Down Day

A pied kingfisher with a frog.

The whole group.

What did you see? and where was it?

Much of the staff of Africa Impact at Kambaku Camp.

Challenging turning around to chase game.

Candelabra euphorbia, a beautiful cactus.

A bush picnic gin stop.

 Sunday, April 30^th.

We heard yesterday that there would be no loadshedding today, but we woke up this morning to no electricity and no Wi-Fi. Apparently, it was caused at the nearby power station. So, we hung out and I did some reading. I asked Daisy to take me into town so that I could attempt to get money out of an ATM again, because they don’t want credit card payments when we leave, and I don’t have a PayPal account (and to create one they want to send me a text and I have removed my SIM card to avoid Rogers roaming charges). Thankfully it worked today, and I took out 6000 Rand or about $450 Canadian. I need to pay for the steak nights, the two trips to Kruger and any incidentals. Then back to camp where I spent the rest of the day with Bruce and Koert editing, sorting, blogging reading and relaxing. I had a couple of beer in the bar with Bruce after he finished watching the formula 1 race. Then we had our gathering around the campfire welcoming our one new person, followed by a braai dinner of pork chops and potatoes. Quiet evening and off to bed early.

The only picture I took today was the kingfisher, the others are from tomorrow.

Birds and Critters

Cape turtle dove.

Long-tailed paradise whydah

A goshawk.

A large golden orb spider.

Matt shooting butterflies.

One of the area's ancient eroded mountains.

The amazing dung beetle.

Having a drink as...

he crosses the river.

Klipspringers

Taken from our camp.

Saturday, April 29^th.

Spotty night’s sleep as the three young lads in our room didn’t have to get up early and were partying late and coming in noisily. However, we were up and off on a 5-hour game drive with Daisy today as a replacement drive for the four of us who had hoped to go to Kruger this weekend, but unfortunately the park was booked up as it was a holiday weekend here. The drive was quite quiet but as always it is nice just to drive through the reserves looking and hoping to see different things. We did see klipspringers, a goshawk, impala, elephants and a dung beetle rolling a ball of dung away to bury it and lay an egg in it so the larvae to have a ready source of food. We had our coffee break beside a sight where the rangers had dumped a small elephant carcass that was killed by an train a couple of months ago. There were bones laying around, lots of vulture feathers and it still smelled a bit rank. We got back to camp by 11. After lunch I had a three hour much needed nap. The rest of the day was spent sorting photos, emailing, blogging and reading. After dinner Bruce and I hung out at the bar for a bit before bed.

Cape Buffalo and White Backed Vultures

Driving through the bushvelt.

A large herd of Cape Buffalo.

A young one trying to nurse as mom walks with the herd.

Are you winking at me?

A bluffing elephant coming down the road towards us.

Helmeted Guinea Fowl

A pair of white backed vultures mating.

Two bee eaters, one with a dragonfly in its beak.

 Friday, April 28^th.

This morning we saw elephants, impala, vultures, a large herd of Cape buffalo and a flock of cattle egrets that were following them. This was the last game drive for Dylan who is leaving and he was eager to tell us about a few different trees. We were all watching him as he got out of the truck and walked around to the left side and began to tell us about a certain type of tree, when I spotted a large elephant coming down the road straight as us. It was strutting along and trying to intimidate us, but after Dylan got back in the truck the elephant wandered off the road and began to eat some leaves, so I guess a snack beats bullying. We also saw a mating pair of white backed vultures in a dead tree. It was a very warm day today and we just hung around the pool and enjoyed a couple of cool ones. We were in bed early as we had a drive booked for 5:30 with Daisy the driver.

Zebra and Conservation Activity

The beautiful plains zebra.

Elephants checking us out.

The invasive queen of the night cactus.

Cutting it up and carrying it away.

Pulling down larger sections.

Piling it up to be burned later.

Glorious sunset.

A tiny pearl spotted owlet on the night drive.

Thursday, April 27^th.

We were up at 5 again for a new adventure. It was the photography groups time to join the conservation group in removing some of the invasive species of cactus with the unusual name of The Queen of the Night. It is native to South America and is thrives here, growing to huge sizes and heights. It interferes with the native plants’ ability to grow in the area as it hogs the water. There are no native animals that eat it and it has needle like thorns that irritate animals. So, we drove 90 minutes to the location only to find a herd of about ten elephants happily browsing on the other plants in the area. So, we had to sit and wait patiently until they moved on, as it would be too dangerous to get out and get to work. When they moved off, we began. We were to cut the cactus to pieces with machetes, saws and ropes. Then we carried the pieces by pitchfork to a pile which would be picked up by a truck to be hauled away and burned. We worked for a couple of hours. We were also asked to take photos of the process to use to show what the company African Impact is doing. On the way back to camp we saw quite a few zebra, and a large herd of Cape Buffalo. After lunch we had two good lectures. One was on Taxonomy led by Kes and the other by Timo on ethical photography. We learned about the taxonomic structure of the classifications of all life from the largest grouping of domain and becoming more and more specific through the other classifications as they cascade from general down to more specific: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family genus and finally individual species. Got that? Timo went on at length about real wildlife photography and faked shots and how to tell. He also gave us food for thought whether it was ethical to plant food in order to entice a bird to come to it in order to get a better shot, or go to places where the animals are used for entertainment for tourists. I know I’ve done things like that in the past, but always rationalized it as ‘when am I ever going to get the chance to do that again’ or ‘if I don’t do it someone else will’. For example: riding elephants, walking with lions, posing with tigers, diving with white sharks… Anyway, it makes you think. After dinner we had a night drive. We saw dozens of groups of impala, a couple of elephants, and a tiny pearl spotted owl. It’s a very different experience driving around in the dark, flashing a spotlight in the forest and up trees looking for reflective eyes and then coming across an enormous elephant. When we got back it was time to get to bed as we have another drive in the morning.

Elephants and Water Buck

Follow the leader... but keep your distance.

Male bush buck

Two young elephants stumble over the bank ...

on the way down to the river for a drink.

Two elephants were giving themselves dust baths.

Water bucks

Two water buck greet each other.

A water monitor.

A hoopee.

 Wednesday, April 26^th.

Off on another drive at 6am. We came across a bachelor group of elephants and walking down the road. We followed them at a distance so as not to provoke them, but the rear one kept checking us out. We stopped to see some bushbuck and by the time we started again the elephants had left the road. We saw the other regulars like giraffe, impala and bushbuck, but so far no big cats here. Timo, our resident self proclaimed photography and wildlife expert spotted an African wild cat just as it killed a dwarf mongoose. He definitely has the eye for spotting things and the talent for getting great shots, aided by the biggest lens in camp. We also saw a water monitor (a type of lizard), which was about a metre long. When we got back there was some free time to edit and then after lunch an hour long presentation by Timo on the use of back light in photos. Then it was relax and happy hour time. A group of us sat at the bar and enjoyed a few beers and a lot of laughs before our second t-bone dinner night. I got talking to Madeline who is one of the photography assistants. She has worked here for six months and next week will return to the US where she works on a huge tourist ranch in Wyoming. She is in charge of the hundred plus horses. She also used to play polo and managed a polo team. Then I talked to Ulisa, from Cape Town, who is the camp coordinator here. She used to lead overland trips like the one I took through East Africa. She had also done a lot of conservation and anti poaching work. I like talking to people who have chosen different paths in life other than the expected family route. I was very tired and in bed by 8:30 as the early mornings are tiring.

Boat Safari, Elephant Charge and Smoking Dung

Sunrise on our boat safari.

Three grey herons, very similar to our blue herons.

A Cape Buffalo.

African pied wagtail singing.

The boat we were on.

A warthog.

An elephant charge...

Get out of here! (she is saying).

Spencer debriefing us.

Yolisa telling us the benefits of elephant dung.

and demonstrating how to smoke it.

Reading animal tracks...

Tuesday, April 25^th.

We were up even earlier this morning, at 5, for a boat safari. We motored up and down the river looking for wildlife but didn’t see much other than a few birds, crocs, one hippo and a Cape buffalo, but it was relaxing and way less bumpy than the truck safaris. When we got back Paula divided us into small teams and had us play a game. She showed us 20 photos on her computer and we had to guess what the ISO setting was, what the shutter speed was, and what the aperture setting was. My team won thanks to Mads and Matt and no help from me. Matt said every team needed a cheerleader. Then we had lunch after which we had a science lecture on Amphibians led by Dylan. Then we went for our afternoon game drive. We had Spencer as our guide for the first time. He is a Canadian from Mississauga and has been here over a year. It was another bumpy hot drive and since it’s bird week we focused on them. After two hours we saw an elephant off to our right, right by the road and we stopped. She trumpeted at us, crashed through the bush to get ahead of us, and confronted us on the road. She was really upset by our presence as there was at least one very young elephant in the group. She trumpeted a couple more times and then bluff charged us several times. Spenser was very cool, talking softly to her, then yelling ‘hey’ when she charged. On the third charge he slapped his door and talked softly to her and she seemed to hesitate and back up. Spenser started the truck and slowly backed up and she seemed happy with that. After we managed to turn around and get to a safe distance, we had a chat. He was obviously shaken, and his adrenalin was racing. Spenser warned Yolisa the driver of another truck not to go that route and she came behind us. We stopped to look at some tracks which the guides were very excited to identify as aardvark tracks. Yolisa had all of us from both trucks get out as she showed us a large lump of dried elephant dung and what she wanted to show us. She lit it was a lighter and showed us how people used to smoke it while using it as a mosquito deterrent. Many of us, including me, tried it. It was like inhaling tobacco without the filter, nicotine or any high. But where else would you get the chance to try that, or even want to? By that time, it was getting dark and we needed to get back for dinner, so we split up and drove back to camp. On the way, Spenser was driving, talking on the walkie talkie and shining a torch into the wood looking for the tell-tale sign of lighted eyes, and he found a tree with 3 or 4 bushbabies jumping through the branches. He was very excited about that, as it was another rare sighting, but I found they were impossible to see let alone photograph. However, Timo got a couple of good shots. Then finally back to camp to hear that one of the other trucks was broken down in the dark in the reserve, so they had to go and rescue them. We had another good dinner after which Bruce and I went to the bar and had a couple of beer before bed.