Wildcast

I was woken before dawn by the sound of hippo’s fighting. Rushing down to the dam they were still at it but unfortunately on the other side of the dam where there is no access.

While I filmed the mist on the water for about 15minutes the fighting went on. Then I heard a hippo in the water giving a long grunt. Was this the victor?
I moved on in search of the elephants. Mandlovu and her herd were still in the area around Bandama and again spent the day here visiting the pan a couple of times mainly to cool off. But the herd were disrupted today. Aunt was still with a couple of bulls and every now and then joined Mandlovu to suckle her calf.

Then one of the bulls was chasing her as she ran in a wide circle. This disrupted the rest of the herd and on a number of occasions they were off running as if thinking there was danger in the area.

And the problem was if I followed after them at the same pace they were running, they got scared and thought I was chasing them. Eventually I had to back off and find them again once the chasing was over.
Some zebra, a few impala and this herd of Sable Antelope also came to drink at the pan.

Late afternoon on my way home I took a stroll along the Malilangwe dam. The hippo took fright before I got near them and ducked into the water. A couple of huge crocs lay on the bank and also disappeared when they saw me. Except for one. It was dead from natural causes and had obviously been dead some time because when I tried to move it the scales came away in my hand.

And to say good night to me was this majestic Nyala bull close to camp.