Seeing a Huge Herd of Buffalo

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Geo: -23.0026, 31.3426

This morning once again we left the campsite as soon as the gate opened. We saw a beautiful sunrise with shades of blue, pink and purple. The first interesting sighting we saw was a Southern Ground Hornbill. It is a large bird with black feathers and a large red thing on its face. We didn't see much else on our short morning drive.

We drove back to camp to eat breakfast and pack up. Just after 9am we left Punda Maria and drove south. We drove past many dried up rivers. On our drive we saw- a male nyala, vervet monkeys, a baby impala drinking milk from its mother, hippos floating in a river, tree squirrel and a dagga boy (old male buffalo). It was now around midday and we had arrived at Shingwedzi Rest Camp. At the restaurant we enjoyed a cold drink and a snack. There were weaver nests all around the rest camp which gave us a chance to photograph them close up.

After our rest we continued driving south towards Mopani Rest Camp. Our afternoon sightings included female bushbuck, waterbuck with their distinctive white ring around their bottom, dung bettles – the female hitching a ride on a dung ball that is being rolled around by the male, crocodiles, bachelor herd of impalas, a couple of elephants that seemed so huge when you are sitting in a small car and a couple of dagga boys that stared at us. We parked the car at a small hide which over looked a river.

From the hide we saw many crocodiles lying on the river's edge. Using the binoculars we scanned the area and identified some birds. Then it got exciting, across the river a couple of buffalo appeared. They walked straight to the river's edge to drink. More and more buffalo appeared from between the Mopane Trees. It was a huge herd. They had to spread out along the river so that they could all drink. And just to think, if we had left earlier, we would have missed this! I think that there were about 200 buffalo.

Paul drove us up a view point. From up here we had a great view of the vast surroundings. We stopped at another hide which overlooked a small river. From here we saw one big fat crocodile and at least three hippos floating about.

From this hide it was a short drive to Mopani Rest Camp. For the next two nights we were staying in a chalet – a nice change from camping! Our chalet was nice and spacious with the kitchen outside. We enjoyed a barbecue dinner and had an early night.

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Photos

01 Sunrise
The beautiful view that we enjoyed early this morning.

02 Sunrise
The beautiful view that we enjoyed early this morning.

03 Sunrise
The beautiful view that we enjoyed early this morning.

04 Ants
A line of ants.

05 Large Bird
A Southern Ground Hornbill - a very large bird!

06 Scenery
The scenery in this part of the park.

07 Dry River
One of the many dry river beds that we saw.

08 Little Waterhole
A little waterhole.

09 Nyala
A male nyala behind the bushes.

10 Dry River
A large tree on the bank of a dry river.

11 Monkey
A Vervet Monkey sitting at the top of this tree.

12 Mother & Young
A mother impala and her young one.

13 Bright Blue
A bright blue Woodland Kingfisher.

14 Water
Another little bit of water.

15 Hiding
A couple of hippos hiding near the rocks.

16 Hornbills
A pair of Yellow Hornbills in the tree.

17 Squirrel
A tree squirrel looking at us.

18 Portrait
A portrait photo of an impala.

19 Lonely
A lonely old buffalo.

20 Herd
A herd of impalas.

21 Me
A herd of impalas outside my window.