Interfering with the vultures

November 2 - Today was another gorgeous day, probably in the 80’s, however everyone hopes it will rain which is always needed. After we finished feeding the mongoose and the meerkats we went to pick up the meat where Zacharia had quartered the cow. Andre was quite upset as the workers who had thatched one of the buildings in the guest camp was burning the discarded thatch, about 100 feet from where the cow was quartered. Andre specifically had told them to burn it somewhere else, because they were interfering with the vultures that feed off the innards that are left behind. I can always tell when a cow is being quartered, as there are at least a dozen vultures circling overhead. We drove out to feed the rest of the lions who weren’t fed yesterday, as well as the hyenas. I went into the hyena enclosure with Zacharia who leaves the meat where their den is, and saw two of them who were peering at us through the brush.

Shock to be back in civilization

Later in the day Andre needed to look at one of the fences, so we went in the game drive vehicle and stopped near the top of some of the hills, where we could climb to the top and see incredible views of the surrounding area – it’s all green now that it’s late spring here, early summer. We had hoped to see or hear the elephants, but they must not have been in the area. We also looked at two old gold mining shafts, which were drilled in an outcropping of rock. There were also large pipes that were sticking out of the ground where they had originally been searching for the right place to drill. There are a number of old gold mine shafts on the property.

We ended up driving into Gravelotte which the closest village to SanWild. The main street has a grocery store, liquor store, butcher shop (where we got some biltong – dried beef like beef jerky), gas station, ATM and post office. There were some open-air vegetable and fruit stands. It was almost a shock to be back into civilization with a paved road and the normal flow of a town. I forget that driving is on the other side of the road here, since we’re pretty much alone while driving around SanWild. We had some tasty chips with vinegar (French fries) and some sandwiches. We returned to camp and a troop of baboons were near a water hole about 100 feet from the camp fence, although I could see that the warthogs were taking over the hole. I had a delightful swim in the pool, which has a little waterfall, and is surrounded by lovely flowers and vegetation. One night there was a constant frog croaking which continued into the morning, so when I got up I went searching for whatever was making the noise. It sounded sort of urgent. I found a large frog who had swum into the filter area of the pool, so he was very glad to be lifted out of there and went on his merry way.

Love sitting on my porch

I love sitting on my porch back at camp, especially at night, listening to all the peepers and frequently lions roaring in the distance. The stars are very bright although I can’t of course recognize any of the constellations. The moonlight each night really lights up the bush. A bird has a nest in the tree trunk of my porch and I can watch him from my bed feeding worms to the young ones. In the morning after breakfast I watch all the bird activity in the trees through my binoculars – my favourite is an African Paradise Flycatcher, which has a bright blue bill, an orange back and a tail over a foot long. He looks like a kite flying around the trees.

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