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Published: June 17th 2017
01 Baboon
One of the baboons that invaded the campsite.Geo: -25.2174, 27.0071
This morning we had another early wake up so that we would be at the gate when it opens at 6 am. As we got ready we once again saw the baboons raid the campsites. We drove uphill along Nkakane. On the road we noticed elephant spoor, it was easy to spot, no other animal has the same sized or shaped foot!
We then found two bull elephants to the side of the road hiding among the trees. I was surprised to find them here as I had not yet seen elephants go up steep hills. As we drove along I noticed something on the large rocks. It was a troop of baboons grooming each other. We were pleased to have seen them in their natural habitat and not raiding camp sites.
We came to an open area along Tshepe where the light was really nice. There was a herd of wildebeest moving slowly across the open area. Lotta commented that they were acting a bit funny and kicking their feet about. I looked closely at the ground and noticed three small cat like animals running through the herd. I recognised them as caracal. There was a mother and
02 Success!
A mother baboon enjoying some bread stolen from campers. her two young ones. We watched them as they ran behind the car and over the rocks until they were out of sight. I explained to Lotta that it was quite rare to see them and how lucky we were. We looked at the wildebeest again and again they were acting funny. There was another predator - a black backed jackal running near them which seemed to bother the herd.
Further along Tshepe we came to another herd of wildebeest. This herd was moving in a straight line. It was interesting to watch. We also came across ostriches, impala, kudu, zebra and klipspringer. I had been looking at so many rocks hoping to see one standing on a rock and now I saw three standing on one rock- persistent looking paid off! We stopped at Makorwane Dam and observed a small pod of hippos putting their heads in and out of the water.
We choose a new road to take us to the plains- Nare Link. The scenery along here was also beautiful. We spent a bit of time watching a white rhino and her calf. There was another troop of baboons. It was nice to watch them gathering food
03 Raiding
A baboon raiding a bin for food. and not stealing from humans!
At the plains we watched some giraffe and zebra from Lotta's side of the car. Out my window I could see a bull elephant. We were very keen to see more elephants so we drove closer to it, but it wasn't interested in having its photo taken and quickly turned its back and hid among the trees. The plains also had red hartebeest and warthogs on it.
We stopped at Batlhako to see what the hippos are up to today. Here we saw an African Spoonbill and a Goliath Heron. From the hide we could see four hippos out of the water on the other side of the dam and a herd of waterbuck resting in the shade. There was an adult, a sub-adult and two young ones lazing about. Right in front of us there was a pair of Lesser Striped Swallows whose mouth was covered in mud- they must have been in the process of building nests. We looked at the hippos again and then one of the young ones got in the water. We tried to see where it would reappear but couldn't see it. We thought it might be in trouble.
04 Walking Through
A baboon about to walk through our camp site. Then we saw it get out of the water in the same place where we saw hippos yesterday- on an island. There was an adult hippo already on the island.
We drove along Tlou Drive. We came across three ostriches and a young bull elephant. The elephant was not too pleased with our presence. He walked towards us and shook his head. I was ready to go, we slowly reversed, but we probably should have gone forward. As I was reversing up the bank, the car hesitated and I didn't want to make too much noise and scare it. It trumpeted at us and put its trunk in the air. I stepped on it and we were out of there! That was a bit of excitement for us. I'm glad it was only one cranky male elephant and not a herd of them!
We drove along Tshwene back to the camp site. Our last sighting was 3 warthogs running across the road with their tails up in the air. We got back at midday and had lunch. We had planned to eat, pack up and do a quick drive through the park before picking up Mukesh from Sun Village. Mukesh
05 Walking Past
Another baboon walking past our tent. used to work with Paul in London and was in South Africa for a wedding and to catch up with Paul. As we ate our lunch I got a text from him- he was early. So we changed our plans- eat and pack up camp then drive straight to Sun Village.
We found him at KFC. Lotta and Mukesh were staying at Jaci's for three nights. We had to buy food and booze for the next three days and then we set off for Madikwe Game Reserve.
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