Gate 1, South Africa - Day 5, first game drive, part 2.

It was warming up, so setting out after breakfast we didn't need to bundle up as much.

Nyala, maybe (I have some confusion over my antelope species)

A troop of baboons, on and beside the road.

They ignored us and went about their business; grooming each other

nursing their young,

checking the manicure,

play fighting,

being bugged by the kids

and just

being very entertaining.

Next to cross the road in front of us - Cape Buffalo. Sometimes we spotted animals and drove to get as close as possible, sometimes we were alerted by other rangers and drove to that location and sometimes we were just in the right place at the right time and they appeared from the bush at the side of the road, walked across and disappeared again on the other side. 30 seconds later and we would have seen nothing. A game drive is a gamble.

We were quite close to these 2

Christine particularly likes it when the animal has a "bird friend". The Oxpeckers eat the parasites off the buffalo's skin and in return gets food.

When another vehicle arrived

they moved back into the bush.

No idea what he is, just a quick snap as we were driving along.

Noise in the undergrowth

and there he was.

Whenever we had a sighting of a new animal the ranger would give us information and answer our questions. Elephants eat almost constantly. They need a lot of food to sustain that bulk.

This one ate its way across our field of view - trees, grass, shrubs....

This little herd looked like they had just been waiting for us to come along. One keeping guard in each direction.

Their markings are just amazing.

I was surprised by the brownish colouring on the rear, maybe from all that rolling in the dirt.

Facial markings are not quite symmetrical.

After a while they moved off to graze

just leaving one lookout as we drove by.

Cape Buffalo doing what you expect them to do - wallow in the mud.

One in the herd was up in the bush scratching his head.

More giraffes

This one with his "bird friend".

close up of the Oxpecker.

He looks like we smell bad, maybe we do.

A herd of Zebra and Impala

Typical kids, chewing on each other.

The ranger said he was tired because of so many wives and children. One male for each herd. Adolescent males leave the herd in a "bachelor group" but stay nearby.

That look says "I can handle it"

Fast food

A flock of Guinea Fowl

They ran quickly into the long grass. That was the end of our game drive. We saw all of that in 3 hours. The time flew by, we were either straining to spot animals or awed and taking pictures of them.

Back into the bus. It is summer here and I had anticipated much drier conditions. Of course the Cape Town area was suffering through a very scary drought and the rest of South Africa is recovering from a drought. Water resources are still low but everything is very green and we had some rain, usually when we were on the bus.

Rest stops tend to be where we can shop, use a toilet and get some food.

This one had Batics,

weaving

and we could watch the carving.

We got to the hotel in time to swim in the pool

racing each other using the giant chess pieces as flotation devices.

The hotel had lovely views and the dinner and breakfast buffets were excellent.