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He soon would awake fully again and started to investigate his surroundings. On the other side of him, basically facing us, there was a small hideously coloured car in a mélange of gold-orange-brown. Obviously Mr. Ellie took a liking to the car and began to trunk it all over. The occupants of the mini didn’t manage to wind up their windows in time and before they knew they had an ellie trunk inside! I can only relay SO’s observations as they were parked in front of us and were able to see better, but I reckon this describes best what SO later related about their reactions. But once the traffic jam had lifted they drove by and stopped quickly. I don’t think I have ever seen such extremely happy people before! Funnily enough, those people were our neighbours in the rondavels, too. So we were able to take a close look at their car later on. And you could definitely the ellie’s benchmark!

And we all were absolutely over the moon as well. After a really quiet morning with little photo opportunity, this sighting had made our day!

Before we got back to the camp for our lunch break, another hartebeest proved to be very obliging and waited patiently until I was done with my photo.

And then it was time to get back to the camp. We needed to don our Sunday garment and the ladies had to put on some make-up and lay their hair. We were about to appear on Addo Webcam! Phone calls with Danie went back and forth for the finetuning until we finally got where we had to be. Luckily, the cottage we had chosen was unoccupied. Otherwise the guest would have probably moved out for good with us six nutcases invading the verandah. While Mel was dangling from the roof, I tried to save some of the frames between waving into the cam and trying to keep the guys at bay. I still blush remembering having Danie on the phone and not being able to hear a word of what he said because of all the gibber going on in the background…

After the event we made plans for the afternoon. And once again, we had someone on board who wanted to hunt down the lions. Right, koedoe? The lionshirt was put on and off we went. AFTER ticking off one more bird:


Southern tchagra

For the afternoon drive, koedoe had asked to go down south to maybe find the lions. We packed our magnet with SO sticking in it and headed towards the Colchester Section. As we were driving I had hardly said to Mel and koedoe (who were with me in the car) that we needn’t be too alert (we were chatting way too much to make good game spotters) as we would just drive up to any traffic jam and see the lions, when we approached a proper traffic jam! And it was indeed lions the cars were parked for. Alas, it was a very tight spot the lions had chosen with a less good view than the days before. And it was Norman and Zwaai who laid there in the grass.

Ronnie has done the maths by now: From last night until this afternoon the two of them and Josie had walked a whopping 10 to 12 kilometres to decorate the area along the main route connecting Colchester and Main Game Area.

One of them got up and crossed the road. Coming from the left and me being the driver, this is all I could get …





… before have to retreat to shooting through the windscreen.



But maybe my passenger will chip in another photo or eight? Mel?
Nudge, nudge...

Once more I was in the wrong car as Mr. Scareye (working title until I know who he is…) passed right in front of the boys’ car with Ronnie, Dad and SO inside.

We didn’t stay for long. Too many cars around and little leeway which spoilt the fun. Instead we proceeded to Vukani once more and were treated with a BEAUTIFUL kudu:

And some more eland!

On our way back we checked on the lions again who were fast asleep. A few metres further, while the boys’ car had long gone, the ladies and koedoe discovered Josie snoozing on her own. One lion up on the boys. Ha! As she didn’t bat an eyelid, we moved on quickly to watch the ellies down in the valley. Two were playfully fighting and I hope to get there in time for some photos. Well, I did not. They basically stopped as soon as we arrived. But I think they wanted to do me a favour and moved from left to right. Once more, I experienced the sensation of having too much lens!

Obviously it was also time for the annual colon examination

With that we left the ellies to ensure we would be able to make gate time. We did, just about. Shucks, we could have sat another 10 minutes with either the ellies or the lions…

That evening, we enjoyed a yummy dinner at the restaurant. A huuuge treat for all of us, right, Old Man? The day ended the way it had been throughout – pleasant and enjoyable and with lots of laughters. The Aussies and the Krauts enjoyed a nightcap on the verandah after Ronnie and kodoe had left for the night. But Mel declared defeat to the German drinking habits and skills soon and we all had a reasonable early night. Well, it wasn’t past midnight at least…

Addo
29/03/2012

The next day should actually be a Ronnie guiding Mel and Dad only day, but SO and I gate crashed and so they ended up with us on their backs as well.

was quickly decided that the REALLY active forumites – Ronnie, Mel and LS would share a car with Ronnie offering to be the driver and melphs dad and Spots occupying the other.

But before we could start melphs dad had to get some petrol. Only that the gas station didn’t open before 7.30 am… While Spots stayed with melphs dad, Mel, Ronnie and I went to the hide. There were some feathered friends around but they kept hiding in the reeds and shrubs.
Here is a sequence of agony with a bar-throated apalling, oops apalis which was symptomatic for most of my efforts with bird photos:

I’m here!

Catch me, if you can!

I’m not showing!

Still haven’t given up???

Alright then! Ready – set – go!

Arriving at Domkrag two PCG perched on top of a tree soaking up the morning sun after another chilly night:


Getting out of the car to get a better shot wasn’t my most brilliant idea as the both of them took off:

On a trunk in the dam a spur-winged goose (Tick!)


Scanning the scenery the remnants of once majestic critters told us stories about the fights and suffering that had taken place around the dam many moons ago. The place was actually littered with skulls, horns and bones. But alas, no predator in sight.

This is also when I tried my first spekboom – and I must say it was quite tasty.