Advertisement
Published: June 26th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Waterbuck is so filling
One of the pride males, this one is called Musima. Well, I’ve been here for a long time, but now it’s time for Australia. There have been several highlights this month starting with my first sighting of African Wild Dog. We got the call to go to Singwe camp, (a neighbouring property and we rolled up to a dry river bed to see three dogs resting in the sand after eating. You can see from the pictures that their bellies resemble beer barrels, so we didn’t see much action from them. Wewatched for about half an hour before leaving them to digest their meal.
On the night of 9th of June, Nina and I started a twenty four hour observation of the big water hole from the hide. We lasted seven and a half hours ofa cold gusty wind before admitting defeat after seeing three flocks of Guinea Fowl and four Hadida Ibis ( a bit like a stork.) No idea where the more exciting animals were.
On 12th June we got the offer of three days at a top quality bush camp at a special price, so a few of us found ourselves at Klasserie, which was an hours drive from the nearest tarmac road. It was wonderful, we had
Hadida Ibis
Almost the only animals we saw in seven and a half hours three cooked meals a day and close up views of lots of animals including the Civet that visits the camp every time there is a barbecue. Chester the civet is remarkably tame, but we were warned not to try and touch him, or we might find out that he is still a wild animal. On Sunday night a tribe of baboons slept in the tree right above our tent, and woke us both up throughout the night by going to the toilet directly above our heads.
On my birthday, we had cake and I was serenaded with “Happy Birthday”, while I tried to forget how many birthdays it was.
Last Sunday, we went for a survival exercise which included sleeping out in the bush. When we got hungry and thisty, we sucked on a few roots, while the carnivores went on totally unsuccesful hunts. Luckily, the navigation exercise that we were undertaking led us to a big green box, which funnily enough contained beers andd cokes plus sausages (inc. veggie ones), so survival was no longer such a problem. The box aslo contained a magnifying glass so that we could use the last of the sun to start the campfires
and the Brai (barbacue). My shift on sentry duty started at three in the morning, and after hearing the roar of lions getting closer, I piled up the wood on the fires without anyone requesting it.
On Monday, came the big highlight. Big Craig from Naledi called us to say come and see the lions. We got to his place and then piled into his Land Rover to go to Singwe, where Campfire does not have any traversing rights. After five minutes of driving we found ourselves surrounded by most of the Balule super pride, two big males and several lionesses with nine cubs of various ages. They were all full of waterbuck and not in the mood for moving. We sat watching for half an hour before our guide decided that the big boss was looking at us a bit too hard as we were close to his cubs, so the key was turned in the ignition which produced just a clicking sound. Oops! I didn’t take many pictures after that as every sudden movement led to the piercing gaze of the big male called Big Boy being turned directly onto the source of the movement. On an open
Lionesses
Relaxing after dinner Land Rover it turns your soul to Ice to see that cold gaze looking into your eyes. You just know that to them you are just food.
After half an hour, help came and with the help of Brass, the guide from Campfire, who had to perform gymnastics to attatch the tow rope to the tow ball without getting out of the Land Rover, the rescue was complete. Sighs of relief all round, it was just a teeny bit too exciting.
Today, Friday, we have just returned from the hyena project. The pen is complete now and now we just need Hyenas, which are proving more difficult to obtain than was predicted. One has been trapped and is being held on the farmwhere it was caught, but the other two problem hyenas are still elusive. It’s hoped that they will be caught before some farmer shoots them for taking his stock. I won’t see the results of our labour, but I will be checking out the Torayaku website.
And so to Australia and my meeting with my youngest daughter Anna, who has been in Australia having her own adventures since January. I am a lone traveller again, but looking forward
to meeting new friends and keeping the memories of the wonderful people I’ve met along the way in Africa.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.162s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 57; dbt: 0.124s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
linda
non-member comment
africa
this one seems to have been the scariest time in south africa . anna's looking forward to seeing you in australia.take care x