Hay stacking and sighting hyenas over a kill

The agenda today was helping out with hay unloading at the Bomas and there were only 3 of us to do this as the rest went for another collaring session. It was rather unfortunate that all the volunteers could not be involved due to logistical constraints.

We started the day as usual at 7, and waited for the truck to reverse in where the bundles of hay were to be stacked. There were many others helping us as well but it would take some time nonetheless. It turned out rather surprising to me that bundles of hay  were way heavier then they appeared to be.

The hay was packed rather tightly and tied up and a few of us dislodged them and threw them down while others would pick it up from below and stack it into the shed. The hay would be used for feeding the captured buffaloes.

Phew !

Philippe and Manuel were with me and we worked vigorously for some time. The bundles were surprisingly stiff and manuel had allergies to the hay dust which only became worse after some time. After ensuring that about half of the hay was off-loaded, we headed off to the volunteer huts. Volunteering at ADDO has some flexibility and the three of us  headed off to book for a game drive and the rest of the day would be spent in that manner.  It was after all the second week and we were allowed to book for 1 game drive a week.

The hyena cooling itself off

The game drive was only in the afternoon and we arrived on time, signing in at the game drive desk and signing the indemnity forms.

Today's game drive was interesting as I caught my second sighting of hyenas. Even better was the fact that they had killed an animal and were feeding off it in the distance. One would rush down to cool itself off by the water hole every now and then and strayed close to the game vehicle, allowing us a very good view of the hyena as well as the surrounding elephants near the water hole. The other highlight was the elephants of which we saw a great number and at close quarters. It was always nice to see the elephants cool themselves off at the Harpoor water hole, named after Harpoor, the bull who had lived for a good number of years at the park and had been the only elephant to get past the elephant proof armstrong fence system.

Elephants at the Harpoor water hole

We got to see baby elephants cooling themselves off and enjoying the water and this was definitely a sight to behold and also showed how close the elephants herd was, always protecting the little ones and watching over them.

Returning back, we were still weary after the morning of hay stacking and after some packing for the next day. We had been informed by our volunteer coordinator that the boys could spend the night at Nguni lodge tomorrow and it was exciting news.

Time to get some rest.