A few more photos from our last years trip to South Africa.

Maximum temperature in the Charente today 10C, minimum 6C. Rain measured this morning 6mm and still raining. 40mm of rain so far this month.  24km/h South-Westerly wind up to 59 km/h.

African buffalo or Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer) with a calf.

A large herd of buffalo heading towards a river.

Greater kudu, male (Tragelaphus strepsiceros).

Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) lying in wait!!

African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) digging for water in a dry river bed.  They have had some rain since we left but the situation was serious while we were there.

Chacma baboon (Papio ursinus).  Just watching the world go by in relaxation mode...

and taking a walk.

South African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa).

Sable antelope (Hippotragus niger).

Steenbok antelope (Raphicerus campestris) female, the male has horns.

Three generations of elephants playing in a small waterhole.

African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) or Painted dogs.

Burchell's zebra (Equus quagga burchellii).

The African common toad or guttural toad (Sclerophrys gutturalis). Wow, are they noisy, they were just outside our bedroom window!!

See also my

 Bird blog

06/01/2020 Returning to our trip to Africa last October..

Maximum temperature in the Charente today 10C, minimum 1C. Dry so far today, with frost here this morning. 13km/h south-westerly winds with gusts up to 30 km/h.

These animals were top of my 'to see' list. As before, I will not state exactly where animals were seen because of poaching risks. The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) is often nicknamed the Painted Dog. Incredibly, each individual dog has unique markings, which makes it easier for identification. They are sadly another of the world's endangered species.  A number of them have died from disease carried by domestic dogs, brought by their owners into game reserves. Rabies is one of the problems, and many others have died a horrible death as a result of being snared.  

 Wild dogs chasing away a hyena which has got too close to the pack.  The hyenas hang around them, hoping to steal a kill that the dogs may have made.

Here they are gathering ready to go hunting. When a pack member becomes ill, injured or elderly, restricting or even incapacitating their effectiveness as a hunter, the rest of the pack cares for and feeds them. 
 Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) in the background.

African elephant (Loxodonta africana) enjoy a water hole.

Here are others with a sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) and zebra (Equus quagga).

Blue-headed tree agama, (Acanthocercus atricollis). There seem to be several subspecies, not very clearly defined!

Lion (Panthera leo). This was one of three old males that we watched walking near to the road.  You can see how thin this one was. We suspected that the three (all in similar condition) were supporting each other to find food.

Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), also known as the laughing hyena.

Two young hyenas...

If you look closely you can see three cubs here with their mother. Females provide only for their own cubs rather than assist each other, and males display no paternal care at all!

The only proof I have that we saw a leopard ! (Panthera pardus pardus).

See also my

 Bird blog

16/12/2019 More of our trip to Africa and some of the animals we saw.

Maximum temperature in the Charente today 16C, minimum 9C. Dry so far today and last night. 31km/h South-Easterly winds with gusts up to 64 km/h!!

Savanna (or bush) elephant (Loxodonta africana) - a little too close!

As above - romancing...

I love you.

Elephant playing in one of the waterholes.  Due to the drought, most of these watering places are having water pumped into them from tankers.  Recent rains have fallen in South Africa but many places are still very dry

How low can you go......

I loved this series.

Giraffe (Giraffa giraffa).

Blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus),

Leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis).

Ostrich - female (struthio camelus).

Greater kudu male (Tragelaphus strepsiceros)

As above.

Zebra, I suspect this might be a Chapman's zebra (Equus quagga chapmani). Note the stripes to not go right down to the hooves.

Chacma or Cape baboon (Papio ursinus)...

As above.

See also my Bird blog I have many photos of birds and I will put most of them on this blog.

Part 2 of our trip to South Africa

Maximum temperature in the Charente today 13C, minimum 9C.  25 mm of rain measured this morning.  27km/h South-westerly winds with gusts up to 57 km/h!! Very breezy! 

We arrived at Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape in the late afternoon of Monday 14 November after a 2-hour flight. The winds were so strong that the pilot battled to get the plane down, but the landing itself was smooth! We were met by Christelle and Patrick, who drove us home to their place in Kenton, which took about 1 1/2 hours. They had gone to a lot of trouble to make us so welcome and the rondavel with en suite was fabulous!

 On arrival, Nigel was feeling unwell and sadly spent the next two days in bed with bad flu-like symptoms. 

Nevertheless, I was up and about and spent some time with Christelle's family who were there for a couple of days from Zimbabwe.  We took a trip down to the beach and borrowing a pair of rock sandals, I joined them on a walk before the tide came in.  The tide almost beat us to it, and one corner was a little too deep for me and Christelle's nephew gallantly gave me a piggyback around the corner to the rocks on the other side!!  I wish I could show you the video, but with our slow WiFi, it is impossible to load it, so here are a couple of stills taken from it!!!!

It was deeper than this in places...

Rounding the corner...

and Christelle helping me back on to terra firma.   I was very grateful for the lift though we all had a laugh.

Beautiful beach.

This is called Carriage Rock.

The following day the family all left and C and P took me out for a drive to see some of the nearby places.  They are so lucky; close to them is San Estate, and although privately owned and one can only drive around the edge, we saw plenty of wildlife.

Impala (Aepyceros melampus).

Zebra (there several species and sub species (Equus quagga) being the most common and Hartebeest, (Alcelaphus buselaphus) on the right.

Zebra.

Nyala males, (Tragelaphus angasii)...

Nyala youngster...

As above.

South African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). The giraffe is the tallest land animal in the world. Males can reach a height of 5 m, and females 4.5 m.

See also my Bird blog I have many photos of birds and I will put most of them on this blog.