I was travelling across country again today and spent the last 5 hours driving in the dark (with my headlights on of course) with the full moon following me all the way.
Across a lot of the country veld fires were burning. With this against the backdrop of the moon the countryside was full of wonderful shapes and brilliant colours. Alas I didn’t have a camera with me.
These buffalo came in to drink at Hwata pan a few days ago. In the still evening air the dust clouds just sat there obscuring the whole herd and occasionally the buffalo’s ghostly figures became visible. A very moving sight with such atmosphere. Luckily I don’t suffer from hay fever as this fine dust is a recipe to destroy hay fever sufferers. And lucky buffalo don’t get hay fever too!
I would be lying if I said I didn’t look for Mandlovu again today. And of course I just didn’t find her, although the search wasn’t an all day one.
I had a few friends to entertain. You may wonder what ‘entertainment’ means in the bush. Well today’s entertainment firstly involved tree climbing to see who could get the highest. Of course it was only the kids climbing AND me!
As I descended the tree a dung fight erupted. Elephant dung, the size of small soccer balls was at least dry, but hard and flying all over the place. Rhino dung, much the same, was also finding itself airborne. And then came the buffalo dung, still slightly wet. This invariably disintegrated and like pellets from a shot gun, splatted all over us.
Game over, we moved on hoping to find elephants wallowing at Chekwa pan. When they didn’t arrive to perform we took the opportunity to perform ourselves and in we went for a full on mud wallow. The kids weren’t too keen at first but being American kids, I convinced them that if they wanted to be real African kids they had to wallow. And so they were initiated!
Eventually we did find a couple of bulls on Banyini open area.
And moving on a small cow herd further to the east, but still no sign of Mandlovu and her herd.
In our search we almost ran over this lone buffalo bull resting up in the Ilala palms. These ‘dagga boys’, always on their own, are no more a part of the herds as they are too old and they become real grumpy old men. And potentially extremely dangerous, not being keen to move out the way and always ready to charge if you’re on foot. Beware!
At sunset we ventured down to the Chiredzi river as the orange ball of the sun disappeared below the horizon.
And almost immediately the huge full moon rose in the east. What a stunning sight!
I just don’t believe it. Another day without finding the elephant herds.
We did find a few bulls drinking at Bandama and there was evidence of some other bulls having drunk at Chekwa pan. But where are the herds drinking?
We had a radio report that a herd of about 20 elephants were drinking and swimming at Nduna dam. We raced across there and 20 minutes later there was nothing. Not even any sign that any elephant had been at the dam. So who called in these non-existent elephant is a mystery.
But my whole day was again spent running around looking for the herds and climbing any hill and many hills that would help with picking up Mandlovu’s signal and yet still no joy.
On our way past the Malilangwe dam there was a cloud of vultures descending and ascending from the dam.
But this area was inaccessible by vehicle. I quickly jumped in my kayak and paddled around to find a dead young hippo on the waters edge. It was a young bull and had probably been killed by a dominant territorial bull. Hyaenas must have opened the carcass allowing the vultures access through that very thick hide.
After dark we went to look for Khayeni and spent a short time with her. She’s well and seemed to have Scrub hares on her menu tonight, although she didn’t catch any while we were with here.
Before finding her, I took some friends to see this huge hole in a large Baobab tree. It was already dark so we approached with our flashlights. I was in front with the others in single file behind me. Just as I neared the Baobab a large warthog boar came rocketing out the big hole heading straight for me. I knew if he hit me I’d be bowled over but with the others behind me I didn’t have the option of sidestepping him. I stood my ground yelling instant abuse at him! Luckily it worked and he veered off only feet away and disappeared into the night.
At dawn a huge herd of buffalo were on the southern end of Banyini. I desperately wanted them in the open at sunrise for some evocative backlit dusty shots. But they just didn’t cooperate and ended up stampeding into the mopanie woodland.
And then I think I had the same herd at Hwata pan at dusk coming in to drink. This time the sun was on the horizon. Just perfect. But with so many buffalo in a rush to get to the water the clouds of dust obscured everything and only with a huge imagination would you see a buffalo.
All day I was out searching for the elephant herds. Their tracks indicated they’d moved south of the hills but even that clue didn’t get me any closer to finding them.
So I took my chances that they might go to Hwata or Chekwa pans around late morning.
Hwata proved productive with herds of zebra coming to drink, followed by a herd of Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest. But no elephant!
Then I got lucky with an elephant bull drinking at Chekwa pan. He was soon joined by a second bull and they traded places drinking at the good clean water. And that was my elephant experience for the day.
I travelled into the hills where there were more fresh tracks but no elephant had visited either Lojaan or Nduna dams. Or even Malilangwe dam. So where the herds watered today is a mystery.
After a predawn drive around the Malilangwe dam we picked up the elephant herds to the south of Chimbiya feeding in the Albizia woodland.
We spent our time with Chipfongwe. He’s really trying to be a real elephant now copying everything his mother does. Well except his mother doesn’t chew on dead branches!
Chipfongwe even took to giving himself a dust bath while the others fed.
Then he gave a full on charge straight into bush! Who knows what go into him. Just that eternal naughty boy!
After resting in the late morning the herds moved as one to Lesillillije spring. There wasn’t much chance for all those elephant to drink but it was a great spot for them all to have a mud bath and cool off before moving on to feed to the north.
Being a pretty hot day I was expecting them to move on to Nduna dam to drink and even possibly swim. So we rushed around there and scouted the area in the hills to see where they might come through and what other water there might be for them to drink. We had it all sussed out and later seeing one bull heading that way we set up at the dam.
And waited!
But they never came. Getting back to the herds they were still feeding in the same area we’d left them.
Soon before sunset they were on the move northeast towards Nduna dam. Again we rushed around there and again we waited.
After dark we left with no sign of the elephant. Where are they drinking?
Rhino capture and ear notching.
We were out early looking for any new activities while we waited for the game scouts to find young rhino’s to notch.
Every year all the new rhino calves are ear notched. These ear notches are coded so each animal can be identified. It is then the duty of the game scouts to monitor all the rhino daily and account for all of them.
While waiting for a report from the scouts we found 4 big tusked elephant bulls south of Hwata pan feeding. This big bull was pretty complacent with our presence but on occasion had to let us know he thought he was the boss!
Otherwise he was pretty harmless and spent a lot of his time dusting himself.
When we got to Hwata pan a herd of Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest were mingling with a herd of zebra but didn’t hang around for us to get a better look at them.
It was around mid morning the scouts had found a young rhino needing notching. The helicopter was called and the rhino darted from the air. The little girl went down without complication and while she was down the helicopter moved her mother away so the ear notching could be done without disturbance. It’s a simple thing just cutting little wedges out the ear and after blood samples and all the other veterinary tests, the calf was given the antidote. She was up in a hurry and took off into the bush clothed in her new “camouflage”. She had a big yellow cross painted across her back to make spotting earsier from the air and to be sure they don’t dart a calf a second time unnecessarily.
Later in the afternoon I was again climbing hills trying to pick up on Mandlovu but was without success.
It was just before sunset that we did bump into this huge herd of buffalo. This bull was keen to threaten us, but from a distance and then gave up on his game.
We moved on to Bandama to watch the sunset.
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