18 Sept 09 Evening Game Drive

September 18th, 2009
Mashatu Game Reserve: Evening Game Drive

We headed out on the afternoon of the 18th one person short- Sandra had another, special activity for the afternoon.

No matter, the weather was excellent yet again and the wildlife was spectacular as usual.

One of the most common animals are the Impala. Our guides told us that they are called "African McDonalds" for two reasons: they are numerous and when seen from the back, it looks like they have a big "M" on their backsides!
Presumably this means McDonalds for the predators, but this was a question that wasn't asked by any of us. (One of the few questions that wasn't asked by somebody, I think!)



We also saw a lot of giraffe on this drive, some of whom seemed intent on getting into as many pictures as possible. I obliged as much as I could, of course, and so did everyone else.



We saw zebra quite a bit and I got a couple of pictures I really like a lot.

The Eagle Owl is an amazing looking bird with pink eyelids.



The pair of lions didn't seem too concerned by us, but then the big cats never did. Note that one of them is collared by the researchers.



We saw some Cory Bustards and I was able to get a few shots of them in flight.

I took a lot of pictures of birds at Mashatu and came to realize that while I am not much of a bird watcher, I do seem to enjoy taking pictures of them. I need to get better at recognizing them so I can label my pictures....
But until then, anybody who knows what the birds I post pics OF should feel free to let me know!

There were a lot of flocks of smaller birds and I tried to get a few shots that conveyed just how huge these flocks were.
The pics don't really do it- the flocks were much bigger than they seem.

Landscapes once again show up a lot: the entire environment is so gorgeous that I was always looking for opportunities to get shots that convey how big and beautiful it is. Some come close, but in reality I think its about twice as marvelous as it looks from the pictures. Everywhere.
But I did get some pretty decent shots, and a few of sunsets.

The wild dogs pictures are not some of my best and as an excuse all I can offer is that we saw them around dusk and the light was not great. And neither is my skill with the camera. The pack was great though- seeing them playing and interacting with each other and how they scouted around the pack- one came up to our truck to make sure we weren't a danger, and most of the pack got active and sort of shadowed a troop of baboons on the other side of the river when they were spotted.

It was a wonderful day and the evening was special: Afke from Pete's Pond (great webcam site- http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/wildcamafrica/ ) came back with Sandra and spent the evening. Look for more on that in Sandra's articles.

By this time I had been thoroughly bitten by the "Africa Bug" and understood what I have read in the past about people visiting once and then returning as often as they could.

If I could find a way, I think I would be there still, and I KNOW I will be back.

Evening Game Drive

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