Wildcast

I flew for nearly 2 hours at dawn and just couldn’t pick up on Manyari.

We had spent the night on the Chiredzi river and lions were roaring to the east of us and apparently others heard lions calling to the south of Banyini but I didn’t have any joy anywhere.
I did come across this group of 7 White Rhino which was great.

I also saw a Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest with a tiny tiny calf. This is really early for them to be calving.
Having spent as much time as I could looking for Manyari I didn’t get a chance to look for the wild dogs today. Hopefully I’ll have a better luck with both tomorrow.

I later got reports of lions at Sosigi dam. We found the 7 youngsters that had broken away from the Nduna pride with Manyari, resting up at the dam. They were all extremely well fed and chilling out in the shade. As lions do. (No sign of Manyari with them either.)
A warthog ventured to drink but the lions were resting a couple of hundred meters from the water. Even so the one lioness was keen. But by the time she was on the move the warthog was already long gone. She continued down the water to drink and then straight back into the shade.

And so it was one of those days. Yes, I just love what I do and love to be out there, but I also need to be productive for me to be able to maintain this lifestyle and today didn’t help with any of that.
(With technical problems yesterday, I was only able to get today’s Wildcast up now. See “Big, Tall and Small at Hwata”, below.)

With an early start in the sky we picked up Manyari to the south east of the airstrip.

Leaving the area we headed south west onto the Chiredzi River and then flying low we headed upstream and encountered buffalo, waterbuck and just off the river a small herd of eland.

Unfortunately the wild dog remained elusive, BUT we did get lucky finding a new hyaena den north of Manyuchi.

Back on the ground we followed up on Manyari. She kept moving on and off in the morning heading south eventually resting up as it got hot. She seemed lethargic in her movements and just not herself. Then I noticed a small porcupine quill in her chest. It really is a small one and probably no deeper than a cm in her. But there’s a good chance she may have other quills in her body that might have broken off and we just can’t see them. I sure hope she’s okay. All we can do is monitor her daily.

On to Hwata pan all was quiet. As we waited in the shade Snorkel came strolling up behind us in complete silence. He passed by only meters away. A few minutes later another bull did the same. 4 of them came by in this way to drink at the pan.
They were soon followed by several giraffe.

Interestingly, a pair of Lesser Striped Swallows were at the pan collecting mud for nest building. This is unusual as these birds usually only arrive in a couple of months. No doubt the warm weather we’re experiencing has something to do with it.

The wind was beautifully calm this morning. I was just about to take to the air when I noticed some clouds moving in. And these clouds were MOVING! But there was still not the slightest breeze on the ground. I waited a short while and soon we were blowing and the strong winds blew for the rest of the day. If I had got up there I would no doubt have been blown all over the place.
This meant I couldn’t search for Manyari although I did try on the ground.
Heading north to the dog den, they have definitely moved. A sure sign being the fleas that were all over me as I stood around the den entrance. They didn’t have a host anymore and I was the next best thing.
I walked the hills and the surrounding mopanie woodland but had no joy in finding any sign of them.
So it’s great that they’ve moved but it’s going to be really hard to locate them. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be calm and I’ll be able to fly.
With the day almost gone I headed south along the Chiredzi River. This impressive bull had just finished his mud bath and was headed west. But what was most annoying to me were those vehicle tracks in the sand. A different kind of pollution, which I’m always fully aware of, be it in the river or any patch of bare ground. AND the culprit was me, about a month ago. At the time I knew the tracks I made would be an eyesore but I was rushing and desperate to film elephants sliding down the river bank. Always a spectacular sight.

Those tracks will be there until the next rains and then all will be forgotten/forgiven. But in the meantime I have to live with this eyesore every time I drive past.
Limping on to Hwata after another puncture there were a number of bulls waiting their turn to drink. And lurking on the horizon was the sun. It was perfectly positioned to provide that stunning afternoon light on the elephant. BUT there was this cloud.

With the way the clouds had been moving all day, I was sure it was soon to pass. Not this time. It decided to track to sun all the way to the horizon for the next hour and then disappeared for the day. Frustrating or not? It would have been absolutely stunning on those elephant, especially that guy spraying water.

At first light we took to the skies to check on the wild dogs. Penny sat on Lindy’s lap as we flew over the hills. It was the first time they had flown with me in my microlight and although they loved it, poor little Penny was freezing and we landed after half an hour.
There was no sign of the dogs at the den. I’m hoping they’ve moved, although now it’s going to be the difficult task of trying to find their next den. I’m sure the puppies will still be using a den for a few more weeks.
After warming Penny up we headed east to Bandama pan where the Lindy and I took to the mud. Of course no animals came to visit.
We managed to get all spruced up again and it was on to Nduna dam where impala rams were fighting. This is not the season of the rut but they obviously had some differences to sort out. If it had been the rutting season they would no doubt have been at each other’s throats for a lot longer.

Lojaan dam was quiet and we meandered our way through the hills back to camp. The girls had to head off early back to South Africa for school tomorrow.
In the evening I took some time out and headed back to Hwata pan to listen to the Sandgrouse coming in to drink.