Who Let the Dogs Out?!

Dec 07
Tuesday, day 2 started ... early. By 4:30 we had eaten a haphazard combination of the available cereals and set off looking for the dogs. They had moved since we had seen them the night before, so it took a couple of telemetry measurements before we found them again. At first, they weren't doing much if anything, but suddenly we lost them to the veld and only found them again chasing a flash of a doomed impala. In their excitement, several of the dogs leaped clear over the apparently insufficient cattle / wild animal guard. Our guide Michelle deftly climbed over the fence, the one that's electrocuted enough to stop elephants from pushing it over, hauled the dismembered carcass back onto reserve land, and gave it back to the dogs. One particularly crafty dog then jumped over the guard again to get some leftover innards, so Philip also got to climb over the electrocuted-for-elephants fence and chase it back onto the property. With full bellies, the dogs rested and played for the rest of the day, until we lost them again into the distant hills in the corner of the park. We spent the lunch break (9:30am to 3pm!) reading and napping.

By comparison, the afternoon drive was disapponting. The hyena were continuing to ignore the baited trap set so that it might get collared. The cheetah (!) that had been lounging by the front gate for a couple of hours left just a few minutes before we got there and had disappeared into the bush, not to be found again. No-one was to be found at any of the watering holes we rolled by. In fact, there weren't any animals to be found until we had tracked clear to the far side (presumably) of the reserve, where we found some buffalo and antelope. Since by now the drizzle had started beneath the dark, heavy skies, we headed back toward the camp. Along the way, we came across one of the large bull elephants, also in musth, who sedately but immediately turned his rump to us and went both number onesies and twosies. We watched for a while, and then poof! He disappeared into the thickets.