Timbavati Private Reserve - 8 days 7 nights

AFRICAN WILD DOGS MEET HYENAS

This may have been the highlight of the safari. On other trips to Africa only one time did we experience a sighting of a wild dog and at that it was one lone dog with a tracking collar on him. So we were unprepared for this spectacular extraordinary encounter between a pack of 17 wild dogs and about 15-20 Hyenas. incredible!

As mentioned before our guide was careful not to tip us off of a possible predator sighting. Why I am not sure. Maybe to avoid a disappointment. In any event once again we heard chatter on the radio but couldn't understand the language. Immediately our Ranger Guide told us to hold on and make sure our hats etc were secure. He headed for something very fast and we got quite the ride with the safari vehicle bumping up and down and tossing us around. It was fun and exciting.

So finally we came upon the sighting. There were other vehicles already there (not too many) and we were on the "tar road"...and there they were. African Wild Dogs and Hyenas chasing each other around in what can only be described as a "frenzy"; some were fighting and we had no idea what was really going to happen. The dogs chased the hyenas and then the hyenas chased the dogs. There were scuffles but "no blood", i.e. nothing got killed that we could tell.

The encounter was so amazing I have to admit I was frazzled and didn't know what to do. i was swinging my camera from left to right trying to capture the action; trying to keep focused and looking for interesting shots. The adrenaline was pumping fast. I was trying to alternate between video and stills and frankly it was just too chaotic to adequately record what was happening. My video gives a sense of what was going on albeit it pretty short but by no means is it great footage or with any sort of purpose. Just wildly swinging back and forth hoping to capture a sense of the event.

So, below is an except from my Timbavati 2018 video/slideshow that I made which includes stills and some video clips . This is a short little except but maybe gives a sense of the excitement and what was happening. You be the judge.

If anybody has experienced such an encounter by all means tell us about it. Pretty rare in my experience.

Still loving all your shots..... What a great trip!!

Looks like the thrill of a lifetime!

308Shooter wrote in post #18687797
Still loving all your shots..... What a great trip!!

Thank you. It was a great trip.

sogs wrote in post #18687835
Looks like the thrill of a lifetime!

Already looking forward to the next one.

Great shots, My wife & I are off back to Africa in a few weeks. 4 days of 5* luxury, followed by 6 days in the bush! One extreme to the other!

I love your Big Cat shots!

After night 4 we transferred to Simbavati River Lodge which is about an hour North of the Kambaku Safari Lodge still in the Timbavati Privagte Game Reserve. It was a very nice lodge as it is right on the Nhlaralumi River in the heart of the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. Great food with a slight gourmet flair.

It was very cool sitting in the lodge watching things happen in the river and the game viewing on our drives was really really great.

Here are a couple of images from the lodge deck overlooking the river...

Late in the day after we arrived at Simbvavati we went on our afternoon game drive and were immediately treated to a great sighting of a 6 year old male Leopard named Mondsweni. He was magnificent. The lighting was getting bad but was able to get a lot of nice images. Took well over 100 off him ... some good...some not so good. We watched him for quite some time as we initially was just laying in the middle of the road. Finally when he got up we walked towards our vehicle and then right along side us within two feet. Yes, once again a little tense but he was just so beautiful...

We had another encounter with a 13 year old female leopard which actually started on day two of our trip at the Kambaku camp and ended two days later in Sambavati. I'll post that series later!

Here is Mondsweni ---

Another one of Mondsweni...

Birds everywhere. The Hornbill variety are plentiful and they are much smaller when you see them live than they appear in pictures.

We ran into a Red-Billed Hornbill and also a Yellow-billed version. You have to be quick though as they tend to take flight fast if they think they are threatened in any way:

i-G12 wrote in post #18687663
AFRICAN WILD DOGS MEET HYENAS

OMFG! Wow!

Amazing series all around but this just blew my mind.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #18688515
OMFG! Wow!

Amazing series all around but this just blew my mind.

Yeah Jake. Even the guides were saying in all their years in the bush they never saw anything like that.

Incredible. Wish I did a better job with the video but it was so crazy I just got mixed up.

The adventure continues...

We saw a lot of zebra but many times the lighting was lousy. Not sure why other than luck of the draw. There was a herd of Zebra grazing and here is what was decided: The guide would open the safari vehicle door and step out onto the ground which he said would stampede the herd away from us and we could practice out panning skills at say 1/25 trying to get one in focus and thus blurring the rest of the herd as they ran. Everything worked to perfection except my panning skills sucked and I didn't get a single good image.Two of the people in the group did however and it was a really cool effect.

So we'll have to settle for these instead...

Here is an inquisitive one...

When you were at Kambaku Safari Lodge can I ask who you had as a Guide and Tracker ? I was there in 2017 and fell in love with Africa.

TheFloridaShooter wrote in post #18690574
When you were at Kambaku Safari Lodge can I ask who you had as a Guide and Tracker ? I was there in 2017 and fell in love with Africa.

Our guide was Ryno and our tracker was Moses!

Both outstanding.