Surprised by a Cape Buffalo!

The most successful antelope in Africa, the impala.

A pair of klipspringers.

The characteristic "M" design on the back of an impala.

Heidi talking to us about the Cape buffalo between us and our truck...

This is not the actual buffalo, but is what we had to deal with.

Two elephants playing in the sand.

A baby hippo with its mother.

The butterfly shaped leaf of the omnipresent mopani tree.

The same chameleon as last night in the same tree.

A white backed vulture...

and taking off.

Two pied kingfishers, one with a frog.

 Friday, May 5^th.
This morning’s drive might have been the best yet. We saw three white backed vultures, impala, three klipspringers and elephants. This morning we saw the same chameleon in the same tree as last night. At this coffee stop, on previous drives we had gone down to the river to see what we might see in and around the water. Our guide Heidi was new to camp, and I suggested to her that we do that. So, she led us down to the riverbank. We were all talking and looking at the water when Heidi heard something coming through the brush behind us. She went to have a look and came back looking shaken. Behind some shrubbery not fifty feet away was an old male Cape buffalo. They are called dagga boys as they are in the later years, poor sighted and hard of hearing, but their sense of smell is still sharp, and it knew we were there. He was looking through the leaves as us and we could just see him. This is rumored to be the most dangerous animal to meet while on foot in Africa. That might be up for grabs when you consider there are lions, hippos, leopards, crocodiles, and others around. However, this was a very serious situation, they are very belligerent animals and I’ve seen on documentaries how they can send lions airborne with the horns and a flick of their massive head. Buffalo kill more people in Africa than any other animal. Heidi was obviously concerned. She had six tourists with her, she didn’t really know the area and she had left her walkie talkie in the truck. She appeared very calm and reassured us. She tried to go back up the hill towards the truck, but the buffalo just stared her down. She realized that path was too dangerous, so she came back to where she had left us. She told us that we were probably exactly where the buffalo wanted to go on his way to the river. So she considered her options and decided to walk further along the shore, then descend a small hill to the actual river bank where we were told previously not to go because of the possibility of meeting hippos or crocodiles, follow that bank back towards the buffalo and then climb back up some way behind him. So we quietly and calmy followed Heidi in single file and made it back safely to the truck. We saw the buffalo make his way to the river right where we had been. That was a bit of an adrenaline rush for all of us, Heidi included, as it could have gone very badly. Cape buffalo kill many people in Africa every year. On the way back to camp we crossed by a small water hole and found three pied kingfishers in branches over the water. We watched as they fished and one caught a frog, flew up to the branch and beat it to death before eating it. Then we found a troop of baboons running along the shore right by our camp. When we got back, we had a critique session on our best 3 pics each of our macro shots from yesterday. I had one of a dragonfly, a spider, and a lizard. It’s interesting to see the quality of pictures the others get. After lunch we said goodbye to our room mates Bram to Koen who are leaving the project and returning home on Sunday. We won’t see them off as we are heading to Kruger National Park for the weekend. Matt, Koert, Ryenne, Elaine, Bruce, Timo, and I, left at two with our guide Daisy and our driver Andrew from Leon’s lodge. We went to Kruger with him last time. As it turned out we were not going to the same camp or area as last time, but headed further to the north end of the park where there is left tourist traffic. We drove pretty much straight there as time was time. Everyone must be inside the campgrounds by 6 pm or else they get fined heavily as they do not want anyone driving around in the dark with lions around. We only had time for a couple of short stops for sightings of giraffe, some zebra and a huge herd of elephants by the dried-out riverbed right by our new camp. I was disappointed that we couldn’t stop there to watch because this was a David Attenborough moment. The elephants know how to find water even when it’s not visible. They were digging holes through the sand to reach it. I wanted to watch this as it was in a beautiful location too, but we had to check in immediately. We paid our entrance fee, booked a night safari and were assigned our rooms. Bruce and I had our own room and Timo had to sleep on a mattress on the floor between Koert and Matt. We had dinner straight away and then all of us except Bruce who begged off, went on the night drive. We saw elephants, zebra, impala, two genets (small nocturnal spotted cats), two types of owls, buffalo, water buck, spring hares scrub rabbits, but sadly no leopard or lions. We were back and in our rooms by 10 with no WIFI.