Riverside Drive

Yesterday, late afternoon, we took a drive past the Chiredzi River bank. The views are spectacular and the drive through the mopane forest is refreshing. I decided to go down to the riverbed where as I was negotiating the soft sand I ran into an Elephant bull on musth, this was not a time to hesitate. I would have pulled off a handbrake turn if my vehicle had a handbrake, so a swift u-turn sufficed. Except that it wasn’t very swift with the soft sand, but lucky for us the Ele was not too bothered with our presence.

I was hoping to pick up on the trail of Manyari and the Lion pride last night; however, they evaded me once again. But, I did run into two White Rhinos drinking at Hwata pan during the night.

There was a lonely female Hyena calling after we arrived at Sosigi Dam in the early evening and I expected to find the rest of them in the morning. Instead, a herd of Blue Wildebeest seemed to be having a conference with a few Zebra that had come to drink at Sosigi.

I also found a tortoise shell that had been hammered open by a Southern Ground-Hornbill using his massive hatchet. The rain began to fall this morning and the animals seemed to be quietening off as they breathed a sigh of relief from the heat.