We Won An MZNP Game Drive

[Mel]

Doornhoek Dam looks totally different from how we know it. Late March the trees will block any view of the dam and
you have to go in on that track to be able to see what's there. Or you book the guesthouse

Great to see that the fish-eagle is still around. Must be an adult by now.

Indeed nice views from the hiking trail in the camp.

Grey rhebok sightings are special.

[Flutterby]

Lovely family pic and great shot of the buzzard. Those ducklings are too sweet. Lovely scenery around there.

[Richprins]

And why is it called Jakkalsvoêl?

All the buzzards are called that!

Dunno why?

[Lisbeth]

What is a jackal called in Afrikaans?

[nan]

What is a jackal called in Afrikaans?

jackaldog

[Richprins]

Jakkals!

In the Cape it is Djakkals, as okie would say!

[Lisbeth]

There you are! We are back where we started

[PJL]

Thanks Lis, RP, Pumbaa, Mel, Flutts & nan for all the comments
I've heard that the reason for the jackal buzzard name is due to the similarity of its calls to a jackal... but having heard the two I think someone may have been simplifying things

At 6pm sharp we were ready for the night drive
Not exactly dark yet
But there was quite a bit of cloud cover and even a spot of rain



The vehicles seat 9 people and we only had a couple of teenage school kids join us so there was plenty of space. We started heading out along the main road and we were surprised to see another vehicle overtaking us. Some local had stayed a bit longer than he should have done and was heading to the exit, but told us that he had seen the lionesses up on Rooiplaat hunting wildebeest.

The younger crowd were very much in favour of trying to find the lions so we turned around and headed up to Rooiplaat. On the road up we startled some zebra including a foal that could have only been a few weeks old... I kind of like the motion in this pic



By this time it really was getting dark and photos would be blurry at best. Our driver had a spotlight and we also used our torch which is pretty powerful. Some of the first 'eyes' to reflect back were a scrub hare and a jackal





As we travelled around Rooiplaat we spotted more jackal, a few flashes of lightning and plenty of scrub hares including a few with death wishes who would run in front of the vehicle. However there was no sign of the lions so we took a turn down the link road to see if they had moved that way. Unfortunately again there was no sign of the cats, but we did see a spotted eagle owl (which flew away very quickly) and a fiery necked nightjar



We continued down the link road onto Ubejane where we managed to spot some spring hares bounding away. The light levels were so low that all my photos were a blur



It was very much time to head back to camp and I was a bit disappointed that we had gone chasing lions seeing as there were other nocturnals such as aardwolf which would have been nice to see. But it had been a good drive and one we had enjoyed very much what with all the jackal and scrub hares around Rooiplaat. However there were still a couple of surprises on the way back along the main road. First up was a steekbok ram who didn't seem too concerned





We saved our best sighting of the evening for last... D was literally begging to see bat-eared foxes on our last visit and now we stumbled across a number of them





There were 5 or so wandering around looking for insects





It had been a fantastic night drive and we felt very lucky to see the foxes

[Mel]

Not only lucky with the foxes but also with the springhare, I think. Never seen one of those.
But then again, we don't do guided drives. Not much chance of seeing animals that are only active at night

BEFs were also a first for us on our Easter trip

Also like the photo of the nightjar. Common but hard to get a good photo

[nan]

it is why I like night drive too.... lot of animals and birds that we never can see during the day

Nightjar
Springhare

and lot more, well done