What is a gut feeling and when do you know to trust it?
Heading out in the afternoon I picked up lots of signs of elephant activity east of the airstrip. This immediately suggested to me the herds would be drinking and swimming at Simbiri dam, a favourite place for me.
I had actually turned round to head to Simbiri when I heard on the radio, there was a herd of buffalo at Bandama, where I was initially headed. So I went with the old rule “A bird in the hand….” and took off to Bandama. No buffalo when I arrived, they’d moved off. I waited till after sunset and still the pan remained quiet.
After sunset Darryl had the herd of elephant to the west of Simbiri. They had already drunk and swum at the dam and I’d missed it. But would have been spot on target if I’d headed there immediately.
We stayed with the herds feeding in the relative open just south of the hills near Simbiri dam. Slowly they moved south and onto the open areas of Banyini. What a stunning sight! Elephants in the open grassland with only the ¾ moon to illuminate them.
There’s something about the moon and moonlight that bring on a whole new dimension to experiencing elephant at night. Those huge silhouetted hulks against the grass moving in single file as they head to Banyini to drink.
A young bull moved ahead of the herd to be first at the clean water coming into the pan. But he seemed to have difficulty in drinking and most of the water was pouring out his mouth. It’s not unusual for them to waste water like that but usually it’s only a couple of mouthfuls. It was pouring out of this guy’s mouth as if giving himself a mouth wash. He seemed to satisfy his thirst and moved on leaving the pan to the rest of the herd.
Again about 80 elephant must have come to drink before heading east into the mopanie.
Darryl stayed at the pan and I headed south looking for any possible lion activity before getting some rest at Hwata.
It was a misty dawn and as usual the panic to find something to film in the mist proved fruitless.
Only some time after the mist had lifted did the giraffe and zebra pop out the woodlands. Time to go home.
So near but so far. And so it goes with the lions.
I had very fresh tracks soon after dark covering the elephants tracks I had been following. A male lion heading north. He then left the road and suddenly my luck came to an end.
That was the only evidence I had of lions all night.
Spud joined me at Bandama pan at sunset. He didn’t hang around long.
We picked up Mandlovu and her family after dark feeding north of Chivi. At first the youngsters weren’t too happy with us being there, as they aren’t used to being followed after dark with our lights. Then Mandlovu put her stamp on the whole thing. She walked up to the front of the car and pushed down hard on the bull-bar bouncing the car. I had to bang on the door to get her to stop. She backed off slowly and the herd resumed feeding. This was so unusual for Mandlovu to do this. In the 18 months that I’ve been following her she’s never done this, never even touched the car.
We followed the herd for a few hours and they were just fine. Then Darryl went down with 2 punctures. While he headed back to camp to repair them I caught some shut eye with the herds feeding all around me.
With Darryl back we followed the herd until they moved off into the hills to drink at Chimbiya spring. Obviously a no go area for us.
So it was back searching for lions. This time we moved further west to Banyini and Hwata. But out attempts were cut short when the rains came in the early hours of the morning. It wasn’t big rain, but the drizzle kept coming and going.
Again I caught some shut eye with my covers up.
The rain eased at dawn and on my way home I encountered these White rhino’s just south of Banyini.
A long night it was, especially after just coming off dayshift and straight into nightshift without any rest.
I was at Bandama by sunset hoping to get elephant drinking at dusk, but they all seemed to have moved west.
Then I heard a lion roar a long long way to the southwest. I called Darryl and we moved into the area, one of us driving while the other waited and listened. So we took it in turns leap frogging ever closer to the calls.
And the night went on, but we were totally dependent on the lion roaring which he wasn’t doing too regularly. It was only around 4am that I found an adult male lion in the very tall grass just north of the Mahande river. He moved off with my approach.
Darryl had picked up the scent of a carcass and we soon found the remains of a giraffe close by, which was already extremely rotten but had been fed on by the lion.
We had no plans of hanging around there with that smell and following the lion was useless as he kept lying in the long grass only to move off when we got close.
I moved on back to Bandama for dawn again hoping for elephant or even buffalo. But all I was treated to was Common Sandpipers foraging on the shores and sporadically having their little territorial tiffs.
On the way home this elephant bull was drinking at the pan north east of Chivi, and at the same time a puncture delayed my departure. (Damn that means less sleep when I get home!)
The airstrip was quiet as most animals were already taking up their places in the shade as the sun worked its way higher to pound down on us.
Dawn produced a new trampling of elephant tracks heading east from the airstrip. It wasn’t long and I’d caught up with them. It was Toothpick and others, a herd of about 15 elephant.
There’d been some rain in the early hours and the elephant were loving dusting themselves with the moist red soils.
After being with them about an hour a young female had a sense of humour collapse and wanted to take it out on me. Well not really, but she made a big fuss of it, charging at the car and then trashing any bush next to her. Then running off and coming back from another angle trashing the next bush. And each time I moved she came again screaming and trashing bushes. A couple of other youngsters joined her and I was treated to this symphony of screaming elephants trashing bushes.
And as quickly as it started, it stopped and they were feeding only meters away.
I left the herd and followed up on reports of many elephant at Bandama.
The herds I had there yesterday were back and Spud was dominating the clean water coming in to the pan. He was boss here for about half an hour. Having quenched his thirst he moved into the pan for some relief from the hormones driving him insane. He’s in full musth and not comfortable with himself. Anything to relieve his state of discomfort.
He left he herds and headed west on his own.
I left the elephant and back to camp to get the blog up this afternoon as tonight we start our night shift again.
There was still plenty of cloud around at dawn following the rains, but they provided just the perfect gap at dawn letting through the most lovely light against the dark background of the skies.
The elephants are really back!
Heading east at dawn there were elephant tracks smothering just about every track we travelled on, all heading east.
At the pan north east of Chivi we waited hoping the herds would shortly arrive there. But it wasn’t long and we heard branches breaking to the south and that’s pretty rough mopanie country in there, which meant I was keen to wait for them to arrive at the pan.
But something told me “a bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush.”
So we ploughed our way through the mopanie stopping to listen occasionally until we found the elephant.
It was a big herd and all were feeding in the mopanie. We spent hours with them as they slowly fed all around us. At one time we must have been surrounded by about 40 elephant. Some were only meters away.
Mandlovu was pulling branches from the very tree giving us shade, while I was filming a youngster lying down playing with his trunk with others feeding on trees all around the vehicle. Then the car rocked and from behind a young bull was pushing us. It was just a nudge really and seemingly happy with himself he moved off.
We were with the elephant for hours and around midday the herds headed south east. Bandama was in their sights. We stayed with the herd all the time, just be sure they didn’t change their minds on course and only the last 500m did we race ahead to the pan.
In position on the southern side of the pan, we were greeted by the most spectacular sight, probably one of my best ever, as some 80 elephant moving in single file came pouring out the mopanie woodland to surround Bandama pan and move right through it splashing and wallowing on their way. I don’t know what it is but seeing all these beasts on the move together like this just has the amazing awe about it!
Following up behind them was the small family group with their 3 tiny calves and these little guys were quick to take to the water for a fun time, knowing mom would shortly be moving them on again.
Just another WOW day with the elephants of Malilangwe!
Great excitement early in the morning, elephant tracks, lots of them all heading east.
Just as we arrived at the pan north east of Chivi a herd was moving in to drink. It was still early. They drank and then moved into the mopanie to the south, foraging close by.
As the morning heated up the same herd kept coming to the pan to drink and then later wallow and finally swim.
A small calf got himself caught up in mud hole and just wasn’t getting traction to get out of there. Eventually his mom came and rescued him with a nudge of her trunk.
The resident Dabchick was happy to have company as the elephant’s activities in the water stirred up aquatic animals that these guys feed on. It was a little scary watching this little guy swimming amongst the giants but he was a confident little dude.
The elephant moved off about two hours later and this lone buffalo came down but seeing us parked in the shade, took off. He obviously wasn’t keen to be with us.
At dawn a large herd of buffalo were hanging out at Banyini pan. They had probably spent the night there in the open.
Later in the day when we got back to Banyini about 40 elephant were in the pan. This is very unusual for them to be out there in the open in the day. Our arrival spooked them and they took off into the mopanie. Mandlovu was there too, taking up the rear.
We were just about to leave Banyini when vultures came tumbling out the sky. They had found themselves a wildebeest carcass. I took a closer look to see if I could see any cause of death, but none. The vultures though were having a tough time opening the bull as their beaks battled to penetrate the tough skin. Other bigger scavengers hadn’t been there to open it up for them. But even so, they’d managed to open up the carcass at the rectum and will no doubt eat it from the inside out leaving just skin and bone.
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