Khayeni was into small stuff last night.
It’s great to be back AND have my girls with me. We had a little mishap on our way back here from South Africa. Dad forgot the girl’s passports at home and only kilometres from the border did I remember. This meant driving half way home again and being met by Annette. Our normal 10 hour journey turned into a 16 hour journey.
We were out hunting with Khayeni at dusk. She was moving to the north of Khayeni and surprisingly didn’t come across any impala. But she did kill twice. 2 Mice! And that was her food for the night. She rested through till midnight then moved in the dense bush west of Nhoro before resting up again till dawn.
We were following her after sunrise through some tough country. While driving along the edge of a donga/gully, I didn’t see another donga coming in from the side. The front left wheel fell into the deep donga and the car nearly rolled but luckily teetered on the edge. While it balanced I had the girls get out on my side before I even thought of moving. With them safe, I eased myself out the vehicle and luckily it stayed balanced.
Then the hard work began. I had to fill the donga with soil to raise it high enough that I could use the jack to lift the vehicle almost level. Then I had to take the chance! I had to drop the clutch and reverse rapidly before the wheel could fall back into the donga.
Yes!!! I did it and we were soon back to bashing through the bush searching for the closest track.
We left Khayeni resting up in those thickets and travelled along the Chiredzi river where the giraffe were feeding in the Umbrella Thorn woodland.
Making our way back home I again had a few more life threatening experiences with the girls behind the wheel learning to drive. They can hardly reach the pedals let alone mastering the changing of gears and the use of the clutch. (no automatic gears here!)
3rd July 2000
We spend a ridiculous number of hours in the field always hoping to get lucky to capture those special moments. But that’s not good enough. Being out there we also have to make sure we are with Tjololo every inch of the way, where possible. It’s hard work but usually rewarding except when the conditions get so bad and we just aren’t able to follow him as happened last night. He was in the Sand river on a bend with a rocky outcrop. There was no way of following him here so we went round to meet him as he came past. While sitting in the dark following his calls, we heard the commotion. Although we have never witnessed it, the sound could only mean leopards fighting. We had missed it and unless we were on foot we couldn’t have got there.
About half an hour later we found Tjololo. He was fine except for a new nick now in his left ear. He’d obviously been fighting. But he seemed confident and went back into the river and north. From his behaviour it appeared he’d got the upper hand of the fight and continued to mark territory to the north, the area where the new male had been pushing him out.
Tjololo had at last stood his ground and won the day. Had his mating session with Tjellers given him a new found boost?
He was still mating with Tjellers in the early evening, when he suddenly turned on her. Her only escape was to take refuge in a tree. That was it, no more mating, as Tjololo headed north in the river.
Tjololo was on the move most of the night and after his fight still managed to kill a male impala. We were all set up for the event, but alas he caught it behind the bushes. We’re beginning to get that hard done by feeling.
He fed well when eventually a couple of hyaenas chased him off. Surprisingly he left the area and slept about 400m away. Usually he hung around trying to steal the kill back. But an hour later he went back to the area of the kill, found the remains and snatched it out from under the hyaenas noses and up a tree.
What a night for Tjololo. Mating, fighting, killing, kill stolen by hyaenas, steals kill back from hyaenas.
He sure “Stands Alone”.
Not far from the area where the leopards had fought, around the same time, we found the White Cloth female in a tree having been chased up there by a lioness.
It was not exactly clear what these two young Elephants were up to but it did seem like this bull was trying to get that “First Time Kiss” from this cow.
Not sure If “Puppy-Love” would be the appropriate term but it surely seems like it. It reminds of a scene from a popular cartoon where two dogs nibble on a piece of pasta and their lips meet…Same in this instance. I’ m convinced the bull had it all planned…
Recent Comments