Ruaha ; Mwagusi, 17 years after

[Bush dog]

Nothing beats the colors of African birds.

I do not know if you ever been in South or Central America, and in Brazil more particularly. Well, if you ever go, you might change your mind.

 

Thank you so much for your comments.

 

[madaboutcheetah]

Mike, catching up again with the report ...... More fabulous images, all of them ...... The ones I thought stood out were the Elephant trunk, praying Mantis, Wide angle Eles and definitely the snarling Leopard. Thanks again for posting this report!

[Bush dog]

@@madaboutcheetah

 

Thank you, Hari for your kind words and also thank you for reading this report and looking at the pictures.

 

@twaffle@Safaridude and @all the others that are taking a bit of their time to look at this report

 

This holds good for you also.

[Bush dog]

Afternoon game drive

 

We went back to the place where we had left the cheetah in the morning. Fortunately, there was no other car yet. The cheetah was out of the reeds and anxiously devouring its prey, that was already highly cut into. We left it, when we saw cars coming from different directions.

 

 

As it was quite far from the camp, we slowly went back to it, stopping briefly from time to time to look at general plain game and birds.

 

 

Crested bustard

 

[graceland]

 

Nothing beats the colors of African birds.

I do not know if you ever been in South or Central America, and in Brazil more particularly. Well, if you ever go, you might change your mind.

 

Thank you so much for your comments.

 

 

I have travelled frequently to S. America and I feel the birds I've seen in Africa captured my attention at least more than any in the Amazon (though we did feel our selection dates may have bearing on that) Of course I was not as tuned into birds as I have become lately!

 

Sharing the beautiful shots also remind me of what I saw and did not capture. They seem to fly too fast for my clicking abilities!

 

Very enjoyable. Thx.

[Bush dog]

8 to 11th DAY

 

The night was restless. First, because I made a lot of there and back between my bed and the toilet, and also because of the intense elephant activity in the camp, around the banda and in the river bed. At dawn, everything had gone back to normal. At 7.30, we left the camp to the place where the lions charge the roadsigns, to meet the Jongomero’s driver. On the way, we stopped at the bridge to check if the leopard was still there, but it was gone.

 

It took us a bit more than 2 hours to cover the 50 kilometers to Jongomero camp. On the way, we saw elands, greater kudus and several buffaloes’ herds. Progressively, we noticed that the vegetation was changing and becoming greener, because of the daily afternoon’s showers of the last 10 days, in this part of the park. We even drove through a forest of deciduous trees, with here and there, colored patches like the red of the first leaves of the tamarind tree. We were at the transition between the acacia type of vegetation and the Miombo type.

 

Jongomero is a beautiful camp along the river that is giving its name to it. The tents are very comfortable and a bit more luxurious than at Mwagusi.

 

 

Though, everything was perfect, with very professional and competent management and staff, there was, for me, something missing. Indeed, I had been there 4 years ago, at about the same period (3 weeks before), and Moli was in charge. I can say that it must be hard to succeed to a personality like him.

 

I really liked the actual car used for the game drives. It’s a comfortable Nissan with only 4 very good seats. As there are many tse tse flies in the area, stands are mounted at the rear of the vehicle to put tins, in which dry elephant dung is burned. The smell is not unpleasant. It is supposed to keep the flies at a distance. It must partly work, because I had the feeling that there were less flies than 4 years ago ?

 

 

We stayed 3 nights and made 5 game drives. We did not see a lot of wildlife, but I really enjoyed those 3 days. The area around is beautiful. There are forests of magnificent « acacia siberiana ». The camp is located in the west of the park, more than 50 kms from Msembe and to the west, the nearest neighbours, a couple of artists, are at 70 kms. The only cars are those from the camp and the small rangers’ station. This is still real pristine wilderness. It is extremely difficult to see a leopard and some animals are still shy. I have seen shy giraffes and shy kudus, running away at visual approach. I do not remember having seen scared kudus like that. It’s amazing how high they can jump! In a way, it was good to see that there are still some places where animals react that way.

 

Of course, there were hippos, buffaloes, giraffes, kudus , waterbucks, impalas , warthogs, baboons and vervet monkeys, but we only saw 4 elephants and 2 lions, though we heard them roaring every night. That was less than 4 years ago, but perhaps the 3 weeks’ difference and the first rains were the reasons of it ? We also saw bat-eared foxes and elands.

 

These are the buffaloes of this year.

 

And those of 2010

 

 

 

[Bush dog]

I have forgotten to say that the night walks, from our tent to the restaurant, were very rewarding, especially after a heavy shower : a toad, a small snake, a black scorpion, a procession of big ants and an elephant shrew.

 

Sightings of this year

 

 

Von der Decken’s hornbill

 

 

And of 2010

 

[Atravelynn]

Thanks for the responses to my questions. The leopard portrait is fantastic and the cat has made its point. Some wonderful perspectives on the giraffe. The end of the trunk is another wonderful perspective. 10% of Africa's lions, that's very high for one park.

 

You're giving us more reasons to visit Ruaha!

[madaboutcheetah]

Very nice, Mike - the Von Der Decken - I think I saw a few in Laikipia - but, failed to get a decent shot.

[Marks]

Impressive specimens of many species. I enjoyed these last few posts and continue to be glad to be along for the ride.

[Bush dog]

Lions from this year

 

 

Before

 

 

During. It does not seem to enjoy it, perhaps because it’s doing this by rule of thumb.

 

 

After

 

 

We went to a place in the bush where we found this fallen tree.

 

 

But also, this buffalo skull that I expected to find there. This last pictures will be the link to

 

 

Lions of 2010

 

1st day : a pride of lions was there, they had killed a buffalo. Near them, a dead honey badger that they had probably killed ?

 

[Bush dog]

2^nd day

 

 

There was some scavengers around the place. Amongst them, a single hooded vulture. One of the young lionesses was not too well and had spewed up. That made the vulture happy, of course.

 

 

3rd day

 

 

 

We did not make the last game drive to prepare ourselves to the departure to the Selous, that will be the subject of another topic.

 

Thanks to all of you for following this one !

[michael-ibk]

Already finished? That went way too quickly.

 

Thanks, enjoyable as all your contributions, and looking forward to Selous. Soon, hopefully.

[Bush dog]

@@michael-ibk

 

Thanks a lot, Michael, for your continuous support!

[FlyTraveler]

Excellent trip report and fabulous photos (as usual). Thanks for sharing your safari experiences with us @@Bush dog ! Looking forward to the Selous report!

[Bush dog]

@@FlyTraveler

 

Bis repetita! Thanks a lot for your continuous support!

[pault]

Sorry you are finished already and also sorry that Jongomeru didn't have a lot of animals for you, although it did have something different. I would love to take a trip down that way one time. itYou have some beautiful pictures and what a great (and interesting) leopard sighting. I would say that was a very successful visit overall.

 

I enjoyed the mini report from 2010 too. Great photos.

 

I don't think shy kudu are uncommon (depends where I guess) but less shy ones are quite common in parts of Ruaha and it's very nice.

[TonyQ]

@@Bush dog

Thank you for posting - some great photos all the way through. I hope you will put some from Selous!

[Bush dog]

@@pault

 

It was indeed a successful visit. For me, being in the bush is anyway always successful but sometimes a little less and sometimes a little more.

 

Thanks for your comments!

[Bush dog]

@@TonyQ

 

Thanks, also, a lot for your continuous support! There will be more pictures on Selous than on Ruaha, from 2010 and last month!

[Marks]

That might be the first time I've seen a dead honey badger. Amazing photos full of detail of everything else, too.

[Bush dog]

@@Marks

 

Well for me it was also the first time to see a dead honey badger. They are tough animal but it had no chance against about 8 lions. But it probably gave them trouble!

[twaffle]

Quite sad to see the honey badger just lying there. Very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to Selous.

[AfricIan]

Sorry I'm late to this particular party Mike but it's been a fascinating TR & great photography. Your section on Jongo brought back memories from our time there in 2009 - I did wonder what it would be like without Moli, he really did make the camp. Interesting observation re the Tsetse flies as Moli told us that he'd run a Tsetse reduction program for a couple of years before he left but that it was a very expensive thing to do. If you're right with your feelings then it might have worked.

 

Your observation on the relative lack of wildlife also tallied with our trip, I'd put it down to the thick vegetation and consequent poor sight-lines but, like you, we really enjoyed the beauty of the area and our time there

[Bush dog]

@@AfricIan

 

Well, Ian, better later than never! Thank you for your comments and kind words.

 

Concerning the lack of wildlife, for some species, like cheetah, it is, indeed, because of the thick vegetation, though there are some open spaces if you go west. What surprised me a lot, was the lack of elephants this year. Perhaps, were the first rains, the reason for it?