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Published: January 17th 2021
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Again 5 AM up and into the bush. After the rain during the night we woke up to much cooler weather, needing a poncho on the jeep to shield us from the wind chill. The bush was alive, birds singing from every tree. Giraffes and Zebras feeding happily. We were expecting activity today.
And true a herd of African Wild Dogs was spotted, so without further ado, we made our way there. A group of may be a dozen of them were just about to rip apart a hunted baby Impala. One of them carrying part of its neck and clearly visible the head in its mouth. African Wild Dogs are extremely hard to spot we were told, so again lucky us! Call it beginners luck. We decided just to stay with them for the morning, too rare this opportunity. So we observed them feeding, resting, playing and fighting with each other. Unlike their domestic counterparts, wild dogs only have four toes per forefoot. In addition, a wild dog's large, round ears allow them to keep track of pack members over long distances through audio signals. Similar to other great African animals with distinct coat patterns, no two wild dogs
have the same spotted pattern. It helps members within the pack distinguish one another. The beautiful colors of their coat (black, brown, yellow and white) also helps wild dogs blend in to their natural habitat of grassland, savannah and woodland. Wild dogs live in packs ranging in size from 6 - 30 members, making their packs one of the largest of the wild canines. Since wild dogs live in such close proximity with each other, they have evolved to be incredibly social. There is a hierarchy within a pack, led by a dominant breeding pair, but struggle is generally limited within the pack once this hierarchy has been established. Wild dogs communicate with one another through touch, tail wags and a variety of vocalizations that include a short bark (which can signify alarm), a howl (which rallies the wild dogs together), and a bell-like sound which can be heard over long distances. African wild dogs' prey consists of small ungulates such as impala, kudu, Thomson’s gazelle, springbok and gnu (wildebeest). Before initiating a hunt, African wild dogs conduct a playful ceremony in which they circle one another, touching and vocalizing to get themselves excited about the coming hunt. Wild dogs
are built for endurance. They can maintain speeds of up to 35 mph over a range of 3 miles, which allows them to outlast their prey. This stamina combined with smart hunting tactics, where some members lead the hunt close to prey, while others tactically circle the prey, results is an extremely high hunting success rate. Some experts predict that wild dogs are successful in 80% of their hunting attempts. Soon we will be able to observe precisely that !
Suddenly one of the pack leaders gave a signal and they started moving, we following across the rough bush terrain. Soon arriving out of the scrub onto a wide plain we saw a group of about 15 gnus grazing peacefully. Their meal was abruptly ended as the Wild Dogs started chasing them. Their hunting strategy became soon evident. They wanted to isolate one of them and drive the Gnu to exhaustion. The Gnu was chasing and running constantly after the predators, while the Dogs were taking turns. A second part of the Wild Dog’s group was keeping the rest of the Gnus busy so they cannot come to help their isolated friend. This show went on for more than
half an hour, our eyes wide open upon this rare spectacle. Like National Geographic ! Well the Dogs did not succeed. The Gnus finally broke free reunited and the African Wild Dogs gave up disappearing into the bush, coordinated and quick as if ordered, looking for their next meal elsewhere.
Almost exhausted from this excitement we decided to have our morning coffee in the bush. What else can there come we thought, as we drove slowly on towards Hoyo Hoyo. And wow, surly sitting on the dirt road in front of us was a female lion enjoying the cool morning sun. Next to it in the bush rested two more females with small cups and their bigger brothers and sisters. We of course stopped the engine after approaching closer and fell into observation mode. A group of lions with cups is extremely shy and one noisy move of us and they would retrieve into the thicket. Eventually they did this anyway and we drove back to our lodge. But not before we had wonderful moments of looking and picture shooting.
With a heavy heart we packed and bid farewell to Tiaam and the Hoyo Hoyo employees, who really
gave us a fantastic time and experience of the Tsonga hospitality. Heading out of the park, elephants, zebras, of course impalas and more were bidding their farewell. The rhino was the only of the so called big 5 (lion, leopard, African buffalo, elephant, rhino) we missed. A rare sight in Krueger these days. Poaching is despite all conservation activities still happening reducing the numbers more and more.
After leaving the NP we decided to visit the Panorama Route again and have dinner at the Pilgrims Rest. Depending on weather, we wanted to visit one of the waterfalls of on the Panorama Route, we missed three days ago when the rains chased us away. Pilgrim’s Rest is a small museum town, which is protected as a provincial heritage site. It was the second of the Transvaal gold fields, attracting a rush of prospectors in 1873, soon after the MacMac diggings started, some 5 kilometers away. So many old houses and memorabilia remind on the tough and rugged miners' lives back in those days. We chose the Vine Restaurant, owned by an old South African, who was proudly explaining of his visit to Switzerland in 1972. Unfortunately, the weather turned bad
Three Sisters
of Mpumalanga again and we had no chance to catch a glimpse of the MacMac waterfall. So no MacMac, but good food in a yesterday’s atmosphere. During the drive back to Hazyview we passed miles and miles of forest plantations belonging to South African Pulp and Paper Industries (SAPPI) Limited. The company was founded in 1936 and is headquartered in Johannesburg. It produces and sells commodity paper products, pulp, dissolving pulp, and forest and timber products for Southern Africa and its export markets. Engaged also in USA, Finland and Germany, it is one of the world's largest producer of dissolving pulp. Nenad’s Omya years came back in a flash, where SAPPI was one of the customers of Calcium Carbonate. Our last night in Hazyview will mark the end of our visit of the North East and the Province of Mpumalanga. A long route of winding roads is awaiting us next day (over 600km), with our destination being St Lucia, a town at the Indian Ocean (near the Mozambique border), famous for its wetland park full of Hippos and Crocks.
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Shah
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Looks amazing brother
Take care your self ✨ ?