Blog Eight from South Africa

Play time

Hard to believe eight weeks have come and gone.  I am headed back to the US tomorrow.  This was an interesting week here.  The first two days we hardly saw any animals.  On the third day we saw some very angry elephants in three different locations.  

Two large females false charged us and trumpeted loudly to let us know they didn't want us too close.

Then a large unhappy male came out of the trees

We drove about 15 minutes farther and female from another herd let us know we weren't welcome.  We returned to camp for lunch and a large bull came to the local watering hole.  We drove out for pictures and he put on quite a display.

Part of his display

He got so close to the cruiser that I couldn't even fit his head in the view finder.

 The elephants must have been letting us know that things were changing for the better because over the next two days we saw all five animals that make up the big five. These animals make the big five list because they were the most dangerous to hunt.

The Cape Buffalo is one of the most dangerous animals in Africa.  They can be very aggressive and don't mind charging cars.  If hunters didn't kill them with the first shot the buffalo went after the hunter.

When the Cape Buffalo are lying down in the grasses they are hard to find.

The Redbilled Oxpecker eat the bugs that pester the Cape Buffalo.

The Leopard is in the big five.  We saw two of them on Friday evening.  This female walked up to the front of the car.  I cropped the picture to take the hood out of the shot.  I would like to have stood up to get a better shot but that is a bad idea.

The Leopards are a challenge to see in the grasses and trying to get a clean photo is even worse.

Mom and a cub in the tall grasses.

Mom walked out into the road for a few moments.

We found a breeding herd of elephants on Saturday morning.  There were two young elephants.  The female elephants did their best to shield them from us make taking photos a challenge.

This young one found a stick to play with.

This three month old Rhino was out grazing with mom and two older siblings.

This is mom.  She has large horns so she can protect her offspring.  Three of the White Rhinos I took pictures of a month ago have been poached in Kariega for their horns

I took 1200 pictures of lions in three hours on Saturday night.  How could you not take lots of pictures they were so cute. I now have no hard drive space left on my computer. Good thing it is time to go home.  While I have deleted over 2000 pictures I still have almost 9000 to go through.

One of four females that was watching fourteen cubs.

A male cub that is a little older than his siblings.

Cub sandwich

Just cute

A little neck scratching.

I won't be capturing sunset pictures like this in the USA.

A few other pictures from this week.

Ground Hornbill - There are only about 5000 left in the world.

Vervet Monkey

Giant Plated Lizard

Good bye from Africa.  I really enjoyed my eight weeks with John Miller. And I am looking forward to seeing his pictures of lions in trees in about 10 days. Check out his blog at jemillerwildlifeimages.com

I hope to have a photo blog in two weeks of Texas Wildflowers and in April look for pictures from Australia.  Bye for now.

Pat

Early morning traffic jam

Blog 7 from South Africa

Hard to believe seven weeks have already come and gone. Only one week to go which is a good thing because I am ready to go home and see my lovely wife.

This is the first week in a long time that we haven't be stuck in the sand.  But now we have an assortment of cruiser problems.  Our diesel fuel filter started leaking.  After traveling about five kilometers we had loss ten liters of fuel.  A quick trip back to the shop and a bolt to plug the water drain hole and we were off again.  But then our starter soliniod failed and we have been push starting the cruiser most of the time. This morning I changed a flat tire and help put a tire back on the rim.  Early in the week it was troubleshooting to figure out why a radio didn't work.  Those auto repair skills my father taught me have been coming in handy.

Foam Frog

We did another bush walk this week to look for Rhinos.  I saw ears and backs before they startled and ran away.  So the only pictures I took that morning were of this Foam Frog.  The female Foam Frog lays her eggs in a foam nest that she mades.  When the tadpoles hatch from the eggs they eat the foam and drop out of their nest.  If Mom and Dad Foam Frog placed their nest properly they fall into water and life is good.  If the nest was placed poorly their life is short.

These White Backed Vultured are quite large.  The circling vultures alert you to recent kills.

Two Giraffes smile for the camera.

There are lots of Zebras at the reserve.  I almost got to the point of not taking their pictures because you see them so often.

Purple Roller.  I think we identified 75 different birds this week.

This is a Tawny Eagle.  He was keeping a close eye on something in the grass.  We were a little too close for his comfort so we moved off.

 

Four lions were brought onto the reserve to improve the gene pool.  Two females and two males.  The existing dominate male lion brothers are hunting for these four to kill the males. These four lions walled within five feet of our cruiser. In the wild the average male lion only lives about seven years before he is killed by another male.  When the new male because dominate he kills all of the young cubs.

These four where looking a little thin. 

You can tell these two males are young.  Their manes haven't grown in yet.

None of these images were cropped.  I was shooting my 70-200 lens at 70mm because they were so close.  Remember I said our starter solinoid didn't work and we had to push start the cruiser?  Five minutes after these thin, hungry looking lions walked by we were outside the vehicle pushed starting.  It was a little uncomfortable.  When you are in the cruiser the lions see you as one large object.  Not the same when you are outside pushing the cruiser.  Glad I can run faster than John. Oh by the way the worse thing you can do is run.

Yes those teeth look sharp.

We have had a few nice sunsets this week.  Most of the time were are not in a good location for a photo.

Checkout this guy's tail.  We don't know what kind of lizard he is at this time.

Finally I got to see Leopards and capture some photos.  We ran across a mom with her two cubs.  What wonderful looking animals.  There were four people walking within 50 meters of these Leopards and they were unaware that there were Leopards in the area.  Leopards are know to track humans.  A little scary.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Mom feels comfortable around the vehicles but her cubs are skitish.  As she walks the open road they are walking in the grass.  Mom keeps an eye on them and if they get to far away she calls them.

One cub joins her and I am snapping away thinking these may be the only photos I get.

Mom turns around to check on the cubs.

Off she goes into the bush and I still don't have the shot I want.

Mom circled back on us to wait for the cubs. I ask John to get out and cut the leaves but he refuses.

Finally a picture I like.  No leaves blocking the face and not butts.

This is probably my favorite picture I have taken in Africa. Our cruiser wouldn't start again so were were picked up by someone else.  I was sitting in the very last row which is usually bad for taking pictures.  But since mom and this cub circled behind us it worked out great.

The cub is watching us and mom is licking her lips.

Getting ready to disapper in the bush.

Beautiful animals

It didn't take long before you couldn't see them.

Large bull Cape Buffalo.  He walked up to the cruiser to let us know he was the boss.  Cape Buffalo are one of the most dangerous animals in Africa.

This is a Boomslang snake.  This snake is extremely venomous.  She was in a tree over the road.  Since they are known to drop onto people and bite them we waited for her to move before we drove on.

 Only one more blog from South Africa.  I hope you have enjoyed the pictures.