Primates and Africa's Smallest Carnivore

Two baboons.

A family of vervet monkeys.

Beautiful landscapes.

A red crested barbet.

The reach of a giraffe.

Africa's smallest carnivore, at about one foot, the dwarf mongoose.

Hippos motoring down the river.

Our last Belule game drive, Bruce, me, Chulu, Matt and Koert.

Dung beetles on fresh elephant poo.

 A giant kingfisher.

Andrew who drove us to Kruger twice.

And our ever friendly bartender Neo.

Friday, May 12^th.

This morning we had our last Belule game drive. It was quite cool this morning as we started out, but it was bright and sunny (when it came up) and quickly warmed up from about 14 to 28. Early on we saw a troop of baboons and a family of vervet monkeys warming in the sun. We drove at a very relaxed pace enjoying our surroundings while hoping to find lions. We stopped a couple of times listening for lion calls, but were greeted mainly by the dawn chorus of bird calls. Chulu took us into the bush looking for leopard, and although we saw fresh tracks we had no sighting. But, we did see a family of Africa’s smallest carnivore – the dwarf mongoose. We’d seen them briefly before but it would difficult to photograph them as they are shy and hide in the grass. Today we saw them out and moving around as they seemed to be on the hunt. They were moving through the bush and down the road and had two sentries posted on a couple of stumps to watch out for their predators. We sat and watched them for a half hour. Amazing. We also saw some birds and I got some good shots today of the crested barbet and the giant kingfisher. After lunch 8 of us loaded up in a viewer and went into Pick n Pay Mall in Phalaborwa to buy snacks and supplies and to get cash out to pay our bills here at African Impact. Back to the camp to write up the blog and upload pictures, but as usual loadshedding messed that up. I went to the bar to meet up with Leon, who is the owner of the Kambuka II the resort and bar that is attached to us. Actually he rents out half of his property to African Impact. I had a good talk with him. He is an ex-army officer then policeman who build this resort initially just for family and friends. He leases the reserve and helps to service it. Interesting man. I was able to charge my computer there and upload photos for the week to update the blog. Then off to bed.