Africa Wild

Oct 17th

We had a lazy morning............Up late, loads of emails to reply to, etc etc.
Then a naughty but nice brunch.............cholesterol nightmare!! Yum!!!

Therefore we just had a couple of hours at the Masorini and Erfplaas waterholes this afternoon.

We saw our cute little klippie near Masorini, but he chose to stay on his high rock today, togethger with a few dassies who were sunning themselves nearby.

There were quite a few ellies having a welcome drink at Erfplaas, and we also saw impala, giraffe and zebbies.

The little stripey guy thought we couldn't see him, because he was behind a tree!!!

Not bad for a short trip!!

More tomorrow..................

Oct 18th.

We decided to take another picnic to the causeway again, but took the S131 from the gate and joined up with the H1-4.
We saw a lot of dwarf mongooses far into the bush.............so many so, that we thought there must be a dwarf mongoose convention going on somewhere!!


We saw a black backed jackal carrying his breakfast deep in the bush, and some warthogs, who ran off with their tails in the air, when they saw us!!!
I do love it when they do that!!


After we joined the H1-4 we saw the hyena that has a den nearby. We saw her one day suckling her pups, but today they were no where to be seen.

We saw most of our usual friends en route to our destination, and when we arrived at the causeway I couldn't believe my eyes!!

There were two landies parked in the area half way along the causeway, and the occupants were all out of their vehicles!!
They were intent on filming the two hippos in the water, which was a long way from their landies!!
When will people learn???

They were too far away for us to speak to them, and they must have spent 20 minutes walking up and down.

There have been lion and leopard sightings nearby recently!!


Eventually a car came from the opposite direction, and must have told them their fortunes, because they returned to their vehicles and shot off pretty smartly!!

The passenger in the car smiled at me as they passed us and said "Bl^%$y foreigners"!!


I had been so internt on filming these idiots that when I looked to my left to see what was in the river..................there was a huge herd of ellies, not too far away from us!!!


Our male kudu from Sunday was there again, munching on a succulent bush, but the waterbuck were nowhere to be seen,,,,,,,,,and I suspect that they were giving the ellies a respectful distance!!


We ate our picnic............smoked salmon, taramasalata, thinly sliced ham and salad, and I kept a watchful eye on the ellies!!


On our way home, we witnessed a very interesting episode.

There was a bateleur (almost fully grown I would say) in the road with a kill, but as he proceeded to eat it, a tawny eagle flew down, and stole it from him. The tawny flew into the nearest tree, and tucked in to the delicious meal, and the poor young bataleur looked quite bewildered, glanced up at his lost meal, and flew away in disgust!!


We had a few more sightings of general game, on the way back, and then we were at the gate!!!


More tomorrow....................

Oct 18th.

Encounter with two raptors.

These are some photos of our encounter on Tuesday with two raptors.
Bateleur has kill, Tawny arrives, Tawny steals kill, Bateleur looks on in disgust.
Tawny flies to tree and eats kill!!

I do apologise for the quality of the pictures, but they were taken from a distance and through our windscreen, as we didn't want to disturb them!!
Even though they are of poor quality I thought they may be interesing to you.

More tomorrow.........................

Oct 20th.

Had such a nice surprise today. We were in Phala Spar, and a girl came up to me and said "Are you Val!?
It was the daughter of dear friends of ours from Joburg 35 years ago!!! She was 8 at the time, so well done her for recognising me!!
I had lost contact with her Mum (Dad had sadly passed away) , so it will be so good to be able to be in contact again.

Interestingly she and her husband were on their way to Letaba to do a "Raptor's Course"

Anyway, we had an early lunch, and then set off for Letaba ourselves.

Quite an uneventful day, with most of our usual friends putting in an appearance.
Ellies, Giraffe, Zebbies, Buffs, Wathog, Hippo, Crocs (big ones!!) Impala, Kudu, Waterbuck, and...............Ostriches!!
I know they are seen in KNP, but not that often!!

Hope you enjoy the photos.

More tomorrow.............

Oct 21st.

Today we had arranged to meet LVB for brunch at Mooiplaas, so we drove up the H1-4.

We stopped at our causeway for a coffee, and witnessed homo stupidus tour guideus privateus!!!
He stopped the vehicle on the causeway, for them to film the 3 hippos to their right, and we heard him say to his clients, only 2 minutes here, we have a lot of kms to cover!!!
They didn't have time to look to the left and see the 2 beautiful saddle bills wading in the water, the fish eagle in a tree, or the group of waterbuck!!

Off they drove at a great speed, and were gone!!!

As we had by then finished our coffee, we also set off over the causeway, and as we climbed up the hill the other side, there was stupideus and his clients parked right across the road. We soon realised why, as a huge elephant was only a few feet away in the road, and he had parked like that, so that they could take some photos.

Now WE could see that this ellie was seriously hacked off.............the ears were flapping, and he was almost doing a dance!!!
Still the guide did not reverse his vehicle, and still ellie..fant, got more worked up.

By this time I had made dungie do a 3 point turn, and we were ready to drive back over the causeway if necessary, as it was obvious that this oke was making his way to the river for a morning drink.

Well of course the inevitable happened and the ellie charged the vehicle.........actually made contact with it, and then it dawned on the guide to actually move!!
We heard terrified screams coming from the clients, and they were hanging on to the sides of the vehicle for dear life, while the guide reversed at about 100kph!!!

Having won his battle, the ellie then trundled off into the bush, and made his way down to the river further up.

The guide then drove off at great speed, and luckily we didn't see them again!!

The rest of the journey was uneventful, and we saw most of our friends along the way.

Near to Mooiplaas, we were thrilled to see our first summer visitor..........a European Bee Eater, so now we will be looking for all the other visitors.

We spent a very pleasant few hours with LVB, and he cooked us a delicious breakfast braai...............Yum.
It was lovely to catch up, and all too soon, it was time for us to go our separate ways.

We drove home via Letaba, and saw Tssesebe and a huge, huge herd of buffs at one of the waterholes.

I also saw 2 bird lifers............a wattled starling (only the female, but still nice to see!!) and a yellow-billed egret.

We arrived home late in the afternoon, and as we sat on the stoep sipping our sundowners and watching 2 blue waxbills on the bird table, we thought what a lovely day it had been, and wondered what the next day might bring.

More Monday..............

Oct 23rd

We decided to drive the scenic way to Letaba, so took the H9, H14 and then turned off onto the S131.
Game was fairly scarce to begin with along the S131, even though we all say you see more on the durt roads, it isn't always true!!

We were nearing Letaba, when I said to Dungie "You know we haven't seen any baboons since we arrived over a month ago".
We carried on along the S131, dreaming of our toasted sandwich at Letaba, when as if on cue..........there they were by the side of the road, grooming each other, and playing around!!! A large troupe of baboons.
It's a fuuny old world sometimes!!

We then tried saying "You know we haven't seen cheetah, rhino, wild dog, pangolin, serval, honey badgers or AWC yet.............but sadly it didn't work this time!!!

We came home via the H9, and again game was not very forthcoming........still we were in our favourite place, the sun was shining, and we had a huge piece of fillet steak and salad to look forward to, as well as the sundowners that would preceed it!!
Just another ***** day in Africa!!!!

More tomorrow....................

Oct 24th

We had things to do today, so just a quick visit to Sable Dam late pm.
We never have much luck here I must say, either on the loop, or at the dam itself, but we keep persevering!!
Maybe we're blind!!

Saw a few birdies, and some waterbuck..............mind you it was hot as hades!!!

We were glad to get home, have a swim and sip our sundowner, while watching blue waxbills, cut throat finches, brown hooded kingfishers, and our resident african hoopoe!! Such a hard life we lead!!!

More tomorrow..................

Oct 25th

Today we drove along the H9 until we turned left onto the S96 (Shilawuri Loop) and then to the Letaba crossroads, where we turned left, then did the little river loop, and finally came out at the river bridge, where we parked up and had our lunch.


As I looked to my left, I saw a buff sliding down the bank in the distance, and then cross the sandy dry river bed to the water.

Pretty soon he was followed by more and more buffs, all walking in single file, and heading for the water. As the river became full of buffs, the first lot got out and made their way back to the bank in a second single file, so we had buffs in one queue heading for the river, and ones in another queue heading for the lush grass by the bank.


We gave up counting after 384..........but there must have been near to 500 in the herd!!!


We were totally fascinated at this team effort to get everyone down for a drink, without any of them lingering unnecessarily. They merely
entered the water, drank their fill and left, leaving room for the next lot.


Gradually the last of the drinkers left the river and walked back to the bank, and by this time most of them had climbed up the bank and were gone.


This all took 30 min tops, and anyone coming along after that, would not even know what had happened!!

Amazing!!!


More tomorrow...............

Oct 26th

Busy busy today............including lunch out. (Wednesday special at the local pub was a huge T Bone steak, salad and chips for R55!!!)
So we just had a quick drive to sable late pm.

Saw waterbuck and giraffe at the dam itself, and somewhere along the way we spotted...................two very tired looking lions!!!

More tomorrow.......................

Oct 27th
Mixed blessings.

Today we drove to our cause way, where we enjoyed a tuna mayo sarnie, but where had all the game gone??!!!
We saw one ellie deeply hidden in the bush......we just saw his trunk moving and two kudu also deeply hidden, otherwise it was the occasional small herd of impala, until we arrived at the river.

Usually we see ellies, buffs, waterbuck, kudu, giraffes, impala and hippos at least, but today nothing!!!!

Well I suppose we all get days like that occasionally, and it makes us grateful for the days when we see more.

We did see our two lovely saddle bills, wading about in the shallow water, and some blacksmith lapwings, otherwise it was indeed lean pickings!!!

Our journey home proved to be almost as fruitless, until we spotted what I assumed was a LB Roller in flight.......though somehow it didn't look quite right.
It landed in a nearby tree, and to my delight I realised that it was our first European Roller of the season!!!
Soon every other tree will have one perched on it, but to see our first returning roller was so exciting!!!

Just before we arrived at the gate, we did see two buffs by the side of the road, and then two ellies crossed over almost in front of the car, but that was all for the day.

Then it was back home for our sundowner on the terrace, and a delicious chicken hotpot..............followed by a cold Amarula!

More tomorrow....................