Daily Archives: May 19, 2015

Game Drive Part 4 – Anything that is left

Here are the pictures that did not fit in the other posts about the drive.18may15 - drive - helmeted guinea fowl 18may15 - drive - helmeted guinea 18may15 - drive - warthog family 18may15 - drive - Warthogs

I have a fond affection for guinea fowl and warthogs. Mary took the photos of this great looking helmeted guinea fowl – they do not have crested guinea fowl in the park. There were warthogs all over the park – remember the one that greeted us at the gate. They often travel in family groups with only large males seen alone.

18may15 - drive - Birds not of a feather 18may15 - drive - croc with bird

At the first body of water we stopped at the dead trees were filled with birds that were either nesting or just enjoying the sun. We never did figure out but at least one is probably a comorant. Mary took this great shot of three crocs enjoying the warm sun and sand. She caught a white egret either taking off or landing and a tree that is just dripping with weaver’s nests.18may15 - drive - hippos lazy 18may15 - drive - chacma baboons

Besides the hippo we saw earlier in the water we found this pile of very lazy hippos out sun bathing which is unusual because they seem to prefer the water in daytime. Maybe the water was too cold. Along this dam there was a family of Chacma baboons.18may15 - drive - Monkey baby 18may15 - drive - monkey family

When we stopped at a small commercial center in the park I got photos of a family of vervet monkeys that stayed around the restaurant area in hopes of getting handouts. Some were brave enough to jump up on the tables to grab anything left behind. The management was not happy about this but the monkeys are very fast.

18may15 - drive - scenery a view 18may15 - drive - scenery pile of rocks 18may15 - drive - scenery grass close up 18may15 - drive - Lucky

 

Unfortunately I did not take many pictures of the landscape which was a mistake it was much different from what we have seen elsewhere. There are a small dams and one rather large one, lots of plains and mountains. Mary took this picture of what looks like something a giant farmer might stack up as he cleared his fields of rocks. She also took this photo of the grass – she was trying to snap one of the giraffes but her camera kept focusing on the grass just a short ways from her window. As we were leaving we said goodbye to our friend Lucky….



Game Drive Part 3 – Zebras and Giraffes

Zebras are one of the animals that we never get tired of seeing. On this drive we either saw them far away or really up close and personal as they wandered along the road. I like to think of the first picture on the left below as bookend zebras. The photo of the zebra neck and head was taken at a distance of about 5 feet through an open window. I asked Mary if she would like to pet it’s rump but she declined. The two zebras standing side by side in the road were not in any hurry to move out of our way. I finally got close enough that they got the message and slowly moved out of our way. In Swaziland they call cattle standing in the road – Swazi Stop Signs. I guess this is South Africa’s version. Both are very effective stop signs.

18may15 - drive - zebra back to back 18may15 - drive - Zebra up close 18may15 - drive - Zebra 18may15 - drive - zebras close - 18may15 - drive - zebras

We were on way to the gate to leave the park when I mentioned we had not seen any giraffes. This is unusual because while there are not usually a lot of them around, they are easy to spot. Just about the time I said this, the first one showed up as the side of the road having a snack. If you look closely at the front of the photo you can just pick out a rather large warthog that we did not notice at first. A few more kilometers down the road we saw our second giraffe. Both appear to be female – their horns are not worn down through fighting. However the one on the left was rather young so it could be a male who has not tried to fight for a mate.

18may15 - drive - giraffe eating 18may15 - drive - giraffe



Game Drive Part 2 – The Antelope….

I do not think we have been on a game drive where we have not seen wildebeests and impalas. There are about 1800 blue wildebeests and 3000 impalas in the reserve. 18may15 - drive - wildebeest 18may15 - drive - wildebeests 18may15 - drive - wildebeest herd

Impala males often travel in small groups and separate from the females. They are graceful animals and one of the favorite foods for lions. Notice the last picture in this group with the beautiful, graceful looking doe. Just to the right of her you can see the rear of another one with the very noticeable three dark stripes that look like the for an ‘m.’ The guides love to tell their passengers that this stands for McDonalds as far as the lions are concerned. 18may15 - drive - Impala buck drinking 18may15 - drive - impala bucks 18may15 - drive - Impala doe - McDonalds

Then to the other antelopes we encountered on our drive.

18may15 - drive - Nyala female 18may15 - drive - Springbok 18may15 - drive - Tsessebe - fastest antelope 18may15 - drive - waterbuckTop left is a nyala doe. The top right are two springbok. The bottom picture on the left is a not often seen – at least not by us on our drives – Tsessebe which is said to be the fast African antelope. This one was just about 30 feet from us and I tried to get it to stand up for a better photo but it would not cooperate. As we were leaving we saw this beautiful waterbuck male. Notice the white stripe on its rump. It goes all the way around and it is the only antelope with that marking.



Game Drive – Part 0

18 May 2015 – This should have been the first post of day but I posted about the elephants before I realized my mistake. Before we did the game drive in Pilanesberg National Park we stopped to look at the Black Rhino Lodge to see if we would like to stay there instead of going all the way to Kruger. We had to drive about 2 1/2 hours to get there. When we drove up to the Reseve gate we were met by Lucky who informed us that unless we had reservations we could not go in. Of course we did not have reservation but I convinced him to call the Lodge and see if we could come and visit them. It was made more complicated by the fact that I managed to leave our cell phone at home so I could not call them myself. But everything worked out fine as they told Lucky to let us in.

18may15 - drive - Lucky 18may15 - drive - impala first

As we drove to the lodge – it turns out there are many of them in the reserve – we saw our first animal – a nice size impala buck who greeted us and then wandered off into the bush.18may15 - drive - Black Rhino

Paul – the new manager who has only been there a week – showed us around the main lodge, the grounds, and the very nice rooms. We had packed enough to stay overnight if there was room but it turned out that they do not take walk ins so we will have to make reservations. I really liked it but Mary really wants to see Kruger so we will spend our anniversary there.

18may15 - drive - Warthog 18may15 - drive - hippoAfter we left the lodge we drove to the nearest gate into Pilanesberg Park and just inside we found this great looking warthog 3 feet from the road looking for something to eat. This was the first hippo we saw – it never moved a muscle. You can see the tiny ear and an eye just over the rocks.



There are Elephants in our P-day….Game Drive Part 1

May 18, 2015 – We have been in South Africa for almost 15 months and we have not seen a single elephant except those on the Tembe Elephant Park webcam. So we were excited when we saw some at a distance and then drove to where they were. Mary took the picture of the big elephant that was about 20 or so feet away.  After she took the photo he wandered over to a near by bushy tree and tore off a good size branch and started eating it. The next four photos show the progress of his meal. One of the interesting thing about this bull is that he only has one tusk – you can see it clearly on the away side in the photo where he is selecting his meal. He probably lost the other one in some fight.

18may15 - drive - elephant first 18may15 - drive - elephant eating 18may15 - drive - elephant eating 2 18may15 - drive - elephant eating 3 18may15 - drive - elephant eating 4 18may15 - drive - elephant in water

Just behind the bill bull, there was a group of 4 or 5 other elephants playing in the water. I never got a clear shot of them because we could not drive close without disturbing the one that was eating and that was not a good idea.

18may15 - drive - elephant young3 - good  18may15 - drive - wet elephant 2We decided to go around to the other side of the body of water and see if we could get a better shot of the ones in the water. As we were driving we came across a pile of fresh elephant spoor – a really, really fresh pile – and saw the young elephant on the left in the bush near the road. I like this picture because it seems it is looking right at us. The picture on the right is a large female that had just got out of the water. Notice the small size of the tusks…

18may15 - drive - elephants 2 in water 18may15 - drive - elephants near water

From across the water we took these two photos of some of those who were playing in the water. They all are rather young and small. They reminded me of children who are playing in a wading pool in the backyard and having a great time.

18may15 - drive - elephants herd

As we were heading to the gate to go home we found this good size herd getting drinks from a dam area. Notice that there are all sizes in this family. Right down at the bottom of the photo there is a very young one, a little larger one and then on the other side of one of the adults is an larger but still small one. So we had a good time looking at elephants near water but we did not see any others in our 5 hours of driving.