Trying to Avoid the Storm

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Geo: -24.6488, 28.6884

This morning we had a little bit of a sleep-in. After a quick coffee and biscuits we set off for a drive. We drove straight to the hides on the other side of the reserve. So we drove out of the gate and then entered again on the other side.

Today started off as an grey, overcast day. From the hides here we saw a large herd of Roan and a couple Common Reedbucks. Paul also identified quite a few birds that we did not see yesterday. We then went back to our camp.

At camp we rested for a few hours. We had lunch and just after midday left camp on foot for a walk. We walked along the walking trail towards the Jacana Hide. I was happy to go for a walk, I just hoped that we didn't come across any snakes!

Along the way we stopped to take notice of the small things in nature. We then arrived at the Jacana Hide, we were now about a third of the way through our walk. From this hide we spotted giraffe, ostrich, impala, warthog and red hartebeest.

We continued walking. I was hoping that we would have great, close sightings of animals as we were not in a car. We did walk quietly and then we came across three red hartebeest and two impalas. They froze when they saw us, and then ran off into the bush. It is a shame that the animals are quite skittish in this reserve. We were about half way through our walk and I was starting to get tired. The pressure was also on us to walk quickly as it looked like the weather was changing, we think a storm was on the way!

Further along we saw four ostriches on the dry floodplain with a couple of warthogs. We then arrived at Stemmer's Hide. From this hide we didn't see much at all. It overlooked a large, open area. I would have really liked to rest in the hide for a bit, but the clouds were getting darker.

We arrived back at camp just before 4pm. I got a snack and rested in my chair for a bit. Just as we were about to light the fire for dinner, it started to rain. We sat in the tent waiting for the rain to stop. It didn't stop, but got worse, with lightning and thunder. Due to this, we missed out on dinner and had a very early night. In between the heavy rain we ran to the car and found snack food to eat for dinner.

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Photos

01 View
The view of the floodplain from the Jacana Hide.

02 Herd
A herd of Roan that have stopped eating to look at us.

03 Buck
A couple of Common Reedbuck.

04 Nest
The inside of a termite's nest.

05 Nest
The outside of a termite's nest.

06 View
The view of the reserve on our walk.

07 Path
The path we walked along - notice the approaching dark clouds!

08 Prickly
Prickly yellow flowers.

09 Reeds
Reeds growing by the floodplain.

10 View
On our walk we came across this giraffe and ostrich.

12 Quill
A porcupine quill.

13 Red Hartebeest
We came across this herd of Red Hartebeest.

15 View
In the open there are ostriches and warthogs.

16 Sign
The sign that lead us to this hide.

17 View
The view from the hide of the floodplain.

18 View
Another view from the hide.

19 Camp
Our campsite.