Gecko 81 at Addo – Day 4

Tuesday, 07 June 2022

It was absolutely freezing when I got up at 7:30 this morning.   Yesterday we bought a small fan heater from Spar in Colchester and I put it on immediately.  What a difference this makes to getting up in the cold caravan!  

After a shower and a warming cup of coffee, we set off at 8:30.  The skies were blue and cloudless and there was no wind so it warmed up quite quickly.   Our first stop was Domkrag Dam and then we did the Gorah Loop to Carol’s Rest Waterhole and then back to camp.  

Red-billed Teal – Domkrag Dam

Mr and Mrs Shelduck at Domkrag

It is amazing to see all the animals scattered across the veld.  Elephants, kudu, zebra, and red-hartebeest can be seen all together decorating the landscape.

Red Hartebeest

Such handsome creatures

This one getting close to its food

Elephants scattered about everywhere

How many elephants?

A huge number of zebra all over the park

A buffalo at Carol’s Rest

We were thrilled today to see two different sightings of suricates.   What cute little creatures they are – always alert and on the lookout for danger.  They all look in different directions and then if there is danger they pop right back into their holes or if they need to go someplace else they race off all at the same time.   We also saw a few yellow mongooses who are more fluffy and less hyperactive than the suricates.

Yellow Mongoose checking out the environment

On the other side of the road, this meerkat family looked around nervously

Around the corner, it was difficult to see that there were lots more of these cute creatures

But they were there alright

Making sure no predators were about

Uh oh something is coming – hide!

And in an instant, this is all you see as he scurries into his hiding place

Back at camp, the Earl cooked us a delicious breakfast and the birds came to visit.  The red-winged starlings were the cheekiest chasing all competitors away.  Even the pied starlings gave way to them.  It was lovely to have the Karoo thrush, Karoo Scrub-robin, southern boubou and black-headed oriole pop in to say hi too.

Karoo Thrush

Pied Starling

Black-headed Oriole

By midday, the temperature had risen to 28 degrees C and our jerseys and jackets were discarded until much later in the evening. We went out at 3 pm and enjoyed some more lovely sightings.

Elephant encounter at Rooidam

At the same time, two kudu males were at each other

While a Cape Teal simply ignored them

As we drove on we got held up by a traffic jam

Annoyed to be urged off the road

Honestly, it’s so much easier on the road – let’s get back there!

This is a zebra crossing – cars must wait!

We don’t mind

Have a nice day!

There were no elephants at Hapoor but the egrets were enjoying themselves

And so was this blacksmith lapwing

And this three-banded plover enjoyed not having to worry about getting underfoot of a pachyderm

The warthogs found the lovely green grass on the edge of the dam quite tasty

Such freedom when you don’t have to worry about giants stepping on you.

Sitting outdoors this evening was very pleasant. It was a perfect, still evening and although we wore jackets it was the best evening we have had so far. I cooked a chicken and vegetable casserole in the Remosca Pot and Jim and Maureen joined us.