November 20 to 30, 2013

The last ten days have been crazy busy and I did not have time to post photos. 

I trust that the selection posted today will make up for it. The photos are mostly from my last two visits to the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park

I start with my favourite photo:

On 17 May 2013, I posted a photo of my previous car reflected in the eye of a Zebra.

Yesterday I managed to do the same with my Hyundai i10

Part of the Zebra's body is also seen reflected in the outer corner of the eye

(I guess I don't call it my "iCar" for nothing - or should that be "eyeCar"?!!)

A beautiful little wild flower. 

The Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park is a picture of colour at the moment.

Jacana toes - I have never been able to get a nice shot of those amazing long Jacana toes! This Jacana happened to be directly below the bridge where I was parked and unaware of my presence. 

Jacanas normally wander around on lily pads looking for insects and are fast movers.

A little Baboon seemed fascinated by its own shadow!

Leading the way...

Elephants on the move, kicking up dust as they rush to cross the river. No time to play...
Soon after this photo was taken and hearing the amazing sound of the water being stirred up by these animals, I decided to capture it on video.
I have posted the video to YouTube. This is the link: Elephant Crossing

The bush sounds and bird calls make excellent 'background music'

The call of the Diederik Cuckoo -- dee-dee-deederik -- is a sweet sound which indicates the arrival of spring in our part of the world. It is also a warning to birds such as weavers, sparrows and wagtails, that they could end up with a cuckoo egg in their nest!

This Crocodile has featured many times on this blog. I always stop at this spot to look for it when I visit the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park.  I took this photo two weeks ago. Yesterday he was not there. 

As I wondered out aloud about his whereabouts, my friend pointed him out to me a short way across the other side of the stream. He 'belly ran' in our direction, jumped into the water and swam towards us! 

Needless to say, my camera was not ready for action and when I finally managed to get ready, it was too late - reeds blocked the view.  I post the photo anyway to show the wake the crocodile left behind. The photo is so bad that  I marked the position of the crocodile with an arrow

I managed to zoom in through the reeds as it reached the pool in front of us. The crocodile made a swooping turn and stopped to look at us (see the movement of the water)  

I need to point out that the road is quite high above the river bank and I doubt that it thought we were something to eat :)   I prefer to think that he rushed over to say hello ;)

(Or has it perhaps been fed by someone, and now it expects food when a car approaches?)

No ..... I STILL prefer to think that he rushed over to say hello ....!

This shot was taken while leaning over from the driver's seat to 'aim' through the passenger window

Angry Bird!

Madame Burchell's Coucal was not amused by our cameras clicking away before 

the preening process was complete.  She could certainly do with some eyedrops.

And finally:

The view @maggieztree

Recent rains have painted the countryside in many beautiful shades of green -

So green in places that it looks 'unnatural'