The Big Cat Diary and a Couple of Lifers

[nan]

yes, very interesting a pink Ellie

well donne Hippo, that is wise

love the Elephants using an object and a spa
and the Hammerkop

[Pumbaa]

Lots of ellies!!!

and even more to come

[Pumbaa]

Ellies of all sizes

Great pics of the hippo

The ellies got more that day as it was one of those extreme hot ones

[Pumbaa]

Interesting that pink elephant, Pumbaa!

One sometimes gets them, and they are totally pink when young! There is a pic somewhere...

Leucistic or something!

I once saw one pink smaller one at Nsemani but this is already a couple of years ago

[Pumbaa]

yes, very interesting a pink Ellie

well donne Hippo, that is wise

love the Elephants using an object and a spa
and the Hammerkop

That hippo maybe thought better that stuff than nothing

[Pumbaa]

whilst all the elephants on the other side of the weir had a great time in having a bath





and after everybody of them cooled down enough they started to walk off.



We again had to let some other cars pass and out of the corner of my eye I saw a juvenile black-crowned night heron also a bird who is not coming across that often



and so I was once again happy to found same again.



Unfortunately today it was far too much traffic for our liking at the weir and due to the fact that the remaining 19 kilometers to Biyamiti camp can take endlessly due to the hilly and winding road and not knowing about any elephant road blocks there we carried on but did not came far as the S114 was blocked by a herd of 20 elephants who stood under a tree right on the road. Gladly at the weir there is an small loop which can be driven instead and gladly same was elephant free. Funny was that all the cars first tried the S114 but as soon as the elephants came into sight turned around and used also that small loop – I cannot imagine of having ever seen that much cars on that road!

We only prayed that the private road to Biyamiti will be elephant free.....first we came across a pair of steenbokies close to the road as the sun meanwhile was shining merciless she was hiding from the sun behind a small bush whilst he was looking after her.



She panted heavily and looked also heavily pregnant.

[Pumbaa]

The rest of the drive until we reached the look out point prior to camp where you can get out of your car was uneventful and even animal- or better to say elephant-free. For sure we parked our car at the look out point took some rusks and water and made ourselves comfortable there as on top there high above the riverbed a small breeze was blowing and it was far more comfortable than in the car.



As already said some areas like parts of the S25 and S28 looked like from another planet but on that private road the vegetation was lush & green nearly as normal as during that part of the year and also the water level in the Biyamiti river looked compared to other years quite okay.



For sure from high above we could see quite a lot of animals and the sound effect with the bird calls, the howling wind, the rustle of the leaves and the elephant were doing was quite impressive and we also looked into each direction not to get surprised by any elephants coming from somewhere out of the bush.



A rhino first still lying in its private spa had been woken up by a herd of elephants who arrived



whilst we could watch other although water was still left again dug their own holes to drink from.



We still enjoyed the view and time there quite a while as we were moreover the only ones there so we stayed a bit longer than normally wanted but as we wanted to stay for the rest of the afternoon anyhow in camp we were in no hurry.

The check in took not long and we got the honour in also meeting Surprise who is the guide in Biyamiti and also doing sometime the check in – He is in fact an original! This year we were allocated bungalow No. 5 and first thing I noticed after walking in was a fantastic picture of a leopard sleeping in a crotch and then Timon and I nearly said simultaneously: “A shot I also do dream about” – Well at that stage we did not know that this dream already came true the next day.....

For today we had enough from driving especially in that still prevailing heat and after we put everything away we simply enjoyed the time in camp either on the verandah, at the fence or at the hide and most of the other people in camp obviously did the same as nearly each bench at the fence was occupied and why to drive around when there was so much to be seen from the fence.

For sure a lots of elephants were around and it looked as if the whole Biyamiti river was invaded by elephants.



to be continued....

[Alf]

It's always lovely to sit at the view point overlooking the river

We haven't been to Biyamiti since 2008

[Lisbeth]

Elephants galore

I love the little one in the last pic calling "wait for me!"

[nan]

nice
it seems every evening Elephants are coming for the parade