James Hendry presenting with Bryan Joubert on camera
Jamie Paterson presenting with Jeandré "Hop-A-Long" Gerding on camera.
Blog notes by Crystal
Safari this drive. Thanks again Crystal! Fabulous job.
Goooood afternoon from James, Bryan and the Thumb! Who is
decked out like an exotic pine tree. On the other vehicle we have Jamie and Jeandré
'Hop-Along' Gerding.
Rebecca is in final control with Kristi, who has had bad
news, there has been a death in the family. A family dog. Poor Kristi. Sorry
for the loss. <3
James, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
15:36 On our way to Tingana's last position, we
come across a giraffe cow. She doesn't seem to want to be filmed, and promptly
moves off into some thick bush. We go around the corner to where Tingana last
was, but we don't see him anymore. The pan he was near is now filled with
buffalo bulls. Wonder where he went? James meanders in to have a look for him.
15:43 James has found Mr. Tingana. He is asleep
under some bushes. He talks about his injury and how we humans would not
interfere.
It seems Jamie's vehicle is not up and running as
yet. It was on Cheetah Plains doing some tests today. It also seems we may be
traversing there within the next week or so. Hooray!
Jamie, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
15:52 Gooood afternoon from Jamie and a sneezing
Jeandre!
Jamie discusses why she was down and the tests on
CP. I am getting excited to go there!
15:53 We come across an elephant herd. It is the
herd with Fang! The backward-facing tusked female. Interesting lady! Jamie says
her herd is rather large. She also says there are two other interesting females
in this herd. One with a single floppy ear, and she thinks another female with
two floppy ears. We move around to get a better view of them.
15:56 We get a good view of Fang feeding. She is
a seriously interesting looking elephant. Nice to see her still doing well
though.
16:00 We move around yet again and get a view of
some little babies. After a couple of minutes, Fang wanders by the camera
again.
16:04 Baby ele trying to climb a termite mound.
How cute.
James, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
16:13 Back to James. He had to run back to camp
to get a new microphone so Rebecca could hear him.
We are on Quarantine clearings with impala, zebra
and some other 'general game'.
James also
shows us the trees being eaten by fungus growing termites and the termite
mounds. He has no idea why and is rather confused by the oddity. Perhaps it's a
function of the fact that all of the vegetation is wet and they prefer dead and
dying plant material? Who knows.
16:16 James talks about the combined mass of all
of the herbivores compared to the mass of all of the termites. The mass of
termites far outweighs the mass of herbivores...
A minute later we press on, James continues to
talk about the termites.
16:18 A quick view of an apple-leaf tree being
devoured by termites.
16:23 James comes across a breeding herd of buffalo
with a single warthog in the middle of them. The piggie quickly takes fright
and flees, tail up.
James reckons we've found the 'pathfinders', or
the leaders of the herd. They are grazing towards us, so we sit still and let
them approach.
Jamie, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
16:28
With a distant elephant herd on and around the road. Ellie play push time in
the road
James, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
16:37
James with the Buffalo breeding herd
Jamie, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
16:39 Back to Jamie and elephant calves rolling
around in the middle of the main access road. They are having a grand time and
are causing a traffic jam with civilian vehicles trying to get wherever they
are going. We try to get closer, but it looks like they have finished their
game. Oh well, there are still elephants on both sides of the road, and we stop
to get a good look at a big cow.
16:44 A big cow rumbled, a baby screamed and
pandemonium ensued! All of the elephants vanish in a blink of an eye. Whoa.
The civilian vehicles are still stuck. He-he.
16:46 The vehicles finally get through (it turns
out they are a part of the WE team who were doing some tech stuff on CP) and we
get a view of the droopy-eared elephant through the trees. When the vehicles
pass, we try to get a closer look at her, but she passes by too quickly and we
miss her. There is another ellie to look at though. It looks to be the end of
the herd.
James, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
16:51 To James who fist pumps while staring down
at the road... It seems we are on the southern boundary and we are looking for
Karula tracks. Hopefully with cub tracks not far behind. Apparently when we
came to see Tingana, the giraffe we found was looking intently off into a block
close by, James is wondering if perhaps Karula isn't in there somewhere. Or
possibly Thandi is in there sleeping. Or maybe it's nothing at all.
16:55 We come across a big Kudu bull browsing in
the thickets off of the road. We stay for a couple of minutes, but he
eventually moves off and so do we.
17:01 James spots a steenbok lying down. It is
completely still and almost invisible. How in the world did he see that?! I can
just barely see its eye and ear through the grass.
17:05 James says that he went to the hyena den
this AM and it wasn't active. He suspects they were curled up due to the cold.
Also, there are no tracks of Karula so James says he's going to move towards
the Galago Pan to search for the lions who may, or may not be in the area.
Jamie, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
17:07 To Jamie and a magnificent sunset. It is
absolutely fantastic with the Drakensburg silhouetted in the back.
17:11 Black chested snake eagle flies by the
sunset. It had a very tattered left wing. It swoops past a dead knob thorn
(Jamie thinks) tree with a vulture sitting in it. Jamie talks about the hyrax,
the elephant's closest relative, before getting closer to the vulture. She also
says her next plan is to go to the hyena den. Yay! We then pull up to the vulture,
and it flies off...
17:16 We move on a bit and find our vulture, who
now has a friend.
17:21 On our way to the hyena den, Jamie decides
to check Sydney's Dam and finds another herd of elephants on the road and
moving to the water. We sit and watch them do the water-walk to have a good
drink at the dam. Jamie counts 22 elephants, with more on the way. The female
coming in doesn't seem too convinced that we're not a threat, while a male next
to her is totally cool with us and actually comes up for a closer look while
racing down and to the water.
17:32 The herd finishes and slowly wanders off
deeper into Buffelshoek. The young bulls at the back of the herd are a bit
slower, and have a good rough-house session with each other before eventually
following the family.
17:35 A big bull wanders through the herd in the
distance and you can really see the size difference between him and the cows!
Jamie says he stands "head and shoulders above the rest," and indeed
he does!
17:37 Lots of elephant screams and a bunch of
bulls, youngsters and even a female start running about. Their tails up, ears
out and feet thundering. They actually seem to be having a great time. Well,
until the females sort things out and restore order to the herd. They then move
off over the dam wall shortly after.
17:40 Jamie is off to the hyena den and we go to
James.
James, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
17:41 James goes back to Tingana and finds that
he has moved slightly. He is on top of a termite mound now and looks to be
grooming himself. We move closer and James talks about his search for lions,
which was unsuccessful. There is a massive log in our way though, so we can
only get so close to Mr. Tingana. James won't spotlight him due to his injury,
so we will not be spending that much time with him.
17:47 Tingana gets up, turns around and meanders
down the termite mound and away. He is moving very stiffly and gingerly. I do
hope he will be alright.
17:59 Tingana is lying curled peacefully, but as
it is getting rather dark, James decides to leave. We say goodbye to Mr.
Tingana.
Jamie, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
18:00 To Jamie who found nothing at the hyena
den. She is feeling deeply, deeply hurt by their absence. Hopefully she'll have
better timing and luck next time!
Jamie now has the spotlight out and talks about
various things, but we don't see much.
James, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
18:13 To James who is also spotlighting but not
finding much. We're in the Milwati (sp?) Drainage Line. We have to pull out of
it though, because it is definitely not a good place for signal. We pull out
onto a road called Bateleur Road.
Jamie, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
18:19 To Jamie who has a scrub hare and... Noises
behind her? Ah. It is the grunts, burps and bellows of a breeding herd of
buffalo. They are near the Djuma Pan. And on that note, the hare dashes off.
18:20 Quick butterfly sighting! Then Jamie talks
about a confusing bush shrike she saw in a tree before going live. She says it
looked like a lemon, or an orange, or something hanging there because she couldn't
see feet or wings or anything, just a ball of feathers. It took her a while to
figure out what it was...
18:25 Jamie answers one more question and then
Jamie says good night. Take care Jamie and Jeandré!
James, ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
18:27 To James who is flailing wildly!!! He is
just simply looking for things though! No need to fear!! Oh, but it seems the
signal fears because it jumps and dashes about as wildly as he was. Ohh He was
just demonstrating bad spotlighting technique...
We spend the last minute looking over the Djuma
Dam .
James, Bryan and the thumb say good night as well. Take
care you three!
End of Drive
© 2016 Chell Taft
All rights reserved. None of this written material
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