Tag: Elephants

Posted on

Kruger National Park Day 9

Follow the link to Day 8 and from there, links to the previous days.

Our last full day in the Park turned out to be a scorching hot day, the temperature reaching 41 degrees Celsius. The animals seemed to have gone into hiding in these conditions.

Fortunately the birds were still out and about. We encountered a Gray Go-away bird, Red-billed Hornbill, Brown-headed Parrot, Hoopoe Cardinal Woodpecker and a Southern Ground Hornbill, bearing gifts for his girlfriend, amongst others.

Stopping on a bridge, we saw multiple birds enjoying the small pools of water in the river bed and sitting around in the trees next to the water. A Fish Eagle came sweeping in a few times.

Eventually the Saddle-billed Stork decided to take flight

Further along, we saw a Tree agama and a Water monitor. Clearly the reptiles didn’t mind the heat.

A fight between two impala rams, to add to the elephant and kudu fight scenes of Day 7

After our morning drive, it was time to pack up and head out from Berg-en-Dal, back to Skukuza, completing our round trip of the southern part of the Park. Along the way we stopped at Afsaal for their famous roosterkoek, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

After checking in at Skukuza and resting a bit to recover from the heat of the day, it was time for an afternoon drive. We encountered a lone hyena, lazing about next to the road, a pair of Purple Rollers who properly frustrated my attempts at taking photos of them in flight, but at least gave me opportunity to photograph them sharing an insect and European Bee-eaters, who were once again too fast and unpredictable for me to photograph in flight.

An elephant came strolling along, first spraying itself with water at a water hole close to the road and then casually strolling up to a tree and pushing it over.

Video by Liana

Once more we had a magnificent sunset.

Posted on

Kruger National Park Day 7

Follow the links to Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 and Day 5

I managed to keep up until that point, but then Day 6 (linked here) was a day late and, as I still struggle to get good internet connection, Day 7 is also late.

On Day 7 we decided to take an easy day, making an 8:30 start to our transfer from Lower Sabie to Berg-en-Dal.  This allowed me to catch up on culling and backing up photos from the previous day.

The drive between camps was full of surprises, which included a tree, bearing cattle egrets

two elephant bulls tussling, two Kudu bulls tussling,

a tortoise sprinting at full speed, a crocodile sunbathing

warthogs kneeling for their food, a surprise shot containing three animal species

and even more unexpected leopard and lion sightings, both of which I was too slow to photograph, perhaps due to my delayed reactions caused by the previous evening’s stresses.

Arriving at Berg-en-Dal, we found our accommodation very comfortable, but once again the internet connection too slow to upload photos for the blog.

Posted on

Kruger National Park – Day 3

Day 1 is here

Day 2 is here

Day 3 was an early start, queuing at the camp gate at 5:30 to be on the road at sunrise, exploring the area north of Satara, towards Olifants camp.

This turned out to be the day on which we found Wild dogs, after a long search, despite having been informed of their exact location. We eventually found them late morning, resting in deep shade among the trees, very hard to spot. As a result this was not an ideal photographic opportunity, but managed to take a few pics, just to document that we had seen them.

Much of the morning and later also the late afternoon was spent trying to photograph birds in flight, with limited success.

First, a pair of Fish Eagles at the viewing site at Olifants rest camp

Several attempts at Lilac Breasted Rollers (Troupant)

White-browed Coucal (Vleiloerie)

Southern Ground Hornbill

During the course of the day, we also saw quit a few elephants, a hyena, Kori Bustard, Red crested korhaan, Waterbuck, kudu

and a bit frustratingly, given my dislike of baboons, probably my best photo of the day, a troupe of baboons in a tree at Olifants bridge.

We also managed to get a family portrait of some lions in the grass,

saw some elephants crossing the Olifants river

and played around with some landscape and sunset/sunburst photos.

We ended the day with some venison sausage and chicken kebabs on the braai.

Posted on

Botswana 2022 (Part 3): Pangolin Photo Safaris: Pangolin Chobe Hotel

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

After arriving at the hotel and settling into our rooms, Grant spent some time giving those of us who wanted some photo editing tips. I found this tremendously helpful and any editing mistakes you spot in my photos are purely due to my inexperience, certainly not his lack of teaching.

After tea, it was time for a game drive in Chobe National Park

Following the game drive, the group decided unanimously that we wanted to swop the next morning’s game drive for another photo boat excursion. The sightings from the boats seemed to be better and on the boats one could avoid the heat and dust encountered on the game drive vehicles.

A long time spent trying to photograph Carmine bee-eaters the next morning mainly taught me that I need a lot more practice with the small, fast moving birds.

Liana’s video gives an idea of the quick and unpredictable movements of the bee-eaters.

The afternoon brought elephants against a lovely sunset

The last morning at Pangolin for myself and Liana (we had to depart early the next morning and thus miss the last excursion), gave us more hippos, crocodiles, birds and a tigertail dragonfly. Thanks to Grant for showing me how to get rid of that irritating blade of grass over the croc’s mouth.

The elephants of Chobe never failed to keep us entertained and Liana had more than enough material for a few elephant videos (make sure you have sound on for the videos)

On our last afternoon we thought some elephants might join us in the photo boat,

spent some more time with the elephants, skimmers and an Openbill stork,

and watched another spectacular sunset with a bromance between two elephants, observed by us and some buffalo.

A spectacular end to a spectacular 6 days with Pangolin and Grant Atkinson. The next morning, while the rest of the group went on one last photo excusion, we departed for Francistown, on our way to Mashatu.

Part 4: Mashatu