Up for our morning walk at 7AM this morning. This is not really a walk about finding big
animals, more about some of the small things you may have missed driving. We did see lots of animals, and of course
learned lots about the different poo around.
Probably the best poo story I liked was the Impala communal poo area, we
had seen these round areas of poo before, now we know it is from the impala. We also were shown a hippo skull from last
year when they lost lots of hippo around here when the rain came so late. So impressive to see it so close, both pieces
of the jaw are still there so we see just how wide his mouth can open. Also some great bee hives in a huge baobab
tree. We were also shown how the
whistling acacia protects itself, with ants in the seeds that come out when the
tree is shaken by the giraffes or other animals that eat it and give off some
poison, so the animals move on. Amazing
how nature works together. The walk was about 2 hours, we have an armed ranger
with us, and Zach who is our normal guide is with us along with a trainee
guide. There is an extra charge for this excursion $55.00 for the group, which we understand has to do with taking a ranger with us.
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| View of lake from our new tent. In the wet season the water is right up to the tent! |
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| Masai escort back to tent |
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| Our first poop lesson, Hyena, white because of the calcium in the bones it eats |
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| White-browed Sparrow-weaver |
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| Hippos leave massive footprints |
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| Community toilet for Impala, notice all the different ages of the poop, it is used over and over |
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| Putting a hippo back together, they lost a lot of hippos last year, it was so dry. |
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| White-throated Bee-Eater |
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| Amazing bee hive |
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| African Land Snail - shaped like Africa |
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| Broad-billed roller |
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| Dung Beetle, incredible how far they roll the dung |
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| Thanks guys for keeping us safe! |
We are back to camp after our walk around 930 and have a nice breakfast in camp then
are to meet up at 11AM for bush lunch and safari drive. Some monkeys have also
arrived at breakfast and needed to be shooed away from the bar a few times, fun
for us to watch, probably not so fun for the staff.
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| Checking out the menu posted today? |
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| Breakfast |
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| Breakfast for this guy too |
This afternoon we have decided we want to be back at camp around 4PM, we
are all a little tired and could use a rest.
Our first sighting this morning is two very young giraffe alone
together. The Moms leave these young giraffe
in a safe place that we have heard called a crèche as they need to travel far to get enough food for themselves and
the little ones can't keep up, so they are left on their own to fend for
themselves for a while. So many little
animals here right now, and giraffe are extremely cute.
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| 2 little giraffes sitting waiting for Moms to come back |
We then are lucky and find the wild dogs again which our guide knew were
somewhere in the area as others had seen them this morning. They are moving around a bit, and some walk
down to a little pond of water for a cool off, they look so cute. How lucky to find them again. Our guide decides we should leave and come
back around 5PM when it is cooler and we can see if there is any action then.
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| Time to cool off |
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| Muddy mess |
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| Collared Palm-Thrush |
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| Pearl-spotted Owlet |
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| African Palm Swift |
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| White-fronted Bee-eater |
We continue with the safari and stop for lunch at Nzelekela lake. What a beautiful spot, we are here for about 2 hours, I think all of us may have had a little nap. There are plenty of hippo around to entertain us, two young males play fighting, a couple of large males really fighting, some mating, and just fun watching them. Down at the other end of the lake we also see a family of elephants come for a drink, another thing I will never tire of watching. We also get out a bird book and a book of butterflies to try to decide what a bird we saw earlier today in a palm leaf was, we think a Eurasian Swift. And some butterflies we saw yesterday were definitely the African Emigrant butterfly.
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| Lunch set up today, all those bumps in the water are hippos, provided lots of entertainment |
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| Hippo porn now, why is the child watching? |
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| white-headed Lapwing |
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| Greater Blue-eared Starling having a bath |
We try to follow the dogs, stop our jeep, then we hear what sounds like a faint scream, we turn the jeep around come across the 8 dogs ripping an impala apart. Wow, they are fierce, what happened to the cute dogs we saw just 2 or 3 minutes ago. Within 12 minutes this impala is basically finished. Quite gory to watch, but quite amazing as well. Our fill of watching this, the dogs move on and we head back to camp. Arrive back around 630, the managers laugh because they heard our plans to get back at 4PM so they knew we had found something good. Andre said I had to leave all of the pics in, it is nature after all, they will NOT be published in our coffee table book.
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| We lost the dogs for about 8 minutes, this is what was left of the impala when we found them again |
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| This is how close we were watching, approximately 12 minutes after the kill this is what is left, nothing. Nancy and I did spend a bit of time with our backs turned to this action, the guys and guides all loved it. |
Supper tonight and the excitement is a genet comes to visit, it is like the size of a house cat, very cute, there are 3 around but so far we have only seen this one. We hear about how they come to our lanterns at night to eat the bugs. Off to bed, tomorrow is a boat safari, some down time, then an afternoon game safari.
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| Trying to get into our tent! |
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| Ants crossed through bar, can't remember the name of them but we were told they bite |
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| When dining outside expect bugs on your table, see this guy on our flashlight |
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We appreciate any comments/questions you would have or any stories about the places we visited.