An Afternoon Game Drive

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Geo: -24.7605, 26.3246

This afternoon I went for a game with Paul and his friends Karen & Davey who were staying with us for a few days. A little while into our drive I spotted a pair of white rhinos. They were about 100 metres from the road. They did not notice us. Paul decided that we should walk into the bush and get closer to them. We quietly walked closer to them. Paul constantly checked the direction of the wind. We didn't want them to smell us. Their eyesight is not very good, so there was little chance of them spotting us. We did end up getting quite close to the rhinos as they ate grass. It was a mother and her calf. At one stage the adult rhino started to walk towards us, so we walked back to the car. It was such a nice experience to be on foot, just metres away from this special creature.

We got back in the car and continued our game drive. Soon after, we stopped to watch a couple of warthogs on their knees eating grass. Further along on the open plains we saw many springbok. On the radio we heard about a nearby wild dog sighting. There were three other vehicles already watching the dogs, so we had to wait. We slowly drove there. On the way we stopped to watch a couple of ground squirrels.

We finally arrived at the wild dogs sighting. The wild dogs were active and we had to drive to keep up with them. There were three of them. They were running along the track and then they went off into the bush. Paul drove us off road so that we could keep up. The dogs then stopped running and stood still for a little while. They then lay down. We watched them and waited for them to become active again. After five minutes we started to drive away. Suddenly the dogs got up and started to run into the bush. Paul and the other two vehicles followed the dogs as they ran into the bush after an impala. The impala got away. They continued running into thicker bush, but we could not follow them, so we drove back in the direction of the lodge.

On the way back to the lodge we spotted a mother white rhino and her calf and a couple of zebras.

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Photos

01 White Rhinos
A pair of white rhinos that we walked towards.

02 Closer
We slowly got closer to the rhinos.

03 Still not Aware
At this stage they were still not aware of our close presence.

04 Spot the Rhinos
The view of the rhinos when we got back in the car.

05 On its Knees
The warthog is on its knees as it eats.

06 Plains
The Madikwe Plains with springbok in the distance.

07 Springbok
The springbok are generally found on the plains.

08 Squirrel
A ground squirrel standing next to its burrow.

09 Squirrels
A pair of Ground Squirrels next to their burrow.

10 Wild Dog
One of the pack of Wild Dogs.

11 Colours
The beautiful colours of the wild dogs.

12 Walking
The wild dogs were active and walking behind the leader.

13 Following
The other two wild dogs followed the leader.

14 Three
The small pack of three wild dogs.

15 Stopped
The wild dogs stopped until a decision was made on which direction to go in.

16 Listening
It seems that they are listening to something.

17 Resting
They then rested for about five minutes.

18 Up Again
It was not long before they were active again and getting closer to the impala!

20 Listening
Again the wild dogs are using their sense of hearing.

21 Active Again
Once again they are off and into the bush - we wished them luck as we drove away.

22 Pair
A pair of white rhinos - nearly hidden among the long, dry grass.

23 Zebra
A zebra captured in beautiful light at sunset.