12/10 Friday: We got to sleep in for a 4:30 start this morning. It was cool until about 8, when we got to feel the real African summer. Up until now it's been cool, overcast, even jacket weather, but today it was HOT.
We set off to look for the dogs in the morning, but although we knew where they were from the equipment, there were no roads nor tracks to take us near them, so it wasn't until a couple of hours later that we saw them. They had just hunted down yet another impala and were enjoying the last tasty morsels in the lush, thick grass.
On losing them to the thicket where they lay through the heat of the day, we made our way to the rhino. We had hoped that the hyena would find it, to make the collaring easier, but they lost out to the vultures. Talk about greedy like vultures! There were three different species for a total of around 80 birds, haggling, hissing, biting, beating around the rhino. They were awesome to watch. We especially liked the Cape vulture, who lorded over all others, spreading his 5-ft wingspan from the top of the rhino, daring them to play King of the Hill with him. After an hour of trying to count the birds and taking tons of photos, we scavenged some firewood for a braai and headed back.
There wasn't much time to rest: Soon after, we headed to the office to enter the observations data collected in the field. That also gave us the chance to hook up to the internet, ever so briefly. We hopped back in the truck to find the dogs one last time before they settled in for the night. The plans for the braai were canceled due to a big thunderstorm, which (what a relief!) cooled everything down again.
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