Friday 11 July 2014 Mopani Morning Drive
We were up around 7 a.m. and the temperature was 0 degrees C. It warmed up to 24 later in the day. Dressing in jeans, long sleeved t-shirt jersey, fleece and jacket kept the cold out before the layers needed to be removed.
After a wonderful Early breakfast we set off at 8 and drove around the roads near the camp as there was really not much to see. Lion have been spotted in the area but we didn’t find them.
First up was a beautiful martial eagle atop a nearby tree. Unfortunately we had to look right into the sun and when we moved there were branches preventing good photography so we just enjoyed him for a few minutes before moving on.
We found a small herd of wildebeest next and then turned onto the Mooiplaas loop. This is what we found.
A dainty female steenbok who posed beautifully her portrait.

A large herd of buffalo at Waterhole number 2

On the Confluence Lookout we saw a Gabar Goshawk flying past.
On the H1-6 we saw lots of waterpuck and then stopped at Mooiplaas Picnic site for a walk and a loo break.
On the return road we found a beautiful groundscraper thrush – first one this trip.

We spent some time in Shipandane Hide and observed Great White Egret, Woolly necked storks, hippos, and waterbuck.

 

 

Back at camp, we had lunch on the stoop and then rested for a while before venturing out on a short afternoon drive.
This proved to be more productive than our morning excursion. There was a long period of nothing and then a few views of zebra on the S114. Being birders we stopped to see a tchagra and coucal and got some good shots.

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn then we took Capricorn loop. We saw elephant, zebra and wildebeest. It became interesting after the waterhole called Nwambu. Elephants, and buffalo. After the second waterhole we found kori bustards, Namaqua doves, a bateleur and a black shouldered kite.

More elephant appeared to give us an adrenalin rush. The big tuskers are always interesting.

We had set out at 3:30 and gate closing is at 5:30 so we could not stop for anything but the most exciting sightings. I yelled you have to stop – It’s tsessebe. Tsessebe were reintroduced to The Park 20 years ago and now if you see them you must report it to the rangers. We saw three.

On our last stretch we were racing for the gate when Heather called – stop Jackal. It was difficult to stop as a car was on our tail but we did and watched a side-striped jackal running into the deep bush. That was a really special sighting as they are not as common as black backed jackal. Unfortunately he was gone before we could get a photograph.

Nobody felt like cooking this evening so we decided to go to the restaurant.  We were relieved that it was not The Mugg & Bean.   We had a very pleasant evening and the food was delicious.