Daily Archive for December 8th, 2007

Working in the Rain

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on December 8, 2007

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As I was driving along the airstrip this morning, I saw a huge helmet of a shell making his way across the road. I swerved around him, climbing the steep road edge, and raced back to catch him on camera. He was a little shy but I managed to get this shot as he peered myopically at me.

Further along the Orphan road I came across this lone bull elephant. He was covered in the red sandy soil that drains so well, allowing me to drive without getting stuck. The suns rays caught him just before the rain started drumming down on us.

I retraced my path to escape the little cloudburst and turned towards the Banyini Area. This open grassland was dotted with small intensely orange flowers and I just had to line one up with the big Baobab tree and moody sky in the backround.

Tjololo 8th December 2000

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Wildcaster

on December 8, 2007

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The Tjololo Diaries

8th December 2000
First thing in the afternoon we returned to the White Cloth female. She was still in the same place in the thicket. One of the cubs was with her and the other a way off in another thicket. This didn’t help us much and as it got dark we left them. I also didn’t want to be there after dark when hyaenas are very much on the move again, as I didn’t want to be responsible for any mishaps.
Setting off in search of Tjololo there was no sign of him in the area and suspecting he’d moved west we searched in vain. Only on returning to the area of the White Cloth female again did we find him on the move west moving along the trail of buffalo periodically stopping to lick on buffalo dung. He continued on west and into the river when it started raining and we had to cover up.
The rain let up in the early hours and Tjololo was still in the area obviously having holed up in the rain too. On the move again when we found him he was heading back east again. This was rather odd.

He continued east much further than we’d ever known him to go before. At first I thought he was returning to a kill he’d made in the area we’d found him earlier in the evening but soon continued on east of that. A while after sunset he was now approaching the Kruger boundary and the rain struck again. We had to leave him but will see this afternoon what he’s been up to.

Wasp killing a Baboon Spider

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Wildcaster

on December 8, 2007

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And the rains kept coming all night and into the morning. This really put a serious dampener
on driving around and restricted travel to roads in the sandy areas only but that was only much
later on in the morning. All over the place baby impala were springing up and running around with
excitement in the cool weather. Close to Kwali camp lions killed a wildebeest last night but
there was nothing left at dawn except vultures stripping the last bits of meat from bone.
Driving along a sandy track I had to slam on brakes to avoid this massive kill taking place right in the road.
This 2 inch wasp was in the process of killing, actually paralysing, this huge baboon spider.
The spider being many times heavier than the wasp.

The wasp continued to sting the spider making doubly sure it wasn¹t going to be making any
further voluntary moves. Satisfied the spider was totally comatose the wasp then dragged
the huge beast into its hole. She¹ll then lay eggs on the spider and the larvae will dine
out on a huge pile of fresh spider. With them underground we moved on back to camp.
Well only after a short pleasant walk up to Chimbiya spring walking barefoot in the
stream all the way. What freedom! Not far from here we encountered this black rhino cow
and calf. On seeing her I stopped the vehicle. In typical black rhino fashion she kept
coming. More out of curiosity. At about 20m she suddenly snorted turning on a tickie and was gone.

Tomorrow my bushveld freedom comes to a temporary end as I head to South Africa to collect
my daughters for their long Christmas holiday. Darryl will be keeping you up to date on Wildcast
although the video clips are footage I shot over the last month that didn¹t make it on the day.

Tjololo 7th December 2000

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Wildcaster

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The Tjololo Diaries
What a long night in the saddle. Tjololo wasn’t anywhere near his kill in the afternoon. We went in search of other action. Later we found him leaving the area a while after sunset having finished off the carcass. For the rest of the night he was on the move but not with much purpose, often resting up for short periods, not really giving us any time to rest.

Just before dawn he met up with the White Cloth female in a donga around some rocks. They were both a little tense with each other but never made contact. Tjololo hung around the area for about half an hour and calling several times then moved on.
The White Cloth female then called and to our joy 2 little leopard cubs ran out from under the rock to greet her. They are now about 6/7 weeks old and Oh Yes!!!, ever so cute. At sunrise she headed east with them into another donga and rested up there in a thicket.
What a pleasure to be able to spend a bit of time with these little guys!!