And then the rain set in or at dusk the bush comes alive

[Pumbaa]

I love all your birds

Are you going to get a lot of rain?

Unfortunately yes - It got more the farer we went North.....at least for the animals and for the vegetation is was more than needed

[Pumbaa]

Lovely birdies.

The bird life is still very amazing

[Pumbaa]

Great selection and soft light, Pumbaa!

Ja, the dwarf mongooses can't sit still!

A great shot of the loop at the end there, agreed they are very good and often not much traffic!

But it got darker and darker that day

[Pumbaa]

We finally dared to near her



and gladly she let us come closer – The whole time we spent with her we were the only car there – Only on the other side of the river on the tar road there was a car parked in one of the loops as the passengers might have located her as well.





Suddenly we heard water dabbling and looked into the river and not far an elephant bull could be seen.



The rolling thunder came closer with each minute but gladly she stayed with us and allowed us an incredible number of close ups



until it started to rain heavily and then even torrentially. Unfortunately we had to close our windows now as otherwise we would have get totally wet and our lioness also stood up and searched under a more thicker bush cover.

This was indeed already a foretaste of what is to come whilst staying in Satara and how fast the dried-up veld in the bush can turn into a slippery and muddy slide. Gladly the heavy rain only lasted about half an hour and got less and as the lioness was not moving we decided to still drive a bit further down the road but as the road is a bit hilly partly masses of water came towards us and it was also extreme slippery and as nothing came across we turned around and stopped again at our lioness to wait until the worst was over.

She meanwhile looked like a drowned rat



and was completely wet but obviously she was tired as she started to yawn immediately.



Meanwhile it was only dripping any longer from the branches and leaves but she did not move as she obviously does not wanted to get wet.

[Pumbaa]

We spent another fantastic time with her where we still were the only car until we finally left her alone and drove back into the direction of the tar road.



We were a bit concerned about what the heavy rain might have caused to the sandy river beds we had to cross on that road but our concern was causeless as when we had to cross one it looked as if it have not rained - Two huge elephant bulls just



crossed the road and walked away in the totally dry riverbed - So it is needed far more water to flood such causeways



although the sandy road was still very muddy - In one of the loops we discovered another nyala bull



feeding on a bush - He obviously even did not notice that it rained just recently that heavy as he was only interested in feeding.



We came across a troop of baboons when we turned into the tar road which also looked as if only a couple of raindrops came down



but then we noticed a family of ground hornbills searching for food on the ground



one of them was after those grand snails and when same caught one it tried to break the snail shell and finally could reach the delicacy.



to be continued.....

[Peter Betts]

Lovely wise old lioness !!

[Flutterby]

Pictures are not loading for me today...not sure why. Will have to try later.

[Lisbeth]

I cannot see them either

[Pumbaa]

Pictures gladly are showing again now

[Lisbeth]