Day 6 Sabi Sabi day 2

Wednesday May 29, 2013

I woke from a very peaceful sleep even though I was literally lulled to sleep listening to lions roar in the background.    The wonderful ambiance of the lodge room contributed to the vibe.

I dressed in my best safari gear eager for more sightings.

There were so many grazers of many shapes and sizes.  Some obvious  like the giraffe, and rhino, but others like the  impala, nyala and waterbuck were very new to me and sometimes hard to tell apart.

Giraffe

Zebras

Wildebeest

Kudu

Male Waterbuck

Female Waterbuck

Impalas

Nyala

Water Buffalo

Rhino

Elephant

Many of these grazers needed to worry about the predators that abound in these wilds of Sabi Sand.   We got to watch one of the most efficient hunters in action.   With twilight starting, we noticed a nervousness in the behavior of a heard of impala.

The elephants started to triumph very much upset about something.

The wild dogs were around. 

With an hunting efficiency of 80% when 30% is considered successful for other predators we knew we would be in for a wild ride.   The dogs started the chase scattering the impala throughout the bush.  We chased after them in the jeep riding over bushes and small trees in order to keep up.  We lost them for a bit but by the time we caught up with them they were feasting on a fresh kill.  The raw reality of nature was impossible to ignore.

And so a reason to fear the predators.

lion roaring

leopard