29/09/11

This morning I was woken up at 5:30 am because there was a puff adder about 30 meters from camp! Needless to say I was exceedingly pleased to be alerted to the presence of such an awesome animal! Ive been wanting to see one since ive been here but their camoflage and elusivness generally keeps them well hidden despite their wide distribution. They are Africa’s most dangerous snake for this exact reason. They are not the most venomous but they are responsible for more bites than any other venomous snake due to the fact the do not move if approached and when unwary feet step to close two puncture marks often follow. Their venom is not frequently deadly but often results in the loss of a limb for rural farmers who cant afford good footwear or medical care. 

Puff adder getting cosy with my flip flop

24/09/2011

We arrived back from Katavi at 9 pm last night after a very long day. We were up at 05:30 am to go into the park for 06:00am. For the reason that early morning is the best time to see the animals and see the animals we did!

I wont bore you with the list but I will talk you quickly through the highlight… We spotted a lone lioness in the middle of the dried up river, in the mud, but I’d over driven. I reversed the car back until we could see her again. From here it was obvious she was doing something but we couldn’t see what. On looking through the binoculars it was clear she was eating something, she had blood all over her face which was a shocking contrast to her otherwise golden fur. What was she eating though? Again after looking more closely we realized it was a young hippo! But wait as if this was not enough, this hippo was not dead….. Far from it. Every now and again it swung its head in agony bellowing its panic. All this while the lioness tucked in. The scene was horrendous. Fascinating but very disturbing and sad. We just wanted the hippo to die which it did not look in a hurry to do. 

Lioness eating a live hippo

It was hard to watch but difficult not to watch at the same time. I took some photos, one of which I’ve posted on here but I warn you that due to its graphic nature, it is not for the faint of heart..  In the end we left the hippo to its fate, my hopes were not high for its survival through the night. It should be mentioned that hippo hide is 4.5cm thick and tough as old boots, therefore it is very difficult to get through and the lioness was struggling. It was also not clear how bad the damage the lioness inflicted was. But there was a lot of blood…

Impala in the fore ground and Topi in the background

A Nile monitor lizard nestled in a tree (this individual is huge -about 1.5m long!)

A lilac chested roller

A full grown male lion

Elephants

Needless to say I was pretty tired when we got back as I’d driven for 15 hours! (safely I might add).

23/09/2011

So we returned to the office for 08:00. David talked with us and with the people who sold us the permits who said we could go for a night drive. Turns out their English was not as good as his so there was definitely a huge miscommunication. Cut a long story short – They wanted 50 USD fine for each person. After an hour and a half myself and Sam managed to argue them down to 50 USD for all four of us. So rather than a 50 USD fine, I only had to pay 12 USD! I am definitely putting that down as a win!ha Finally we were allowed back in the park. Saw lots of cool animals which made up for it. Here are a few pics.

Water buck

Elephant penis

3 years of zoology - i think this is giraffe

Two young brothers

Their sense of humour wasnt great

zebra

Banded mongoose

Cool shit

A blue headed tree Agama

 A lesser Galago bush baby

A 12 foot Rock Python (pic taken by Busoti - I sadly missed this)

Our kitchen spider

21/09/2011

We left camp at 07:00 am to make the journey to Mpanda. Got there about 11:00am. From there we sorted stuff out, had lunch etc. Alex and Fiona along with the guys all wanted to stay in Mpanda for the night. Myself, Simon, Sam and Betsy (Alex and Fiona’s helping hand) departed for the park alone at 430pm with the hope of a dusk and night drive and to stay the night in one of the “lodges” on the outskirts of the park. The lodge we chose was called Hippo Gardens. It turns out it is called that for a good reason as it is situated right next to a river with a local population of about a hundred or so hippos! Later that night we found that these hippos range freely around the lodge to get their graze on. A reassuring thought with the knowledge that they are Africas most dangerous mammal.

Sun set over Katavi plains

Anyway, when we got to the park we went straight to get our permits. Here we asked if it was ok to go into the park now, even though the sun is setting and if we could do a night drive. The guy we asked said this was fine. So into the park we went and enjoyed it spectacularly. The sun set about half an hour after we got into the park. On turning on the headlights the plains came alive with eye reflection. There were Hyenas, genets (a small carnivore that looks like a mix between a cat and a dog) and low and behold a group of 4 lions! Two young males and 2 females. We watched them for a good half an hour in the dark with our headlights focused on them when we noticed another cars headlights approaching…

The approaching car was infact a rangers vehicle and was a Toyota pick up truck. Inside were 8 rangers armed to the teeth with Automatic rifles. They pulled up their Truck violently infront of ours (blocking us) and proceeded to jump out of the truck and surround us. They ran to our open windows and started shouting at me aggressively. Luckily their English was good. They were evidently very upset with us. Gradually things calmed down a little (but not much) and the guy in charge told us we were not to be in the park after dark and that we needed to pay a fine. He was still very emotional and wasn’t having any of what we had to say. As the situation was not being resolved in any shape or form (also keeping in mind there was still a small pride of lions about 30 meters away) I told him that we would like for us to talk about it back at the Park Office and that we would follow them out. He reluctantly agreed but not without putting 2 of his men in our car first. The journey back to the office must have given every one a chance to calm down a bit because atmosphere was completely different. They called the chief warden (David) who came to talk to us. It was now past 10 at night. David was adamant that we were in the wrong but we should come back the next morning to sort the problem out…

A small group of Lions enjoying a smaller watering hole

20/09/2011

Tomorrow we are all going to Katavi national park which is about a 4 hour drive South of where we are here. The town nearest Katavi is called Mpanda and we are set to meet Alex and Fiona there before heading into the park together. It will be for 3 days in total (2 nights) and there will be 9 of us in the car! As none of the guys are on holiday and because we had to bring in a few extra guys, there was a good opportunity for a family photo!

Me and the extended family

18/09/2011

I was enjoying my dinner the other night (a luscious plate of rice and beans) when I heard Simon yelling something from his tent. After listening closer I realised he was shouting “SNAKE!!”. Sweeeet. I ran over to investigate and recognised it as a Tiger snake, very beautiful, small snakes but completely harmless. With this in mind I caught the little guy (in the name of science…) to further investigate and err get some good photos (again for scientific purposes offcourse).. He didn’t bite me for which I was thankful and I relocated him a little further away from camp to go about his business.

A contest of life and death! - me wrestling with a harmless Tiger snake (note the concentration)