With our new plan in place I felt positive again. It's often the way that around the 3 week mark of a month's holiday you start to get a little travel weary, maybe start thinking of home. Well we do anyway. I was still enjoying myself but beginning to think that I wasn't seeing too much in the way of new things...I guess familiarity was starting to set in, I would have been enthralled to be parked next to a pride of sleeping Lions three weeks previously but now they were boring. A Leopard feeding on a kill up a tree? When one has been stalking prey just 10m in front of you an obscured view of one eating up a tree just doesn't cut the mustard anymore! It was that really, I guess it was the amount of driving I had been doing, far more than I'd envisaged maybe? Well certainly in terms of comfort and time. Maybe an SUV would have been a more comfortable ride than the Suzuki we were given? Then there was the dust. You can drive all day with the aircon on but it's not the same. You need to hear as well as see things, feel the breeze as you drive along but dust was a problem. When a car was coming towards you you had to get the windows closed as soon as possible, but even if you managed it the dust still got through the system somehow. I guess it was hanging in the air, you could feel it hit the back of your throat. The interior of the car was thick with red dust. The other thing to consider is the speed at which you drive... 40kph on gravel, 50 on tar. At those speeds it takes a long time to get from A to B despite it looking a short hop on your map. Mind you, it's excellent for fuel economy!
Today however, I was going to go for it again. I was actually at the gate before they opened and joined the waiting queue of keen game drivers, nearly all of the half dozen cars appeared to be occupied by single men!
I guess females have more sense than to be up that early or, more likely, they take longer to get ready for the off!!
Anyway, I was on my own and had decided to head north to the waterhole were we'd seen the skeleton of the Buffalo the day before. Boyela.
It's about 30kms from Shingwedzi, a 35 minute drive. I was following another car for most of the way but around a kilometre away from the water hole I caught a glimpse of something in the bush.
Southern Ground Hornbill!
Two males were working their way through the grass
They were only my third sighting and probably the best views so far.Not a bad start to the day.
I didn't stay with them for long as they veered off deeper in to the bush, instead I carried on to the waterhole.
Wow! Talk about timing! A young male Lion had just arrived to drink.
What a thirst!
He was there for what seemed like an age, just when you thought he's finished it was head down again.
I had got lots of photos by now and decided I would nip back and see what the Hornbill were up to. They'd gone deeper in to the bush and although visible were a long way off.
I went back to the waterhole and again, my timing was perfect!
Parked on the tar road the Lion had walked down the side of the parking area and was heading my way!
This time I was a safe distance away, maybe 20m.
So I felt quite comfortable as he crossed the road in front of me.
That was one well fed Lion!
The other two cars in the parking area were leaving now and one of them stopped to tell me the rest of the pride were lying down some 50m beyond the waterhole. Until I looked through my binoculars I would have completely missed them!
It must have been 7.00am by now so I returned to camp to see how Claire was getting on. I drove over the rear causeway entrance to camp and to my amazement found a new bird for the trip stood right out in the middle of the dry river bed.
I was delighted to make an addition to my list, new sightings were getting more difficult to find but I usually see Pelican associated with water, not where it's as dry as a bone!
Claire was up and ready for the off when I got back so we decided on the S50 again, the one that follows the river. Once again there wasn't that much to see.
The emerald green spots on the Wood Dove caught my eye, they seemed brighter than ever in the dull light.
We saw Warthog
and Steinbok
female Nyala
Much the same as last time other than we saw a pride of Lion on the other side of the bank this time too.
The weather was still very dull and in fact spots of rain started appearing on the windscreen. After a minute, enough raindrops to have to clear them with the wipers.Then before you knew it it was raining properly! It lasted all of 5 minutes before stopping and brightening up again. This was heaven sent though, at least the dust wasn't a problem anymore. Mind you as we continued south neither was the traffic, as of the last time I think perhaps just 3 or 4 cars passed going the opposite way in all of 50kms.
We took a look at the Nyawatsu bird hide but other than an Openbill Stork there was little to report.
We stopped to snap a Brown Snake Eagle
and some Guineafowl
I am always trying for a better shot, those however weren't!!
Once again a short diversion took us to Grootvlei waterhole where one belligerent Elephant seemed to be looking for trouble.
The action was more a drawn handbags affair then a proper fight but it kept us amused for a while despite it being a fair distance away.
Moving on southwards we stopped when we saw a parked car to ask them what they'd found. "Oh nothing they replied, "we are watching the birds". They were surprised to see I was interested!
We ended up chatting for some while before eventually moving on. They told us that there were Lion and surrounding Hyena on a kill just off the road if we kept going south.
That sounded interesting so away we went.
We drove on and on. Past the Tropic of Capricorn Rd, past the Nshawu waterhole were I'd watched the Lion hunt and still no signs. This was getting silly.We were well south of Mopani now so we decided we might as well go and get some lunch there.
It was then back on the S50 and eventually heading north again.
That's where we spotted the kill. It had been obscured when we were driving south but noticeable driving north.
It shows how opinions differ between folks!
Just off the road was about 800m away! We'd driven at least an extra 30km in our search and to be honest, at that distance not even worth a record shot! Once again we were mounting up the kilometres on the clock, driving a long way for little reward.
We didn't fancy going all the way back to Shingwedzi on the S50 so tried our luck on the Tropic Rd again. Third time lucky it wasn't although we did get some decent sightings of a Kori Bustard.
Eventually back at camp I decided I'd had enough driving for one day. We also decided we'd try the restaurant that evening too. After chatting to the people on the next table we settled for one of the basic burgers on offer and to be fair it was pretty good. I was also recommended the Impala lager not the Castle I usually drank.Very nice indeed, nice for a change as was dining out!
It was off to Sirheni tomorrow. No choice other than to eat in! No restaurant there.
What we didn't realise was we would be very much "eating in".
TBC
Today however, I was going to go for it again. I was actually at the gate before they opened and joined the waiting queue of keen game drivers, nearly all of the half dozen cars appeared to be occupied by single men!
I guess females have more sense than to be up that early or, more likely, they take longer to get ready for the off!!
Anyway, I was on my own and had decided to head north to the waterhole were we'd seen the skeleton of the Buffalo the day before. Boyela.
It's about 30kms from Shingwedzi, a 35 minute drive. I was following another car for most of the way but around a kilometre away from the water hole I caught a glimpse of something in the bush.
Southern Ground Hornbill!
Two males were working their way through the grass
They were only my third sighting and probably the best views so far.Not a bad start to the day.
I didn't stay with them for long as they veered off deeper in to the bush, instead I carried on to the waterhole.
Wow! Talk about timing! A young male Lion had just arrived to drink.
What a thirst!
He was there for what seemed like an age, just when you thought he's finished it was head down again.
I had got lots of photos by now and decided I would nip back and see what the Hornbill were up to. They'd gone deeper in to the bush and although visible were a long way off.
I went back to the waterhole and again, my timing was perfect!
Parked on the tar road the Lion had walked down the side of the parking area and was heading my way!
This time I was a safe distance away, maybe 20m.
So I felt quite comfortable as he crossed the road in front of me.
That was one well fed Lion!
The other two cars in the parking area were leaving now and one of them stopped to tell me the rest of the pride were lying down some 50m beyond the waterhole. Until I looked through my binoculars I would have completely missed them!
It must have been 7.00am by now so I returned to camp to see how Claire was getting on. I drove over the rear causeway entrance to camp and to my amazement found a new bird for the trip stood right out in the middle of the dry river bed.
I was delighted to make an addition to my list, new sightings were getting more difficult to find but I usually see Pelican associated with water, not where it's as dry as a bone!
Claire was up and ready for the off when I got back so we decided on the S50 again, the one that follows the river. Once again there wasn't that much to see.
The emerald green spots on the Wood Dove caught my eye, they seemed brighter than ever in the dull light.
We saw Warthog
and Steinbok
female Nyala
Much the same as last time other than we saw a pride of Lion on the other side of the bank this time too.
The weather was still very dull and in fact spots of rain started appearing on the windscreen. After a minute, enough raindrops to have to clear them with the wipers.Then before you knew it it was raining properly! It lasted all of 5 minutes before stopping and brightening up again. This was heaven sent though, at least the dust wasn't a problem anymore. Mind you as we continued south neither was the traffic, as of the last time I think perhaps just 3 or 4 cars passed going the opposite way in all of 50kms.
We took a look at the Nyawatsu bird hide but other than an Openbill Stork there was little to report.
We stopped to snap a Brown Snake Eagle
and some Guineafowl
I am always trying for a better shot, those however weren't!!
Once again a short diversion took us to Grootvlei waterhole where one belligerent Elephant seemed to be looking for trouble.
The action was more a drawn handbags affair then a proper fight but it kept us amused for a while despite it being a fair distance away.
Moving on southwards we stopped when we saw a parked car to ask them what they'd found. "Oh nothing they replied, "we are watching the birds". They were surprised to see I was interested!
We ended up chatting for some while before eventually moving on. They told us that there were Lion and surrounding Hyena on a kill just off the road if we kept going south.
That sounded interesting so away we went.
We drove on and on. Past the Tropic of Capricorn Rd, past the Nshawu waterhole were I'd watched the Lion hunt and still no signs. This was getting silly.We were well south of Mopani now so we decided we might as well go and get some lunch there.
It was then back on the S50 and eventually heading north again.
That's where we spotted the kill. It had been obscured when we were driving south but noticeable driving north.
It shows how opinions differ between folks!
Just off the road was about 800m away! We'd driven at least an extra 30km in our search and to be honest, at that distance not even worth a record shot! Once again we were mounting up the kilometres on the clock, driving a long way for little reward.
We didn't fancy going all the way back to Shingwedzi on the S50 so tried our luck on the Tropic Rd again. Third time lucky it wasn't although we did get some decent sightings of a Kori Bustard.
Eventually back at camp I decided I'd had enough driving for one day. We also decided we'd try the restaurant that evening too. After chatting to the people on the next table we settled for one of the basic burgers on offer and to be fair it was pretty good. I was also recommended the Impala lager not the Castle I usually drank.Very nice indeed, nice for a change as was dining out!
It was off to Sirheni tomorrow. No choice other than to eat in! No restaurant there.
What we didn't realise was we would be very much "eating in".
TBC
No comments:
Post a Comment