Wildcast

I tried picking up on lions today, especially as I had a bunch of tracks heading north from Banyini. These lions I’m sure are resting up in the thickets south of the airstrip.
There were also tracks of a lioness heading east from Simbiri dam. She kept going east all along the hills and then I lost them in the hills.
And then there were reports of a male lion near Chitindigova but by the time I got there he’d move off.
So I gave up on the elusive beasts.
While following up on them I bumped into Spud on Banyini. He sure has moved some distance since yesterday and still fully in musth is traveling alone.

Later I picked up on Walrus. She and her family were north of Ganyani feeding mainly on creepers that abound in the area and slowly heading south. About 300m from Ganyani pan I lost them in the thickets so went round to the pan. It was now nearly midday and really hot. But the elephants never arrived at the pan. Where did they go? There’s no other water in the area and they were basically right there when I lost them. I waited and waited but they never materialised. That was weird.
Rushing off further west to the only other water I knew of in the area, there was still no sign of them. Back east to the pan north east of Chivi there was still no joy. No sign of any elephants. Just a lone buffalo bull that took off when I arrived.

Back to Ganyani pan and now there were elephants everywhere. Well except for Walrus and her family.

The elephants kept coming and going to the pan and this poor Sable bull just wasn’t getting a chance to drink. He was just an innocent thirsty dude but the elephant were having nothing on him around and each time he approached a different bunch would charge after him. He eventually left the area thirsty. Elephants can be real bullies at times.
I stayed at Ganyani for several hours as the elephant came and went and came and went, and it was only after about an hour that Walrus arrived. Where they’d been all this time is a little mystery.
Mandlovu and family arrived somewhere in all that mayhem of elephant too.

Most of the herds came in from the south and then moved off east. Will they keep going east and take over another pan tomorrow or will Ganyani again be the centre of all the action?
Back on Banyini at the end of the day and the Quelea were rolling in in their tens of thousands. For at least an hour there was a constant cloud of incoming birds. Will there be any seed base left by the time they leave the area?

Some elephants came out before sunset to drink and wallow at Banyini. The difference with this is that our normally grey elephants now turn red with the red soils around Banyini. They really are quite stunning. Being in the open the herd didn’t hang around for long and soon moved east into the mopanie.