20 September 09 - Morning Game Drive

20 September 09- Morning Game Drive

This was our last day at Mashatu, and while I was looking forward to the next stop on the trip, a part of me did not want to leave Mashatu, so there was a touch of melancholy in the air that day. But there was wildlife to see and things to do! Our flight was planned for late morning so were embarked on our final game drive as usual, and the animals (and our guides) didn't disappoint.

We found some elephants again, including young ones, and watched them for a little while, and then some wildebeest ambled through the same spot. As they so often do, one of them suddenly started running all out, and the other followed! Crazy wildebeest.

We saw a few more kudu.

This shot is of a dry riverbed. A bit of explanation about the terrain: riverbeds like this are dry at the time of year we were there, but after the rains start everything starts exploding with color and rivers increase in size tremendously. The dry riverbeds that we so often drove through become full-fledged torrents. From the shows and information I have seen it is virtually a different land, and my current plan is to go back and see it for myself. I want to see these same rivers with water in them.

Zebras are always great subjects for photography, of course.

Eland are the largest antelope with males weighing up to about 2000 pounds. They are BIG.

Eland are a prey animal, of course.


Impala yet again. Never a drive went by that we didn't see them, usually a few every few minutes, really.

How close we were to animals

That is Elvis, our driver and the man who accidentally provided the name for this website!
(He calls that "The famous back-of-Elvis's head shot.)

We did not see other vehicles often on game drives, and when we did there were usually far more interesting animals to photograph, but I couldn't pass up this shot.


We only saw ostriches a couple of times, but we did see them.


I had to take this picture simply because that truck got stuck.
I am quite sure the driver has gotten teased a lot about getting stuck in the river, but he will probably be happy to see this picture online!


Seriously: the drivers at Mashatu are excellent. I have done some off-road driving myself, and what these guys do on a daily basis without thought is far beyond what most people I have seen are willing to do. Ruts, steep climbs and descents and, as in this shot, soft sand and silt make driving around a challenge. I have seen a few U.S. tv shows featuring off roading with course that looked like the easy parts of the daily game drives.

Steenbok. Tiny little things weighing about 35 pounds.

Leopards like trees: good visibility, limited ways they can be approached and for them, a comfortable place to sleep.

All the riverbeds are not dry-

And that was the last game drive at Mashatu. We went back to camp, cleaned up a bit and headed to the airport for our flight to Mala Mala, a game reserve in South Africa....

Morning Game Drive

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