Cold and wet at Rietvlei Nature Reserve

It was 6:30 am and I had to force myself out of bed into a cold and miserable day. It was winter and the forecast was for rain. After preparing a meal, hot water in flasks and getting the rest of the clan ready, we set of for Pretoria. We arrived around 8 am to find a long queue of about 30 cars waiting to enter the reserve. We all wore masks and the guards took our temperatures. The reserve had just opened from Covid Lockdown and sanitation measures were in place. We were about car 85 of the 100 allowed into the reserve that day. Lucky us!

The day was cold, but the reserve had much in store. After about 15 minutes on the dirt road we came across Rhino’s about 6 of them. The light was not perfect, but I took some shots anyway.

The day was looking good. At least for us but the poor animals seemed a little bit miserable. It was strange to see that the Zerba’s, and the Buffalo we saw later, all seemed to stand in a row. Perhaps it was to have less wind or some other behaviour. A quick check on the web did not reveal any facts on this….

At least the day treated us to some lovely viewing (I could see further than I had for months. The overcast skies treated us to some moody tree portraits.

At the end of the trip we noticed a goose on the closed bird hide (social distancing enforced). It looked like a weather vane, only this time a live one. Hopefully it showed an inprovment in the weather as it was bitterly cold. Perhaps it also showed a change to a brighter future.