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Published: June 17th 2017
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01 Hanging Around
Lots of baboons sitting about on the road. Geo: -23.8551, 31.5776
This morning we left camp at about 5am for a game drive. Early into the drive we had to stop, as the road was covered by a troop of baboons. They were sitting all over the road getting on with their daily routine. We watched them groom each other, look for insects to eat in elephant dung and resting. It was great to be so close to them and observe their behaviours. We slowly drove past and as they moved off the road.
We were then driving along the river and could see a hippo mother and her calf walking along on the river bank. We then spent fifteen minutes watching another troop of baboons. They were eating, sitting around, jumping into trees, searching for food and of course, as always very interesting to watch.
Once again we were driving by a partly dry river. From this view point we could see many animal paths crossing. Their foot prints, one behind the other in the sand. At another part of the river where there was more water, our presence attracted the attention of a couple of terrapins. Three terrapins swam towards our car, it seems like they may have been
02 Grooming
A baboon grooming one of the others in the troop. feed by other visitors in the past. Once again, we were not going to feed wild animals - although this did give us a nice close up view of them.
It was about twenty minutes later when the game viewing became much more exciting. We came across a spotted hyena just off the road. It was interested in something. We kept looking at it and trying to see if there was anything in the grass, it was hard to see – the grass was long and car was low. It walked into the bush and a moment later ran out in from of our car. The hyena was being chased by a lioness! The hyena had been trying to steal the lionesses kill. She didn't chase it for long, just enough to try and scare it away. We couldn't tell what animal had been killed, we could only see the red flesh. The hyena wasn't that scared of the lioness and again slowly crept towards the food. Then was chased away again! It was nice to see all that action right in front of us.
We then spotted a kudu among the bushes. Just by the road there was a
03 Finding Food
This baboon has found something to eat among the elephant dung. herd of buffaloes that we stopped to watch. As with all the other buffalo we have seen, they don't look very friendly. We then came across a bull elephants, more buffaloes and a large Water Monitor crossing the road. At the end of the drive we saw another bull elephant and a tortoise walking along the road.
Our game drive ended when we arrived back at about 1pm. As we about to begin preparing lunch, we noticed a huge Water Monitor walking through camp. We got our cameras and followed it. Its stomach was huge and dragged on the ground – it must have recently have had a big feed. It was then sick of us following it and it climbed into a hollow tree. We continued walking around the camp after our lunch. This camp has a great view point of a river.
In the river we could see a large group of Marabou Storks and a Waterbuck. As we walked around camp we photographed the resident bushbucks.
This afternoon we didn't go on a game drive. Instead we rested, went for a swim and visited the Elephant Museum. The museum was full of tusks from the Kruger's Big Tuskers.
04 Resting
An adult and a young one resting on the road. It was nice to have a relaxing afternoon.
Once again, as we were cooking our dinner, a spotted hyena walked along the fence.
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