Tag Archives: waterhole

Punda Maria Waterhole

Pre-sunrise at Punda Maria camp waterhole. I decide to make coffee to ‘take with,’ so it’s fully light when I get into the hide, and the sun is about to show. It’s Feb 2024

The resident Egyptian Geese, Blacksmith Lapwings, Three-banded Plovers; and foam nest frog nests are there.
A Bearded Woodpecker drums a tattoo in a dead tree while a Cape Turtle Dove exhorts me to Work Harder. Good luck with that, I’ve been ignoring them for almost four years now.
Two damp Striped Kingfishers sit in the falling mist, not quite a drizzle, giving their trilling call. A Brown-hooded Kingfisher silent nearby. A Tawny-flanked Prinia going crazy, scolding something I can’t see.
Also Fork-tailed Drongo, Red-backed Shrike, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, Chinspot Batis, Pintail Whydah, Blue & Lipstick waxbills (I don’t like the word ‘common’), Paradise Whydah, Red-billed Oxpecker, European & Carmine Bee-eaters; Greater blue-eared Glossy Starling, GHS girls (Grey-headed Sparrows), Laughing, Emerald & Cape Turtle Doves; Mosque, Barn & Lesser-striped Swallows;  Puffback & Red-back Shrikes; Red-billed Quelea flock; Red-Billed firefinch, Indigo bird, Lilac-breasted Roller, Crested Barbet,  Grey Goway Bird, Black-crowned Tchagra, Arrow-marked Babbler, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Dusky & Paradise flycatchers; Long-billed Crombec, White-browed (Hooligans) Robin-chat. A great morning.

Somewhere in the middle distance eles rumble and baboons bark.
A flock of White Helmet-shrikes – The Seven Sisters – fly into the hide tree just a few metres from me. I get a blurry pic.

A skreee from a Blacksmith Lapwing announces a raptor and there he is: A Little Sparrowhawk strafes low over the water, then banks up and lands in a tall mopani tree too far away for a definite ID, but his size tells me he’s a Little.

Now those eles arrive to drink, and one drops a huge dump while doing so. I zoom in on their dry skin.

Uh oh! Three primates enter the hide. Loud talk and cigarette smoke sets off my internal alarm. Oh well, I enjoyed a lovely couple of early morning hours alone at the hide. Time to wake Jess up for breakfast in the hut she hired after tiring of camping!

~~oo0oo~~

Places nearby

Luvhuvhu river banks
White-fronted Bee-eater
Collared & White-bellied Sunbirds
Brubru Kurrichane Thrush
Black flycatcher
White-crowned Lapwing
Bob the Sandpiper (common)
Marsh Sandpiper
Orange-breasted Bush-shrike
Tambourine Dove

Kloppersfontein waterholes
Grey & Black-headed Herons
White-faced Duck
Whiskered Tern
White-backed & Hooded Vultures

Outside the park, near Pafuri Gate

Nthakeni Bush Camp
Dark-capped Bulbul
Golden-tailed Woodpecker
Black-headed Oriole
Good Lord Deliver Us Nightjar
Wood & Pearl-spotted Owlets
Blue Waxbill
Bearded Scrub-robin
Blue-Grey (ashy) & Paradise Flycatchers
Green-backed Camaroptera
Green-winged Pytilia

Red-billed Firefinch dancing on a perch holding a tiny twig with leaflets.

*put video here *

Golden-breasted Bunting
Willow Warbler
Mosque Swallow

Emerald spot Dove
Chinspot Batis
Spectacled Weaver
Klaas’ Cuckoo


Cattle bells plink-klonking as they graze along the Mutale river

~~oo0oo~~

That Punda Maria waterhole at night:

Wilderness Walk Mfolosi: The Gentle Art of Lurking

Our two walks in the wilderness with the Taylors, Foggs, Janice Hallot and Gayle Adlam blur into one and I have got the photos all mixed up, so here are some more memories from 1999 and 2005.

On the drier of our two walks there was very little surface water about, so around the campfire one night . .

Supper, great food, great wine, comfy chairs. Story (and snory) time now

. . when my companions were suitably lubricated, I put one of my (many) pet theories to them: Tomorrow, instead of walking about scaring the animals, let’s go to that waterhole we saw where a dry streambed joins the Mfolosi river and get comfortable and simply lurk there till lunchtime, like crocodiles! Let the animals come to us. Who’s in favour?

To my surprise and delight they were all so mellow and agreeable – dronk – they voted in favour, and we did just that. It was wonderful! We got comfortable a nice distance from the water, leaning against tree trunks, and watched as all sorts of birds and animals came to drink. My idea of heaven: Lurking with telescope, binoculars, books and food!

These were slackpacking walks, so our kit was carried to the outlying camp by these handy bongolos. Here you can see Dizzi looking for her luggage, muttering “Where’s my bongolo? Why don’t they have number plates, cos all bongolos look the same?”

Dizzi seeks HER bongolo

On the wetter walk it got hot one day and we asked our Rangers if we could swim. They said they knew just the spot. Miles later we got to the river at their swimming hole. But it was occupied:

Mfolosi Wilderness walk 1999 & 2005 waterhole collage

Aw! Two buffs, an ele and a lioness had all had the same idea. We didn’t argue with them, we trudged on. Miles later we crossed the river again, and had a swim. Sort of. Luckily no pictures were taken. These were of a shoes-off river crossing, footwear and footprints:

Wading the Mfolosi

These wilderness walks end with a last night back at base camp. We had left celebration supplies there in anticipation.

Mfolosi Wilderness walk 1999 & 2005-002

Then a champagne breakfast kombi drive before we left the park.

Champagne all round! And there's a shot of Aitch the photographer at last!
– at last our photographer Trish is in a photo – behind Jon’s champagne glass –

~~oo0oo~~

imbongolo – donkey; two donkeys: izimbongolo

Denyse took the kudu, zebra and vultures-on-kill photos in the feature collage

My Namesakes in Mkhuze

A few of my namesakes at Mkhuze this weekend.

DSCN0716

Spot the two old rhinos in the shade under the tree? *Click on the pic*

Then you’ll also see how dry it was – the “water” is mainly mud and algae with a rich dose of dung mixed in.

– Nsumo pan had good water, so the Mkhuze river must have had rain upstream –

~~oo00oo~~

Underground and Underwater in Kenya

In Tsavo East we walked down a long underground tunnel from Elephant Hills Lodge on the hilltop in the first pic below, to the waterhole below the hill, where the tunnel ends in an iron-barred underground hide looking out at elephant feet and buffalo legs as they drink within pebble-tossing distance. Almost.

Elephant Hills - East Tsavo
KenyaTsavo (12)
– bottom left is where the tunnel emerges –
scan0065

In Tsavo West we climbed down into an old metal tank with glass portholes looking out into the crystal clear waters of Mzima Spring, where fish swim past and hippos can be seen looking like graceful ballerinas who have ‘let themselves go’ as they move daintily by, holding their breath. We watched and waited and held our breath, but not one of them farted while we were there.

down into the tank
underwater view of fish & hippos!
There’s the underwater observation tank opposite

The spring bubbles out of the hillside volcanic rock, crystal clear and forming a sizeable stream.

Mzima Springs
– bubbling out of the volcanic rock: The start of a river –
hippos in clear water
Mzima springs
– Mzima Springs –

~~~oo0oo~~~