Sunday, March 11 – Evening

After the heat of the early afternoon – Phil took Cerwin and me and Jere and Kristen to blinds at two of their waterholes. In this picture Kristen is waiting for her ride to the waterhole where she and Jere would be sitting.

The children stayed behind to swim and relax.

Jere checking out our blind.

So…we were “abandoned” to sit here for a few hours.

Our first sighting was a warthog on the other side of the waterhole.

He enjoyed a short time in the mud before another one arrived.

As I was trying to photograph the second warthog, a rhino walked right in front of us. I never heard it coming – and he walked up to the waterhole within a few feet of me. They come here to drink because there is fresh water (from the pipe).

Two rhinos preparing for a mud bath.

They were funny to watch. Every so often they rolled from left to right or right to left – both at the same time. 🙂

Our seating area.

The youngest rhino was ready to get out of the mud before the older one.

The larger one did not move, so the smaller one laid down again.

Another rhino arrived for fresh water. By this point I was listening for them, because they always arrived on a path next to the building.

I never did hear one arriving. They were always in front of us before I heard them. It is amazing that such a large animal is so quiet.

Some of them had notched ears. I wanted to ask Phil about that but forgot. I am sure it was some kind of brand.

Waterbuck on the far side of the waterhole

There were two of them.

Moving on

Juvenile Black-breasted Eagle.

Emerald-spotted Wood Dove

Phil said their song is: “My father is dead. My mother is dead. Everyone is dead.”

These two were fun to watch. I often wonder what God was thinking when he created the first rhino pair. 🙂

Only a mother could love that face.

Phil came for us about three hours after dropping us off at the blind.

We saw 3 warthogs, 5 rhino, 2 waterbuck, 1 black-breasted eagle, 1 emerald-spotted wood dove.

I am not sure how I missed taking a picture of Jere and Kristen in their blind. They were in a brushy area on a small hill overlooking a large water hole. 

They didn’t see as many animals as we did, but they had a very noisy rhino approach them from behind. Kristen said, “I thought we were going to die.” However, he just walked right by them to the waterhole.

We saw a beautiful sunset on the way back to camp.

Kristen and Phil inside the Toyota while the rest of us were in open seats.

Nyala in the brush

Warthog running away from our vehicle

Loved seeing the baby rhinos

These were our last animal sighting before getting back to camp.

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Kate used the hot pizza oven to prepare chicken and scalloped potatoes for supper. The meal was topped off with cornbread and a seven-layer salad.