A brief bush anniversary trip.

[Klipspringer]

Looks like these elephants are unable to form natural social relationships and are only allowed supervised roaming and foraging in the bush for some time in the day, why must they spend the night in an enclosure?
Why do you think it is not just one of the commercial venues using elephants for entertainment


Love the landscape there wih the river and the green bush and mountains

.

[Pumbaa]

Also love the buzzard shot, Roger

and also the buffaloes, rhinos, ellies and all the rest - Sigh

[Richprins]

Green and dense, hey Rog!

Ja, a long-crested eagle, quite rare!

Nice shots, and I love the river view!

[RogerFraser]

The "buzzard" looks like a long-crested eagle

Lovely pic of the nyalas

Cute night visitor

for the ID

Love the buzzard

The buff looks a bit on the thin side?

Also quite old and definitely Grumpy

Wow, what an amazing experience to be so close to the ellies!

I think your Buzzard is a Crested Eagle.

it appears it is

Looks like these elephants are unable to form natural social relationships and are only allowed supervised roaming and foraging in the bush for some time in the day, why must they spend the night in an enclosure?
Why do you think it is not just one of the commercial venues using elephants for entertainment

Love the landscape there with the river and the green bush and mountains
.

They are fee to roam anywhere on the reserve .They were kept in a boma as young calves in Kruger and the other reserve so not sure but suppose they are used to being in it at night .

Also love the buzzard shot, Roger

and also the buffaloes, rhinos, ellies and all the rest - Sigh

Green and dense, hey Rog!

Ja, a long-crested eagle, quite rare!

Nice shots, and I love the river view!

[RogerFraser]

In the morning the gates open at 6 but sunrise was about 5 seems gate opening is slow in KZN parks

Some pigs were our first sighting


Some Buffs had been spending the night on the road .


Some Giraffes were browsing on the green trees .


Our first Vulture sighting of the trip .The only others we saw was a few others later in the day trying to find some thermals .


We made our way to one of the hides and walked quite far along the path to a dry pan .The only sign that there was game around was this polished stump that was obviously a favored rubbing post .


A wasp seemed to be feeding its young in the nest .


We walked back to the car stopping and looking at the state of the facilities .They were in a shocking state with toilet paper strew all over .It appears staff had not been here for quite a few weeks ...

We found this fine fellow that had just had a mud bath


While on the opposite side of the road the was a lovely scene


We watched the muddy fellow come closer to the other two and it seemed they were not too happy to be meeting up . Junior ran arround and hid behind mom quite a bit .




Eventually after mom stood her ground and gave a little run at the muddy fellow it fizzled out and they went off calmly


Interestingly one of the Gnu had a tracking collar on .


We carried on to our next sighting ...

[Pumbaa]

WoW to these rhino shots, Roger

and it looks so green there

[Lisbeth]

Nice to see rhinos, more like one, out in the open like that

Strange to see a gnu with a collar

The facilities in a bad state is not only the fault of the staff, but also of the visitors who leave the place in a bad state

[Richprins]

Lovely rhino, Rog!

The bulls are sometimes a real pain as they are interested in the moms, who are interested only in raising the calves...

Pity about the facilities. Were the potholes a bit better in the tar roads?

Gnu with tracking collar!

Nice pics.

[Alf]

Stunning rhino pictures

That rubbing tree looks like

[Richprins]