Latest amazing animal sighting on a Durban Safari

Amazing animal sighting on our Durban Safari Tour

A couple days ago we shared an amazing animal sighting. I conducted a Durban Safari tour with our group of Norwegian guests who were here in Durban to compete in the Kayak world championships. This took place on the Duzi river.

It is the start of our Spring now which basically means that its Summer time and temperatures a warming up. On this particular day the Mercury rose into the mid -30’s Celsius! Air-conditioning was a huge help…

Our Safari

Our Safari started really well and we saw a huge variety of animals. We saw Zebra, Giraffe, Wildebeest, Elephant, Buffalo and a number of antelope species. We then got ourselves down to the “Black Umfolozi River” – The River of Fiber being the translation from Zulu into English.

It was here that we detoured off to a mud wallow. We were excited to see a Hippo in the Pond section of the Wallow and White Rhino in the other! We watched intensely as I went over some interesting information and shared the rarity of even finding a Hippo in this small pond.

Excited, a Woolly necked Stork flew in and gave the Hippo a huge fright. He then raised himself out of the algae covered water and began to mark his territory. A male Hippo will do this by defecating in and around his territory, swishing his tail spreading the scent. So his dung end up going all over the place.

Amazing animal sighting; Hippo approaches two Rhino

The Hippo then got up and slowly made his way over to the Rhino(two young males) and this is where things go really exciting!

We would not normally see such a scene but there are always factors which can cause behavior which is not by the book so to speak! One of the Rhino’s go a fright and turned to run away while the other was a bit more relaxed and got up momentarily before laying back down in the mud. If you are not sure why the great beasts mud wallow it is for a number of reasons; one would be to cool down the body temperature, two would be to aid in the removal of external parasites and thirdly would be to protect them from sun burn.

What happened next?

The next thing we knew the Hippo lay down in the mud after a small dominance display by nodding his head at the Rhino. Then both Rhino and Hippo shared the mud a mere couple of meters away from one another!

This may all sound normal but it is not. Usually Hippo for a start would be in larger bodies of water. Rhino would be totally freaked out if while mud wallowing a large Hippo wanted to join them!

Reasons why?

Reasons for the Hippo being there are quite straight forward. As the reserve is lacking water Hippos will have to make do with smaller bodies of water. This Hippo being a male and on his own, would more than likely be a sub-adult who was kicked out of his Pod of Hippo. This would be done by his dominant father.

The reason for him moving over to the Rhino again are fairly straight forward. The Hippo is already out of his comfort zone being away from the security of the Pod of Hippo. This means that having a couple vehicles watching him and a bird giving him a fright, he would want to display to all that he is big and it is his territory.This he did…

Then he attempted to scare away the Rhino away from his territory. Being only himself and the Rhinos being two rather than just one, the Hippos display didn’t work. He continued to approach in the hope that the Rhino would move off. The Rhino did not move so the Hippo just decided it was easier to lay down in the Mud near the Rhino. This was due to the Rhino not threatening him therefore they could all just relax and share the wallow. This is exactly what happened!

This was truly an amazing animal sighting!

You can watch the video right here:

Tim Brown Tours, live Radio interview

Tim Brown Tours, live Radio interview

This past couple of weeks have been very busy for Tim Brown Tours, with a featured live Radio interview with Ubuntu Radio(South Africa’s only government owned radio station) and winning airtime on Hot 91.9 Fm at the Holiday Expo 2017.

We are now in the process of getting together a weeks worth of features for our next Radio advertisement promotion with Hot 91.9 Fm.

To listen to the live Radio interview we had with Ubuntu Fm, just click the play button below:

Through all of this we have still been keeping busy with a number of Tours and training a new guide who will be joining our ranks in the near future.

On Sunday I was lucky enough to get out of one of my offices and into my favorite offices; one of the company vehicles and conduct a day Tour from Durban to St Lucia.

Isimangaliso Wetland park as the reserve is known, is South Africa’s first proclaimed world heritage site and contains Southern Africa’s largest estuarine system!

It was a lovely day out and my clients could listen to my local Radio station; Radio Tim Brown Fm.

Durban being a wonderful holiday venue is a great place to base yourself if you wish to also venture into the rest of KwaZulu-Natal to see what we have to offer.

In the next couple of weeks the Jo-burg radio listeners on Hot 91.9 Fm will be able to learn a little more about what we offer here at Tim Brown Tours within our beautiful province of KwaZulu-Natal.

We are proud and privileged to be able to do what we do by showing off the nature, culture and history we have here and very blessed to get this free radio interview and advertisement recording space.

Thank you to all involved.

Tim Brown Tours – Holiday Expo 2017 – Montecasino

Tim Brown Tours – Holiday Expo 2017 – Montecasino

This past weekend we were privileged to be invited by South African Tourism and Sho’tleft to promote Tim Brown Tours at the Holiday Expo 2017 at Montecasino. We would be representing KwaZulu-Natal as their preferred Tour operator.

The whole weekend was a great success and we were all grateful for the exposure and support we were given by the hosts and organizers of this great event!

Tim Brown Tours – Holiday Expo 2017 – Montecasino – Our banner.

The weekend was set aside for the best of the best, hand selected to promote our beautiful country. Our job was to off what we have to offer, not only to international clients but to locals encouraging travel within South Africa.

Tim Brown Tours was blessed to be one of those selected companies to be involved at this exciting event!

Montecasino hosted the event and during the promoting of what we offer they ran a number of competitions for the public to win holidays, trips and gifts sponsored by the promoters.

The event ran well into the night on the Saturday and we closed our stands at 8 o’clock after a 10 o’clock start. The view from the 5th floor of my hotel was amazing looking down over the event structures.

Tim Brown Tours was very grateful to be a part of this incredible promotional event for local travel trade on Sho’tleft and the free exposure at the Holiday Expo 2017. All of this added up to some great leads and new opportunities!

Many thanks to South African Tourism, Sho’tleft and all those behind the scenes that made this event a success for us all!

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Hluhluwe day safari from Durban 31 October 2016

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