We tracked our Elephant herd for a long time when we spotted them going up a mountain. It is amazing how these huge creatures can move up a hill.
On the same game drive we found our four Lion cubs resting in a road after playing hard.
And on the way back to the lodge we had a good look at one of my favorite antelopes – female Nyalas.
Another hard day in Africa 🙂
Watching White Rhino is amazing but it is much less exciting than watching a Black Rhino in its natural environment.
This is a picture I took today on our game drive. The Black Rhino and her calf had a good look at us before she decided to retreat into the bush.
Seeing Black! What a joy!
Our young north pride male Lion participated in a Porcupine hunt. Inexperience and clumsiness resulted in two Porcupine quilts getting stuck in his mouth and chest. That hurt!
But he managed to get them out again. When we saw him two days later the quilts were gone 🙂
Summer has arrived!
For the bird lovers among you: These are two Village Weavers at the end of a mating session.
About Village Weavers:
The Village Weaver (Ploceus cucullatus) occur in a wide range of habitats, including woodlands and human habitation. It builds a large coarsely woven nest made of grass and leaf strips with a downward facing entrance which is suspended from a branch in a tree. 2-3 eggs are laid. This is a colonial breeder, so many nests may hang from one tree.
After two weeks of rain, wind and cold we had some great drives in the last few days.
During the bad weather it was very difficult to find animals. They all were hiding in the thick bush from heavy rains, very strong winds and many thunderstorms.
But this morning we got rewarded for our hard work and patience. When we left the lodge we spotted a Leopard just as we left (he did not stick around, but we got a good look). Then we met our dominate male Lion on to of a hill. We tracked our Buffalo herd and just as we left them we saw two White Rhinos (mother and daughter) in an open area. Before we headed back to the lodge we went to the area where we saw the breeding herd of Elephants last. We did not find them but we found one of our oldest Elephant bulls. After observing him for a while we turned back to the lodge.
We also saw Giraffe, Zebra, Impala, Nyala, Kudu, Waterbuck and Wildebeest.
It seemed that all the animals wanted to make an appearance after the long absence from the Safari stage 🙂
PS: All pictures above were taken today!
Today we had a very nice sighting of our breeding herd of Elephants. They were walking up a hill in front of us. I took these pictures of two young bulls at the end of the herd having a bit of a fight (sparring would be a better word).
Have a good week 🙂
Today I got my Land Rover properly stuck for the first time. While we were trying to get close to a pride of Lions resting in thick bush I dropped my right back wheel into the entrance of an old Warthog borrow which was filled with water (it looked like a puddle!).
So Bheki and I got to work while are guests remained on the vehicle. In close proximity to the Lions we used a high-lift-jack to lift the car out of the hole, placed two special “mud-ramps” under the wheel and drove the car out of the hole. This was a first such rescue mission for me. The guest thought the procedure was very exciting.
So for today I have chosen a Lion picture (taken today – a cub hugging an adult’s tail for comfort) and a picture of two Warthogs (taken a while ago – two males fighting).
I have no pictures of the vehicle rescue (I was otherwise engaged at the time :-))
Well, dung plays a huge role in the bush 🙂
Here are two examples of its use, which are quite unusual.
We were watching a herd of Buffalo having a rest in the grass when two White Rhinos (mother and calf) moved right in between and started chasing the Buffalo around.
The reason was to get to the fresh droppings of these large ruminants. Both mother and calf started eating the fresh droppings with obvious gusto. I am not sure why, but I assume there is something in fresh Buffalo dung that is good for Rhinos :-).
And then I saw a Buffalo cow moving across with a calf drinking while they were moving. This is quite usual.
And while the young one was drinking the mother defecated copiously on top of the calf’s head. This did not disturb the little one as it kept drinking. After a while it moved off with its unusual “head-cover”.
I learn new things every day, even about dung!
I would like to introduce Bheki to you.
Without him I could hardly do my job at Thanda. He is my “Communication and Navigation Officer”. Bheki is an excellent tracker. He is constantly on the outlook for tracks and signs of animals in the bush and he communicates with the other trackers over the radio.
The picture above shows him in his “front office” of our Land Rover.
Bheki is a tracker for over 20 years. He knows the bush very well and he enhances our game drives with many stories for the guests. In the second picture he shows a Wildebeest carcass, which had been killed and eaten by lions.
Walking in the bush (with the big five around him) is no problem for Bheki. With only his panga (the African version of a machete) as protection he often walks off by himself looking for tracks.
In the third picture Bheki shows a (harmless) Scorpion to our guests during a drink stop at sundown.
Bheki is a man living in the Zulu tradition. He has a beautiful piece of land in a local Zulu community on Lake St.Lucia where he lives with his family. He has two wives and nine children. His father before him had nine wives and Bheki has 64 brothers and sisters.
When I saw our Lion cubs last night I had a hard time to believe that they could grow that fast in only 10 days.
We spotted them on a Wildebeest kill last night and watched them this morning eating from the kill and having a refreshing drink from mum 🙂
Enjoy the pictures!
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 