South Africa #8: Get a Little Closer

This past week's overnight research outing almost didn't happen because of the weather. It poured down rain all morning, so the research coordinator said that the trip was cancelled.  But later on in the morning the weather started to clear up.  There was still a chance of rain later that day and the following day, but she decided to let us vote whether or not we should go.  Six of us chose to go...and it turned out that weather ended up being perfect! Just another reason why democracy rules.

Will it rain or not?


Toward the start of our afternoon drive there was a huge tree lying in the road.  I assumed that the tree fell during the recent storms.  Our guide stated however that the tree fell prior to the storms and was knocked down by an elephant.  This is evidence of how powerful elephants are.

During our drive, we were lucky to have up-close sightings of several large animals.  It started with giraffes.  There were a few eating leaves from trees near the road, and one was especially close.  It did not move farther away when we drove by, so this was the closest that I have come to a giraffe here yet.  The giraffe looked at us but didn't seem to care that we were there.  It just kept munching away on leaves.

Hello there!

A little while later, we came across a small herd of elephants.  They also were feeding on leaves.  It was difficult to count them, but we believe that there were three adults and three juveniles.  We followed them slowly as they walked parallel to the road.  Then, they decided to cross the road in front of our vehicle.  They continued eating on the opposite side of the road and after watching them for quite a while we drove off and gave them some privacy.

Look at the little guy!

When driving back along the main road toward our campsite, there was a huge herd of buffalo on both sides of the road.  Us and a few other game vehicles stopped to take in the view.  Really, we had no choice but to stop because some of the buffalo were on the road.

Vehicle selfie.

After that, we drove to a nearby dam.  Driving to water sources is an important part of game drives because there is higher probably that animals would be found there...sometimes at least.  Here we found a lone hippo in the water.

That evening, we checked out a "tree house" near our camp.  This is basically a room located up high that offers great views of the reserve.  For dinner, we grilled burgers on the campfire (a veggie burger for me.)  The sky was clear when it first became dark so we could see the stars as they started to come out.  But a thin layer of clouds soon moved in and blocked most of them from our view.  (Sad face.)

The rickety tree house stairs.

Spooky moon shot.

On our night drive, myself and another volunteer were able to hold the spotlight for a while and search for eyes glowing back at us. We caught sight of rabbits, genets, impala, and bouncing bush babies.  Also, at one point there was a very shiny, tiny spot glowing on the ground in the distance.  Our guide told us that it was a spider.  A spider!  I was amazed that we could spot the shine from a spider so far away, and that it even shined at all.

Our morning drive started at 5:15.  It was fairly quiet, with few significant animal sightings, but our guide made sure that we still learned some new things. Different animals make different paths through the bush.  For example, we were shown that "Hippo Highways" can be easily identified because they have a line of dark dirt in the middle of the path.

Hippo Highway!

Also, the guide stated that in an emergency, a millipede can be placed in collected water to purify it since millipedes contain cyanide. I hope I never have to test this theory out.

We did have another close-up encounter, this time with a group of vervet monkeys.  Usually they rush away when vehicles drive past, but this group remained where they were. There were several adults and infants, and one of them seemed to be "working it" for our cameras.

Monkeys at the top of the tree.

The poser monkey underneath the shrub.

As strange as it is to say, the highlight for me that day was when we stopped to watch two dung beetles in action as they quickly rolled their treasure across the road.  I have been wanted to see these funny creatures so I was glad we finally found some.  The ball of dung that they rolled was a perfect sphere, about the size of a tennis ball.  I asked the guide if they form the dung into a ball themselves and he said that they did.  He also told us that they prefer high-quality crap, so I guess that means no crappy crap for the dung beetles!

Rollin', rollin', rollin'.

Another beetle searching for the best crap.

Here are some other sights from our outing:

Unidentified wildflower, but probably a lily.

One that is almost ready to bloom.

The others played impala poo spit ball again.  No matter how sanitary they claim this is, I chose not to partake once again.

Male nyala.

Female nyala.

At another dam in the park, we saw three crocodiles lined up on the shore with several others in the water.

Zebra crossing!

On the road.

There they go.

Impala.

This huge pod grows on the tree in the background.  Supposedly it was historically used to make whips.

I'm king of the world!  Or at least of this termite mound.

Bird on a wire.

Wildebeest.

Oh happy day!