Hello to all !! Today was a great day. We went out on our 6am drive and within minutes saw 4 white rhinos grazing for food. This is pretty rare around these parts but not as rare as the black rhino which is highly endangered. The rhino we saw were quite surprised to see us come right up behind them so they ended up running away to avoid us since it happened to be a group of females who wanted to protect a young calf. Rhino running through the bush is pretty loud by the way, it sounds like loud crashing , branches breaking, floor rumbling, an is pretty intimidating.
After we had unintentionally driven them away, we decided to push on. We drove to the watering hole where we saw a mother and baby hippo out of the water which was a lucky sighting since they spend most of their time in the water during the day. When we pulled up the sound of our brakes startled the hippos as well as a nearby troop of baboons who had slept on the steep rocky cliff by the watering hole. The hippos slowly waddled back into the water and we drove off. On our drive we closely approached a large male bull elephant who was eating from a tree. You would never believe how something so large can just show up out of nowhere!! we sat and watched him from a safe distance for about 20 minutes and reversed back a couple hundred feet to have our tea and breakfast break. Like usual we had a hard boiled egg, green apple and a couple of sandwiches made with cold cheese and butter, but food is food and we were definitely all very hungry. After we ate we got back into our land rover and headed back to school. Sean found this to be a perfect time to try a new road that we had never used before made up of noting but massive and sharp boulders.We got stuck a couple times but managed to get through with nothing 2 severe, just a few bruises on my legs from hitting the seat bar in front of me and whiplash in my neck. I managed to take a video, but it would probably make you sick if I showed it.
As we were driving we saw a couple of trees filled with 3 different species of vulture which was highly unusual so we figured they were overlooking a kill, We then learned that they were thermoregulating which is when they glide high above in circles under the sun to gain heat and energy. When we got back to school we sat around for a couple hours wondering why the other group hadn’t returned? When they got back they told us they took so long because they spotted a big male lion sleeping under a bush!! Man was I upset , I have been here for a month now and have not seen any cats!! I was definitely jealous looking at all the awesome pictures everyone got.
Vultures Thermoregulating
Next week I am backpacking in the Kruger park for 7 days so hopefully I will see some then, I have a feeling I will experience an encounter I will never forget!
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