Hi Guys;
This site has opened up an awesome new avenue for me to freely discuss all our parks, rather than just being a cheerleader for some. Conservation and a love of the bush for me is all encompassing and not selective, so thanks to all those that made this possible by the development and maintenance of this site, therefore......
Bushcraft, Cow (Chan), Hawkeyes, Bushpiggy and Albert are back with another TR..........
We had a great trip to KNP in April and our next KNP trip was only in August, but the pull of the bush was too strong for me to wait that long and the KZN sardine run hadn’t started yet, which is my annual excitement, so we planned a short 3 night gap filler trip to Imfolozi.
Hluhluwe/Imfolozi isn’t KNP, but then there are very few places on earth that compare to KNP, but for those in KZN it’s an awesome alternative. It’s rather small especially if one is used to KNP, so I generally spend less time in this park and take it easy, or after 3 days you have driven all the available roads.
There are a number of private lodges, but the 2 main camps are Hilltop camp in the Hluhluwe section and Mpila camp in the Imfolozi section.
If I was trying to impress a chick that didn’t know or understand our parks and I didn’t have the rats Hilltop would be the answer, but for my clan it’s hard to beat Mpila, although if it was just the Cow and I, Gqoyeni Bush Lodge in the Imfolozi section would be my choice.
I personally prefer the Imfolozi section as it has more game and it’s kinder on the pocket, so this trip will take place at Mpila camp in the Imfolozi section of the park.
The park has the “big 5”, but finding a leopard is equivalent to wining the lotto, although a guy was attacked by a leopard in Mpila camp a few years ago while making a potjie, but still consider yourself lucky if you find one. The king of the park in my opinion is the hyena, but it’s got a few surprises and Mpila camp has no fences, so the nights are something special.
I will also make a few comparisons to our flagship park as that’s the one that most of us all know.
To be continued
Imfolozi - Brown's June 2011 *
Re: Imfolozi - Brown's June 2011
June 16th Home to Mpila Camp
It’s always a mission to leave home early with a clan of Cows, but we eventually got on the road at about 5:30am, stopped at the new Wimpy just outside Richards Bay, survived the frustrating “speedy” delivery of the chow and arrived at Imfolozi/Hluhluwe before 9am.
I booked 3 nights at Mpila camp in the Imfolozi section, which we had stayed at a few times before, but one is only permitted to book in at 1pm (they tried the 2pm story, but compromised to please the client base who weren’t happy); therefore we had plenty of time to kill, so the plan this morning was to take it slow and spend time at the 2 hides in the south.
We entered the park at Nyalazi Gate, hooked a left turn and headed into the Imfolozi section.
The usual impala showed up for the first couple of km and then one of the rats won the first allowed animal bet, but I can’t remember which rat won and when I ask them know “Who won”, they all say they did.
We pasted Umbondwe picnic site and I was contemplating a stop, because the Wimpy breakfast revenge was starting, but decided that the Mpila public toilets would be a safer bet, so we continued on.
A few km later though I did a rapid turn and headed back to Umbondwe with beads of sweat on the pip.
The bamboo bog had no light, so I had to find my way in the semi light, but halfway to the bog I thought about that fact that this would be a good spot for a puff adder to hang out, so froze and started debating a run into the bush versus the dark bog.
Maybe it was the puff adder thought, but the intensity increased; therefore the bush run was ruled out and I decided to rather make a big noise in the bog and watch for movement, so I jumped up and down and kicked everything that I could see and shouted my head off, but nothing moved.
The Cow and rats in the car were concerned as they thought I was attacking something. I heard the enquiring comments, but was the past the point of no return.
I survived the hidden potential puff adder and returned to the car to concerned faces looking back at me, but they all howled with laughter when I explained what had gone down in the bog.
Back on the road it was quiet until the Black Imfolozi Bridge where we spotted a few cars stopped at different spots, some before the bridge and 2 on the bridge. We didn’t see anything before the bridge and it was after 9am, so I thought that it was the usual bridge bird gang, so continued onto the bridge.
A few meters across a bridge the Cow started shouting “Stop, STOP, there’s Lion”
There were 7 lionesses, a teenage male and 1 large male.
The Cow had the spotting eyes on this morning and suddenly started whispering “There’s another coming down the river”; confused I said “What’s coming down the river”, “A Lion”. This got me thinking that I may need glasses, because I couldn’t see a thing, but as it got closer my eyes started to work.
I got very excited when the eyes eventually focused, because the lionesses where getting nervous, so I suspected that this may be an intruding male and when some of the females started rapidly moving off, I was convinced that a fight was on the cards.
The teenage male ducked off with the girls, but the large male walked out to meet the new comer, which got me shouting “VIDEO, there’s going to be action”
To my surprise the 2 guys seemed to be mates and started with their ritual greeting, which resulted in a small anticlimax pelican face from me.
The tag team then started towards us and after the females who had come in our direction, but ducked off into the reeds as they neared the bridge and were now out of sight, although we could see the reeds moving all over, so we knew that they were all still around.
The large males settled on the riverbank fairly close to us and the teenage male came out off the reeds to join them, but the females still seemed to be moving towards us, because the reeds were now moving next to the car, which was causing tension, as we could now hear them a few meters from our open windows, but couldn’t see them.
Suddenly Hawkeyes shouted “IN THE RIVER”, which caused me to nearly drop my camera out the window.
A hyena was having a swim in the river
This seemed to upset the male lions and they checked the swimming hyena out until he disappeared into the reeds on the opposite bank.
Suddenly the Cow screamed!
To be continued
It’s always a mission to leave home early with a clan of Cows, but we eventually got on the road at about 5:30am, stopped at the new Wimpy just outside Richards Bay, survived the frustrating “speedy” delivery of the chow and arrived at Imfolozi/Hluhluwe before 9am.
I booked 3 nights at Mpila camp in the Imfolozi section, which we had stayed at a few times before, but one is only permitted to book in at 1pm (they tried the 2pm story, but compromised to please the client base who weren’t happy); therefore we had plenty of time to kill, so the plan this morning was to take it slow and spend time at the 2 hides in the south.
We entered the park at Nyalazi Gate, hooked a left turn and headed into the Imfolozi section.
The usual impala showed up for the first couple of km and then one of the rats won the first allowed animal bet, but I can’t remember which rat won and when I ask them know “Who won”, they all say they did.
We pasted Umbondwe picnic site and I was contemplating a stop, because the Wimpy breakfast revenge was starting, but decided that the Mpila public toilets would be a safer bet, so we continued on.
A few km later though I did a rapid turn and headed back to Umbondwe with beads of sweat on the pip.
The bamboo bog had no light, so I had to find my way in the semi light, but halfway to the bog I thought about that fact that this would be a good spot for a puff adder to hang out, so froze and started debating a run into the bush versus the dark bog.
Maybe it was the puff adder thought, but the intensity increased; therefore the bush run was ruled out and I decided to rather make a big noise in the bog and watch for movement, so I jumped up and down and kicked everything that I could see and shouted my head off, but nothing moved.
The Cow and rats in the car were concerned as they thought I was attacking something. I heard the enquiring comments, but was the past the point of no return.
I survived the hidden potential puff adder and returned to the car to concerned faces looking back at me, but they all howled with laughter when I explained what had gone down in the bog.
Back on the road it was quiet until the Black Imfolozi Bridge where we spotted a few cars stopped at different spots, some before the bridge and 2 on the bridge. We didn’t see anything before the bridge and it was after 9am, so I thought that it was the usual bridge bird gang, so continued onto the bridge.
A few meters across a bridge the Cow started shouting “Stop, STOP, there’s Lion”
There were 7 lionesses, a teenage male and 1 large male.
The Cow had the spotting eyes on this morning and suddenly started whispering “There’s another coming down the river”; confused I said “What’s coming down the river”, “A Lion”. This got me thinking that I may need glasses, because I couldn’t see a thing, but as it got closer my eyes started to work.
I got very excited when the eyes eventually focused, because the lionesses where getting nervous, so I suspected that this may be an intruding male and when some of the females started rapidly moving off, I was convinced that a fight was on the cards.
The teenage male ducked off with the girls, but the large male walked out to meet the new comer, which got me shouting “VIDEO, there’s going to be action”
To my surprise the 2 guys seemed to be mates and started with their ritual greeting, which resulted in a small anticlimax pelican face from me.
The tag team then started towards us and after the females who had come in our direction, but ducked off into the reeds as they neared the bridge and were now out of sight, although we could see the reeds moving all over, so we knew that they were all still around.
The large males settled on the riverbank fairly close to us and the teenage male came out off the reeds to join them, but the females still seemed to be moving towards us, because the reeds were now moving next to the car, which was causing tension, as we could now hear them a few meters from our open windows, but couldn’t see them.
Suddenly Hawkeyes shouted “IN THE RIVER”, which caused me to nearly drop my camera out the window.
A hyena was having a swim in the river
This seemed to upset the male lions and they checked the swimming hyena out until he disappeared into the reeds on the opposite bank.
Suddenly the Cow screamed!
To be continued
Re: Imfolozi - Brown's June 2011
June 16th continued
The Cow screamed “THEY ARE IN THE ROAD”.
We were so busy watching the males, that we hadn’t noticed a couple of the females crossing in front of us, so I sneaked a few meters further forward to where they had entered the bush.
The Cow now found herself face to face with 2 of them and they weren’t happy about us being this close to them.
I told the rats to keep still as all the windows were open and the one aunty was seriously giving us the eye.
The Cow then moved the video camera and this caught the attention of the stroppy aunty and she let the Cow know that she wasn’t impressed. I had switched the car off, therefore the electric windows wouldn’t work, but he Cows fingers were frantically going up and down on the window controls, so she probably didn’t notice me quickly turning the ignition on.
Some of you may have already seen this video clip, but this is stroppy.
The rats also all got a fright and Albert looked as if she may howl, Bushpiggy had eyes like saucers, but hadn’t moved, Hawkeyes had closed her window and was trying to disappear in her car seat.
Stroppy seemed to relax now that the windows were closed, but Hawkeyes decided to open her window slightly to get a pic and the entire process started again, which nearly caused Hawkeyes to dive on the laps of her younger sisters and resulted in a major greasing from the Cow, but she did manage to get an amazing pic with her little camera.
Stroppy then decided to stand in front of our car and display her displeasure at our presence. The others crossed back over the road behind her as she stood guard.
Once they had crossed the road, Stroppy followed and they all came back out of the reeds in the same place that we had initially seen them. The one female decided that she needed a drink and the teenage male seemed as nervous of stroppy as we were and tried a suctioning technique to gain attention
The rats all needed to loo now, so we left the lions and continued on to Mpila camp. We double checked the check in times and were told to return just before 1pm; therefore we still had more than 2 hours to kill, so it was off to the hides.
Mpafa hide is a strange little hide on an elevated rock face just above a little dam and what makes it interesting is that one has to walk about 30 meters from your car with only a bunch of sticks on the one side to separate you from the little riverbed, so it’s not a favourite for the Cow.
There was very little water in the “dam” and another couple with undisciplined young boys were already in the hide, so my patience gave up after a few minutes and we decided to leave.
The strange thing is that two of the 4/5 year old boys followed us into the car park and their parents didn’t even seem to miss them. The Cow was concerned, so we hung around until one of the parents showed up on the path.
On the way up to UBhejane or Black Rhino hide we found many of the usual guys including giraffe and this guy below crossed in front of us.
Next up was a battalion of boons, but many of the Imfolozi boons are camera shy and take off as soon as you pull up, so we only managed a pic of the rear guard through the front windscreen as he took off down the road
The clan needed the loo again and fortunately UBhejane hide has a long drop type bog. Check out the sharp stones cemented in the ground around the water container in the pic below behind the Cow to protect the container from elephant.
The car park is a long way from the hide, probably about 60 meters and one enters a fenced walkway from the car park to access the hide. It’s a fairly large hide and overlooks a great little dam that always seems to have some water in it.
There was nobody at the hide, so we decided to sit until the next visitors arrived and a few minutes later the Cow managed to capture a pic of one of her favourite birds.
It was after 12pm now, so we decided to head back to Mpila to book in.
On the way back we found our first rhino of the trip, which was strange as I often refer to them as “being like cows” in Imfolozi, because we always see so many of them.
About 1km from camp we found a snake crossing the road. I’m no snake expert, so won’t even try and identify this guy.
To be continued
The Cow screamed “THEY ARE IN THE ROAD”.
We were so busy watching the males, that we hadn’t noticed a couple of the females crossing in front of us, so I sneaked a few meters further forward to where they had entered the bush.
The Cow now found herself face to face with 2 of them and they weren’t happy about us being this close to them.
I told the rats to keep still as all the windows were open and the one aunty was seriously giving us the eye.
The Cow then moved the video camera and this caught the attention of the stroppy aunty and she let the Cow know that she wasn’t impressed. I had switched the car off, therefore the electric windows wouldn’t work, but he Cows fingers were frantically going up and down on the window controls, so she probably didn’t notice me quickly turning the ignition on.
Some of you may have already seen this video clip, but this is stroppy.
The rats also all got a fright and Albert looked as if she may howl, Bushpiggy had eyes like saucers, but hadn’t moved, Hawkeyes had closed her window and was trying to disappear in her car seat.
Stroppy seemed to relax now that the windows were closed, but Hawkeyes decided to open her window slightly to get a pic and the entire process started again, which nearly caused Hawkeyes to dive on the laps of her younger sisters and resulted in a major greasing from the Cow, but she did manage to get an amazing pic with her little camera.
Stroppy then decided to stand in front of our car and display her displeasure at our presence. The others crossed back over the road behind her as she stood guard.
Once they had crossed the road, Stroppy followed and they all came back out of the reeds in the same place that we had initially seen them. The one female decided that she needed a drink and the teenage male seemed as nervous of stroppy as we were and tried a suctioning technique to gain attention
The rats all needed to loo now, so we left the lions and continued on to Mpila camp. We double checked the check in times and were told to return just before 1pm; therefore we still had more than 2 hours to kill, so it was off to the hides.
Mpafa hide is a strange little hide on an elevated rock face just above a little dam and what makes it interesting is that one has to walk about 30 meters from your car with only a bunch of sticks on the one side to separate you from the little riverbed, so it’s not a favourite for the Cow.
There was very little water in the “dam” and another couple with undisciplined young boys were already in the hide, so my patience gave up after a few minutes and we decided to leave.
The strange thing is that two of the 4/5 year old boys followed us into the car park and their parents didn’t even seem to miss them. The Cow was concerned, so we hung around until one of the parents showed up on the path.
On the way up to UBhejane or Black Rhino hide we found many of the usual guys including giraffe and this guy below crossed in front of us.
Next up was a battalion of boons, but many of the Imfolozi boons are camera shy and take off as soon as you pull up, so we only managed a pic of the rear guard through the front windscreen as he took off down the road
The clan needed the loo again and fortunately UBhejane hide has a long drop type bog. Check out the sharp stones cemented in the ground around the water container in the pic below behind the Cow to protect the container from elephant.
The car park is a long way from the hide, probably about 60 meters and one enters a fenced walkway from the car park to access the hide. It’s a fairly large hide and overlooks a great little dam that always seems to have some water in it.
There was nobody at the hide, so we decided to sit until the next visitors arrived and a few minutes later the Cow managed to capture a pic of one of her favourite birds.
It was after 12pm now, so we decided to head back to Mpila to book in.
On the way back we found our first rhino of the trip, which was strange as I often refer to them as “being like cows” in Imfolozi, because we always see so many of them.
About 1km from camp we found a snake crossing the road. I’m no snake expert, so won’t even try and identify this guy.
To be continued
Re: Imfolozi - Brown's June 2011
June 16th continued
We booked into our unit, quickly unpacked and then it was time for the chair on the veranda and a double G&T.
I was just starting to relax when the clan decided to join me, which started a mild pelican face and then just as the Cow was about to sit down, Bushpiggy shouted “SPIDER”. Personally I would rather face an angry lion than a spider, so the G&T nearly fell on my lap and I was up and ready for action, but when I spotted what had excited BP, I decided to retreat.
This thing was massive and even BP, who normally picks them up, was nervous.
I seriously don’t do spiders, so out came the braai tongs and the ammunition, but the spider decided to hit the deck which caused shrieks from the clan and some tap dancing from me, but fortunately it decided to move off.
The Cow then spotted some visitors in the camp and took off with the camera.
I was still trying to relax on the veranda, but it seems that if you have rats it’s not possible, especially when BP’s cousins decided to visit us, which got the clan highly excited, but it didn’t seem to worry the 4 legged hogs at all.
I eventually found peace as the clan decided to play some game that didn’t involve me, so the G&T’s flowed and I started to unwind.
Just before 4pm we decided to shoot down to the Imfolozi river bridge to check on our lions and a few were still sun tanning in the river bed.
We spent about 5 minutes with them, but they were just lazing about; therefore we decided to continue on with the planned route, which was in the opposite direction, so we turned and headed back towards the Sontuli loop, which IMO is the best road in the entire park and it’s a one way, so you don’t have to worry about oncoming traffic.
Just outside Mpila camp on the way to the loop we spotted another boon battalion and these guys at least stayed long enough for a pic
Our famous loop was dead until just before the end where we found a few buffalo and lions sleeping a long way off across the river.
The “gate” closing time at Imfolozi is 6pm in winter, not 5:30pm like it is at KNP, so although it was after 5:15pm already, we still had time to get back to camp, but it was already nearly dark and the kids were hungry, so we decided to head back to camp.
A few km later a major surprise waited for us.
Just past marker 15 there’s a little bridge over a dry riverbed and as we came around the corner we spotted the tail lights of 2 cars and then wild dogs running all over the place.
The dogs took off in front of the 2 cars that had stopped, but they had stopped in such a way that they blocked the road, so the tension went from zero to a million in a second. I was about to start screeching when one woke up and decided that they should maybe move after the dogs, but then got confused again and stopped. Fortunately I now had a gap to get through, so I took it quickly and got a visual on the dogs again who had moved about 30 meters ahead and just off the road.
It was now dark already and we could just make out shadows running all over the place, but as we neared the reality of what was going on hit home. These guys had just made a kill and were all tearing off pieces and running away with them.
Suddenly the Cow screamed “HYENA” and a few seconds later a gang pulled in from all directions.
The tension in my car was now completely through the roof as it was dark and these guys were about 15 meters into the bush, fighting each other over the kill and my little camera couldn’t focus, the flash was only going 3 meters and just as I was about to smash the camera, a little hyena and a wild dog stopped in flash range.
Then I tried to push the button a 3rd time and nothing happened, so I turned the camera to check what was going on and the flash went off in my face, which resulted in a tantrum as I had forgotten that the flash on my camera takes time to charge between shots.
I realized that my temper tantrum wasn’t going to achieve anything, so I just sat back and enjoyed the rest of the sighting.
I expected the wild dogs to back off, but the opposite happened, they started shrieking and attacked the hyena, but always from the rear. The hyenas were too slow to defend their butts, so they were getting a hiding from the dogs.
The quality of the video below is rubbish, because it was dark, so you can’t really see much, but during the first few seconds you should spot a hyena in the front and behind him 2 or 3 wild dogs.
I have also included a short clip of the sounds of the fight, although you won’t see anything, apologies, but with the equipment that I have, it’s a waste of time in the dark.
We travelled back to camp in silence, all still trying to absorb the sighting and I don’t remember even looking for more game.
Back in camp I had to get the fire going, which is always fun at Mpila camp, because generally as you put the meat on the fire a hyena arrives to investigate the smell and due to the fact that there are no fences, things get interesting in the dark.
About a minute after putting the meat on the first shadow cruised past just out of the light from my fire, so the rats got chased inside, a larger dop got poured, the torch came out the box and back to the “braai” I went.
I can only image how a cheetah feels on a kill, but it must be something like I feel each time I braai in the dark at Imfolozi.
I spent more time shining the torch on the passing hyenas then I did on the meat and at one stage, I thought that they were trying to surround me, but I found that if I stood still they wouldn’t approach closer than 5 meters, but if I walked away from the braai, they immediately started forward.
Eventually the meat was cooked and I took it inside, poured another dop and returned outside to find the clan all over the place.
In the pic below you can see the braai in the distance and what looks like a glowing fly just above the braai, which is the reflection of the 3rd hyena’s eye as he’s trying to lick the boiling hot braai grid.
We have found over the last couple of trips that they approached each time we sat down on the veranda, although if we stood up they would immediately back off, but I wouldn’t trust them with small kids and tonight was no exception, so mine got chased back inside.
My neighbours weren’t braaiing and had been very quiet, so I went to investigate and found the 4 of them in the house all peering back at me through a half open window with cameras in their hands.
The hyenas also got a fright as I walked over and took off in front of me towards the neighbours, which resulted in flashes firing, which gave me and the hyenas a fright, so I chose to retreat back to my veranda.
The Cow shouted for me to get my food, but as I was returning to our veranda a visitor had also smelt the food and was sneaking around.
This set me off after it with a clamp type braai grid that the Cow had brought me prior to the trip, which resulted in my clan howling with laughter, but it gave the neighbours a fright and more camera flashes started.
Nights at Mpila camp are super cool.
To be continued
We booked into our unit, quickly unpacked and then it was time for the chair on the veranda and a double G&T.
I was just starting to relax when the clan decided to join me, which started a mild pelican face and then just as the Cow was about to sit down, Bushpiggy shouted “SPIDER”. Personally I would rather face an angry lion than a spider, so the G&T nearly fell on my lap and I was up and ready for action, but when I spotted what had excited BP, I decided to retreat.
This thing was massive and even BP, who normally picks them up, was nervous.
I seriously don’t do spiders, so out came the braai tongs and the ammunition, but the spider decided to hit the deck which caused shrieks from the clan and some tap dancing from me, but fortunately it decided to move off.
The Cow then spotted some visitors in the camp and took off with the camera.
I was still trying to relax on the veranda, but it seems that if you have rats it’s not possible, especially when BP’s cousins decided to visit us, which got the clan highly excited, but it didn’t seem to worry the 4 legged hogs at all.
I eventually found peace as the clan decided to play some game that didn’t involve me, so the G&T’s flowed and I started to unwind.
Just before 4pm we decided to shoot down to the Imfolozi river bridge to check on our lions and a few were still sun tanning in the river bed.
We spent about 5 minutes with them, but they were just lazing about; therefore we decided to continue on with the planned route, which was in the opposite direction, so we turned and headed back towards the Sontuli loop, which IMO is the best road in the entire park and it’s a one way, so you don’t have to worry about oncoming traffic.
Just outside Mpila camp on the way to the loop we spotted another boon battalion and these guys at least stayed long enough for a pic
Our famous loop was dead until just before the end where we found a few buffalo and lions sleeping a long way off across the river.
The “gate” closing time at Imfolozi is 6pm in winter, not 5:30pm like it is at KNP, so although it was after 5:15pm already, we still had time to get back to camp, but it was already nearly dark and the kids were hungry, so we decided to head back to camp.
A few km later a major surprise waited for us.
Just past marker 15 there’s a little bridge over a dry riverbed and as we came around the corner we spotted the tail lights of 2 cars and then wild dogs running all over the place.
The dogs took off in front of the 2 cars that had stopped, but they had stopped in such a way that they blocked the road, so the tension went from zero to a million in a second. I was about to start screeching when one woke up and decided that they should maybe move after the dogs, but then got confused again and stopped. Fortunately I now had a gap to get through, so I took it quickly and got a visual on the dogs again who had moved about 30 meters ahead and just off the road.
It was now dark already and we could just make out shadows running all over the place, but as we neared the reality of what was going on hit home. These guys had just made a kill and were all tearing off pieces and running away with them.
Suddenly the Cow screamed “HYENA” and a few seconds later a gang pulled in from all directions.
The tension in my car was now completely through the roof as it was dark and these guys were about 15 meters into the bush, fighting each other over the kill and my little camera couldn’t focus, the flash was only going 3 meters and just as I was about to smash the camera, a little hyena and a wild dog stopped in flash range.
Then I tried to push the button a 3rd time and nothing happened, so I turned the camera to check what was going on and the flash went off in my face, which resulted in a tantrum as I had forgotten that the flash on my camera takes time to charge between shots.
I realized that my temper tantrum wasn’t going to achieve anything, so I just sat back and enjoyed the rest of the sighting.
I expected the wild dogs to back off, but the opposite happened, they started shrieking and attacked the hyena, but always from the rear. The hyenas were too slow to defend their butts, so they were getting a hiding from the dogs.
The quality of the video below is rubbish, because it was dark, so you can’t really see much, but during the first few seconds you should spot a hyena in the front and behind him 2 or 3 wild dogs.
I have also included a short clip of the sounds of the fight, although you won’t see anything, apologies, but with the equipment that I have, it’s a waste of time in the dark.
We travelled back to camp in silence, all still trying to absorb the sighting and I don’t remember even looking for more game.
Back in camp I had to get the fire going, which is always fun at Mpila camp, because generally as you put the meat on the fire a hyena arrives to investigate the smell and due to the fact that there are no fences, things get interesting in the dark.
About a minute after putting the meat on the first shadow cruised past just out of the light from my fire, so the rats got chased inside, a larger dop got poured, the torch came out the box and back to the “braai” I went.
I can only image how a cheetah feels on a kill, but it must be something like I feel each time I braai in the dark at Imfolozi.
I spent more time shining the torch on the passing hyenas then I did on the meat and at one stage, I thought that they were trying to surround me, but I found that if I stood still they wouldn’t approach closer than 5 meters, but if I walked away from the braai, they immediately started forward.
Eventually the meat was cooked and I took it inside, poured another dop and returned outside to find the clan all over the place.
In the pic below you can see the braai in the distance and what looks like a glowing fly just above the braai, which is the reflection of the 3rd hyena’s eye as he’s trying to lick the boiling hot braai grid.
We have found over the last couple of trips that they approached each time we sat down on the veranda, although if we stood up they would immediately back off, but I wouldn’t trust them with small kids and tonight was no exception, so mine got chased back inside.
My neighbours weren’t braaiing and had been very quiet, so I went to investigate and found the 4 of them in the house all peering back at me through a half open window with cameras in their hands.
The hyenas also got a fright as I walked over and took off in front of me towards the neighbours, which resulted in flashes firing, which gave me and the hyenas a fright, so I chose to retreat back to my veranda.
The Cow shouted for me to get my food, but as I was returning to our veranda a visitor had also smelt the food and was sneaking around.
This set me off after it with a clamp type braai grid that the Cow had brought me prior to the trip, which resulted in my clan howling with laughter, but it gave the neighbours a fright and more camera flashes started.
Nights at Mpila camp are super cool.
To be continued
Re: Imfolozi - Brown's June 2011
June 17th
I woke up at 1:30am and could hear something bashing around in the outside bin, which was meant to be locked in a cage, so I was highly excited that I now had to get out of bed to chase hyena.
I opened the back door to our unit in my underpants and stormed over to the bin, but hit the brakes about 2 meters from the “hyenas” that weren’t moving.
My brain was taking time to register, but I knew that these were strange looking “hyenas” and then the large one came charging out of the dark at me and it was making a noise that sounded like an upset elephant.
Well, I nearly soiled my underpants and almost ran past the open back door in retreat.
I tried the lights and then remembered that Mpila has no electricity between 10pm and 7am, so now I had to find the torch in the dark, which fortunately was on the dining room table.
With a torch as backup, I sneaked back outside to confirm what the “elephant” was, but the “elephant” came at me again, so I took off back inside.
I stood in the kitchen panting and then the brain twigged that the charging “elephant” was a Bushpig, so I roared off through the unit shouting “Bushpig”, which woke the Cow up who by now was sitting up in bed and asking me if I had gone crazy, but I was standing on the toilet in our unit trying to take pics out the window of the pigs below.
I couldn’t fit my head through the toilet window, so charged back past the bedroom shouting “Get up there’s pig outside”, which initially seemed to confuse the Cow more and a greasing started, but stopped as the penny dropped and the Cow was behind me on the way to the back door.
The pigs by now had cleaned out our bin and were cruising around outside the back door, so I said to the Cow “Hold the door; I have to get a pic”.
I sneaked outside and snapped off 2 quick pics while the Cow held the door ready to slam it closed behind me if they charged again.
The pigs continued to move off, so the Cow and I cleaned up the mess that they had made and I tied up the door to the bin cage to hopefully stop the pigs from further raids.
We decided this morning to head up to where we found the dogs the evening before and then do the Sontuli loop again.
The dogs had obviously moved on, so we ducked down the loop and a few km later the Cow shouted “lion”.
2 males came out of the bush just in front of us and crossed, but the camera panic started and I was freaking out, because my camera wouldn’t focus in the morning light and before we knew it they had moved off into the bush, but I did get a fuzzy bum shot of one as proof.
Next up was a mother rhino and her junior next to the road.
Junior suddenly noticed us and decided that we shouldn’t be there, so took it upon himself to charge us, which cracked us all up, that’s until mom started paying attention. I didn’t fancy a charge from mom, so we continued on.
Just around the corner junior’s dad showed up and he was a seriously big tank, so I reversed down the road until he decided to turn into the bush.
The rest of the loop was relatively quiet, so we continued on towards the Ngotsha loop and past UBhejane hide
This loop produced plenty of general game.
The rest of the drive back towards camp didn’t produce much except for a few zebra and a couple of peckers having a free chow and ride.
We stopped at camp to use the loo and have something to eat, but because it was still fairly early we decided to take the rats up to the game capture centre and curio stall.
On the tar a few km outside Mpila we found our first elephant of the trip. I believe that many of the Imfolozi elephants are old KNP bulls that have been brought in to control the stroppy undisciplined teenagers who were killing rhino, but I also understand that a few of these old bulls are notoriously aggro, so we kept our distance from this guy.
To be continued
I woke up at 1:30am and could hear something bashing around in the outside bin, which was meant to be locked in a cage, so I was highly excited that I now had to get out of bed to chase hyena.
I opened the back door to our unit in my underpants and stormed over to the bin, but hit the brakes about 2 meters from the “hyenas” that weren’t moving.
My brain was taking time to register, but I knew that these were strange looking “hyenas” and then the large one came charging out of the dark at me and it was making a noise that sounded like an upset elephant.
Well, I nearly soiled my underpants and almost ran past the open back door in retreat.
I tried the lights and then remembered that Mpila has no electricity between 10pm and 7am, so now I had to find the torch in the dark, which fortunately was on the dining room table.
With a torch as backup, I sneaked back outside to confirm what the “elephant” was, but the “elephant” came at me again, so I took off back inside.
I stood in the kitchen panting and then the brain twigged that the charging “elephant” was a Bushpig, so I roared off through the unit shouting “Bushpig”, which woke the Cow up who by now was sitting up in bed and asking me if I had gone crazy, but I was standing on the toilet in our unit trying to take pics out the window of the pigs below.
I couldn’t fit my head through the toilet window, so charged back past the bedroom shouting “Get up there’s pig outside”, which initially seemed to confuse the Cow more and a greasing started, but stopped as the penny dropped and the Cow was behind me on the way to the back door.
The pigs by now had cleaned out our bin and were cruising around outside the back door, so I said to the Cow “Hold the door; I have to get a pic”.
I sneaked outside and snapped off 2 quick pics while the Cow held the door ready to slam it closed behind me if they charged again.
The pigs continued to move off, so the Cow and I cleaned up the mess that they had made and I tied up the door to the bin cage to hopefully stop the pigs from further raids.
We decided this morning to head up to where we found the dogs the evening before and then do the Sontuli loop again.
The dogs had obviously moved on, so we ducked down the loop and a few km later the Cow shouted “lion”.
2 males came out of the bush just in front of us and crossed, but the camera panic started and I was freaking out, because my camera wouldn’t focus in the morning light and before we knew it they had moved off into the bush, but I did get a fuzzy bum shot of one as proof.
Next up was a mother rhino and her junior next to the road.
Junior suddenly noticed us and decided that we shouldn’t be there, so took it upon himself to charge us, which cracked us all up, that’s until mom started paying attention. I didn’t fancy a charge from mom, so we continued on.
Just around the corner junior’s dad showed up and he was a seriously big tank, so I reversed down the road until he decided to turn into the bush.
The rest of the loop was relatively quiet, so we continued on towards the Ngotsha loop and past UBhejane hide
This loop produced plenty of general game.
The rest of the drive back towards camp didn’t produce much except for a few zebra and a couple of peckers having a free chow and ride.
We stopped at camp to use the loo and have something to eat, but because it was still fairly early we decided to take the rats up to the game capture centre and curio stall.
On the tar a few km outside Mpila we found our first elephant of the trip. I believe that many of the Imfolozi elephants are old KNP bulls that have been brought in to control the stroppy undisciplined teenagers who were killing rhino, but I also understand that a few of these old bulls are notoriously aggro, so we kept our distance from this guy.
To be continued
Re: Imfolozi - Brown's June 2011
June 17 continued
The game capture centre didn’t have much to offer and the curio section reminds me of a flea market, which isn’t for me at the best of times, although there were a few brilliant homemade items.
The rats all wanted to pose on the black rhino statue.
We found some general game on the way back to camp, but being the middle of the day; they all seemed to be snoozing.
Back at camp, I was bored, so decided to have a late afternoon braai, which always provides the required outside entertainment for all and at least I would duck the hyenas tonight.
The problem with afternoon braais is that they are always accompanied by the odd beer; therefore our evening drive started rather late, so we decided to head up to view point 17, get out to stretch the legs and then head back to camp to heat up our leftover meat from the braai.
The first stop just outside camp was for a Crested Val in the road.
The next hour was very quiet with only a few of the usual guys making an appearance, so we decided to head back to camp.
Halfway back we found this guy cruising along, but it was nearly dark, so please excuse the quality of the pic.
Just before we hit the tar piece, a few km from camp, the Cow spotted this guy below in the road. I’m guessing, but I’m sure that it’s a little nightjar. We couldn’t get close enough to get a descent pic with my camera, so sorry again for the quality.
Back in camp the Cow decided to heat up the leftover meat from our braai and I decided to eat it on the veranda to get some peace from the rats who were running amok in the unit.
Halfway through supper I spotted a shape coming towards me, so I shouted “The hyenas are back again”
The shape kept on coming, which is unlike a hyena, as they normally check you out from a distance for awhile before coming closer.
Suddenly the shape accelerated towards me, which again nearly resulted in soiled underpants and I charged inside slamming the sliding door behind me.
I kept on running for the camera as I knew that this was a large Bushpig, but as I was fumbling around with the camera battery, Albert let out a shriek and then started howling, which got everybody’s attention.
Albert was sitting next to the sliding door as I ran in and slammed it, but she hadn’t realized what was going on until she turned around and spotted the large pig looking at her through the glass and I think that she thought that she may be on the pigs menu.
The other 2 rats now spotted the pig and took off in different directions and the Cow arrived from the kitchen with eyes like saucers.
Eventually the chaos calmed down and we all sat observing this strange pig through the glass.
The pig realized that it couldn’t get inside and started to move off, so I opened the door to try for a better pic, but as I did that the pig charged back over and I had to slam the door again.
I then realized that this pig could smell the chow in the house and it would use every opportunity to get in. Each time the pig moved off I opened the door to test my theory and the pig charged.
The big guy eventually gave up and moved off, so I went outside again, but a few seconds later more pigs came out of the darkness, although these chaps were smaller than the first guy. It looked like a mom, teenager, and a junior.
They were more afraid of me than the old man had been and as I approached them they took off, but the teenager returned and started sniffing around the table where I had been eating, which set the Cow off as she thought that the pig wanted to eat her smokes.
Thankfully after sniffing them he snorted and retreated.
The rats eventually calmed down and went to bed, so the Cow and I poured another dop and enjoyed the peace on the veranda outside, but a few minutes later the first hyena arrived and this guy was different and very confident, so I was a little edgy around him as he wasn’t afraid to approach us at all.
I had to stand up to get him to stop his approach, but he never backed off, so the Cow decided to get him on video.
Suddenly the Cow shouted “THE PIG IS BACK!!!”
Now I didn’t know what was going to happen, as we were both outside, so decided to just stand still and watch.
The hyena checked the pig out a few times and then without warning took off after the pig and tackled it. This caught us off guard and unfortunately the Cow never caught it on the camera because she took off in the other direction.
To my surprise the hyena gave the pig a hiding and the pig took off shrieking his lungs out.
This caught the neighbour’s attention and they were back at the window with their cameras, but the hyena was starting to irritate me and I had swallowed a few more whiskeys, so I again took off after the hyena with the braai grid and again the neighbours cameras flashed like disco lights.
The hyena disappeared into the bush and never returned, so I poured another dop and the Cow joined me on the veranda again.
About half an hour later our friend the pig arrived again, but he seemed more sceptical after the hyena hiding and approached us slowly, so I started talking to him like I would talk to a dog, which cracked the Cow up and she started squawking “Do you think that you are a pig whisperer”
I now felt that the pig was my mate, as he seemed to be listening to me, so I decided to sit it out and continue our conversation, but lost my nerve as he got too close and decided that I had taken enough chances and joined the Cow in the doorway.
The pig snorted around and left.
To be continued
The game capture centre didn’t have much to offer and the curio section reminds me of a flea market, which isn’t for me at the best of times, although there were a few brilliant homemade items.
The rats all wanted to pose on the black rhino statue.
We found some general game on the way back to camp, but being the middle of the day; they all seemed to be snoozing.
Back at camp, I was bored, so decided to have a late afternoon braai, which always provides the required outside entertainment for all and at least I would duck the hyenas tonight.
The problem with afternoon braais is that they are always accompanied by the odd beer; therefore our evening drive started rather late, so we decided to head up to view point 17, get out to stretch the legs and then head back to camp to heat up our leftover meat from the braai.
The first stop just outside camp was for a Crested Val in the road.
The next hour was very quiet with only a few of the usual guys making an appearance, so we decided to head back to camp.
Halfway back we found this guy cruising along, but it was nearly dark, so please excuse the quality of the pic.
Just before we hit the tar piece, a few km from camp, the Cow spotted this guy below in the road. I’m guessing, but I’m sure that it’s a little nightjar. We couldn’t get close enough to get a descent pic with my camera, so sorry again for the quality.
Back in camp the Cow decided to heat up the leftover meat from our braai and I decided to eat it on the veranda to get some peace from the rats who were running amok in the unit.
Halfway through supper I spotted a shape coming towards me, so I shouted “The hyenas are back again”
The shape kept on coming, which is unlike a hyena, as they normally check you out from a distance for awhile before coming closer.
Suddenly the shape accelerated towards me, which again nearly resulted in soiled underpants and I charged inside slamming the sliding door behind me.
I kept on running for the camera as I knew that this was a large Bushpig, but as I was fumbling around with the camera battery, Albert let out a shriek and then started howling, which got everybody’s attention.
Albert was sitting next to the sliding door as I ran in and slammed it, but she hadn’t realized what was going on until she turned around and spotted the large pig looking at her through the glass and I think that she thought that she may be on the pigs menu.
The other 2 rats now spotted the pig and took off in different directions and the Cow arrived from the kitchen with eyes like saucers.
Eventually the chaos calmed down and we all sat observing this strange pig through the glass.
The pig realized that it couldn’t get inside and started to move off, so I opened the door to try for a better pic, but as I did that the pig charged back over and I had to slam the door again.
I then realized that this pig could smell the chow in the house and it would use every opportunity to get in. Each time the pig moved off I opened the door to test my theory and the pig charged.
The big guy eventually gave up and moved off, so I went outside again, but a few seconds later more pigs came out of the darkness, although these chaps were smaller than the first guy. It looked like a mom, teenager, and a junior.
They were more afraid of me than the old man had been and as I approached them they took off, but the teenager returned and started sniffing around the table where I had been eating, which set the Cow off as she thought that the pig wanted to eat her smokes.
Thankfully after sniffing them he snorted and retreated.
The rats eventually calmed down and went to bed, so the Cow and I poured another dop and enjoyed the peace on the veranda outside, but a few minutes later the first hyena arrived and this guy was different and very confident, so I was a little edgy around him as he wasn’t afraid to approach us at all.
I had to stand up to get him to stop his approach, but he never backed off, so the Cow decided to get him on video.
Suddenly the Cow shouted “THE PIG IS BACK!!!”
Now I didn’t know what was going to happen, as we were both outside, so decided to just stand still and watch.
The hyena checked the pig out a few times and then without warning took off after the pig and tackled it. This caught us off guard and unfortunately the Cow never caught it on the camera because she took off in the other direction.
To my surprise the hyena gave the pig a hiding and the pig took off shrieking his lungs out.
This caught the neighbour’s attention and they were back at the window with their cameras, but the hyena was starting to irritate me and I had swallowed a few more whiskeys, so I again took off after the hyena with the braai grid and again the neighbours cameras flashed like disco lights.
The hyena disappeared into the bush and never returned, so I poured another dop and the Cow joined me on the veranda again.
About half an hour later our friend the pig arrived again, but he seemed more sceptical after the hyena hiding and approached us slowly, so I started talking to him like I would talk to a dog, which cracked the Cow up and she started squawking “Do you think that you are a pig whisperer”
I now felt that the pig was my mate, as he seemed to be listening to me, so I decided to sit it out and continue our conversation, but lost my nerve as he got too close and decided that I had taken enough chances and joined the Cow in the doorway.
The pig snorted around and left.
To be continued
Re: Imfolozi - Brown's June 2011
June 18th
This morning the plan was do the Sontuli loop again, but due to the fact that there’s no power at Mpila camp until 7am we were a little slow this morning and it had nothing to do with my whiskey pig mission from the previous evening, but we ended up leaving just after 6:30am.
The loop was very quiet until just past the 3rd view point where we spotted some buffalo in the bush and due to the fact that it had been a quiet first hour the rats all wanted to take a pic, which was irritating the hell out of me, because as I have said buffalo remind me of cows, the 4 legged ones that is.
I was slowly counting to ten while the Cow was supervising the rats who were sharing a camera and trying to focus on the buffalo, when I spotted something rapidly approaching.
The brain was a little slow this morning, but suddenly I realized what it was and started shouting “SCRUB HARE”. The Cow looked at me as if I had gone crazy and then I started squealing “WILD DOG”
The hare ran under my car and we never spotted it again, but the 1st dog approached at a rapid pace straight for our car. Sorry about some of the pics, but things were happening so fast and I was just pointing the camera in the general direction and pushing the button.
The dog abruptly stopped in front of our car and looked back.
Suddenly dogs were coming out of the bush from all directions, which caused even more panic in our car and I didn’t know which direction to point the camera, as none would stand still for more than a second and the camera couldn’t focus in time.
Below is a short video clip of the sighting and again I apologize for some of the footage as I was reversing with one hand on the wheel, while trying to take static pics with the other, so I was all over the road; therefore the Cow was battling to hold the video camera still.
The dogs all turned and ran in the direction of the river, so we whipped out the map book to check how far we were from the next view point and worked out that it was about a km away, so charged off in that direction.
As we approached the view point we spotted another couple and they were waving their hands at us, so we knew that the dogs must be visible.
The first group had already crossed the river, the second was still crossing and the third group seemed rather nervous to follow.
There were 22 dogs in total, which is the biggest wild dog pack that we had ever seen and it was totally awesome to be outside of our vehicle on a view point watching them.
The lead group quickly moved on and the river group were hot on their heels, but the third group hadn’t even started to cross the river yet.
The last batch eventually gained enough courage to attempt a crossing, but halfway across something gave them a fright and they all froze in the middle of the river. They were all checking out the opposite bank, but we couldn’t see anything.
Abruptly they started walking down the river bed towards us and then took off in the direction of the second group.
We stood and watched them until they were out of sight and then spent another 10 minutes chatting to the other couple who had shared the sighting with us.
A few km further up the road Hawkeyes spotted a zebra that seemed very nervous and didn’t hang around, but the pic that she took shows why the zebra may have been nervous.
To be continued
This morning the plan was do the Sontuli loop again, but due to the fact that there’s no power at Mpila camp until 7am we were a little slow this morning and it had nothing to do with my whiskey pig mission from the previous evening, but we ended up leaving just after 6:30am.
The loop was very quiet until just past the 3rd view point where we spotted some buffalo in the bush and due to the fact that it had been a quiet first hour the rats all wanted to take a pic, which was irritating the hell out of me, because as I have said buffalo remind me of cows, the 4 legged ones that is.
I was slowly counting to ten while the Cow was supervising the rats who were sharing a camera and trying to focus on the buffalo, when I spotted something rapidly approaching.
The brain was a little slow this morning, but suddenly I realized what it was and started shouting “SCRUB HARE”. The Cow looked at me as if I had gone crazy and then I started squealing “WILD DOG”
The hare ran under my car and we never spotted it again, but the 1st dog approached at a rapid pace straight for our car. Sorry about some of the pics, but things were happening so fast and I was just pointing the camera in the general direction and pushing the button.
The dog abruptly stopped in front of our car and looked back.
Suddenly dogs were coming out of the bush from all directions, which caused even more panic in our car and I didn’t know which direction to point the camera, as none would stand still for more than a second and the camera couldn’t focus in time.
Below is a short video clip of the sighting and again I apologize for some of the footage as I was reversing with one hand on the wheel, while trying to take static pics with the other, so I was all over the road; therefore the Cow was battling to hold the video camera still.
The dogs all turned and ran in the direction of the river, so we whipped out the map book to check how far we were from the next view point and worked out that it was about a km away, so charged off in that direction.
As we approached the view point we spotted another couple and they were waving their hands at us, so we knew that the dogs must be visible.
The first group had already crossed the river, the second was still crossing and the third group seemed rather nervous to follow.
There were 22 dogs in total, which is the biggest wild dog pack that we had ever seen and it was totally awesome to be outside of our vehicle on a view point watching them.
The lead group quickly moved on and the river group were hot on their heels, but the third group hadn’t even started to cross the river yet.
The last batch eventually gained enough courage to attempt a crossing, but halfway across something gave them a fright and they all froze in the middle of the river. They were all checking out the opposite bank, but we couldn’t see anything.
Abruptly they started walking down the river bed towards us and then took off in the direction of the second group.
We stood and watched them until they were out of sight and then spent another 10 minutes chatting to the other couple who had shared the sighting with us.
A few km further up the road Hawkeyes spotted a zebra that seemed very nervous and didn’t hang around, but the pic that she took shows why the zebra may have been nervous.
To be continued
Re: Imfolozi - Brown's June 2011
June 18th continued
After our wild dog sighting I could have gone back for breakfast, but the Sontuli loop is a one way, so we had to continue on in the opposite direction to the bacon and eggs.
Next up we found a few impala having a scrap.
Just around the corner and just before the end of the Sontuli loop we spotted 2 cars on the side of the road, but initially couldn’t see what they were looking at, so Albert decided to do the Vartie thing and even though the binoculars were upside down, she thought that she was helping out.
Suddenly the Cow said “What’s that over there, it looks like ears”, so I fought Albert for the binoculars and had a look at the Cow’s potential ears.
I couldn’t find what the Cow was looking at, so the inevitable argument started “WHERE”, “Do you see that grass over there”, “There’s grass everywhere @@$#@”. “THERE you @$$#$@!”
Suddenly it sat up.
She sat and groomed for a while, then decided it was time to go. First she walked left, sat down for a bit and then decided right was the correct option and just kept walking into the bush.
While we were watching her, the Cow spotted a Secretary bird through two trees and decided that this bird was far more important than the cheetah, so the instructions started “Move forward, the bird has gone behind the tree”, “Stuff the bird”, “I want a picture now!!”, “Wait”, which started the pelican, but because I felt like a smoke, I agreed to continue on to viewpoint 17, which was a few hundred meters away.
As we came round the corner, the Cow’s bird was in full form, although a bit shy, but as we continued on we realized that there were 2 of them.
We stopped at viewpoint 17 and joined a few other people who were having coffee, but the tranquil conversation didn’t last long as a few minutes later someone shouted “CHEETAH!!”
The cheetah that we had just seen walk into the bush was now coming down to the water about 100m from us, but unfortunately way too far for a picture.
The rats by now were all over the place and the Cow was trying to use the video camera on the cheetah, so I moved off to one side of the viewpoint for 5 minutes peace with the binoculars, but the cheetah had disappeared into the bush next to the river and I couldn’t see anything up or down the river, so in frustration, turned and looked behind me.
Again it took the brain a few seconds to click and then I shouted “There’s lion behind us”, which resulted in the normal scowl from the Cow and the “have you lost your mind again expression”, but abruptly the penny dropped and the Cow became a vicious rounder of rats and in a few seconds we were all in the car.
This was a young male relaxing in the morning sun and he probably had been lying there watching us for awhile now. There were still a few people out their cars at the viewpoint and they had no idea that this lion was about 100m away watching them.
Looking back now, I can only assume that he had been lying there the entire time we had been looking at the Secretary bird, but because we were so focused on the bird out my window, the Cow didn’t look out her window.
Whilst sitting there watching him, we could see cars starting to build up just pasted the lookout point and because we are curious beings, decided to take quick drive up and look.
When we arrived at the crowd a kind soul told us that there were lions on the other side of the river bank. The ladies disappeared rather quickly, but the male was rather lazy and only got up a few minutes later to follow his girls. They were really far off, so sorry about the pic
The Cow’s eyes were watering at this stage, so we decided to head off to the hide for a loo break and come back again, but by the time we got back all the animals had disappeared, so I obviously blamed the Cow, who then gave me a greasing in return.
It was now definitely time for breakfast.
The Cow spent the afternoon sneaking up on birds around camp; I put my feet up with a few G & T’s and the rats spent their time seeing who they could irritate the most, so I eventually lost it and decided to take them on a tour of Mpila camp to photograph all the accommodation types.
I have posted these pics already under the Imfolozi thread.
We left at about 4pm for our afternoon drive and chose to do the Sontuli loop as our last evening drive, because it’s been good to us over the years.
First up we found some pigs having a snooze
Things were relatively quiet all the way to the Sontuli picnic site, which was as quiet as our drive so far.
The last time that we were alone at this picnic site was in May and we had casually walked to the front to check out the river bed, but hadn’t seen a herd of elephant in the bush just in front, which resulted in a chaotic sprint back to the car, so the Cow wasn’t getting out of the car with the rats.
I couldn’t resist a quick run to the front, which produced a few giraffe and a rhino, but after a few pics I felt watched, so turned and sprinted back to the enquiring faces in the car.
Next up we found a gang of Imfolozi locals. There were 9 of them together next to the road, but I couldn’t fit them all in 1 frame.
We stopped at our little wild dog view point to absorb the peace and got out to stretch the legs.
The Cow was looking up the river and had a confused look on her face, so I asked “What’s up”, “There’s something walking up the river towards us”.
As the “something” neared, the penny dropped, it was a lioness followed by a male.
The lionesses stopped for a leak in the riverbed and this didn’t seem to impress the male as he tested the air for availability. I thought that he was going to try and get lucky, but the antisocial female gave him a growl and moved off into the bush on the other side of the river.
He hung around sniffing her pee and then followed her into the bush.
The drive back to camp produced a few of the usual clan, but nothing special.
We arrived back to camp just as it was getting dark, so I quickly started the fire and hoped to finish the braai before the clan of raiders arrived, but once again I was surrounded by the scallywags as I cooked.
To be continued
After our wild dog sighting I could have gone back for breakfast, but the Sontuli loop is a one way, so we had to continue on in the opposite direction to the bacon and eggs.
Next up we found a few impala having a scrap.
Just around the corner and just before the end of the Sontuli loop we spotted 2 cars on the side of the road, but initially couldn’t see what they were looking at, so Albert decided to do the Vartie thing and even though the binoculars were upside down, she thought that she was helping out.
Suddenly the Cow said “What’s that over there, it looks like ears”, so I fought Albert for the binoculars and had a look at the Cow’s potential ears.
I couldn’t find what the Cow was looking at, so the inevitable argument started “WHERE”, “Do you see that grass over there”, “There’s grass everywhere @@$#@”. “THERE you @$$#$@!”
Suddenly it sat up.
She sat and groomed for a while, then decided it was time to go. First she walked left, sat down for a bit and then decided right was the correct option and just kept walking into the bush.
While we were watching her, the Cow spotted a Secretary bird through two trees and decided that this bird was far more important than the cheetah, so the instructions started “Move forward, the bird has gone behind the tree”, “Stuff the bird”, “I want a picture now!!”, “Wait”, which started the pelican, but because I felt like a smoke, I agreed to continue on to viewpoint 17, which was a few hundred meters away.
As we came round the corner, the Cow’s bird was in full form, although a bit shy, but as we continued on we realized that there were 2 of them.
We stopped at viewpoint 17 and joined a few other people who were having coffee, but the tranquil conversation didn’t last long as a few minutes later someone shouted “CHEETAH!!”
The cheetah that we had just seen walk into the bush was now coming down to the water about 100m from us, but unfortunately way too far for a picture.
The rats by now were all over the place and the Cow was trying to use the video camera on the cheetah, so I moved off to one side of the viewpoint for 5 minutes peace with the binoculars, but the cheetah had disappeared into the bush next to the river and I couldn’t see anything up or down the river, so in frustration, turned and looked behind me.
Again it took the brain a few seconds to click and then I shouted “There’s lion behind us”, which resulted in the normal scowl from the Cow and the “have you lost your mind again expression”, but abruptly the penny dropped and the Cow became a vicious rounder of rats and in a few seconds we were all in the car.
This was a young male relaxing in the morning sun and he probably had been lying there watching us for awhile now. There were still a few people out their cars at the viewpoint and they had no idea that this lion was about 100m away watching them.
Looking back now, I can only assume that he had been lying there the entire time we had been looking at the Secretary bird, but because we were so focused on the bird out my window, the Cow didn’t look out her window.
Whilst sitting there watching him, we could see cars starting to build up just pasted the lookout point and because we are curious beings, decided to take quick drive up and look.
When we arrived at the crowd a kind soul told us that there were lions on the other side of the river bank. The ladies disappeared rather quickly, but the male was rather lazy and only got up a few minutes later to follow his girls. They were really far off, so sorry about the pic
The Cow’s eyes were watering at this stage, so we decided to head off to the hide for a loo break and come back again, but by the time we got back all the animals had disappeared, so I obviously blamed the Cow, who then gave me a greasing in return.
It was now definitely time for breakfast.
The Cow spent the afternoon sneaking up on birds around camp; I put my feet up with a few G & T’s and the rats spent their time seeing who they could irritate the most, so I eventually lost it and decided to take them on a tour of Mpila camp to photograph all the accommodation types.
I have posted these pics already under the Imfolozi thread.
We left at about 4pm for our afternoon drive and chose to do the Sontuli loop as our last evening drive, because it’s been good to us over the years.
First up we found some pigs having a snooze
Things were relatively quiet all the way to the Sontuli picnic site, which was as quiet as our drive so far.
The last time that we were alone at this picnic site was in May and we had casually walked to the front to check out the river bed, but hadn’t seen a herd of elephant in the bush just in front, which resulted in a chaotic sprint back to the car, so the Cow wasn’t getting out of the car with the rats.
I couldn’t resist a quick run to the front, which produced a few giraffe and a rhino, but after a few pics I felt watched, so turned and sprinted back to the enquiring faces in the car.
Next up we found a gang of Imfolozi locals. There were 9 of them together next to the road, but I couldn’t fit them all in 1 frame.
We stopped at our little wild dog view point to absorb the peace and got out to stretch the legs.
The Cow was looking up the river and had a confused look on her face, so I asked “What’s up”, “There’s something walking up the river towards us”.
As the “something” neared, the penny dropped, it was a lioness followed by a male.
The lionesses stopped for a leak in the riverbed and this didn’t seem to impress the male as he tested the air for availability. I thought that he was going to try and get lucky, but the antisocial female gave him a growl and moved off into the bush on the other side of the river.
He hung around sniffing her pee and then followed her into the bush.
The drive back to camp produced a few of the usual clan, but nothing special.
We arrived back to camp just as it was getting dark, so I quickly started the fire and hoped to finish the braai before the clan of raiders arrived, but once again I was surrounded by the scallywags as I cooked.
To be continued
Re: Imfolozi - Brown's June 2011
June 19th
We slept later this morning as the plan was to head on home, because I had plenty to organize for work the next day, so we only finished packing the car just before 7am and left camp just after 7am.
The Cow had a small pelican, because I was in a rush to get home, so made me turn into every little dirt inlet on the way to the gate, which was causing me major frustration as my brain was already back at work.
The first little dirt inlet to Bavuloma waterhole produced a large rhino who was going to the loo, which caused the usual circus from the rats in the back seat.
Just around the corner we spotted a car stopped on the side of the road and the driver had the biggest white canon lenses that I have ever seen sticking out of the window, so we pulled up next to them and politely asked “Wow, now that’s a camera, what have you guys seen this morning”
Well the old dragon in the passenger seat completely ignored us, so I was about to call her a rude old bat, when the Cow politely asked again and the bat turned and said “there’s a cheetah deep in the bush” and then continued to ignore us.
We tried to look where they seemed to be looking, but couldn’t see a thing, so again asked “Can you give us an indication of where to look”, but the bat never responded and refused to even look at us. The Wilfred behind the R100 000 lenses never even acknowledged our presence.
I was now boiling at their attitude and wanted to see if I could fit his large lenses down his dragon’s throat, but fortunately they moved to a different position about 30 meters further up the road and Wilfred had put the camera away, so they obviously couldn’t see it either.
We decided to stay where we were and patiently wait.
A few minutes later impala scattered in all directions and one was running towards us in top gear. This caused massive tension as we had put the cameras away, so I was shrieking for my camera and the Cow was shrieking at me, because a cheetah had burst from the bush behind the impala.
The cheetah gave up on the impala after 10 seconds, stopped and looked back. She seemed to be waiting for something and a few seconds later 2 teenagers wondered out the bush to join her.
I looked at where Wilfred had parked and they were no longer there, so probably moved on a few seconds before all this happened.
The mom decided to have a rest in the shade of a tree and the one teenager joined her, but the other chap keep running off into the bush and then coming back out again and this seemed to be irritating mom.
The naughty teenager disappeared for the 3rd time and mom eventually decided to go into the bush after him. We waited another 15 minutes to see if they would show themselves again, but eventually decided to head for the gate.
The Cow managed to get the last part of the chase on video, but the cheetah had already given up on the impala by then and I had to cut again as I was still shrieking for my camera, so some general footage of them is included as things had relaxed by then.
Lastly, thanks to all mites that have shared our adventure with us and for allowing us the opportunity to relive our trip.
Bushcraft, Cow and the Rats.
We slept later this morning as the plan was to head on home, because I had plenty to organize for work the next day, so we only finished packing the car just before 7am and left camp just after 7am.
The Cow had a small pelican, because I was in a rush to get home, so made me turn into every little dirt inlet on the way to the gate, which was causing me major frustration as my brain was already back at work.
The first little dirt inlet to Bavuloma waterhole produced a large rhino who was going to the loo, which caused the usual circus from the rats in the back seat.
Just around the corner we spotted a car stopped on the side of the road and the driver had the biggest white canon lenses that I have ever seen sticking out of the window, so we pulled up next to them and politely asked “Wow, now that’s a camera, what have you guys seen this morning”
Well the old dragon in the passenger seat completely ignored us, so I was about to call her a rude old bat, when the Cow politely asked again and the bat turned and said “there’s a cheetah deep in the bush” and then continued to ignore us.
We tried to look where they seemed to be looking, but couldn’t see a thing, so again asked “Can you give us an indication of where to look”, but the bat never responded and refused to even look at us. The Wilfred behind the R100 000 lenses never even acknowledged our presence.
I was now boiling at their attitude and wanted to see if I could fit his large lenses down his dragon’s throat, but fortunately they moved to a different position about 30 meters further up the road and Wilfred had put the camera away, so they obviously couldn’t see it either.
We decided to stay where we were and patiently wait.
A few minutes later impala scattered in all directions and one was running towards us in top gear. This caused massive tension as we had put the cameras away, so I was shrieking for my camera and the Cow was shrieking at me, because a cheetah had burst from the bush behind the impala.
The cheetah gave up on the impala after 10 seconds, stopped and looked back. She seemed to be waiting for something and a few seconds later 2 teenagers wondered out the bush to join her.
I looked at where Wilfred had parked and they were no longer there, so probably moved on a few seconds before all this happened.
The mom decided to have a rest in the shade of a tree and the one teenager joined her, but the other chap keep running off into the bush and then coming back out again and this seemed to be irritating mom.
The naughty teenager disappeared for the 3rd time and mom eventually decided to go into the bush after him. We waited another 15 minutes to see if they would show themselves again, but eventually decided to head for the gate.
The Cow managed to get the last part of the chase on video, but the cheetah had already given up on the impala by then and I had to cut again as I was still shrieking for my camera, so some general footage of them is included as things had relaxed by then.
Lastly, thanks to all mites that have shared our adventure with us and for allowing us the opportunity to relive our trip.
Bushcraft, Cow and the Rats.