It is reed gathering time in the parks and for the last month or so we have seen the women harvesting the reeds and carrying them to pick-up points. We had not seen this many bundles in one place before. Obviously Mary has a long ways to go before she is ready to be of much help but at least she is learning…

This was another case of being in the right place at the right time. As we drove around a bend a small herd of Cape buffalo started across the road. After we had taken our pictures – I missed one where the calf was trying to get a drink of milk and walk at the same time – and the herd had moved across we drove another K up the road and then turned around and came back. In the 2-3 minutes we were away, the herd had all but disappeared into the bush and we only saw a glimpse of one or two because we knew they should be there.That is why on a game drive one car can see lots of animals and another one just minutes later or earlier will say there were none to be found.

We love Cape Gloucester starlings and we saw many on this trip, but none posed for us a these two did. As we crossed over a small bridge we saw this young dead nyala on a sandbar. It did not appear that it had been killed by a predator and there were no scavengers around. Perhaps it was very ill and had come for a drink and had just laid down and died.

Mary took the picture of the dry creek bed with the mountains in the background. I chose one of the myriad of wonderful dead trees that dot the landscape of the park.