Tag: animals

South Africa Safari 2025 Day 9 The day of the Blue Wildebeest

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We set off from Lower Sabi to Satara a 138 km drive. Taking the direct route on the tar road led us to cross The Sabi river and enjoy its multitude of various mammals, reptiles and bird life…it did not fail to deliver.

We continued up the H10 viewing large herds of Blue Wildebeest. We were delighted as the last twice we have visited they have been few and far between. Our count soon recorded 99+ of both the wildebeest and its companions the zebra. The Blue Wildebeest is a dark grey colour often with a brown sheen, but more often it stands out looking jet black amongst the dry landscape. Both sexes have horns and its tail is horselike. They like the zebra are grazers…..our former sunset drive guide told us they tend to group with zebras because there is safety in numbers. However many years ago a very knowledgable game ranger told us that the zebra and wildebeest eat different sections of the grass. The zebra eats the top sweeter grass and leaves behind bacteria in its saliva. The wildebeest eats the lower part of the grass and the zebras bacteria helps with the wildebeests digestive system. Who knows which of these philosophies are correct.

The road takes you up and over an escarpment. From the top you can see for literally miles and miles in every direction. There is not a building, industry, road or track, other than the one we were on, to be seen…this really is raw, unspoilt wilderness – untouched by humans and their progression of time …it takes your breath away …miles and miles of nothingness except nature at its very best…magnificent, this is why we keep returning…unless you’ve seen it you can’t imagine the feeling this vista gives you.

We had nearly reached the H1-4 at Tshokwane picnic/ rest site, when we saw a few cars on a bridge. Looking along the almost dry river bed on a low lying branch of a big tree was a leopard. It was in a typical, textbook leopard pose.

We stopped at Tshokwane for the toilets, a look around the shop and a stretch of our legs.

Not long after this we spotted a hyena cooling off in a muddy pool. We sat watching it while we ate our cheese sandwiches. This is the usual way in which hyena stay cool. Further on toward Satara we came across a big herd of buffalo.

During our day we saw 99+ impala, 99+ elephant, 10 hippo, 3 crocodile, 15 waterbuck, 2 warthog, 1 leopard, 99+ Wildebeest, 8 kudu, 99+ zebra, 4 vervet monkeys, 23 Chacma baboons, 2 nyala, 2 bateleur, 1 spotted hyena, 50 buffalo, 3 ground hornbill, 4 quail, 1 lion, 1 black backed jackal.

We arrive at Satara slightly after 2pm….the booking in queue was about 20/25 people long. So while John queued I nipped into the shop opposite to pick up bread, cheese, fruit, yogurts, eet-sum-mor biscuits , water, chocolate and crisps….alas it was very badly stocked, no bread or fruit at all, I came out with water, crisps, eet-sum-mor biscuits and chocolate a really great combination for someone who tries to eat healthily and reduce the sugar intake🤣🤣🤣…having paid the non smiling assistant I joined John in the queue.

We were eventually greeted by the stern check-in lady…I tried all the usual niceties but failed to raise a smile…but we did get our room key….geeeze F144 chalet was defiantly a museum piece…I don’t think it had been updated since I first stayed in Kruger in 1989🤣 The curtains almost met in the middle on one window the other had a foot gap…hey ho I could be accused of flashing if anyone was looking in but what the heck🤣 The air conditioner was an original model which rattled so loudly it even smothered the rumblings of the fridge it was next to….It had only three working settings, on, cold or hot. The cold worked very well blasting the pillows on each bed with winds from the Arctic…unfortunately there was nothing in between so I spent most the night turning it off, dozing and sweating and then turning it back on again. The fridge and the air conditioner took up the only plug socket apart from the one over the sink…so we plugged in the extension lead and hoped we didn’t electrocute ourselves during the night.🤣

Our late afternoon 2 hour drive was of course along the S100. This is a favourite dirt road we have driven hundreds of times because it always shows us the unexpected . We had been going on it for about 3/4 of an hour and seen very little, a few wildebeest, zebra, impala, ground hornbill, a giraffe and a massive tusker of an elephant who stood hidden in a bush next to the road and nearly gave me a heart attack when it suddenly moved. We asked several other vehicles coming in the other direction if they had seen much but they said nothing, it was very quiet. We decided to U-turn.

We were just saying that it was the first time ever the S100 had failed us when!! …….both myself and a car coming towards us jammed on our breaks….walking out from behind some tall grass across the road in front of us was a massive male lion. We sat and watched him for 3 minutes before he disappeared from sight again. We pulled up alongside the other car to compare our elation, they had actually seen a lioness cross first of all….wow…the S100 never fails to deliver the unexpected.

We headed back on the H1 and past Satara camp gates, deciding to head up the tar for 30 minutes and see what was about. It was prolific with elephants, zebra, wildebeest and impala. Just as we were about to turn around we saw a black backed jackal…these are one of my favourites.

We returned to camp highly satisfied with our days game viewing and a magnificent sunset.

We went straight to the Cattle Baron restaurant. We were as usual greeted with a smile and highly attentive service. Thank you Permission you certainly earnt your big tip….we thoroughly enjoyed our Chateaubriand flamed in Brandy followed by ice cream and chocolate sauce…naughty but nice…and to be even naughtier I had my first Savannah Light of the holiday…it all came to the princely sum of £32…..

We retired to our museum chalet for a few games of cards and an uncomfortable nights sleep.

New Forest -Day 2 September 28th 2024

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What a glorious day….I woke up early then dozed off again and woke up a second time late!!!!! It was so quiet and the blackout blinds had obviously disoriented my inner alarm clock…..that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it!!!!
Having breakfasted we decided to head out into The New Forest…..the sky was blue and the sun was out. In less than 5 minutes we had crossed the cattle grid into the National Park and instantly saw some ponies…Although they roam freely and wildly they are not actually wild they each have an owner …if you live within the New Forest you have the ‘rights of common’, which means you have the right to graze livestock including ponies, cattle and donkeys and, during the pannage season in the autumn, pigs.

We meandered through Sway and headed to Horseshoe Bottom Carpark. This was my mums favourite place. Today there were loads of ponies grazing in small groups. Every so often another group came cantering over the ridge and down onto the flat green area which straddles a small brook. For no apparent reason the wind would get under a couple of ponies tails and off they would go. What a fantastic display they put on for us. We counted 38 at one time, they appeared as quickly as they disappeared.

We stayed sometime here and I made coffee whilst we watched a Meadow Pipit preening itself near the car, the many dog walkers, a couple of riders cantered along the flat and then turned and galloped flat out back, as far as the eye could see, with their dog racing after them and some of the grazing ponies joining in the chase…an absolutely wonderful place .

We carried on as we really wanted to see if we could find some elusive pigs. These are often found on the other side of the A31 & A35. We took Rheinfield Road which leads into an area called the Arboretum Drive. We also cheekily drove around the drive of the splendid Rheinfield Hotel. We have previously seen deer on their drive, but today it was busy with lots of cars attending a wedding.

It really is a very beautiful drive, even when it’s bustling. It was busy trying to cross the A35 to continue on the minor roads through the forest. We made good progress and we’re soon going under the A31. We stopped for a picnic lunch not far from Nomansland. Ponies were all around us…one in particular looked a bit like Noddy, the horse I had owned in South Africa, a beautiful Dun – golden coat with a jet black flowing tail and mane…..but on closer inspection this pony was a bit scraggy compared to my Noddy !!!!!

After lunch we continued to Bramshaw. Sure enough! As luck would have it…There we spied a big sow and two piglets snuffling around for acorns. We were delighted, because out of all the livestock which roam the forest the pigs are the most difficult to see.

We decided to slowly make our way back to the house. We were just commenting that we had seen loads of ponies, lots of cattle plus the pigs but no donkeys. We took the next bend in the road and there were 3 donkeys at the gate of a house….we also saw a couple more on our return journey.

On our way back we decided to detour up to an area signposted The Rufus Stone. We hadn’t ventured here before. After a short time, having gone through a rushing ford, we came across an oak tree with a memorial stone under it. Parking up we went to read about it….evidently King William II ( who was known as William Rufus) was out hunting with Sir Walter Tyrell. The later tried to shoot a stag with an arrow but he missed and hit King William in the chest immediately killing him. An interesting historical fact….however it seems that Sir Walter Tyrell is better remembered than King William II because the local pub is named after the former…yes we did avail ourselves of their facilities.

We made it back to the house by late afternoon and spent the rest of the day resting and enjoying the memories of a wonderful warm day spent surrounded by beautiful nature.

Day 20 – 24th February 2024 – Mirissa to Hikkaduwa via Galle and Turtle Sanctuary.

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We were some what sad to leave the Sea World Botique in Mirissa…we loved our sea view room, the pool, terrace, sea and sand watching. The service was great and we’d found a really wonderful seafood restaurant just up the road. We would definitely stay there again…not just because they had the most comfortable pillows we’d had all trip…but leave we must.. and Suminda collected us at 8.30 am and we proceeded on our day of sightseeing, whilst transitioning to our next and final hotel.

Our first stop was at Wagamama just along the coast. The coast was literally packed with surf schools and in the water were hundreds of Caucasians trying to learn the art of surfing. It’s evidently very popular there due to the waves being medium size and the waters being shallow.

We went a little further along the coast and stopped for some photos of the infamous ‘Stilt Fishermen’. Unfortunately it’s all a bit touristy and false now…you pay them to sit on the stilts while they pretend to fish in this out dated rarely used today method.

Further along the coast we watched people pulling in the fishing nets, a much more realistic sight of more up to date fishing methods.

Our next stop was in Galle. We had asked Suminda to find us a book shop because we wanted to buy a book on Sri Lankan Birds to help us identify the birds in our photos. I’d try to write most the names down as we went along but my efforts failed miserably when we looked at our photos against my list of names. We had also decided to buy Suminda the same book as he had admitted to learning much more about the different birds on this trip and we thought it would help him identify the birds when he was with other customers. We went to the first bookshop but the book they had was ‘Common Sri Lankan Birds’ which had hardly any eagles in and the colour and pictures were not a very true likeness. So Suminda phoned around some other stores and found one which had two copies, in English, of the book we had in mind…they were both duly purchased along with a tube of superglue……John and his sandals are becoming a regular focal point of our recent holidays. Last year he packed one dark brown one and one camel coloured one for our African trip….this year he brought the dark brown ones with him, even though I asked if they were the good or not so good pair….they were the not so good pair and the side fastening has freed itself from the sole along with the inner sole flapping away from the sole…oh dear a super glue job is required to see us through the next 3 days….but be assured they are not coming home with us !!!!
Our next stop was Galle Cricket Ground. It is where the test matches are played. Suminda told the security that John had played in England, but instead of saying ‘in’ he said ‘for’ and we were allowed into the ground to take photos…John was extremely happy as he has bygone memories of David Gower commentating on a Test Match and proving that the old tale of a Sri Lankan cricketer hitting the ball into the sea, was exactly that ‘a tale’ as it was literally impossible.

From here we visited the Fortress. This is in fact what we would call a walled city within the city of Galle. The Portuguese had originally built it, the Dutch then took it over and finally the British added to it. From the walls are some magnificent views. For those of you who watched Xander Armstrongs series on Sri Lanka, you may remember a man diving off the walls into very shallow water near the base of a massive rock…..that was here….in fact the same man offered to jump for us for US $20 just like he had for Xander…we declined and he asked why..to which my reply was “ I don’t wish to pay you to risk your life for my entertainment”. He seemed ok with that.

We continued our journey past our next hotel and up the coast to the  turtle sanctuary  at Ahungalla. On the way we passed the place where the tsunami had hit a train full of people. All 1500 had been killed. There is a memorial to those who lost their lives. This memorial is a Buddha who has been built to the height of the wave. There is also a museum with one of the carriages involved in this tragedy. 

On arriving in Ahungalie there was a giant turtle with its mouth open. You enter the sanctuary by walking through its mouth.

The eggs are brought up from the beach and put in sand in the sanctuary, where they are left to hatch naturally. The sand has sticks all over it saying the type of turtle, the date they were laid and the number which are buried. It takes between 45 and 60 days for the eggs to hatch.

The baby turtles are then placed in a tank until their eyes open prior to being released back into the sea.  It was very interesting. There are also a lot of other tanks with turtles in. These are rescued by fishermen and brought to the sanctuary. Most have had fishing lines/ nets caught tightly around their necks..the blood makes them easy pray for sharks. These are treated by the sanctuaries vet and released back into the sea when they are completely healed. Other turtles have eaten plastic bags and the vet removes these  and again after a period of rehabilitation they are released back to the sea. There are also some life long resident turtles at the sanctuary. These have either had limbs amputated by boats propellors, or they’ve been so damaged by plastic that their shells have domed meaning that they can no longer dive or they are albino. The sanctuary has 2 albino turtles, they occur approx 1 in a million and our guide had only seen these two in the past 14 years. One was a youngster and the other fully grown. They can’t be released back into the sea because they have no protection from the sun. 

We then went through a Sharks mouth into an area with aquariums containing, Black finned Sharks, puffer fish, moray eels, starfish, rainbow fish etc. It was all very interesting and we found that their conservation of these endangered species was both ethical and professional. 

We returned back down the coast to our new hotel Sapphire Seas Hotel. We were met by the manager who informed us he had given us the best room in the hotel with a wrap around balcony and two walls of glass doors which looked at the sea from two different aspects…it was on the second floor…..’oh no’ I thought…but this friendly gentleman said I need not worry as they have a lift….great news… we were shown to our room, which was so large John said he’d probably double his daily step count !!!! It didn’t take us long to don our costumes and head for the Sun loungers and pool. We spent a couple of very pleasant hours watching some pretty big waves chase along the beach with the surf producing a ‘ follow my leader’ type of image. We also had a nice refreshing King Coconut  to drink. Before retiring to our room for a late afternoon siesta.

We ate in the restaurant that evening. The chef came and talked us through what we wanted….he said he would make the seafood Tom yum ( Thai soup) not so spicy. Well! thank goodness for that because his not so spicy made our eyes and noses run. We followed it by having sweet and sour king prawns …very nice indeed. The manager, a nice friendly man, came to chat with us before he finished his days work. It was a lovely meal. Unfortunately the lift was out of order, due to fluctuating electricity strength, so I had to walk up to the second d floor….I am getting better at stairs…let’s face it I’ve had enough practice this holiday.

Time for bed now…to the sound of the waves on the beach ….