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Published: June 17th 2017
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01 Scenery
Some of the park's beautiful scenery. Geo: -23.8551, 31.5776
Another morning, another early start for us. We went for a morning game drive, firstly spotting a pair of male impalas play fighting with their horns. They seemed to be very careful and neither of them got injured. Then a giraffe was spotted eating leaves from a bush. We stopped to watch a herd of impalas because there were young ones.
We stopped at a lookout point on the river. Looking very carefully we could only spot a couple of crocodiles. I thought we would have seen more animals here. A while later we came to another view point again looking over the river. Once again – no animals were visible! But it was a nice view.
The drive was pretty quiet for a long time. Finally there was a decent sighting. We were driving over a low bridge and through the reeds a breeding herd of elephants appeared. They were crossing the small river. For the next ten minutes we watched them as they walked across. They were led by the matriarch and walked one behind the other. Once they were out of sight we continued driving.
Further along we spotted lions! They were sitting under dead bushes. The
02 Play Fighting
A pair of male impalas play fighting. visibility was okay. It was a lioness and two cubs. We stayed here for twenty minutes hoping that they would become active – but no such luck. They were happy lazing about and didn't come out into the clearing.
There was another view point of the river, so we stopped and got out. The only visible animal was a hippo wandering about and a pair of Marabou Storks.
We then saw giraffes who had a few hitch-hikers – Red Billed Oxpeckers. Once again we were at another view point over looking a river. From here there were great sightings of elephants. Breeding herds were crossing the river in both directions. The adults were helping the little ones through the deep water. This place was full of elephant activity! Paul then drove us back to the road so we could watch the herds cross the road and walk towards the river. Here we were joined by other vehicles also watching the elephants as they were just metres from the vehicles. We then drove down to the river. From here we also had a great view as the elephants drank, swam across the river and interacted with each other. Altogether we had
03 Giraffe
A giraffe eating leaves. spent an hour and a half here watching the many elephants and various herds.
It was a bit after 2pm when we returned to camp. We had lunch, rested, freshened up and before we knew it, it was time for our afternoon drive. So at 4pm we drove out the gate and back into the park.
We parked the car near a river and could see many Marabou Storks and Egyptian Geese. Looking down from a bridge there was a Saddle Billed Stork – pretty bird with a long red and black beak, impalas coming to drink, baboons drinking and foraging for food. Further along at another part of the river there were hippos and a waterbuck.
During the rest of the drive we saw a giraffe and a very large bull elephant. The elephant had very long tusks. At one stage he was walking straight towards us. He had no intentions of getting off the track so we could pass, instead we had to reverse. Once he bored of us and moved away, we started to drive back towards camp. This time on the bridge over the river we saw a herd of impalas, a couple of waterbuck and a trio
04 Baby
A baby impala standing beside the adults. of hippos out of the water and grazing on land. Just before we drove into the gate at about half past six, we saw a pair of Southern Ground Hornbills.
Tonight as we sat around the fire cooking our dinner, our evening visitor arrived. The hyena walked along the fence, with its mouth open, many of its teeth visible. It continued on when we ignored it. About an hour later it returned and lay down, looking at us. Its behaviour was just like a pet dog. Just like other times, we were not going to feed it. Eventually after not receiving any food, it walked away.
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