The lappets aren’t here and we can’t get in!

Explore African wildlife and check out the vultures. South Africa has a number of vulture species and tragically many are endangered or close to being so. The Cape Vulture is one such and saw a massive decline not long ago. The numbers are coming back up slowly and yet there is a long way to go before we can breathe easy on their account.

Vultures have the best network in the animal kingdom. There was a notable case where a vulture tagged in the morning at Pilanesberg National Park was found late afternoon on a carcass in the Kruger park. A distance of 500km and more. How did he show up? Let me tell you these guys are Exploring Africa by air. They use rising air currents called thermals and soar to great heights without flapping a wing. 

Each vulture keeps track of the ground underneath for feeding opportunities and also keeps track of his buddies up to 10-15 km around him. So each individual has a radius of about 10-15 km around him or her. So when one drops down to a carcass soon the neighbours realize that he has moved and as one moves downwards the neighbours start and …. You guessed it, their neighbours and so on and on and on till out of a clear sky you have up to 100 vultures in a matter of a few hours sitting around on or near a carcass waiting for the lions to finish so they can dig in. With cheetah kills they bully the cheetah off and many cheetah kills are lost to vultures and of course the ubiquitous hyena.

There is a catch though. Most vultures can’t really get into a carcass if there was no major predator feeding on it first. So a giraffe for example (in the pic) that died of natural causes would have to be opened up before any can feed. The big shot who can actually do that is the Lappet faced vulture with its huge strong beak and powerful body. Once it has been opened then it’s a free for all.

The carcass as you can see in the picture has hardly been opened at all. Giraffe skin is pretty tough and even 24 hours after the giraffe died it has still not been exploited. Maybe the lappet’s are off on a jamboree cuz they ain’t showed up yet, and the Cape vultures and their hooded vulture pals are just hanging around waiting for a meal to be served.

This video of the buffalo that was killed by lions shows how completely they can clean a carcass to the bone. Cape and hooded vultures are very efficient scavengers when the carcass is opened up.

As we explore the cause of things, Africa becomes more and more exciting and amazing and thrilling. Explore Africa and discover something every day.

The Trick and the Dead.

People think only lionesses hunt but nothing could be further from the truth.  Male lions are very effective hunters and very very strong. They can bring down a rhino as I have written about and its not just brute strength though they are immensely strong as well.

I was watching a pair of male lions tag teaming herds of impala in Kruger and it was really cool to see how they were doing it. Two males were chilling under a few bushes about 30 yards from a water hole and the impala were coming in to drink in small herds of 20-30 impala. This went on for a little while and I noticed that though the lions were in the shade and off to one side they were watching the impala very closely. 30-40 meters is not enough distance to run down an impala across the open area of a few acres. They would take off pretty quick and impala are fast.

So the one lion crouches even lower while the other one gets up and walks full in the open across the eastern end of the waterhole and stations himself in full sight under a tree in the shade about 50 meters south east of the waterhole. The other lion was ensuring he did not move a muscle while his buddy took all the looks. He would even periodically move, get up walk around a few steps this way and that. The first couple groups of impala knew there were two lions and in the same place. In 20 minutes the new groups were focusing on the one lion visible out in the open and they never saw or appeared to not see the other one.

They kept their eyes glued to the one lion in the open while just past them there was another lion in hiding.

It was a recipe for lunch for the lions. One distracts and the other ambushes. Too bad I did not get to see the action cuz I had to drive my guests back to camp but getting pix of the impala looking the wrong way with the lion in the background was awesome.

Also missed getting a wide angle shot of both lions and just got the one. But you see the story.

WILD DOGS!!!!

Wild dogs! Painted wolf as it used to be called are a very rare sight in Kruger. There are reportedly only about 400 of them or less in the Kruger park. People have visited the park for years and never got a  glimpse.

To see a group of them is a super bonus and equal to seeing the Big 5. I had the opportunity to be in the middle of the muddle with them one day and it is a red letter day for me.

They were obviously on a foraging party and running full tilt down the highway in the center of Kruger after a well deserved rest under a tree in mid summer.

Wild dogs can keep up a jog trot for hours and cover huge distances hunting across their territories.

in the video you can see one has a problem with his back foot and still running along and the pack waits now and then for him to come up since they are just scouting.

It's scenes like this that make my day worthwhile. and with Kruger you never know whats next around which corner. Up close and personal with wildlife. A rush you have to feel to understand.

Come and Explore Africa you gonna love it.

Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aesop

Met up with this elephant bull relaxing in the shade. Watching him and how he behaves in close proximity to the car was an experience to remember.

Sitting this close to a bull elephant albeit in the illusory safety of the car was a heart pounding experience. I have found that elephants are very good communicators and if you are able to tune to them and their body language and moods you can ‘see’ their thoughts. It is not a sure fire thing and they are as diverse as human beings can be in a given situation but they at least make it very clear what they are thinking most of the time.

I love the experience of being close to an animal. As others will undoubtedly agree it is not the time to take a photograph but rather to just relax and enjoy the presence of a wild creature who has condescended to allow you to enter his or her personal space and is comfortable with your presence.

My favourite creature to encounter in the wild is an elephant bull at close quarters and just chat him up and spend the time of day, not to forget moving along before he has to remind you to do so.

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous

There are a good many who sit at home in an armchair with a cold drink in hand and talk of the places they would love to go and the things they wish they could do or that they would do if they could. It always is the wrong month, the busy season, the awkward timing, the sudden change in the stock market; all designed to provide an excuse to the otherwise intrepid traveller (in his dreams) to stay back and hold forth on all the wonderful things he would do if only ……

It is the ones who step out and do it anyway that earn my respect.

Sitting on the edge of a waterhole with a sandwich and an apple, with a bird hide close by to use as a night shelter in the south African autumn weather, with a  sleeping bag close at hand and shooting panoramas with a mobile phone of the huge red sun going down as the trees turn purple in the dusk….. these are the times that fill your soul with wonder and you start wondering why you never did it before.

Then the leopard shows up at the non-existent door of the bird hide and you start reevaluating. Ha! No…. she did not come that close but she was right there when I went out to…. you know. As I put my sandals on to put some distance between the hide and my business I noticed a round face with spots looking at me from about 6 meters away under a bush. My buddy next to me got a jab in the ribs, “Dude…. Leopard”!!! We both stepped off quickly backwards to get ….. the camera of course. In a matter of seconds we were loaded for bear or rather leopard with all sorts of lenses and it was of course pitch black with a faint light from the stars pretty much. It was a new moon night. “Red spotlight on the jeep” said some one in a stage whisper and the hunt was on.

Jeep was filled in another few seconds and the light man started to pan the bushes for the leopard. She came out in front crossed under the hide and in front of it and disappeared. We drove around to get another visual as she disappears into the thicket and we wait patiently. The leopard however is already out of the thicket some 25 yards down and patiently watching us. “there there… came the voice of the spotter and the light man turned to shine on her sitting and watching us. 

“ A curious leopard” said someone, “Well just so long as she just looks, its cool right?” . She was probably just thirsty and came upwind and was surprised to find the bird hide stuffed with people. Ha!  After a few minutes of watching she took off on her nightly round. Good hunting babe!

Is your life escaping too, before you take time out to live it?

Explore Africa!

No place is ever as bad as they tell you it’s going to be! - Anonymous

Well that certainly is true! I find the people who have never been someplace are usually the ones who influence others to go or not to go there. I have decided that my guests will have enough to work with to see if they want to come and experience the wild up close and personal with me.

Africa is simply amazing! I want to recount the first experience I had walking in the bush in South Africa. It was last year in February and I was all of 3 weeks here in the ‘wild’. Living in a campsite in a tent; it was off the ground on a deck of wood but still a tent.

There was a plan to go walk in the bush up a gorge where the river flowed through and see some birdlife and just absorb nature. Sounded nice and peaceful and naturally everyone was expected to go. So yours truly tagged along with the crowd with a  back pack which had a water bladder and a pocket full of biltong (dried meat) in case I got peckish and a pair of Reebok leather boots for hiking.

We got to the point of starting by open Landrover and stepped off to have a ciggy and get our legs stretched. I noticed to my dismay the grass was well over knee high! We gonna walk through that?? Yeow!  I rather queasily asked the guide a tentative question? Is it through there that we go? Oh yeah came the casual reply, we go down through the grass to the river edge and walk up the river bank.

Gulp….. Yeow…. I was sweating and could feel the cold clammy knots of paranoia fueled by imagination tightening in my stomach. Gritted my teeth and took my place in the line. Walking through 3 feet high grass in the African bush was not exactly the way I planned to end my life, and yet here I was doing it. Madness…. I thought to myself maybe the gaboon adders were away for a weekend with the puff adders and the pythons, the leeches and scorpions were with them for company.

On and on we went and then hit the river……. A complimentary name for a stream 3 meters wide in most places and 20-45 cm deep in most places. The boulder strewn stream bed was making the water ripple and gurgle its way down from the Waterberg range and its icy freshness was a delight to feel and yet it was all lost on me. I had leeches and slippery algae on the mind along with the all too fresh memory of falling on steps in the rain and being laid up in bed for weeks.

After we had crossed back and forth twice in trying to keep to the ‘bank’ of the stream a name for a strip of rock 60cm wide on one side or a meter or two wide leaf litter strewn area with hard small stones underneath on the other, the guide stopped. We had a breather and then I watched aghast as he started taking his shoes off…..NONONONONONONOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! THIS IS AFRICA!!!!!! I moaned. Every imaginable ugly poisonous godawful creepy crawly in existence lives in the leaf litter here. Doesn’t anyone realize this!!!!! Nooooooo……

My heart was pounding and mouth was dry and it seemed that time stood still while my stomach churned at the thought of taking my shoes off and walking in 3 inches of rotting vegetation, across hard slippery rocks and a freezing stream full of nameless horrors.

The shame of hurt pride prevailed over the ignominy of ridicule and I started taking my shoes off. How were the others taking it??? I looked around hoping to find a friendly paranoid face but everyone seemed completely in sync with insanity of taking shoes off in the ‘natural habitat’ of creepy crawlies anonymous. These people are certifiably nuts I thought to myself as I tied the laces of my beautiful shoes together and slung them around my neck. All I could think was “ I am gonna die…. I am gonna die….. I am gonna die…..”

We crossed and re-crossed the stream several times. Just great to have wet feet, walk in the mud and have the leaf litter attach itself to your feet, squelch between your toes and poke you in places you wish you had never exposed.

I was taking pix and videos so at my requiem mass and the wake held in my memory there would be record of the place where I died and the ashes could be spread around in the correct location. Part of me however was lightening up. Everyone walked in single file so I figured it would be a very sleepy goddamn gaboon viper that would bite the 7^th guy in line. The thought then came that maybe it was a patient one that had just about had enough of humans tramping through its living room. It did no good to the heart rate I can tell you that.

Anyway, we finally, thank God, ended the walk at the edge of a fairly large pool where it appeared that people wanted to actually enter the forbidden pool of creepy crawly heaven. By this time the mind and the feet were numb with terror.

As I sat down and put my bag down and sipped on some water and ate my jerky I looked around at the stupendous beauty of where we were. I also looked at the videos and pix I had taken to be placed In memoriam.  Stunning does not begin to describe the beauty of the Bushman's gorge where we were sitting. The stream, the pool, the kingfisher, the euphorbias growing along the cliff face, all added up to the idyllic world I had been seeking all along and which was the reason for me being in Africa in the first place. It was the place where your soul gets rejuvenated and gloriously laid.

Thus refreshed I joined that gang in the beautiful rock pool and body surfed down the little rapids at the entrance to the pool. Glorious! We spent the better part of an hour swimming and horsing around in the cool water. It was great. A super stress buster.

The inevitable time to turn back to the vehicle arrived and I decided that whatever happens no more bare feet and so put my shoes back on. Walking back somehow seemed shorter somehow and when we met up with an elephant it was just the cherry on top.

cliff

Lesson was learned though, to trust the guide when I got home and found my beautiful 100$ boot soles were separated from the uppers in so many places so as to render them unusable.

But nothing can beat the beauty of the Bushman’s gorge and the memory of my initiation to the African wilds.