Blog 5 from Africa

John and I have been in Makalali for over a week now.  It has been very hot and humid.  The animals are hard to find so it was a poor week for pictures.

 

The volunteer program supports research efforts here at the reserve.  We record all animal siting’s on fixed drive routes once a week including the GPS coordinates.  On every drive we record data on raptors, impalas, wildebeest, and warthogs. John and I are trying to capture elephant and lion pictures for animal ID kits.  But you have to see lions before you can capture their image.

The accommodations are very good here.  John and I have a room with a private bath and I have to say it is nice not to have to clean up other peoples messes.  Much better food selection at Makalali, it is nice to have chicken breast to eat instead of backs and wings. 

I got to sleep out with the animals this week.  We drove to an open grassland area, put down ground tarps, aligned nine sleeping bags and called it home for the night.  We were surrounded by zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, antelopes, and hyenas.  To keep the hyenas at bay we worked two hour watches to: keep a fire burning all night, use the spot light to check for predator eyes every thirty minutes, and chased hyenas when they got too close. Fortunately I had the 10 to midnight shift and slept until 4:45.  At that time two of my fellow campers where having a tough time convincing a hyena to leave the immediate area.  So I got up and threw a stick in the general direction of the hyena.  It either thought it was food or that I wanted to play fetch. After a little more convincing it left the area.

We also got the opportunity to go on a bush walk this week.  We tracked rhinos through the bush. We never caught up with the rhinos.  We did see zebras and a giraffe. Trying to dodge the plethora of spiders and not get stuck on one of the ten variety of thorn trees proved to be challenging at times.

The reserve is still recovery after having received a foot and a half of rain a few weeks ago.  The river crosses are rough.  We make it easily across the water but the sand that has been deposited on the banks is a problem. We were stuck at one location for about 30 minutes.  But after jacking up the truck four times and placing rocks under the tires we were able to move on.

Here are the pictures for this week, not up to the usual quality. Many of the animal pictures were taken at night using a flash.  Lots of bird pictures because the animals were hard to find.

This young bull false charged us a couple of time but only after he was sure were were driving away. He pushed a small tree over to let us know he was serious.

The most elephants I have seen in one place.

Good size comparison

One night we saw eleven cubs being baby sat by one female lion

Play time

Two headed giraffe

Hyena pups at their den

Come on get up I am hungry

Andrews our ranger trying to find the water buffalo.  Water buffalo are very aggressive therefore the rifle. They kill more people than any other animal in Africa.

Checking to make sure there is still a rock bed for us to drive on.

Woodland Kingfisher

Spotted Eagle Owl

Wahlberg Eagle

Hamerkop checking out his reflection

Black Stork

European Bee-eater

Lilacbreasted Roller

Tawny Eagle

Yellowbilled Hornbill

Redbilled Hornbill

Mike leading our bush walk

These water lilies were the prettiest thing we saw on our game walk.

 That's all for this week.  Hopefully there will be some lion and leopard pictures in next weeks blog.