Some January images

   I used to be a safari guide. It was a great job but, like any other, it had its difficulties – one of which was that all the visitors have seen television wildlife documentaries and many expect real life to be the same as the documentaries. No matter how many wonderful things you see, they are not satisfied unless they see lions, preferably lions making a kill – and even better, lions making a kill then having to chase away hyenas while the sun sets in the background, silhouetting a flat-topped acacia and perhaps a passing giraffe, against the red sky.

    Similarly, sitting around the camp fire, guests expect to hear tales of dangerous encounters with hungry leopards, charging elephants or giant snakes. Unfortunately I don’t have many such tales to tell – I’ve hardly ever been charged by anything, menaced by snakes or lined up as a cat’s dinner.

    If you read on then, you won’t find red jawed lions and open-mouthed mambas but you will see some of the sights that have caught our eye in the past couple of weeks and I hope you’ll find them as beautiful as we have.

   After the harsh dry season we had last year we are still thrilled with the rain and everything that goes with it. After the heavy rain that caused the Sinamatella River to flood in early January, the weather has become more normal with scattered rainfall and days of sunshine in between. This magnificent storm passed to the south of Sinamatella last week but missed us……..

We don’t need the rain really, the land is still saturated and rivers are still running. This is the upper Lukosi which is completely dry ninety percent of the time – but not at the moment……

And this is a little river at the foot of the Smith’s Mine Hills that didn’t flow even once last year…….

 

And the last of the river photos, near Kashawe View we found that the force of all that water has cut a completely new channel (centre of picture), leaving an island where none existed before.

The animals have started to grow fat on the good grazing. This male Impala we met  close to the camp, is in fine condition….

But as usual at this time of year, animals are scarce and hard to see. A few elephants have returned and we hear lions most nights so there must be something around for them to eat but we certainly don’t see very much. The young kudu in this next picture illustrates the problem – he was close to the road but still almost invisible until he moved…

So instead of animals, we get to appreciate the little things for a change. Sue liked, and photographed, the gloss on these new leaves….

Crocodile Bark Diospyros (Diospyros Quiloensis)

Mopane (Colophospermum mopane)

The stump of a Baobab killed by elephants at the end of October with new grass and herbs now sprouting in the crevices of its bark

White-faced Whistling Ducks in a pool filled with water lilies..

A little blue Commelina flower

And a beautifully marked but well camouflaged pair of Doublebanded Sandgrouse

My only photographic contribution is not up to Sue’s standard (my excuse is that the subject was too far away) but worth putting in anyway. At Masuma Dam recently, I saw a tiny hippo, so small it was trying to sit on its mother’s nose. She made no effort to help or hinder it, just lay there sleeping in typical hippo fashion….

But in spite of its mother’s indifference, the baby eventually managed to clamber up onto her nose and balance there for a few seconds before toppling off sideways. As far as I could see the mother still didn’t wake – a pretty determined bit of sleeping, even for a hippo…..