The Last day of the Course

Day Thirteen

Well its a late blog but this is our last day of the course and we spent the afternoon at Moholoholo rehab center which is one of the largest animals rehab centers in South Africa.

This is my first trip to Moholoholo so i was unsure of what to expect but i have been told it was worth a visit.
Although not the greatest in terms of photography it was a lovely last day and we learn't a lot about the conservation they are doing.

Our tour started with a lecture on the conservation the center is involved in.

Having a look at the vulture species they have.

Some of the snares and traps used by poachers to harvest their animals.

They have a few interactions with the animals here so we first went in with the vultures.
They had 3 species in this particular enclosure the Cape griffon vulture an endangered endemic (only found in South Africa) species as well as the more common White backed vulture and Hooded Vulture.

Look at all those vultures!

Funny how many people i heard say they were surprised at how good looking vultures are.

One of our guests Karen and a Cape griffon. Also our largest vulture species (heavier that a lapped faced)

Even the Guide myself couldn't help but feed a vulture. this was a white backed vulture juvenile. (look at our tour guide he is loving it!)

From the vultures we moved on to the predators so it made sense we went to the largest of our land predators the lions.

Majestic old male lion coming for some food

Mine! look at the concentration on his face lol

Okay time for some smaller predators but they are still just as impressive we start with some leopards and wild dogs.
These wild dogs have massive heads!

Complaining that he had to get up for his food

Finally he gets up for his food the lazy ingwe (shangaan word for leopard)

One of the wild dogs they are a very curious animal

As you can see we need to get close up shots of the animals in this are as the cages don't make for particularly nice backrounds.


Now for a real treat they brought our the baby white rhino for everyone to meet.
The blue on him is antiseptic as his Brakes aren't the best and he ran into a truck silly boy.

Coming to sniff my camera

He seems to like having his picture taken and hung around the guys notice the cheetah in the background?

Sorry little rhino no time to hang around and we moved off to see the Hyena who i am no longer friends with.

You will see from the images i was rather close to this curious hyena. And as usual she decided to make the guide look silly and head butted the fence and my camera giving me a nice cut on my nose. Thanks a lot Hyena!

I was safe here because of the bars.

Not so safe here and this was the shot before the headbutt. Guide knows best (yer right!)

A young black rhino saying hello to Magnus

Some fog on the mountain tops looked great

Now for my favorite animal in the world! the Honey badger but he didn't seem to like me either i think he is co-hoots with the hyena.

Just checking us out

Arrrg, flee on the bum

I was to busy loving the honey badger who hated me i almost didn't notice the line of caterpillars next to my arm.

And on the way out we met a friendly Bateleur eagle.

Matis having a chat with the bateleur.

Well it is all over and guests leave tomorrow.
I really will miss them and i hope to stay in contact with them maybe even see some of the guests on one of my future safari's.

Now i have to go and organise my wedding for next year but i have one more trip before then. Which will be a very special Photo safari to Uganda with Tom again.
Really looking forward to that.

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog :)