The Last Day: Even More Wild Dogs

Somehow four days had flown past and already it was our last day.  I couldn't believe how fast the time had flown.

Mana seems to offer something new every day and this morning it was a very large bull elephant, flat out asleep behind the cook tents.  We watched from a distance, reluctant to disturb him and speculating if he was ok - it's very unusual behaviour.  We were pleased to see him wandering around like normal when we drove out of camp.

Very unusual pose for an elephant

Cooking facilities are interesting when there isn't any power - the termite mound pizza oven!  Delivered great pizzas and the termites are still happily living in the top part.

Everyone was very quiet on the morning drive.  It seemed to be all about birds, with virtually no game. 

"Squirrel!"

Slender mongoose who posed nicely for us and didn't just disappear instantly

Soaring juvenile bateleur eagle

Bateleur boogie - a fully grown one

Angry hippo did not like us disturbing his nap

Hmm, eagle of some kind?

All was not lost, though of course no time is wasted in Mana, as someone called out "Cat!"  And there was a Civet!  (Not a member of the cat family)  They are very hard to see during the day.  He had jumped down into a ditch and hidden as soon as the Landy stopped, so Alex walked up a bit and in behind him.  He broke for the forest and gave us a lovely view.

Civet exiting stage left

Not the most graceful creature - he gallumphed along, not particularly fast

The drive finished through the beautiful mopane forest and to Nudu (?) point on the river.  It was very clear so the mountains were the sharpest we'd seen.

Lunch entertainment was a troop of baboons and two vervet monkeys in camp.

It felt a little bittersweet to head out on our last drive in Mana Pools.  How could 5 nights have gone so quickly?  Lennart suggested we leave at 2:30 so we could go all the way to Mana Mouth, so off we went.

The first excitement was a small grey goshawk, showing off his incredible aerobatic skills.  Followed by more gorgeous elephants, zebra, kudu, vervet monkeys, impala & baboons.

We drove past the Wild Dogs napping in the same shady spot as yesterday - Alex promised that they wouldn't move until much later in the day.  I hoped he was right . . . 

Another mystery bird

There's always one . . .

Quite close . . .

Mana Mouth was a beautiful green area where a tributary joins the Zambezi River.  Parked there was a little Datsun Go - we'd joked about it every time we saw it - so funny to see it amongst the serious bush vehicles!  But "Go" it did - it seemed to have no problems getting around.  Both Alex and I regretted not taking a photo of its incongruousness.

Turning back in the direction of camp the light was beautiful but we were all focused on getting back to the dogs.  They were still there - along with crowds of people.  We watched from quite a distance as Alex said there were a lot of people around and we'd been so close to them the previous night.  He hoped we would be able to follow them when they started hunting.

People started to leave and Alex thought and thought then positioned us close to the dogs but not far from the Landy. We watched the pups play and some of the adults dig a little at the waterhole, which looked quite dry.

Wild Dogs contemplating their evening.  What would they do next?  Would we be able to keep up?

Then they were off and moving.  Two zebra were just over a rise and the pack split right around them.  Zebra are too big and dangerous and they knew it - they looked very relaxed.

The dogs headed up towards the road so we ran back towards the Landy & jumped in.  The dogs had spotted some impala but the impala were busy watching us.

Suddenly the hunt started, the dogs "bomb shelled" out, the impala scattered and we were following!  We flew down the road, cries of "There!" and "Up ahead!" from our team.  It was so fast and far, we'd lost sight of them and I was sure we'd gone too far or the hunted impala had turned away from the road.

Alex stopped the car and there was nothing to be seen or heard in the twilight.  Then I saw two white tail tips!  About 100m back down the road - we'd driven right past them!

The Landy coasted up to them - dead silent except for the hectic clicking of cameras.  It was the alpha male, Patrick, with one of the other males.

In a matter of minutes the two dogs had ripped the carcass apart

All the good parts were devoured with lightning speed

As soon as the two males had eaten as much as they possibly could they headed off to find the pack.  They won't call out as it will bring other predators like hyena & lions.

At this stage Kevin turned up with his parents & boat in tow.  He thought the dogs probably wouldn't come back to the kill so headed off towards camp while we had a celebratory drink.

Just then the pack returned, yipping and calling, overshooting the kill in their enthusiasm but quickly circling back to it.  It wasn't long until it was truly finished.

Finally we headed back to camp, tired, hot, dusty and elated.  The words and photos here just cannot capture what these few brief minutes in the dogs' lives was really like.

But Mana was not quite done and we saw two little genets and another big civet on the way back to camp.

One last dinner, out under the beautiful stars, surrounded by the noises of the African night.  Good conversation made it so hard to go to bed . .