Day 17: Game Drives 7 & 8, Goodbye South Africa

We have come to greatly enjoy Shimungwe Lodge. It's homey, comfortable, and has really nice food. These are a couple of high teas.

We started out Drive #7 on Sunday evening with the mandatory elephant.

We went to see if the Southern Pride were still eating the Cape Buffalo. They were and these guys were waiting for them to finish.

Nothing goes to waste in the bush. It was kind of amazing to see how much the lions had eaten since morning. The buffalo was huge. Another gore alert.

The cub was right in there with the rest of the pride.  it's still nursing, but I'm guessing not for long.

We came across a beautiful black-headed oriole.

Our last sunset in the bush for this year.

We got up bright and early for our last game drive of this trip. We started out checking if the Lions had anything left of the buffalo--nothing. The vultures were looking around, but no food.

Then Lucan tracked the pride on the move.  Looking for their next meal.

I know this doesn't look like much. There are huge termite mounds all over the bush. I wanted to find out how to tell if they are active. Here you see the dark earth the termites bring to the surface.

And finally an African Hoopoe held still long enough for a photo.

We stopped for coffee at a dam where these Egyptian Geese were really noisy.

And a crocodile swam very near to where we were having coffee.

The was also an African Spoonbill and Guineafowl.

As we drove back to the lodge we saw all of the usual suspects.

Back at the airport. What a marvelous trip.

South Africa--we will miss you!!

 

Day 16: Game Drives 5 & 6

Saturday evening we started out our drive on a mission.  Lucan heard that the northern pride of lions had brought down a Cape Buffalo and were feeding. We saw this beautiful male Kudu along the way.

And a Yellow-Billed Hornbill

It took us about two hours to get to the northern pride. Nearly everyone had eaten, so there were a lot of sleepy cats while a few feasted. Gore alert.

Waiting her turn.

Very close to the kill, a young Hyena was hiding out waiting for the lions to leave. I'm guessing he had a long wait. He stuck his head up for a second, but mostly was lying flat to camouflage himself.

And a special treat at the end was spotting a Civet in the road at night on our way back to the lodge.  This is NOT my photo, but we got a very good look at the guy.

Another great drive.

This morning drive 6 ended up very different than planned. We started driving north again to see what was left of the Cape Buffalo.  A beautiful bush sunrise as usual.

And, as usual, the first animal we saw was an elephant--one of 3 we sighted today.

Then zebras.

And finally a herd of wildebeest that was close enough to get good photos.

We got all the way up to see the lions and Lucan got a tip that there was a leopard in a different part of the reserve.  We tore off to see this female. Leopards are much harder to spot than lions.

While the land cruiser was stopped she walked right next to the vehicle. Stunning.

We had our morning coffee with a herd of giraffe. Very nice!

On the way home, Lucan said he had a surprise for us. We came across this scene.

The southern pride--the one with the cub--had taken down a Cape buffalo.

On the way back, we saw this.  Lucan said the pride probably attacked this calf and the mother died defending it. The calf had been injured and was wandering slowly looking for its mom.

Very sad, but part of life in the bush.

 

Day 15: Game Drives 3 & 4

Friday afternoon the Vervet Monkeys were all around our lodge. A few tried to get into my room.

Lucan and Prince said they thought they could find the lion pride again. They followed their tracks and we went off road, plowing down trees with the land cruiser.  They said the tracks led to a watering hole, but the lions had already left. Instead we found these critters.

I don't remember seeing a crocodile before.  This is one scary looking dude!

We also saw a fresh water terrapin.

And a White-Faced Whistling Duck.

Lucan and Prince were back on the trail. They got out of the cruiser and tracked and tracked, but no lions.  Then they found a spot where the pride had killed a male Nyala earlier in the day--but still no pride.

And then finally, all of that tracking work paid off.  We found the pride--doing their job.  Sleeping!

The cute cub!

Game drive #3 was another fabulous experience.

Game drive #4 started bright and early as usual. We encountered an elephant, which seems to be the first animal we see on many drives.

We came across a few herds of Impala. Finally I got a good shot of this beautiful female. I'm finding that photography is part of the fun of the game drives--even when you don't get the shots you want.

We were able to spot a number of birds on this drive. This is a Dark Chanting Goshawk.

We usually see a few giraffe each day.

And the elusive male Nyala. I've seen a lot of these, but they are always hiding in bushes. Finally one came out in the open.

 We then tracked a herd of Cape Buffalo--the same herd as the day before. They were on the move--eating the whole time. It was fascinating watching them walk and eat.

Our next spotting was a female Kudu.

This is a Scimitarbilled Woodhoopoe. It isn't the greatest photo, but this guy was quite a way off.

We spotted a Lilac-Breasted Roller making noises and I caught this one with its beak open.l

We also found the same group of rhinos that we saw yesterday about 5 kilometers from their last sighting.

The last sighting was a Grey Lourie, also known as the Grey Go-Away Bird. 

African wildlife is stunning.