Morning Game Drive – Rhinos and Zebras and Owls Oh My!

It was a gorgeous morning as always. At 5:30am, it’s not horribly hot yet. Very pleasant as a matter of fact. We headed out today on a broad tour of the concession, looking for all kinds of things including any one of the four prides of lions that call the concession home. I think this is the day we’ll see all types of creatures big and small.

First up – an owl of some sort. I don’t want to minimize it since it was beautiful in its own right but I don't remember which type of owl it was. In fact, it was quite young given how furry it still was, molting its feathers as it came into adulthood.

Birds were all over the place and some of the most beautiful birds I’ve ever seen. They were hard to capture however without an extreme telephoto lens. If there was one regret about the trip, it’s that I didn’t buy a better camera to capture the animals close up. But next time!

Next up, on the side of the road, a big pile of dung. And that means dung beetles! I think these things are amazing and there at least six varieties digging through the pile of dung. Here’s the deal – they get up on two legs and roll the dung into a ball. They then deposit their larvae into the dung ball and bury the dung ball in the ground. The larvae then feed off the dung ball, and finally emerge as little dung beetles. This one was about 1.5 inches long and we learned that this was all over our room last night! You can see them in action in the video -- look at the earth "breathe" -- that's all dung beetles burrowing in shit!



Same as last night, these things would power up, then slowly take off and fly -- imagine...a 2.0" x 1.5" flying hard insect with dung all over it! Even better
was watching these things land. Since they were so heavy they would come flying toward the dung pile, then crash land into it since they couldn't slow down enough to land and sustain their weight at the same time.

Themba then helped us spot a white rhino mother and baby. We learned that a lot of babies of all types were born within the past couple of months so we should expect to see more. These Rhino really were quite stunning and something right out of Jurassic Park.

We continued on, finding other animals along the way. By 9am the sun was high in the sky and blazing hot, yet we continued on with the wind keeping us somewhat cool under our khakis and hats.

As we continued driving, we would hear a slight buzz that would get progressively louder until, sort of like the buzzing under electrical wires along telephone poles. Turns our they were cicadas, just not the 17 year kind like we have in the states. But just two cicadas calling to each other could be heard over the roar of the truck and just became a constant din.

Enough of the game drive, we're heading back to the lodge for breakfast!