Mid-morning at Tlou Dam. The heat of the day is setting in and plenty of thirsty wildlife is milling around. Tlou is the seTswana word for ‘elephant’, and fair enough: several dozen mighty pachyderms have converged on the dam, some drinking at the borehole-fed inlet, others on the muddier shore, while their companions greet and play on the floodplain. Elsewhere, a stealthy pair of greater kudu bulls walks past, only to be chased off by a tetchy young elephant, and a stately oryx and family of scurrying warthogs make their way along the dam wall.
Birds are everywhere, demonstrating their specific hunting techniques. Red-billed teals, little grebes and a pair of South African shelducks bob and dive on the dam's surface. Eye-catching blue-cheeked and carmine bee-eaters flash neon-green and brilliant red as they hawk from, the commanding call for which the grey go-away bird is named.
