Back in June we had another day trip to the park. What with the holidays and photobucket issues I've only managed to get the pics sorted now
The day started with a really big buffalo herd at Ngulube waterhole. There's a waterhole in there somewhere I promise
In an undisclosed location we spotted a BR right out in the open, but by the time we had reversed it had hidden itself a bit behind a bush
We waited for a while and heard all sorts of crashing noises. It was a bit difficult to tell whether it was elephants or rhinos involved, but eventually it became clear that there were in fact 3 rhino... a female and calf plus a male attempting to get her attention
Trying to see them through the thick bush was almost impossible, but I managed to get a couple of proof pics as they started to head up the hillside. First the youngster....
And later the two adults
At Domkrag we found a jackal enjoying the warmth of the winter sun, a spoonbill preening itself, as well as some nice zebra reflections
We had heard that there were a couple of young hyena which had been seen near Rooidam at times, and we struck some luck seeing them! The smaller one went for a bit of a wander
But the slightly older hyena was more interested in staying near the den
The smaller one went to try drink at Rooidam, but with elephants hogging the waterhole it thought better of the idea and trotted back to the den
On Mpunzi loop we were treated to a nice buffalo herd with a few big boys bringing up the rear
Roy, Nomad, Dawn, Duffy, Josie and her cubs had been seen the day before along the Addo Heights road making a buffalo kill, but they had dragged it into a kloof and despite driving up and down the road quite a bit they weren't to be seen. Whilst looking for them we did spot a well-hidden bushbuck ram
On our way back down south we found Valli Moosa approaching Lismore waterhole. He certainly towers over other elephants
There was also a very cute Valli-wannabe
Valli was very much in musth, and one of the females had given birth very recently as there was quite obviously some 'interesting' scents attracting a number of 5-legged males. The other pretenders didn't amuse him in the slightest and he was clearly the most agitated we had ever seen him!
Very rapidly he approached where we were parked, passing very close to the back of our car and then stopped. Normally he would just carry on, but in his bad mood he eyeballed us and then literally reversed around the back of our car so that all we could see was elephant through the back windscreen. I was waiting for a bump but it never came thankfully... he must have touched the car somewhat in the manoeuvre, and friends watching from further away later asked us if we required new underpants
https://youtu.be/crwJWrmS_4Y
After deciding we weren't the cause of his frustration he continued sniffing the air trying to work out what was going on
It was a shame for S & H that we didn't get to see the cubs again, but it had been another fun day out in the park
