For the Birds, Pilanesberg Edition

We continued our morning drive, as we had gotten up at five it was still preeeeettty early.  We didn't see alot of larger animals for awhile but besides the large animals and the vegetation, a Safari is also about the birds.  I tried to take good picture of the birds for my Dad, because if you know him at all, you will know he loves birds.  (Hence my name. :)  

This one is a favorite of mine.  It's name is also particularly great.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Kori Bustard.  HA! Toldya it was a great name.  Bustard means "birds that walk." It's Africa's Largest Flying Bird.    They can fly but mostly don't.  They can weigh up to 19 kg or 41 pounds.  

Not a fantastic picture but you could look it up online.  The people we were with got better ones I think.  Sometimes you sacrifice taking a good picture to just enjoy watching what is going on.  Since we aren't professional photographers we can afford to play these games. :)

This one is another favorite.  Lot's of favorites here.

A European Bee Eater.  These birds are beautiful.  I never got a good photo in flight but wow, they are so colorful.

Saw these cute birds on a bridge as we drove past.

Another favorite coming up.  This also has a fantastic name.  It's the Grey Go-Away Bird.  Oh yeah!  It makes this sound that cannot be described. I'll try though.  It's the sound one might make if someone asked "how ya doing?" or here in SA they say "howzit?." Rather than say "fine" as social protocol dictates since one might be feeling emotional, cranky and probably PMSing, instead there is a scrunching up of the face out comes an irritated mewling sound that immediately shut downs further questioning.  I'm not great at bird calls, but I'm getting pretty skilled at this one.  If one is close and making it's sound and I reply we end up having a whole conversation. Matt is pretty impressed with my ability I think. How I got good at that kind of sound I'm not totally sure...................................

 One landed on our windowsill awhile back, they are actually pretty big.  They look as big as an African Grey Parrot but they may not weigh as much, I'm not sure.  They have this great punky mohawk too.

It's also called the Grey Lourie or Tiny Waluigi Bird (Waluigi! Eeek! Seriously awesome names going on.) 

I need to try to get a video but until then, I found a youtube video you can hear them distinctly on.  I'll share this link so you can hear it too.  Sounds of the African Bush-Grey Go-Away Bird

Not sure if you think my description is spot on or not, but sound is all in the ear of the hearer.

We continued on to another watering hole.  Where they had.....more birds!

Not sure of the names on these ones.  There was also hippo at this watering hole and one actually got out of the water, which was something I really wanted to see.  I'll save him for next time and keep this post just dedicated to some of the birds that I took pictures of for Dad.  

Sunrise in the Park

Rather than sleeping in..I had managed to get everyone excited to wake up before the break of dawn on Sunday and sit by a nearby watering hole in hopes of seeing some animals gathering together.  As it happens, there wasn't like, tons of action at the watering hole..just your normal hippos hanging out in the water.

We still enjoyed the early morning quiet. I took a boring little video, trying to show what it's like to sit there.  It's hard to take a good video from inside the car.

Matt says the motor running in the video is not ours, someone must have pulled up to have a look near us too.

The Moon was still out:

Besides the lazy hippos we did see a cute little bird:

We drove away in search of other things to look at.  The vegetation is beautiful and varied:

If you have extra money to spend, you could take a balloon ride over the park at sunrise:

However, watching the sunrise at a watering hole, and during a drive in our Safariesque Land Rover is still pretty great:

Time to get back to camp!

Wonder what it's like to hit the road with us on Safari?

                                           

A short, not very good video of us zoomin through the bush.

We did have to stop when we came across this bull elephant.  He was RIGHT next to the road.

Its a shame there is no way to show perspective here.. It's just difficult to explain how intimidating it is to have an elephant soclosetoyouittakesyourbreathaway.  You think, aww so cool and then you are that close and it's so powerful and amazing that if it even flinched towards you then you may have to clean the seat of your car..if you catch my drift.  I should have taken a video but I was too busy worrying that Matt was good to go on the accelerator justincase.

Amazing.

The thing is, they even get bigger than this! Haven't seen one yet in life, but I know they are out there, I've seen pictures.   This one wasn't bothered by us, he just walked behind us and carried on down the road.

We saw a couple "smaller" elephants on our way back.

You can tell where elephant roam because of the destruction they leave behind as they graze, pull and stomp all the vegetation in their path.

We made it to the gate in time!  It was dark not soon afterwards:

The fun was not over though as it was time to Braai!  

Have I explained what Braai means? It's like BBQ, but they (the South Africans) call it Braai..and they don't think hamburgers and hotdogs constitute  Braai food.  If you have those you expose yourself to derision and demeaning BBQ references, it has to be "real" meat to Braai.  Manly meat you know.

Tony got the coals hot and scooped them into the Braai.

We had a yummy dinner and then it was off to bed. Er. Air mattress.