31st May 2012 – Stay at Satara Camp

31st May 2012 – Stay at Satara Camp

Again we left camp at 6am and headed out for our morning game drive. We saw very little during the first few hours, 2 black backed jackals, a herd of wildebeest and zebra then another herd of zebras and giraffes,a herd of impala and 4x ostriches (our first sighting of them). We then stopped off at TImbavati Picnic Spot for the loo and to stretch our legs before heading back to where we saw the lions yesterday to see if they were still in the area. Not long from the Picnic Spot we saw 2 honey badgers right next to the road. It was an amazing sighting, especially in the middle of the day but unfortunately as soon as we stopped they ran off so we didn’t get any good photos of them – better luck next time! At around 25km from this site we saw a dead male lion only 20 metres from the road; it looked like he had died from TB as his coat was in poor condition.

Then around 8km from where we saw the lion pride yesterday we saw 2 lions in the bushes sleeping. They looked like young male lions but it was hard to tell for sure.

We drove on and when we arrived at the sight of the lion pride there was nothing there. We then decided to head onto N’wanetsi Picnic Stop as it is famous for its views. We stopped and looked at the view. Shortly after we left the picnic spot we saw a bateleur eagle right next to the road eating a rabbit. As soon as we stopped it flew off but we decided to wait and see if it returned. It was our lucky day! Not long after we had stopped it returned, but each time a car turned up it flew off again. Luckily no one was as patient as us and as soon as they had all driven off it returned. We got some amazing photos of it eating and we couldn’t believe what happened as suddenly we were surrounded by up to 20 vultures circling the eagle! Before we knew it a vulture swopped in and scared off the bateleur eagle and before he had a chance to eat the kill a tawny eagle swooped in and scared off the vulture. Unfortunately he soon got scared off by all the vultures and so flew away carrying a small part of the rabbit, possibly the intestines. Bizarrely the vultures all just sat around and watched the rabbit but no one ate it. After a while all the vultures flew off and the bateleur eagle didn’t return so we drove on.

A few minutes down the road we came across a large herd of around 10+ elephants on both sides of the road. There was a yearling that obviously wanted to show his dominance and trumpeted and charged at a vehicle as it drove past. It was quite amusing as the elephant was so small but had he been any bigger the car would not have found it so funny.

Next to the elephants was a herd of buffalo – this meant that we had now seen 4 of the 5 BIG FIVE, just the leopard and we would have seen all in one day!

We returned to where we saw the dead lion earlier to see if anything had eaten it. Nothing had yet but there were lots of vultures so we decided to wait around and see if anything would come and start eating it. After a couple of hours of waiting and none of the vultures had dared come to eat it, we think they needed the lappet faced vulture to open up the carcass, or a hyena and as neither were there they couldn’t eat any of it. So after 2½ hours we decided to move on. We drove further along the road where we saw a large rhino and took some good photos of him as well as visiting the dam and see a tree squirrel coming out of his hole which we also took a few photos of.

After this we decided to drive back to camp past the lion carcass one more time. As we arrived there were 2 vultures eating the lion; we couldn’t believe that this had happened as soon as we had left! However, they didn’t seem to be having much luck at gaining entry to the body so after eating his eye they gave up and returned to their nearby tree. After waiting a further 5 minutes nothing more happened and we left as we had to ensure we made it back to camp before that gates shut.