The weather’s just not playing ball.
The skies cleared yesterday at sunset and all night the stars shone, and the sun even rose to a clear sky this morning. But shortly afterwards the clouds were in and drizzle scattered itself around the reserve on and off all day.
Obviously for me the ideal would be clear skies during the day and if it has to rain and be cloudy, then do that at night. But right now it’s all the wrong way round.
The elephants were just south of the airstrip at dawn and I got to spend time with Mandlovu and her family, and then with Tuchem. He had a stand-off with another bull as he dug up a tuber. I was filming them when Tuchem suddenly came at a fast walk straight to camera. I kept rolling. He didn’t stop until he got to the bull-bar where he placed his tusk. He watched me from there for about a minute and then moved off. What a dude! He even made a half-hearted attempt to put his foot onto the bull-bar. I suppose just ‘cos He Can!
The elephant herds then moved south into the clays just as the rains came. I ducked off and treated myself to a horse-ride. We were riding amongst the giraffe, zebra, impala and wildbeest, which is always just the best. And the rain actually held off for the hour and a half that we were out.
Later I headed back on patrol. The baboons have lots of time on their hands these days with so much food around. So in the evenings they can be found chilling out on the rocks while the little guys run wild having fun. They’re always such a pleasure to watch.
One day I really do want to do a film about baboons. They are so like us and one can watch them endlessly.
Heading home I found Manyari and her entourage of 9 lions near the Binya road heading east. Not surprisingly they were travelling on the road, as the grass all around is 5 to 6ft tall.
They kept on east and I went west back to camp.
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