The Straw that broke the Mountain Zebra's Back

[Mel]

Coming soon

[Mel]

It's always the same Mel, you get to somewhere that you have high expectations of and get let down by things thike this. The places where you have no expectations of are always better in my experience.

Nice zebra, chat and view though.

Yeah... but I only expected silence? Not even the aardwolf, cheetahs, rhinos and so on stuff?!

[Mel]

nice closed Zebra

ready for more

Thanks, nan

[Mel]

A very noisy Mountain Zebra

I'm used the thunder and lightning around

But we had that last time as well and it made for spectacular skies after the rain once the sun came through again.

[Mel]

The mountain zebra are quite different to the common old Burchell's.

I actually find the Mountain Zebras prettier than the Burchell's I like that they are more black and that there is a bit of rufous (or whatever you want to call the brownish bit) in their faces.

[Mel]

Great start, Mel,

and for sure a park I simply have to visit one day - The chat shots are stunning and for sure great ones from the zebras as well

Definitely for the scenery, Pumbaa, it is smashingly beautiful! As for the animals - don't be fooled by PJL's report... not many are THAT lucky

[Mel]

Tuesday, 29 March 2016

We decided to skip Rooiplat this morning and rather go down towards the gate, checking the Ubejane Loop, then conquering the Umgeni 4x4 which would lead us up to the Rooiplat anyways. The main reason for this was that we had been told that a cheetah mum and her cubs were regularly seen on the stretch between main camp and the gate. But although we must have travelled that route like 87 times during our stay, there was never a cheetah to be seen.

Anyhoo, the morning started with some ant-eating chats:





Followed by this pied crow:



This pin-tailed whydah did its best to hide from my camera, but I was determined to get a halfway decent photo, so the SO had to suffer the "forwards, stop!, backwards" instructions for quite some time, and still this is the best I could do.

[Mel]

The chestnut-vented tit-babbler also showed no cooperation...



... in contrast to the spike-heeled lark.



There was a young white-browed sparrow-weaver around, too:

[

And then this lark? or tit? - I couldn't figure it out



Finally a beautifully posing crowned plover

[Mel]

Right... better than last night, but there is still room for improvement

[Mel]

The hartebeest had their early sparring session.