Pumbaa wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:31 pm
Finally we nearly reached Punda Maria but we definitely could not leave the park without driving the Mahonie loop so another 26 kilometers last respite could not be refused.
We normally drive same always clockwise to finally allow a last ice cream at Punda Maria and so we did today. Right in the beginning we spotted another black stork resting in a tree on only one leg
and another calling woodie made us sigh again but around the next corner still hidden by the high grass another Sharpe's grybok appeared this time is was a shy female
and so Timon immediately switched the engine off and we stay as quiet as possible
but she was really not sure if she could dare to cross the street or not - Gladly she finally decided she could dare and walk extreme slowly to the other side of the road.
Timon was busy in pressing the button and I prayed that no other car might show up at least as long as she is visible
but we had luck we had her all to ourselves and nobody chased her away she simply disappeared behind the carpet of high green grass the way she appeared.
Kudus are antelopes which do occur quite often on that road - pity was that we just missed this group.
A funny sighting was this young impala ram on a sandy hill on the look out
Then Timon said normally the nyalas must appear also soon and he could not end the sentence as a small group already awaited us around the next corner.
I told him to do this sort of magic during the next trip also with a leopard and a serval - We will see!
Although he was still not yet completely fully grown we could not turn our eyes off him as nyala males are really one of the most beautiful animals on earth - Great that we finally found him and even so close
pity was that his ladies stayed a bit too far away hidden behind bushes.
What a great ride it was once again on one of our favourite roads and gladly same had only be re-opened shortly after the floods but the workers / graders did indeed a great job. Finally we spotted another group of kudus and compared to other part of the parks on this road they are always so relaxed.
This family had a very curiously watching us youngster between them - It looks the ears were already fully grown but no yet the rest
and besides Mr. kudu and the smaller one lots of females could be seen as well.
Yummy!
As so often the last animal we saw on that road and during our stay in 2013 were kudus.
and when there are no more animals to be captured we had to stop for some plants and bushes
which are so plentiful on this awesome loop.
