Day 4: Last Game Drives at Shimungwe

Although we saw this Lizard Buzzard a few days ago I finally got it up on the blog. It is quite a beautiful bird despite its name.

We drove through a dry river bed in the afternoon and saw lots of different animals grazing together like this Zebra and Impala.

We also saw lots and lots of elephants in and near the river bed. These two young males are play fighting.

We came across another herd of Cape Buffalo. Here is a young calf (so cute) and a male with Oxpecker Birds all over it.  The birds pick off insects.

In the morning, we sadly had our last game drive at Shimungwe. As we drove along, some big male elephants were not happy with us disturbing them, so Lucan kept our vehicle quite a distance from them.

Then our tracker spotted these two way in the distance. They were two male white rhinos. We sat with them for a long time. What an experience.

Then we came across a group of Dwarf Mongoose. They always seem to run away when I've seen them in the past, but these guys put on quite a show. It's the first time I've got a really good look at them.

So, during every single game drive at Shimungwe, we saw giraffe. But on this last drive, we didn't see one until near the end of the drive and we were fairly close to the lodge. Eight for eight on giraffes. Then, when Lucan drove us to the gate outside of the lodge to pick up our shuttle to the next lodge, there were lots and lots of giraffe right outside the Shimungwe gate on both sides of the road. It seemed very fitting since giraffes kind of became the theme of our stay.

Next stop, Sabi Sands.