Another 5:30 wake-up call for another beautiful day. At Mashutu, the early coffee had cold cereal, breads, fruit, juices, and yogurt. Bill, Mark, Barbara, John, and Lindsay went on a walkabout with Darrin, a researcher at Mashatu. That left the rest of us to leave on the morning game drive at 6:45.
Bill Branch, Linda, and I went with Dan and Aaron on the most magical drive yet. We saw a beautiful bird called the crimson breasted shrike, one of four kinds of cape doves, a raptor of some kind, a namaqua dove, a long-tailed starling, red-billed hornbill, red-faced mousebird, and a tropical boubou. . The guides and Bill Branch soon figured out that I love the beautifully colored birds and made a point to stop and show us neat birds. I took a bit of a ribbing at first for being a “twitcher” (a fanatical bird watcher), but before the trip was over almost everyone became enamored of the birds we were seeing.
We saw lots of kudu. The females have the biggest, neatest ears, and the males have my favorite corkscrew horns. We saw hyena poo which looks like bone since they eat so much bone. And there were elephants, spur fowl (formerly called a francolin), blacksmith lapwing, ostrich, white-fronted bee-eater, and a black-backed jackal. In a large mashatu tree we saw a leopard sleeping, white-backed vulture, and several beautiful long-tailed starlings.
Then we had a fun time. We were starting to cross a small dry creek bed near a second mashatu tree near the one the leopard was in when we spotted a tribe of baboons. There were mothers grooming youngsters, some large male baboons, and they all made a peaceful scene. Suddenly one of the large male baboons made a loud barking sound and went tearing across the creek bed to the second mashatu tree. Most of the baboons followed. They were screeching and carrying on. Dan told us they smelled the leopard but didn’t know where it was. Impalas were grazing with the baboons. The larger baboons raced around the tree searching for the leopard. When they didn’t find him, they started climbing a nearby short tree to jump into the mashatu tree. We watched this wonderful show for some time.
As we moved on, we saw some massive eland and more kudu. I got some more photos of the wonderful lilac-breasted roller and another amazing bird, the African hoopoe. We stopped for our coffee break. Linda had a great time with Bill picking up rocks. I got a neat photo of various kinds of dung. Off we went again to see giraffe, and finally close-up, two cheetahs that let us follow them closely for quite some time. We were delighted. They were headed off towards the Zimbabwe boarder which was quite close.
Then we stopped to see a baobab tree up close. For the only time, (except for tea and sun downer stops) we got to get out and go look at the tree up close. We had great fun with Aaron peering out from a hole in the tree. Linda had to do the same. As we headed back, we got a long, close-up look at a warthog.
We headed back to Mashatu where we relaxed after the most amazing game drive. I got a photo of a rainbow skink outside our room.
We had brunch at 10:30. Today was beef and pasta, sandwich fixings, fruits, and banana pie. After lunch I bought a shirt at the gift shop while Bill went to take a nap.
At 2:30 Bill Branch talked about African animals in the Discovery Center. Mashatu is involved in a lot of different wildlife research projects, so the Discovery Center has a lot of displays. There are also some crocodiles in a pond next to the center. Vervet monkeys were playing in the trees nearby.
We grabbed some tea before the start of the 4pm drive. A yellow-billed hornbill and a red-headed finch started the drive. We saw lots of giraffe, eland, and a wart hog who was hanging out with the rest of the group. A Nile monitor walked through the wood at the base of a tree. The river beds were all dry because it was the end of the dry season. They looked like the black sand beaches of Hawaii.
A family of lions was lying about. The male was a collared animal. We drove by a hyena den where two hyenas were keeping watch. Baboons were roaming around, and a few elephants were eating near the road. They seemed a little distressed as we passed. We met up with the other truck for a beautiful sunset and sundowners. On the way back to camp we saw a couple of cheetahs hunting for dinner with a black-backed jackal following along closely looking for leftovers.
Dinner tonight was beef Wellington which was quite good.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment