Krugerspring

Another hopefully atmospheric bushveld scene. Buffalo and a Sabie River wild fig tree. I like this kind of pic to remind me of the experience of being on that river road when it’s very far away.

Sunset Impalas. We’re on our way home and have been having some patchy wifi. It was a really good time in the park. We finally saw a pack of painted wolves about half an hour before we drove out of Malelane Gate.

Tiny critters in a big landscape. Almost every pile of boulders (ancient magma chambers exposed by erosion and then crumbled by weather, plants, and time) has a pair of resident klipspringers (rock-hoppers) - an adorable, agile, and feisty little antelope. These plaques on the rocks are the kind of memorialising that used to be de rigueur in the old days. Now such things are usually confined to camps and gates rather than forced onto the landscape.

A White-Fronted Bee-Eater. I’ll hopefully post a compilation for fellow bird-nerds before too long. I’ve seen some cool stuff and some that’s really new to me or photographed ok by me for the first time.

Scratching post.

There’s a certain type of wildlife picture that I just really enjoy even if it’s not very clever. 1960s/1970s style wildlife portraiture. Thinking about my dear cousins @joydemillar and @timdrmillar today.

The prettiest kitty. Dozing on a branch over the Sabie just like her ancestors have probably done for thousands of years.

From hell’s dark heart we stab at thee. The oxpeckers riding the behemoth were sold to me as a kid as being benevolent helpers clearing animals of parasites. But they are also parasites themselves. This huge flock are riding this giraffe to pick at an open wound on its back. It’s no good shaking them off. They just swoop back seconds later.

Yesterday evening on the Sabie - for my money the most beautiful river in South Africa. And that has a lot to with the huge wild fig trees that line its banks.

Long and lovely day. Goodnight.