uMkhuze dag 14: A day full of new experiences.

Zondag 4-10-2018

uMkhuze dag 14:   A day full of new experiences.

Dieren vandaag gezien / Animals spotted:

·         African wild dogs

·         Cheetah

·         White backed vultures

·         Barn swallow

·         Hippo

·         Kudu

·         Nyala

·         Impala (and baby’s)

·         Zebra

·         Giraffe

·         Warthog

·         Blue wildebeest

·         Leopard tortoise

·         Vervet monkey

·         Red-billed oxpecker

·         Purple-crested turaco

·         Three-banded plover

·         Cape turtle-dove

·         Serrated hinged terrapin

My mood was better then yesterday. We left as usually  this morning at 4 am. First we visited the boma. To my big surprise there were hypes of barn swallows sitting on the fences and trees. They have just arrived from Europe.

When we left the boma to search for the dogs we found them on the road. They were trying to hunt. They chased some impala but one of them just was too slow. We don’t know if they succeeded but after a while we couldn’t see them anymore. We then looked for the females but they were in an area where we couldn’t go. Back to the males. We picked up signal but they were to far see them. Then we drove to … hide to have our morning break. It was great and we saw so many different animals. Impala’s with a baby. This was the first one of the season Meg told us. Some of the other impala’s were playing, practising their fighting skills, eating. We also saw some vervet monkey’s, red-billed oxpecker, purple-crested turaco, three-banded plover, cape turtle-dove, serrated hinged terrapin. It was a wonderful way to spend this break. Then back to camp. Here I packed my left over things into my suite case. For lunch Aaron, Pascal and I went to the take away. It was nice not to make my own lunch.

For our afternoon session we left very early at 3 pm. I was scanning and our first target was MLF2. I scanned, scanned and scanned but I couldn’t find her. It was so frustrating. We visited the … pan. Here we saw some hippo’s. It was a wonderful place as well to spent some time. When we left I kept on scanning for MLF2, MCM16 and MCM20. We drove true the mining area. We hadn’t been here before but it was a great place to look down from.

No luck till my last attempt. I had signal for MLF2. We did a triangulation but she was too far away in the bush.

When we drove passed the beacon we stopped and did some star gazing. I even saw a falling star, again. A great way to end a day full of fun.