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.

Gate 1, South Africa - Day 5, first game drive (Part 1)

The best time to see animals is early in the morning so the days we were going on safari we were getting up very early, given a coffee and rusk in the hotel lobby and provided with a box of snacks by the hotel to replace the breakfast. Trying to get to the gate of the park by 6am!

Great fun, trying to pronounce that.

There were warthogs in the parking lot

before we even got into the park.

We were in vehicles that held 9 (3 rows of 3, the highest at the back and the lowest just a bit higher than the driver/guide) with a roof and open sides. It was chilly in the morning but I was so excited I didn't really notice the cool breeze from driving along in an open vehicle.
I am going to have a great deal of difficulty choosing the pictures to post on the blog. As you can imagine, I took hundreds of photos. I am going to post them in the order that we saw them as I treat this blog as my diary.

The 6 Canadians sat in the back 2 rows, joined by 2 Americans (Jessica and her mother, Cathy) in the front and that's Renier in the front (he moved around to different vehicles at each break) You can see how bundled up Jessica is.

Impala. You are going to get sick of my Impala pictures as they are the most prevalent animal and I never tired of watching them and taking pictures of them.

The rest of them were not that interested in birds but every now and then I would manage a shot or Renier or the guide would point one out. Pin Tailed Whydah. They fly as if that long tail totally unbalances them.

I think this is a Woolly Necked Stork

A tree full of baboons

I could watch and take pictures of these guys all day too.

They were eating the fruit in the tree.

This little one couldn't figure out how to get up there

Even with the help of another young one, he kept sliding back down the main trunk of the tree.

Part of the troop was down in the grass, making pictures of them harder to get.

Obviously the guide was very good at spotting animals but he also had to concentrate on driving. We were all straining our eyes and the various guides were in radio contact to report sightings.

Off in the distance, giraffes.

Though the zoom on the camera helped bring them closer.

A yellow billed kite. There were lots of these, often at the top of dead trees.

More giraffes on the opposite hill, and a zebra.

Zoomed in. At one point he rolled in the dirt like a horse.

I can't remember what Renier called this one but it was named after its call.

Warthog on the run. When they get going they run with their tails straight up in the air.

The 5 most dangerous animals in South Africa are called the Big Five; lion, rhino, leopard, elephant and cape buffalo. There's also the Small Five and the Ugly Five. The warthog is of course one of the latter.

Chris with the binos, on the look out.

I think he is a Nile Monitor Lizard. He was about 5 foot long and sunning himself on a rock beside a dry river bed.

We drove into a fenced area with huts and washroom facilities at this point. Here we were served breakfast. We were excited about what we had seen and didn't know, until after, that it had actually been rather slow and that it would get better.

Walking back to the vehicle I was able to get quite close to a herd of Kudu. These 2 are quite young.

A young male giving me the eye.

When they run their fluffy tails lift up and are white underneath.

Hiding in the bushes. Huge ears like radar.

This is just half way through the drive but I am going to post it and continue the rest in a second post. So many animal pictures!!