Day 10 of 31

An ostrich at fifty kilometers an hour

Thursday, 1 May 2014

Another circle around camp. Wildebeest, roan, gemsbok — all cows. An old gemsbok with horns too short to bother with. A young bull elephant on the road south. And then, for a minute, a full-grown ostrich running alongside the cruiser at fifty kilometers an hour.

We circled camp and found one fresh elephant constitutional — not, as Felix put it, from the bowels of a giant. Young-bull, cow, calf sign on the road; no old bull. At the northeast pan, wildebeest and roan and gemsbok — all females.

An old gemsbok with horns a little short of where we wanted them. South then to a sun-pump pan on the dirt road we wanted to check, and along the way, a young bull elephant; and then, for almost a minute, an ostrich matching the cruiser stride for stride — fifty kilometers an hour on the odometer.

Ostrich running alongside the cruiser — Fifty kilometers an hour on the clock — she held it for almost a minute

Three giraffe on the park boundary road — Three giraffe on the park boundary — a rare sight here

After lunch we drove the boundary road north and turned left along the park. An old-bull spoor two or three days old. Three giraffe. Another lone old gemsbok. We stalked him and were fifty meters out before he caught us at the last second and split.

Late afternoon light over the northern concession — A quiet day — the kind that sets up the next one