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Published: November 23rd 2009
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Rhinos!
This is the winning photo of the week! Unfortunately I did not use a zoom, they were that close and coming right at me! Okay I am continuing this blog from the previous blog entitled Umfolozi. Do not start reading here or you will be coming in half way through the story!
We arrived at our next camp, we were unable to reserve the fancy bush camp for the entire time, and unpacked our massive amount of food and clothes. We checked out the playground and took a bit of a rest before heading out on our own evening drive. After we left we ran into a huge group of 20 vultures all in one area. We tried as hard as we could but did not see any kill in the area. We found a picnic spot on the river and set about having some wine and crackers in the setting sun. Max and I were down looking at the river when I spotted a large, large, large Nile crocodile basking in the last few rays of sun. I have never seen such a big croc, this guy was massive. Unfortunately he was too far away to get a good photo, but we watched him sleep while we drank our wine and enjoyed the evening. We also were very blessed to catch a
quick view of a wild dog hunting across the river. Wild dog are especially rare to see and are fantastic in color. On our way home that night we came across a spotted hyena in the road and had to stop to let him pass. The hyena took its time and ended up walking right up to the car. It was a fantastic experience seeing one up close again.
The next morning we set out on our last full day to find a hide that was set up on the far side of the reserve. On our way to the hide I spotted some Rhino off the left of the rd. We stopped as we got close to them and we could tell something strange was going on. The rhino seemed agitated and began to rush towards the car. My minor heart attack then turned into a major one as I begged Carolyn to drive off. Carolyn, as calm as ever, merely rolled up the windows and shut off the car while telling me that rhino have bad eye sight and if they can’t smell us they won’t attack. She always seems keen to test out these theories while
Hyena!
We had a couple great experiences but most were at night when photos are a bit rough! animals are coming at my side of the vehicle. The rhino however followed Carolyn’s line of thinking and passed in front of the car instead of digging their horn into the side of it. The car behind us had reversed back and later told us that they didn’t think our actions were very smart, yes I agreed. We arrived at the hide which is a fantastic place to spot animals but all we saw was a lone buffalo, lots of turtle and a few birds. On our way out of the hide we were told by other travelers that just up the road was a pride of lions. Off we went to find the lions which unknown to us were being chased further off the rd by an angry elephant. We had a great view of the elephants and caught some glimpses of the pride of lions complete with a large regal looking male. On our way back home Carolyn and I stumbled across what was probably one of my favorite sightings of the trip, a mama warthog with her four babies. They were so cute running all about and trying to nurse on mom. We sat there forever taking
photos and laughing as they fell over each other into the mud hole. That evening we went on another evening drive back to the same picnic area and were surprised with another rare sighting, a large hippo was grazing on the river’s edge just below our picnic spot. The next morning we packed up and began to drive out of the park but not before enjoying a couple more great sightings of zebra, buffalo, impala, rhino and elephant. Overall this trip was incredible. Despite the weather we saw a lot of animals including the rare wild dog, hippo and Nile croc. I am so lucky I was able to go along on this trip and I had a great time seeing the animals for the first time along with Max who was also experiencing his family’s history for the first time. I hope you enjoy all the photos, there are a lot of them!
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