Toko]

yes richprins .....he is small .....in fact quite tiny... i had to use a macro lens to get the shot....

yes steamtrainfan.......quite normal tusks.. nothing even quite remarkable about those tusks.......

But these days all ellie bulls with visible tusks are called "tuskers"

To be considered a real big tusker, each tusk needs to weigh in excess of 45 kg. This tiny one is far from that -O

[leachy]

so..................

after traversing through the dry mopane/shingwedzi area

i reached "the sleeping man"

in the heat of the midday sun.



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there was more activity at the water hole, than there was at the picnic site

and as is the trend everywhere in the kruger............

there were elephants all over the show


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with a few kruger horses and cows in between
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interesting "warts" on this fellows elbow.........


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but he is a fairly large creature,

as we can see how easily he leans his chin on the top of the dam wall...


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one of the fallacies that we learnt in so called educational psychology

was that "ginger kids" tend towards delinquency.............



this seemed to be evident here with this ginger fellow

smokin it up at the dam......


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but he was a rather handsome fellow in his ginger hue......


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then there was the loxodonta illuminati



having un undercover meeting to the side
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and the secretary in her way home after the meeting
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and the cleaner coming in to get his instructions


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[leachy]

so........

having arrived at punda maria

and not being allocated the unit number that i had respectfully requested via a fax to the management

i set off on an outing the following day

on the s60 corrugation towards kloppies.

(this is not a "smilie" !!!!!! this is what it was like on the corrugations!!!!!)

i never knew that i had dentures, but my teeth were all loose.......

and my leg had come off a number of times



as a result of the horrendous state of this road......




my first sighting was not an elephant........


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my second sighting was also not an elephant.........

but it was also gray..... which is a variant of grey......
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a short while later.. there was this family of hornbill patties

made from 100% of pure ground hornbill
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i eventually arrived at the klopperfontein loop

and the landmark adansonia klopperfonteinerensis...

all decked out in its summer outfit...
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and then.. at the fontein part of kloppies and the mandatory kruger horse and racing-buck
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and then.........

after not too much waiting and searching

i spotted this fellow



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he was clearly busy enjoying his morning bath
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but then..... he seemed to be going through a series of poses



the nonchalant, cool stance...
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the classic "tea pot" pose....
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the "he went thataway" pose......
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the feigned "oh horror !!" pose.....
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the "head out of the car window" pose complete with ears pinned back and the floppy nose...
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the "altar-boy" pose.....
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then he seemed to lose his rhythm......



as if something untoward was occurring



because he seemed to be prolonging his time on his knees

and extending his tail



and scratching something on the moist sandy step

even his facial expression seemed to betray his actions....
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then he eventually stood up
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i was then distracted from this longsodongta africana

by the local bush chickens
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and the bush budgie
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and then......

as though rising from the depths of the muddy fontein....................









an elephant..... ........



who seemed to be adding a whole new dimension to the process of "getting out of the bath"
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i then figured that these locals are probably a sub species

lotsadrama africana genre klopperfonteinerensis

[leachy]

so....

having left the lotsadrama academy of the performing arts

i headed off towards the h1-8

and saw my first splash of colour in the veld


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then popped up to mashikiri qiuckly where another undercover meeting was on the go
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nothing much else......

except this astounding parasitic plant
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that was flourishing up high in its host tree
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and the greenest of all the trees at this time were the sjambok pods
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and of course the baobabs in their summer garb
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not much on the way back to punda.......

except for this chap feeding in the leadwood
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and these sesame street birds....
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i have never noticed the dog-like ears on an ostrich before...


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later that afternoon on the way out of camp for a short cruise to coetzer erstwhile waterhole

these twins came ambling by

quite well built chaps
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the soft afternoon light on this fellow would even have put a smile on peter betts' face
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he also tried on the cammo outfit that his brother was wearing..
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so having parked at coetzer,

the most entertaining thing was looking at the reaction of other visitors

when they come to realize that i am not looking at anything in particular

but merely parked off in the shade and chilling

with dwarf mongooses
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and the warthogs
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and the impala.....
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[leachy]

so....

the next morning i was 1st in line at the gate.......

as i was on my way to crooks.....
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just before the t junction i stopped to snap the sunrise
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and there was a cacophony of hyena calls that seemed to be coming from all around me.

it is amazing how loud they are when close by.......
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they eventually loped off into the bush

so i continued on my way

stopping only for this brown snake eagle
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and these community nest spiders

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shortly after kremetart ...i noticed a huge cloud of dust ahead

and i was confused

until i got closer to mashikiri

and there they were


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this snobbish lady feeling so superior in numbers

that she pulls her nose up at me.....


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the cheek of it,



i felt like getting out of my car and giving her a piece of my mind....
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[leachy]

so....

i continued on towards crooks corner........

an interesting sighting on the border post road,

at what i believe is quite a distance away from any water..



this fish eagle perched on high,
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maybe he was forced to leave the kanniedood desert due to lack of food and was catching his breath while en route to the levhuvhu...


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another interesting sighting just before the enchanted forest,



at what i believe is quite a distance away from any nuclear power station, aepyserious deformus melampus........
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then crooks corner


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and what i beleive could be one of the most photographed single fever trees at the confluence...
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with a resident mobile handbag ...
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and in search of gnomes and faeries in the enchanted forest

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these never seen before riverscapes
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and no account of the pafuri would be complete

without the comical emo 21 shilling fowl....
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[Richprins]

So that's what a camp gate looks like at first light!

Must try it some time!

The impala horn is probably from an injury while young...there was an article in CUSTOS years back about this sort of thing, and depending on the direction of continued growth, the animal dies unfortunately...