20 August 2010

There are a few female cats in the reserve with cubs, but some of them are still careful of showing their cubs. Earlier in the month we found the lioness with her three cubs, and luckily for us we briefly saw them again today as they crossed the road into a big donga system. We lost sight if them and so decided to stop somewhere for some drinks.
While enjoying a refreshing sundowner we heard some kudu barking. So we quickly packed up and headed into the direction of the call. We drove not too far from where we had stopped when a female cheetah crossed the road in front of us. We turned the vehicle around to follow her in to the bush when something scared her off. We stopped the vehicle to see what scared her when something ran by which looked like a leopard or possibly another cheetah. So we investigated further by finding some tracks and found that a female leopard had chased off the female cheetah. Unfortunately we did not get a nice view of either of them.

19 August 2010

We found a lone hippo at dam close to the lodge. It was half way submerged in the water. What made the sighting so interesting is that there was a terrapin on the hippos back basking in the sun!!

18 August 2010

Leopard sightings have been at an all time low at the moment. It’s been almost two weeks since the last sightings we had. So today we thought we go out and see if we could find any leopards. While tracking leopard tracks we came a cross a female cheetah in the process. She was absolutely beautiful. We viewed her very a while and then carried on in search of the leopard. As we predicted, we did not find it!

17 August 2010

The weather has been rather awkward as we get closer to spring. We have had days ranging from hot and sunny to murky skies and windy days to cold and cloudy days on a regular basis. None the less the sightings have still been awesome. Going out today we started off on high be finding four dagga boys (buffalo bulls) wallowing is some mud at waterhole. Two of them were just lying in the mud chewing their cud whilst the other two were having a wrestling match in the mud.
While the guests were still on drive, the staff back at the lodge was fortunately see a female white rhino with her calf at the lodge pan.

10 August 2010

All three cats in one drive; that is truly amazing! We went back to the female leopard and her two cubs we saw the night before. They had finished the impala kill and the cubs were playing with the left over bones.
After leaving the leopard sighting we headed off in the direction where some of the other rangers in the reserve had spotted cheetah. We did not find the one the other saw but were fortunate enough to find another cheetah laying in the shade of some thick bushes close to a waterhole. We only viewed him for a short while before he decided to lay down completely for a cat nap.
After a successful drive we decided to head back to the lodge, and on our way back we bumped into a male lion briskly walking in the road. We were not sure where he was heading, but one thing is for sure he was clearly on a mission to get somewhere in a hurry.

9 August 2010

As mentioned earlier in the week, the leopard sightings have been great. We found yet another female leopard with her two cubs on an impala kill. We watched them for about ten minutes when one of the cubs decided to drags its portion of the kill behind our vehicle. So there we were stuck at the sighting with trees in front of us and the leopard cub with a kill behind us. The last thing we wanted to do is to frighten the cub by starting the vehicle, so all we could is sit and wait. The female leopard; after lifting her head from the kill for a quick breather; realized that one of her cubs strayed a bit too far and gave a soft growl for the cubs to gather closer, which they did of course.

8 August 2010

When all our guests tucked in for the night and everything was quiet, we started hearing very strange moaning noises close to the lodge. It sounded like buffalo; we thought that’s great, the buffalo are probably having a drink at the pan. The next morning when everyone was out and about we noticed that the buffalo had actually moved through camp during the night and drank out of the swimming pool as well as use the trees in our gardens as scratching posts.

7 August 2010

Lately we have had spectacular sightings of leopard. We have been able to see the leopard cubs more and more in most sightings we come across. Today we were able to vaguely see a female with her cub on a duiker kill. We did not have a very good visual of them as the female dragged the kill into a drainage line. Fortunately we were able to get a glimpse or two of them.

5 August 2010

For the last three days we have been searching for some giraffe. We have seen so many animals these last few days with only giraffe still to mark off on our check list. We honestly thought that we were not going to find any until we came to small open area with roughly 12 giraffe. What the made the sighing most memorable was the fact that the sun had just gone under and we saw them in perfect silhouette.

4 August 2010

Leopard was on our agenda today, as we have pretty much seen everything already. We spent a great deal of the drive tracking a male leopard. We were ready to give up when the call came in that another ranger in the reserve had located the leopard, which was not far from where we were currently looking. So we headed out in its direction and had the most spectacular sighting of this illusive leopard. He was lying in the fork of a large marula tree grooming him.

3 August 2010

We were very fortunate to day to see a lioness with her three cubs on a zebra kill. These kind of lion sightings are quite rare as the mortality rate of lion cubs is high. We haven’t seen lion cubs in a long time, and so being at a sighting like this was truly special. We can only hope that the cubs will reach adulthood!!

2 August 2010

Going out on today’s drive was quite an eventful drive. We came across a large herd of elephants dispersed over a large area of an open clearing. While watching two of the young bulls sparring against one another, we had not noticed that there was another bull approaching us from the other side. He was so quite we did even hear him approach us. So we just sat very quietly watching him as he watched us, we didn’t want to start the vehicle in case it frightened him. Eventually after a grueling 10 minute staring competition, he gave in and decided to join the rest of his herd.

30 July 2010

Before heading out on today’s drive the female and her calf that we got yesterday were spotted having a drink from out lodge pan. They have been in the area for a number of days now and we hope they will stay around for a little longer.
We picked up on some tracks that looked very suspiciously drag marks. We followed the marks and eventually found a female leopard with a fresh impala kill. She must have just hunted it because she was still panting a lot. This was truly an amazing sighting. She also did not like our presence and so decided to drag her kill up a tree and scan the horizon to make sure there was no other threats close by before she carried on with her meal.

29 July 2010

This morning was quite a crisp morning. A cold front has just hit us after three days of pleasantly warm weather. We had not driven far from the lodge when we found a white rhino with her two month old calf making their way down the river bed towards our lodge pan. The female was not very happy with our presence. She turned and blew at us a couple of times and then nudged her little one to move on quickly.
Not long after finding the rhino, we found a female cheetah. There are rumours that she might be pregnant. We followed her through the bushes where she eventually lay down on a big open patch of ground. It gave us perfect photo opportunities.

28 July 2010

Just as we thought that the wild dogs have moved onto the next reserve, there was some chit chat on the radio that one of the rangers had located them but lost sighting of them again. So we decided to head in their direction to try and locate the wild dogs again. With a lot of patience we managed to find four wild dogs trotting around in the road. They were very keen on the vehicle and so approached us giving the vehicle a couple sniffs and when they realized we were no threat to them they carried on with their venture to wherever they were going.

27 July 2010

The search is on again for leopard. We picked up some tracks but had no luck finding it. We then thought it would be best if we try finding something else, which of course we did. We found three female lions enjoying a late afternoon snooze between some thick bushes. It was difficult to see then and when they lifted their heads were we able to get a better view of them. So we set for off in search of more animals.
We stumbled across many giraffe and zebra in the process of looking for leopard, and we also happened to find four white rhino grazing in the short grass. Yet we still had no luck with finding leopard. We decided to call it a night and make leopard our priority tomorrow.

25 July 2010

The lions have been on the roll with their hunting skills these last couple of days. We happened to find two male lions on a very old decaying buffalo carcass. We did not hang around for too long, as the stench was just so unbearable.
Its not often that we get surprised with a sighting when we stop for sundowners. While enjoying our drinks, a male cheetah walk passed us about forty meters away. We must admit that it got our adrenalin pumping, but he was very calm and walked on by without even glimpsing at us.

24 July 2010

Desperate times call for desperate measures, as some folk may say. This was the case when we found a male lion on a fresh kill of two warthogs that he had dug out of their burrow. He probably tried to catch them while they were foraging in the tall grass, but with their zig zag technique of running they out witted the lion and managed to get to their burrow on time. This did not stop the lion from trying to get to them. We noticed the scratch marks and digging around the burrow which was a clear indication that the lion dug them out. Unfortunately for the warthog, they had not other escape route.

19 July 2010

we were enjoying a pleasant sighting of a large herd of impala at the lodge pan, when suddenly they started snorting away frantically! The must be predator close by, we thought, and as we all sat back to watch the action, a male cheetah casually walked across the river to the pan. He was not at all interested in the impala’s. It seemed as though he had already had something to eat as he was very bloated.

17 July 2010

We spotted another breeding couple of black rhino. The male is still trying to woo the female and yet she is still not interested. It might take a day or two for her to finally except the desperate male.

16 July 2010

While driving through the river bed, we were enjoying all the beautiful nature noises, when we came across two leopard cubs. They were enjoying the thick sand and climbed over the logs likes toddlers on a jungle gym. The female leopard was beneath a tree just a couple of meters away from them.

15 July 2010

Sometimes we wish we could be just like one of these animals. While watching a male white rhino wallowing in the mud, he made it look so inviting and it made us want to join him as he rolled in the mud and then later basked in the warm morning sun!

13 July 2010

Its not often that we find elephants and buffalo together in the same sighting. Today we were fortunate to find a sighting like this. We particularly enjoyed watching a young elephant bull chasing around a couple of the younger buffalo bulls. At times he came across as a sore loser as he did not enjoy it when the buffalo chased him back.

12 July 2010

The lodge pan was yet again very active this morning. We had a large variety of plains game come for a drink, ranging from impala, kudu, waterbuck, baboons and nyala!!! Its always amazing to see so many animals at the pan and the guests especially enjoy it when the activity happens during breakfast.

10 July 2010

We spent most of the morning tracking leopard. In the process of the tracking we were eventually blessed with a truly spectacular sighting of elephant!!!! They were very relaxed and were enjoying a nice feast of leaves, succulent roots and grass. We let them be and carried on with our quest to find leopard. After a very frustrating 2 hours of tracking misleading tracks, we found a female leopard with her cub. As we got to them, the female started playing with the cub. The cub ran around vigorously and jumped into small tress playing hide and seek. It was extremely cute!

9 July 2010

Breaking news!!! As we all know the reserve has become quite dry during the course of the winter, and so those pesky baboons and monkeys try with all their might to steel food where they can. In today’s incident one of the male baboons chewed away at the presidential suite door a half an hour before the guests had to check into the suite. He broke right through the door to get to the coffee station in the suite. It was quite scary to think that they were capable of doing this, as wild baboons are quite timid and would not have attempted doing this if there was any sign of human movement in the suite. But don’t fret guests; we have installed new and improved baboon proof doors!!!

8 July 2010

We haven’t seen elephants for quite some time, and so before we start getting withdrawal symptoms, we decided to make it our mission for the day. There were signs of elephants all over place but no visual of elephants anywhere. So as luck may have it, the call came through that elephants had been located on the opposite side (southern side) of the reserve. Oh well tomorrow is yet another day!!!

7 July 2010

The lodge had not been so active these last couple of days and today we were honored to see four buffalo bulls enjoy a drink at the pan. They stayed around the pan the whole day, lying in the riverbed baking in the sun. They later on had a last drink and moved on to some place else to settle for the night.
While out on drive today we didn’t get to see a lot. We saw a lonely male giraffe and some kudu before we decided to stop for drinks. When heading back to the lodge we found a male cheetah lying on a termite mound grooming him. He soon got bored of entertaining us and walked into a thicker area where we could no longer see him.

6 July 2010

On this afternoons drive we thought we would take the chance and drive to one of the dams where would normally find hippo. And sure enough they were still there. There were seven adults and two young ones in the dam. They did not get out for us to view them better but at serenaded some hippo tunes every now and then.
After a most enjoyable hippo sighting we were devastated at what we saw next. We just happened to drive by a dead leopard. It looked as though he might have been killed by another cat. We were not exactly sure if it was a lion or another male leopard. He did seem to be quite old so with his age counting against him he would never have won the battle.

5 July 2010

We were on a search of male lions today. We located tracks of two male lions and spent over an hour tracking them, and just as we thought that all hope had been lost, we found them. They were lying down next to the road waiting for us. As soon as we approached them they got up and moved into the tall grass not far off the road and continued with their early morning snooze.

4 July 2010

To our surprise the wild dogs are still in the reserve. We hope that they decide to make Thornybush their home. We were able to view them again this morning lying in the road with very full stomachs.
Another sighting we don’t get to see often is the male and female leopards together with their two cubs on an impala kill. The male probably won’t hang around for too long as he basically just joined in on an easy meal.
The cubs are still not too relaxed around the vehicles and prefer to stay low when vehicles approach. They will with time get used to the vehicles and realize that we are not a threat to them.

2 July 2010

This morning we saw a lot of amazing sightings, we got to see the wild dogs again after they had caught an impala and shortly after we viewed three female lions on a kudu kill which they caught the night before, however this morning’s cherry on top was a female black rhino and her new born calf. We were not able to see the calf properly as the mother was standing behind some bushes and the calf was lying down next to her in the tall grass. The calf was possibly born during the evening or in the early hours of the cold morning.

1 July 2010

Today was rare predator day. The morning started off slow but ended in great success with a beautiful sighting of a leopard cub. The mother was not around, which we assumed had gone off hunting.
This afternoon started off with a bang with a report of four wild dogs in the reserve. This is an extremely rare sighting as the reserve does not have its own pack and the last sighting of wild dogs in the reserve was about five years ago. So we immediately headed in their direction. On our way we came across a leopard drag mark and decided to follow up. We found a male leopard about thirty meters off the road in a bush. We did not spend too much time with him as we were quite eager to view the dogs, but before we got to the dogs we stumbled across yet another interesting sighting in the form of a male cheetah relaxing in an open clearing. Finally we got to the wild dogs. What a truly remarkable day it was.

29 June 2010

Today we got mobile a bit later than usual, so there were quite a number of active sightings already. The one sighting that caught our attention the most was a cheetah that had killed an impala not too far away from the lodge. We responded and then shortly afterwards we viewed the sighting. While watching him put his carnassial shears to good use, suddenly another male cheetah came bolting across the road chasing a duiker about a hundred meters away. Unfortunately he was not as lucky as his cheetah friend and so probably went to bed with an empty stomach. The unique thing about this sighting was that the two male cheetahs had no idea of each others presence. This could have been rather exciting if they had seen each other.

26 June 2010

This afternoon was a rewarding drive. We saw quite a lot of animals during the drive but the highlight was a male and female black rhino. It appeared that the female was in oesterus and so therefore the male was following her. But there was no chance of him getting close to her, because every time he tried to she snorted and puffed at him and chased him away.

25 June 2010

We have two new additions to the reserve. Lion cubs!!! They are about two months old now and have not been seen yet, but reports from the other rangers and tracks in the roads are a sure indication of this. We will keep you updated on this.

24 June 2010

Going out today it was decided that we will not go out to find anything specific. With that being said we came across a male leopard on an impala kill. The impala was killed by a female leopard and the male then stole it from her. Later on in the evening we decided to go around to the sighting again and found the female in the area. Obviously she is waiting for the opportune moment to reclaim her kill.

22 June 2010

We were on the search for rhino today and with much success found a female white rhino and her two month old calf. It was such a special sighting. The little one didn’t do much and stayed very close to moms’ side.

21 June 2010

There is always something unique about cheetahs standing on termite mounds scanning the earth for potential prey, as was the case today. It was the most picture perfect sighting we have seen in a long time. After a good 10 minutes of scanning he lay down on the mound and groomed himself.
We had planned to stop for coffee and on our way to the spot we came across a female leopard with her cub on an impala kill. The cub has become very relaxed around the vehicles. He does not come close to the vehicle but at least now he does not run away and hide every time a vehicle approaches them.

20 June 2010

This morning was quite a brisk morning and out of nowhere a thick layer of mist came and gone. We were surprised to see this as mist and fog is not common for us. Besides that we had fantastic sightings once again. We had amazing sighting of a male leopard that caught a baby giraffe. It was a fresh kill because the leopard had not eaten much of it.
We were looking for some elephant when we came across two leopard cubs lying in the tall grass. The mother was most probably close by but we did not see her. We left them at peace not to frighten them off in case mom was out hunting. We didn’t want her to come back and her baby’s were gone. We carried on with our quest in search of elephants. Unfortunately we did not get to see these large majestic beasts this time round.

18 June 2010

Early into today’s drive we found a female leopard on an impala kill. She was very calm and was in mo hurry to finish off her kill soon.
We were fortunate to find quite a rare sighting of two ground hornbills. It seemed as though they were on the hunt for some food.

16 June 2010

Sometimes we feel like interfering with mother nature but unfortunately we have to let nature takes its course. In this instance we were watching a majestic elephant bull pushing over the most beautiful marula tree to get to the juicy roots. It’s sad to see such a beautiful tree get damaged but then again it creates a cover which helps promote new plant growth as animals will then not be able to get to them.

15 June 2010

While watching a large herd of buffalo milling around, one of the bulls started acting rather peculiar. He suddenly turned around and nudged the cows and calves to get going. What’s all the fuss about? A hyena making his way through the tall grass to get to the road! The buffalo’s didn’t go far; it was obvious that the hyena was no threat to them.

14 June 2010

Todays drive was very eventful, starting off with a cheetah on an impala kill. She seemed to be in quite hurry, gulping down big chunks of flesh. She kept looking behind her as if something was about to snatch her meal away from her. So we let her be!!
Later on into the drive we got to see three young lionesses interacting with a herd of impala. The sighting was in a very open area of the reserve and as we watched them the sun set beautifully behind the mountains. The lionesses made a few unsuccessful attempts at what we would call a very easy meal. Eventually they had enough and instead decided to rather have a bit of rest before their next attempt.

12 June 2010

Ahhh, the illusive leopard again!! He made his way through camp during the early hours of the morning for quick drink at the pan.
We had quite a variety a game come through to the pan for a drink ranging from giraffe, impala, nyala, warthogs and the ever so naughty baboons.

10 June 2010

Another breath taking drive, we had a female cheetah feasting on a baby nyala kill, elephants, rhino, buffalo and we got to see the female lions we located yesterday. Also the resident male lion put on an impressive display serenading us with deafening roars.
General game sightings were just as spectacular today. This included kudu, waterbuck, giraffe, zebra and of course impala.

9 June 2010

With great excitement we got the news of lions walking over our open area early this morning. So our mission was to try and locate them again, which we successfully accomplished. They were sleeping, and they had no intention on getting up any time soon. Every now and then one of the three females would lift her head to see what all the fuss was about and then go right back to sleep.

29 May 2010

The three females were still at the pan this morning before departing for the game drive. They did not hang around for long before heading out to another location.
This morning’s drive was quite overwhelming with all the amazing sightings we had. We got to see almost everything our hearts desired, two black rhino, giraffe, zebra, a female leopard sleeping in a fork of a large Marula tree, one of the young female cheetahs that has now separated from her sisters and to end it off a herd of elephant at a dam splashing away in the water and mud. What a way to end off a safari!

28 May 2010

Something we have not had is a long time is three female lions in front of the lodge enjoying a drink at the pan. They came through just about when the guests came through for dinner. The females had their drink and lay about 3m away from the pan for the whole night. They were not vocal at all; they just enjoyed a nice peaceful evening at Shumbalala. They emphasised exactly what Shumbalala stands for “Where The Lion Sleeps”

23 May 2010

On our way back to the lodge this evening we came across large herd of buffalo. With the moon being ¾’s full we decide to turn off the vehicle, lights and all and view them under the moonlight. This was truly an amazing experience.

22 May 2010

We have a new addition to the reserve. We came across the new bundle of joy when we were watching a crash of white rhino. The calf of about one week old came popping out between the crash of about six rhino. We were very surprised at first because we thought it was a fully grown warthog at first glance. The calf was very skittish around us and decided to hide behind mom as much as possible.

21 May 2010

Another male cheetah, different from the one three days ago, caught a baby waterbuck on our firebreak just before heading out on the afternoon game drive. He will proceed to spend the next two days or so, on this kill. Wow, we are very excited about the sudden happenings around the lodge.

18 May 2010

While watching yet another spectacular sunset at the lodge, we were interrupted by a squealing noise of an animal. Obviously being as inquisitive as we are, we went out to see what all the squealing was about. We had literally driven 10m out of the lodge when we had picked up on male cheetah tracks. We followed them for about another 50m which had led us to where the male cheetah was on an adult duiker kill. He was not bothered by us being around him, and just casually lay munching away at his catch of the day.

16 May 2010

This morning we headed off to one of the dams where we usually find hippos, and fortunately for us we saw nine hippos’s lying along bank. While enjoying the sighting, we were distracted by a great number of vultures roosting in the trees. As they were all concentrated in one area it suggested that there might be a kill in the area. So the search began to find whatever did attract all these birds to this area and maybe, if we were lucky, find some lions there as well. Whoops, just as we left, we nearly drove over a male lion that lay in the road just as we came around the corner. He was so full he did not even lift his head. He just opened his eyes, to make sure we didn’t harm him and carried on panting away.

15 May 2010

Upon arrival of the new guests at the lodge, they had quite the welcoming at the lodge pan. There was such a large variety of plains game enjoying a drink at the pan, zebra, waterbuck, impala, kudu, wildebeest, nyala and giraffe.

14 May 2010

The female leopard with her five month old cub seems to be more relaxed around vehicles now. We were very fortunate to see them on a fresh impala kill. The cub chewed away at the carcass as if it were its last meal and every now and then mom would give it a nudge from the side to give her room to feed too; he did not like what his mom was doing and would growl at her every time she nudged him.

13 May 2010

We were on our way to go and look for the elephants, the tracker had picked up fresh tracks and we were hot on the trail when all of a sudden two white rhino’s popped out of the bush. While watching the rhino’s, the breeding herd of elephants emerged from the bush as well. As if that was not enough, three female lions decided to join the picture too. None of them were interacting, but it was awesome to see these animals so close together. After viewing them for a while, all of them started going their separate ways, elephants feeding, rhinos heading towards water, we decided to stick with the lions as they were busy hunting. We followed them for a while, watching them stalking and chasing waterbuck all over – unfortunately for their sake they were unsuccessful.

9 May 2010

Whilst looking for the lions we were lucky enough to see two porcupines. Usually these nocturnal animals are quite shy and run into the bushes, but these two porcupines gave us a great show by running down the road in front of us – even providing us with a good photo opportunity which doesn’t happen often.

7 May 2010

With it getting dark earlier in the evenings, we decided to have an earlier sundowner stop to enjoy the amber sunset. After setting everything up and was just about to serve the drinks we heard an alarm call of some impala. The tracker went off to investigate the situation only to come and notify us that there were three female lions lying not too far from where we had stopped. Fortunately for us we had stopped in a big open area and a safe enough distance away from them. They eventually moved on, while we were finishing off our drinks, and so we decided to go find them again afterwards, but with not much luck of finding them again.

6 May 2010

It was reported that one of the female cheetahs did eventually fall for the male cheetah courtship, and has left her sisters for a while to mate. She would most probably try and locate her sisters again after the process of mating has taken place and would stay with them until she gives birth and then would finally break away to raise her young.

5 May 2010

We did not get to see much today, but what made it worth going out today was an awesome sighting of three female cheetahs and one male cheetah. It appeared that one of the females has come into oestrus, and this obviously explains why the male is with them. The females did not allow him to get within 10m from them, and every time he attempted to move closer they would chase him off.

4 May 2010

This morning we braved the chill and went searching for rhino’s, and to our delight we had quite a rhino filled morning. We had three different sightings and altogether saw thirteen rhino including a very small calf which is probably only about 6 weeks old.
Other than the outstanding rhino sightings, there were some nice bird sightings too. We saw two tawny eagles on a nest and two lilac breasted rollers perched in a tree surveying the area for potential prey.

2 May 2010

Our drive started off with a sighting of an adult male African wild cat. It is more common to see these animals at night when they are most active, but we were fortunate to see this little guy laying in between the tall grass waiting for the sun to heat the earth.
After quite a long search we found our big herd of buffalos in the western side of the reserve. They were quite spread out lying in a big open area, they got a bit annoyed with us invading their space and so they started getting up slowly but surely to move onto another spot to rest.

30 April 2010

We woke up this morning to find the river in front of the lodge flowing. It’s the second time it came down this season. There was a lot of rain in our catchment area. We did not get a lot of rain here but at least enough to wet the ground.

29 April 2010

Another humorous drive! We watched as the three young female cheetahs tried to catch a full grown male kudu. They could just not understand that they are not able to catch this male. It was quite obvious that the fully grown kudu male was a little of their league!!

27 April 2010

On this evenings drive we found two male lions moving along marking their territory by means of urine spray and vocals. We managed to get in front of them and as he walked passed the vehicle he started roaring. It was so loud that you could feel the vibration in every bone in our bodies. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked straight at us, probably wondering if he should scent mark the vehicle too, but then carried on with his journey. All this was very intimidating.

25 April 2010

Once again the breeding herd of buffalo graced us with their presence at the lodge waterhole. There were about three hundred of them. They did not hang around for too long, they had a quick drink and then headed off in a hurry.

24 April 2010

We spotted some white backed vultures roosting on a dry Leadwood tree. While admiring these rather odd looking creatures another vulture came down and landed next to the others and as he landed the branch snapped. The vulture nearly hit the ground but fortunately he managed to recover himself just in time and flew off. So the incident added some humour to our sighting!!

23 April 2010

Ah, yet another amazing leopard sighting. We found a male leopard on an impala kill up a jackelberry tree. He must have felt a bit threatened by us as he decided to move a little higher up into the tree and so with him doing so we were not able view him all to well.

22 April 2010

While viewing a breeding herd of buffalo we noticed a male black rhino amongst them. After enjoying the sighting of buffalo we followed the black rhino as he was scent marking his territory by means of urine spraying.

21 April 2010

The lion have been out of this world lately! We found the two female lions and the male lion lying not too far from the road, all with full bellies. They probably made another kill during the night. They were not in the least interested in entertaining a vehicle full of people, not even the annoying flies buzzing around their faces bothered them.

20 April 2010

It is always amazing how the one day there is no elephants and the next day there are so many elephants around camp! But that is how it goes this time of the year, especially with water supply being so low around the reserve due to the small amount of rain we have had this season. They make their way around the reserve moving from one lodge waterhole to another. It truly is amazing to see these majestic animals pass by.

19 April 2010

We are very lucky, we have had the most amazing sightings of all the big cats today: A male leopard walking down the dirt road, the early morning sunshine gave him this golden glow. The three female cheetahs were being their playful selves, wrestling each other beneath an exceptionally large silver cluster-leaf tree. And then finally we had an awesome sighting of lions on a wildebeest kill. Two of the females were still feeding on the kill and the male lion lay a couple of meters away from the kill enjoying a snooze with a very full belly.

16 April 2010

Hippos always seem to have a calming effect on us all. Sometimes we wish we could be just like them lying on the sand bank basking in the sun.
What an amazing drive we had today, it ended off on a high note when we came across a majestic elephant bull pushing over some trees to get to some succulent roots to feed on.

15 April 2010

This morning before heading out on the drive a female white rhino and her calf came for a refreshing drink at the lodge waterhole.
Like always we can rely on some of the older males to be at their resident water holes and to provide us with excellent sightings.

14 April 2010

While waiting for our wedding couple to arrive, a large herd of about one hundred buffalo came for a drink at the lodge waterhole. When the guests arrived, they had just started to move off and fortunately our new arrivals were able to still see them. Soon after the buffalo left the waterhole a breeding herd of elephants passed by too; they literally dipped their trunks in the water and quickly walked off.

12 April 2010

We came across a lone male lion on zebra kill not too far from the lodge. We think that he might have crossed paths with another male lion at some point as he seems to have been in a fight and isn’t in a very good condition. Well at least he is still able to catch his meal and build up some much needed strength.

11 April 2010

One of the male rhinos in the reserve has been seen following a particular group of females for quite some time now. We must say that he has done very well to keep them in his territory for so long. Another male in the reserve has also been seen quite often with a group of females in his territory, but he seems to be a lot more relaxed. In actual fact he is not as bothered about the females as the first male we saw. We see the ladies in a group close together on one side of his territory and he is on the far side of his territory, they are hardly ever seen together.

10 April 2010

We cannot begin to describe the amazing leopard sightings we’ve had this month so far. On this particular drive we followed a female leopard for close to an hour. She was extremely relaxed and every now and then she would stop and have a brief lie down in the tall grass before carrying on with her journey. While following her through the bushes, we noticed that we had a flat tyre. One of the guests then very nervously commented “I’m glad I’m not the one that has to change the tyre!”

9 April 2010

We are speeding through April already! The bush has started showing signs of autumn, with some trees changing to red and golden hues. One can also feel winter nearing during the early morning game drives and as soon as the sun sets in the evenings.
None the less, we are still blessed with amazing sightings. We found two male lions feeding on a female buffalo carcass. This should last them at least a week unless the vultures and hyenas show up to try and steel it away from them.

8 April 2010

The sun has made way for the night and the day-living animals have started settling in for another African night. At night, thickets are avoided by most as there are more chances of something sneaking up on you. On this particular evening a herd of sub-adult male impala settled in for the evening in an open area close to the lodge. They are, as always, very alert. Even though they seem vulnerable they are equipped with superb senses. They were being watched, but not through the eyes of hunters but through the eyes of lovers. We spotted a male and female cheetah lying at the foot of a termite mound. They were very aware of the impala, but the male had other ideas where as the female was planning her next meal. The male was very keen on trying to mate with the female but she was not at all interested in him yet.

7 April 2010

Its still a bit wet to go off road, so we decided to go around nearby dams and mud holes to see if we can find some rhino or buffalo wallowing, but instead we found some very inactive hippo enjoying the bit of sun peeping out of the clouds. Among them was a young one who was annoying every hippo around him with his hyper activeness, even mum had to wrestle him off her back when he stood on her to see what’s on the other side of the dam wall.

6 April 2010

With all the rain we had, it made it very difficult for us to go off road to find animals. But fortunately for us the leftovers of the giraffe kill has attracted a number of animals to view. There were about six hyenas and two black-backed jackals feeding on the leftovers, and up in the trees were white backed vultures eagerly waiting for their turn to feed.

5 April 2010

We’ve had a welcoming amount of rain the last couple of days. This is great so late into the season, as it will probably be our last bit of rain until next season.

4 April 2010

We spotted a very fragile and skinny male lion on a young giraffe kill which he hunted during the night. His meal is much needed as he is finding it very difficult to hunt on his own. We are unsure as to why he finds it so difficult. Sometimes we see him well fed and strong and then other times as he is now. Let’s hope this phase he is going through will pass by.

3 April 2010

Often the plains game are over looked, but today we sat watching a herd of blue wildebeest or grindled gnu mating. While viewing them we heard the characteristic “whoop-whoop” call of hyena. We went off to investigated where the call had come from, and found three hyena in the road heading towards a nearby dam. We followed them to the dam where they had met up with another three hyena’s and proceeded to drink and play in the dam.

2 April 2010

Dagga boys (buffalo bulls) out in nature are no different than humans. They love to have fun, and if you spend a little time with them you will definitely see this. The male to the right pulled a sneaky manoeuvre on the left one by cleverly hooking his opponent’s leg with his horn, making him helpless. He did not think his plan through and once he had his opponents leg hooked he himself had nowhere to go, so for a few minutes the two just stood there staring at us, as if waiting for us to advise them on what the next move should be.

1 April 2010

Bird hunting is not really a leopard’s idea of fun. It requires too much work with almost no reward! That is, unless the birds are big and white and you are young and bored. The male leopard tried over and over to sneak up on some white storks. The birds must have thought this leopard must be crazy. As soon as the leopard got too close for comfort they would all take off leaving the leopard confused. This experience of failure was way too much for the leopard, so instead of wasting all that time and energy, he moved on to find something less complicated to hunt.

30 March 2010

While enjoying some drinks around the fire, some movement at the pan caught our eye. A female leopard had stood up after a drink at the pan. All that time we were standing there watching the pan; we did not notice her until she stood up and walked away.
Roughly about 10min after the leopard had left a male cheetah, the same cheetah that caught the impala the previous day, came for a drink at the pan. He was extremely alert, the slightest noise made him stand up to see what it was.
The night only got better when we were also visited by a herd of elephants later on in the evening. Something frightened them tremendously and they all ran off into the bushes without thinking twice about looking back.

29 March 2010

While doing some general lodge maintenance around camp, the noise didn’t stop the animals from visiting. From out of no where a male cheetah came sprinting out of the bushes chasing a herd of impala into the riverbed. The chase moved across the riverbed around to our northern fire break where he finally caught a baby impala. We viewed him throughout the day, and by late afternoon he had finished off his meal.

27 March 2010

Minding their own business and trying to get on with the task of mating, these two lions were rudely interrupted by some elephants. Being the king of the jungle, surely chasing the elephants away should have been no problem. Right? Wrong! The lions had to put tail between legs and slip away as fast as they could. We had a good chuckle about the situation while following them to their next destination. They did not go far and lay down some distance away and just watched the grazing elephants. Being a male, he naturally wanted to get on with the business of loving, so he went up to the female expecting her to sit up and get ready, but instead was met by a slap on his snout with extremely sharp claws. So we let them be.

26 March 2010

The flick of her white-tipped tail alerts us of her presence. Her spotted coat perfectly melts into the dappled shade. Then, she steps into the late afternoon sunlight revealing those golden eyes. She is one of our older female leopards and boy, is she beautiful! She has been rather generous and graced us with her presence on a number of occasions. She is difficult to find most of the time, if she does not want to be seen she can easily disappear into the waist-high grass.

24 March 2010

We have once again had fantastic sightings of all kinds, from baboons eating marula fruits and pythons resting in a tree. Birding has been superb with special sightings including a great painted snipe and a long-crested eagle. This place has no end to it. It reminds you of a good bottle of red wine; it only gets better and better.

23 March 2010

We went south to see if we could find a nice large herd of elephants. While heading in that direction we found a guinea fowl in the road. We slowly approached it knowing that it would move out of the road, but what we did not know is that there was a caracal behind a bush stalking the guinea fowl next to the road. Obviously with us approaching the guinea fowl it took off and when the caracal went in for the kill he was a split second too late. So we saved the guinea fowls life but cost the caracal his meal.

21 March 2010

Today we went off in search of more amazing things we could find, and what an awesome drive it was. We saw the big five in one drive. A breeding herd of elephants enjoying a good splash in the dam, and a crash of three white rhino grazing in the cool shade, the pride of five lions flat cat underneath a large jackelberry tree, a lonesome dagga boy wallowing in the last bit of mud in a wallow pit and then a skittish female leopard who was not too keen on us being around, and to end off the drive a family of dwarf mongoose running towards the lodge on our access road.

19 March 2010

We have had the privilege to view the two, four week old leopard cubs, something rarely observed in the reserve. They were playing with each other on a dam wall and not too long after finding them, mom came along to feed the young ones.
Wanting to give them a bit of privacy we decided to move on in search of something else, and whilst we all chatted about how amazing our sighting was, two black rhino appeared out of the blue walking side by side straight towards us. When they got closer to us they moved off into the bush, we followed them as long as we could, but the walked into an area that was not suitable for us to drive through.

18 March 2010

This is possibly one of the most exciting drives we’ve ever had. We set out early in search of leopards. It was our last drive and we decided to drive along the river to see if we could find any signs of this elusive cat. A couple of minutes into our drive, we came across a herd of impalas peacefully feeding in a clearing and a large male baboon feeding at the base of a Marula tree. We decided to continue our search along the river when we spotted a male cheetah slowly approaching the herd of impala, he suddenly set off after them and we could tell he was closing in as the big male baboon shot up the tree like a rocket and enjoyed the chase from a high perch. We switched off the engine of the land rover as we had lost visual and were hoping to hear him feeding. He did make a kill but he had dragged the impala into a thicket and made it impossible to view him.

17 March 2010

A small pride of lions spent most of the night in the southern part of the reserve, following a large herd of buffalo. This an incredible sight to see five lions chasing over three-hundred buffalo. They were not able to reward themselves with a meal, so they might move onto something less challenging to catch.
The cheetah activity in the reserve has been great, seeing the three young female cheetahs watching a crash of three white rhinos enjoying a wallow in the cool mud. They are still very insecure and will most probably not attempt in any way to hunt the rhino.

16 March 2010

While spending two hours looking for the leopard yesterday, we thought of going around the same area to see if we could spot it, and to our surprise we did find it, a female lying down between the bushes. We were able to view her for about a half an hour.

15 March 2010

We spent about two hours looking for leopard that was in the area, but with much disappointment did not find it.
While on the big search for leopard, we did come across a lone lioness enjoying a mid-morning snooze under a tree. The lion viewing has been no less than spectacular so far and if not seen we hear them. The male lion has been roaring late into the evenings, and covers a large area of territory in the cool hours of the night.

13 March 2010

While enjoying another amazing sighting of four dagga boys (buffalo bulls) at the lodge waterhole, we seemed to have been more amused by the red-billed oxpeckers on the buffalo’s back and boss (horns). The buffalo is a favourite multi-purpose host to the oxpeckers. They prop themselves up with stiff tails and cling on for dear life with their curled claws. It was interesting to watch how they conveniently perch themselves on the buffalo for a sip of water as well as preening and resting on the buffalo after a bath in the waterhole. One thing oxpeckers are useful for is they groom the buffalos fur some for invertebrate snacks.

12 March 2010

After battling to find the northern pride male lions for two days now we decided to head towards the south and find the southern pride male lions. We drove around for roughly two hours before we finally spotted them on a full grown female buffalo carcass. There was still quite a lot of meat on the carcass so this should last them another three days.

10 March 2010

Finally we’re out and about again and shortly after departing for the afternoon drive we came across two hyena’s running up the road towards us. So we pulled off to the side of the road and still they came running. Eventually, reaching the vehicle they stopped and gave us a quick sniff before they carried on with their journey. What a way to start off the drive.

4 March 2010

Some days it might be a quiet drive but quite active at the lodge. We, on two separate occasions, had leopards enjoy a drink at the lodge pan. And then had general game like, impalas, warthogs, giraffe and waterbuck.

3 March 2010

The morning the guests decided to do something different to the usual game drive. They wanted to do a two and a half hour bush walk. It was not all that great with regards to viewing animals but it gave us a chance to concentrate on the smaller happenings in the bush as viewing animals on foot can be extremely hard sometimes. This was a welcomed relief from the normal game drive.

2 March 2010

We saw 4 of the big five this morning but the highlight of the drive was seeing a bush pig. A bush pig is the nocturnal member of the pig family. This was truly amazing as it was our first sighting of bush pig in this reserve.

1 March 2010

Today’s objective was lions. So we headed in the direction to where they had last been seen. It didn’t take us long before we saw them. It was the same females we saw the night before. This time they had other prey in site, impala. While watching them, one of the lionesses started stalking them when suddenly the impala’s started snorting. So naturally we thought their cover had been blown, but in fact she was still too far off and even if she stood up to have a look at the impala they wouldn’t have noticed her yet and the wind was in her favour too. Something is not making sense, the impalas have run off, so we drove around to see what had startled them and thus we discovered fresh leopard tracks. We followed the tracks for about 100m and found a female leopard walking across the road.

28 February 2010

The big five were out of site today, but we enjoyed every moment with general game and birds. We had approached a herd of blue wildebeest when suddenly they ran off. We at first thought we had frightened them but soon came to realise that it was in actual fact three female lions stalking them. Obviously they had no luck catching their prey so they then walked down the road in search of more potential prey.

27 February 2010

After yet another successful drive we went back to the lodge. We saw a huge black mamba on the access road towards the lodge. This is quite scary to see as black mambas are one of the fastest, most venomous neurotoxin snakes you can get in the area as well as one of the longest.

26 February 2010

We headed out on our morning drive, we weren’t too far from camp when we picked up on some elephant tracks. We tracked them for close to an hour in a big circle and still we found nothing. It was strange to us, because how could a 3-6 ton elephant just not be here? What we didn’t realize is that they looped around us and crossed one of the roads that we had already driven. Fortunately for us, one of the other rangers that were also helping us to find the elephants found them so we joined the sighting. They were eating the fruits from a large marula tree. Elephants absolutely love marula fruits and would go to great lengths to find them.

25 February 2010

The sun is rising later and later every morning. We stopped for an early morning coffee break and watched the sun rising from between the mountains in the distance. After a refreshing stop we went on further with our journey and came across a female black rhino drinking water from an almost dry pan. She then decided to wallow in the mud too as she probably sensed that it’s going to be a very hot day ahead.

24 February 2010

Ahh, the illusive leopard, a male leopard illustrated the word illusive by leaving some tracks for us to find as we left for the morning drive. He walked through camp during night and obviously did not want to be seen as we tried to follow up on his tracks but had no luck finding him.

22 February 2010

What an unusually quiet drive we had this morning. Normally on a quiet drive we at least get to see some plains game. How could this be? We decided to head back to the lodge and hopefully this evening’s drive would be better.
This afternoon started off on a high with a sighting of two male lions not too far from the lodge. Proceeding on with the drive we found a crash of nine white rhino having a drink at a small dam. We let them be and slowly headed towards the lodge and along the way encountering a curios hyena sniffing around in search of some form of dinner.

21 February 2010

The male lions might not have been eager to hunt yesterday but today the lionesses were on a war path. We had an amazing sighting of four lionesses and a breeding herd of elephants chasing each other off. Eventually the lionsesses decided that they have wasted enough of their energy fighting a losing battle and disappeared into the drainage line to find something less tricky to catch for dinner.

20 February 2010

We have often wondered what goes on in a lions head when they just lay there watching a large herd of buffalo. We decided to watch the two male lions for a while hoping to see some action. But they didn’t seem to have any intention of hunting the buffalo today.

18 February 2010

After a brief check of the east and following up what looked like some really fresh cheetah tracks we came across a female white rhino and her calf. The calf is still very young, probably about 4 weeks old. We watched them for a while before we carried on with our search for cheetah. We unfortunately could not find the cheetah and ended off the drive very disappointed.

17 February 2010

This morning we headed out and immediately picked up the tracks of a large herd of buffalo, we followed up and in just a few minutes were rewarded with the discovery of the herd lying down in the short grass. We entered the bush and made our way slowly towards them when we noticed a very partial sighting of ears flapping in the distance. We drove closer and found a good sighting of a small herd of elephants.

16 February 2010

We had quite a strange encounter today with a female white rhino and male cheetah. Both of them were very stubborn and not one would give in to the other. The cheetah was growling profusely at the rhino, but it was the rhino that won in the end. She got tired of their little charade and stormed towards the cheetah and chased him off.

15 February 2010

We are loving the sightings of giraffe at the lodge pan at the moment. They have been around the area for a number of days now and make their way to our pan once or twice a day. Another animal not commonly seen at the lodge pan was a civet. Being a nocturnal animal its not always possible to spot them. It too came for a drink a little while before the guests finished off dinner.

14 February 2010

Activity levels were once again at a high, and first up on the menu was leopard we found fast asleep in the top of a large marula tree. There was no way she was getting up any time soon.
Getting mobile in a again we had a rather shocking encounter with a male rhino. As we came around the corner he was coming around the other end in the opposite direction almost resulting in a rhino hood ornament!! He was wonderfully relaxed after recovering from shock of course and we were able to view him as he grazed along the edge of the riverbed.

13 February 2010

Although we got to see many animals during our drives today, there was only one sighting that was truly spectacular. We found two ground hornbills feeding not too far from the vehicle. They did however move away from us slowly not making it too obvious that they are not comfortable being around us.

12 February 2010

The drive today was spent tracking a female leopard who just managed to keep eluding us but we did not give up due to the fact that every animal around us was screaming leopard so we knew she had to be there somewhere. We decided to increase our search pattern and thankfully, more by a stroke of luck than anything else, bumped into her on one of the roads that we would previously not have thought to check due to its location and the alarm calls of the animals.

10 February 2010

The lions were on the hunt during the night and to their success they managed to satisfy their appetites by bringing down a buffalo bull. We watched the four lionesses and the male lion as they were feeding and fighting each other off of their portion.

7 February 2010

We saw a lot of general game today, impala, warthogs, waterbuck, giraffe, blue wildebeest and kudu.
We stopped for morning coffee opposite a dam and absorbed the fresh air together with the grunting sounds of the hippos in the dam.
Something we don’t see too often on a game drive is the side-striped jackal. while passing through a donga we were fortunate to see one eating the leftovers of an impala kill.

6 February 2010

Sightings have not at all been that great these last couple of days. We have made the best of it by concentrating on smaller things that are just as important as the others. Smaller things like insects, birds, reptiles etc are often left out when going out on game drives.
A common visitor of our lodge pan, the white rhino, blessed us with their presence once again this evening. Seven white rhino came to have a drink at the pan just before the guests came through for dinner. They decided to make Shumbalala their resting place for the evening too.

5 February 2010

The three female cheetahs seem to be doing just fine on their own. Today we got to see them on yet another impala kill. Although they can fend for themselves now, things have changed in many ways for them too. They have to be more alert than what they were when mom was around. Mom is not there anymore to watch backs.

4 February 2010

After three days of no game drives, we were quite eager to go out and find some interesting sightings, but as luck would have it, we did not get to see much. It’s quite dry out in the bush and water sources are limited for the animals.
But wait…two male lions made the game drive today worth going out. They slowly walked along the road and every now and then stopped to look at us over their shoulder and also scent marked as they went along. To make the sighting even better they walked off into the bush and vocalised for a number of times as the sun was setting.

1 February 2010

The waterhole at the lodge is quite popular amongst the general game, with visits of giraffe, impala, waterbuck and warthogs during the course of the day.
It’s not very often that you get to see more than four or five giraffe on a drive, but today we were very fortunate to see about thirty giraffe in one drive. It was absolutely amaizing.

30 January 2010

With all the mud around the buffalo were in their element. They were wallowing in the mud cooling off for the hot day that lies ahead.
More animals we came across enjoying a wallow in the mud was a crash of 9 white rhinos.
While viewing and discussing the habitats of a bark spider, a male leopard graced us with his presence. We only got a glimpse of him and with us trying to turn the vehicle around to try and follow him, we lost sight and track of him.

29 January 2010

Because of the rain we had yesterday, the sightings were not all that great today. What made it even more difficult to find animals was that off-roading was temporarily suspended. But just as we thought of calling it a day, we found a female cheetah lying on a termite mound scanning the horizon for potential prey.

28 January 2010

The clouds built up during the night, so when heading out this morning, it came pouring down with much needed rain. We went out for about an hour, but the rain just got heavier and so we decided to go back to the lodge. It rained nonstop for about 45min, which was great as we hadn’t had decent rain in over a month.

25 January 2010

Heading out on the morning drive, there is quite a bit of chit chat on the radio. Curious to find out what it was about, we were able to curb our curiosity by the sounds of growling and hyaena laughter. On further inspection, we saw a male lion being attacked by a pack of hyaena. They changed position every couple of minutes; lion attacking hyaena, hyaena attacking lion. The lion roared and received a response from the lionesses that was not too far away. The hyaena knew that if they didn’t get out of there – there would be major problems for them….so they took off as fast as they could.

24 January 2010

The morning drive started on a high note when first to be found was four rhino. We spent some time with them with the sunrise just behind them.
On driving though a crossing we came across an elephant bull. There was no way he was going to move out the way, so we followed him for a while until the next turnoff.
On leaving for the afternoon drive we found female leopard tracks and followed them for a long time before we spotted her. Trouble lurks around the corner though; about 500m away from her lay two male lions and a lioness at a nearby pan. Luckily for her she walked in the opposite direction and the lions did not suspect a thing.

23 January 2010

The three female cheetahs seem to be doing just fine since they parted from their mother. It’s still too soon to tell as to whether they will survive on their own, only time will tell.
General game was in abundance with great sightings of blue wildebeest, impala and Zebra.
We drove over a dam wall to view some hippo we spotted in the distance. As we got closer to them, a two or three week old baby hippo decided to make its appearance. What a precious sighting it was, still very insecure it didn’t wander too from its mother.

16 January 2010

As we left the lodge for our evening drive, our main aim for the drive was to see if we can pick up on any rhino tracks, as we were missing rhino on our list. Not long after we left the lodge our first sighting was a leopard. She seemed very skittish and we were not able to view her for long before she disappeared. We carried on with our rhino tracking plan, we found the tracks but no rhino. We got back to the lodge ...........without any sighting of rhino. With the guests just seated for dinner, we heard a rustle in the bushes behind the waterhole, and yes, you guessed it, the rhino we were looking so long and hard for came to visit us instead. What a way to enjoy dinner, a clear African sky with stars shining as bright as they possibly can, rhino’s having a drink at the waterhole and the sounds of natures evening background music. It couldn’t get better than this.

15 January 2010

We followed up on the male lion we spotted last night but unfortunately he had moved off and we were unable to find him.
As we drove along in search of more animals, not looking for anything in particular, we found two little bee eaters perched on a twig not far off the road.
On our evening drive we saw a verreauxs or giant eagle owl sitting in a large jackelberry tree, but it took off immediately as we stopped to view it and swooped straight over our heads.

14 January 2010

We had a terrific drive today, with sightings like a wallowing herd of buffalo, three female cheetahs leaping and playing about and the most amazing sighting of an adult martial eagle.
After enjoying a refreshing sundowner complimented with a spectacular sun set we slowly made our way back to the lodge. To our delight we found a male lion lying in the road; he was extremely relaxed and offered us great poses for photos.

13 January 2010

On today’s drive the north was very quiet so we slowly started making our way to the south, we followed up on a female leopard that had been seen in the area earlier but unfortunately we were unable to find her in the thick bush so we continued with our adventure. We then found lion tracks in the area and we were soon rewarded with a great sighting of two lionesses lying in the shade of a russet-bushwillow tree, we viewed them for a while before we moved off and made space for another vehicle to view them.

12 January 2010

We drove down one of the winding roads when the tracker spotted a female leopards face sticking out of a patch of grass, she was just resting before the day became hotter. Eventually the sun moved onto her resting area so she got up and started looking for a new spot, she then lay down in the shade of our vehicle offering us great photographic opportunities. We spent a good portion of the drive enjoying this sighting.

11 January 2010

When getting back to the lodge after yet another successful morning game drive, we found a large group of impala at the lodge waterhole. We walked through to the boma and to our surprise found 3 female lions stalking them. The moment was very tense as we got there just in time. Off they went charging the impala. The impala were scattered all over the riverbed trying to get away snorting frantically; and to their loss one female managed to grab a baby impala. What a moment we will never forget.

7 January 2010

What a drive! It was a top class drive. It started off with a male leopard hiding behind a small bush watching some impala. They had no idea he was there. He started stalking them and got as close as five metres away from the impala and at that moment they spotted him and ran off, at least he was close enough to leap up and grab one. This all happened approximately thirty metres away from the vehicle, and got our adrenalin pumping as we watched. He dragged his kill away and we left him peace to enjoy his catch of the day.

6 January 2010

Before waking the guests for the morning drive, we check around camp to see if any animals are close by. To our surprise they found lion tracks crossing straight through camp. Following the tracks we found it led to our waterhole where they obviously had a drink during the night, to our disappointment they were no where close to the lodge.
Since we haven’t seen cheetah for a while we decided to go out looking for them today, we found their tracks and followed them for about two hours. In the process we were fortunate to come across a male leopard sleeping next to a termite mound, and just as we started the vehicle to carry on with our search, four cheetahs passed by about fifty metres away from the leopard sighting. We followed them as they walked casually along, but they then disappeared into a thick bushy area that we just could not drive through.

5 January 2010

Our mission today was rhino, we drove around in the area but unfortunately found nothing. Luck was on our side though as another vehicle had found a black rhino bull. We followed up on the sighting and what an amazing sighting it turned out to be. He was just feeding not really interested in us; we spent some time with him as it was truly a breath taking sighting.

4 January 2010

Sightings were hard to find today and we had to really work for what we got. Lucky for us you can always rely on impala to be around. Eventually after searching for quite some time we found a female leopard in hunting mode. She was stalking impala, we followed her as she was on the hunt, but unfortunately she was not successful this time round.
As we carried on with our journey we spotted a breeding herd of elephants. There were a few youngsters running around. We viewed them feeding with a young bull displaying his head shake for us a few times being a real show off.

3 January 2010

General game was in abundance with great sightings of waterbuck, impala, zebra, giraffe and duiker.
We stopped at a dam where the hippos once again gave us a remarkable display. A calf was quite entertaining with its running about, but mom gave it nudge and it went back into the water. On leaving this sighting we drove past another small dam where we found 4 dagga boys lying in the water cooling off from the heat with not a care in the world and chewing on their cud.

2 January 2010

The morning started out with a bang, with us finding an Elephant bull in must on the road in front of us. Normally they would be very irritated at this stage but he was quite relaxed.
On a quest to find lions, we found the tracks close to the lodge, and followed the tracks for almost 90 minutes before we saw him. He was enjoying a mid-morning snooze and by the looks of things, he won’t be waking up soon.
We received devastating news today. One of the oldest most relaxed female leopards, Ixongile was killed by another female leopard, Twinspot. It appears that Ixongile was on a kill when Twinspot snuck up from behind and attacked her. Twinspot bit her in the neck thus killing her. Ixongile was a favourite in the Reserve and will be terribly missed.

1 January 2010

The first part of the morning was quiet, so we stopped for a welcome cup of coffee and enjoyed the early morning chorus of all the birds.
We had searched long and hard earlier for any sign of leopards but had no luck, only to have another vehicle find her walking up the road, we joined the sighting and followed her for a while but she entered some very thick bush and we lost her in a riverbed. Then we got lucky as a male cheetah had been spotted close by and we followed up and helped as the other vehicle was battling to stay with it as the vegetation was very dense. Soon we lost him too.

31 December 2009

With the scortching hot days we had, the rain is most welcome at the moment. We had just set out when we found a very relaxed female leopard lying on a termite mound not so far from the remains of the baby impala she had caught the night before. She was watching some buffalo having a drink at a nearby dam. We viewed her for a while, she then took her kill up a tree and finished off her meal.
Rhino was the order of the day but we found no signs of them in the area we were in. We searched high and low but unfortunately had no luck. We did however come across two dagga boys (buffalo bulls) enjoying the coolness of a nice mud wallow and for some reason they were not very comfortable with us so we left them to wallow in peace.

30 December 2009

A lot of the time when going out in the rain for a drive we dont get to see many animals, but today we were fortunate to see four of the big five. The lions obviously did not enjoy this weather and found a shelter where no one else could find them.

28 December 2009

Viewing a journey (group) of giraffe all feeding next to the road was awsome. Their heads were popping out above the tall trees to give us a glace or two before they resumed browsing.
After a refreshing sundowner we moved on to find more exciting sightings, and without a doubt, and probably one of the best sightings ever, we found a male lion lying on a dam wall vocalising as the last bit of the amber sun was setting.

27 December 2009

We left the lodge in search of lions this morning, and with no trouble at all we located a male and female lion mating. They were lying flat in some very thick bushes and after a quick visit decided to come back to them later this afternoon when it was cooler and they would be more active.
The four female cheetahs were enjoying a breafast feast with thier impala kill. Its only a matter of time now before the mother leaves her young ones to fend for themselves.

25 December 2009

A crispy cool morning welcomed us as we left, we followed up on leopard tracks that had be called in, we did a couple of blocks and after about half an hour we found a male leopard walking close to a drainage line and marking his territory as he went, we stayed with him for a while as he moved through the bush and getting some awesome walkbys as he passed by.
We left him and moved on, a little later we found a big herd of buffalo. Some of them were making turns using a pushed over tree to rub off some ticks between their legs and between their ears and bosses (horns).
This afternoon we moved south and found a massive elephant bull, he was very relaxed letting us come really close. This was an amazing sighting as this huge beast played with some sand throwing it up into the air with his trunk over his body. Then we stopped at a dam with an awesome sunset in the background and a cold drink in the hand it was the perfect african sunset.

24 December 2009

For most of the morning it was a quiet drive, but just before we returned to the lodge we located three female lions just lying on a road not far from a kill they made during the night, but they were flat cats with full bellies, and were settling in for the day.
It was a very hot afternoon as we departed the lodge on our afternoon search, we stopped in on the three females who were all paws up, in a nice shady spot and panting heavily as they digested all the food from the night before. We carried on with our search for creatures big and small.
Just a little distance down the road we came across a huge breeding herd of elephants all moving through the bush. They were very relaxed with the vehicle and moved all around the vehicle and coming really close up with lots of little ones playing about all over the show it was fantastic and we spent the better part of an hour with them.

23 December 2009

We started out today checking about for any new tracks but nothing seem to have wandered our way recently. We later found a nice breeding herd of buffalo all lying up next to the road all relaxing and chewing cud. Some where getting their morning preening session from the oxpeckers and enjoying it as they removed all the nasty ticks.
We stopped for a welcome cup of coffee and a leg stretch. As we got going again we hadnt gone far when we found five white rhino wallowing in mud at a nearby dam, they slowly got up and shook off some mud then something startled them and they crashed off into the bushes like a steam train. We had a look around to find what startled them so much only to find two hippo, a mother and her calf, making their way to the dam.

21 December 2009

Its amazing how the bush changes in a blink of an eye. Its become so lush now, that as soon as we find something it can disappear with a snap of a finger. This was the case when we found a male leopard after tracking him for two hours. He pulled a houdini trick on us, now you see him and now you dont!!!

19 December 2009

It was a tough two days with regards to finding animals. They have been playing the hiding game. Its been very hot for a number of days now and so the animals have obviously found places to stay cool and save as much energy as they can.
It wasnt all that bad though, we did get to see the usual impala, giraffes and kudu and a glimps of some zebra. We took the opportunity to concentrate on the plant life, insects and birds which was just as enjoyable.

17 December 2009

The day has barely begun and already its 25 degrees celcius! Today is going to be a scortcher. We are not the only ones feeling it, the animals are finding every possible way to try and cool themselves down too. We saw this with a herd of buffalo at a dam. They were enjoying mud baths and some of them just lay in the water.
We found a couple of hippo doing the exact opposite to what the buffalo were doing. They prefered to bask in the sun for a while, and then went for a swim thereafter.

16 December 2009

Driving through some very thick bushes while tracking a leopard, we found two female white rhinos wallowing in a mud pool. When they were well covered in mud they used a nearby tree as a rubbing post and gave their bodies a good rub. Nice way of exfoliating the skin ladies!!!
Disappointingly were not able to find the leopard that we were tracking for most of the drive.

15 December 2009

Nothing beats the smell of nature in the morning after a night of good rain, and while breathing in these scents of nature, we were viewing a herd of elephant feeding a distance away from the vehicle. They slowly made their way closer to us and surrounded the vehicle. It was as if they didnt even notice us at all.
Four cheetahs crossed our path as we were heading back to the lodge. They seemed to have been quite spiteful today, as they decided to stop dead in their tracks and lay in the middle of the road in front of the vehicle.

14 December 2009

We were well awarded after tracking a male and female leopard for most of the morning, as we were able to view them for close to an hour. At some stages they were about two metres away from the vehicle. The female is in oestrous and is ready to mate. The male is not too interested at the moment, so the female will follow him around until the process begins.
In the process of tracking the leopards we came across four cheetahs. The three young ones were grooming each other while the mother enjoyed a mid morning snooze in the shade.
Wait! Theres more!! We also stumbled across a couple of black rhino having a drink at a nearby dam.

13 December 2009

As we all know lions are very territorial, and in this last week the reserve warden has had his hands full with these territorial males. The only male lion in the neighbouring game reserve broke through the fence twice to give our young male a beating he would never forget. This rivalry between them has been brewing for a long time, and when it was over they lay next to each other as if nothing had happened. Lets hope they have finally excepted each other.

10 December 2009

As we progress deeper into the summer, the bush is becoming thicker and this makes it harder for us to find animals, so when we go off road we have to be very alert.
Our morning drive was quiet in the sense that we did not get to see any of the big five animals, but we enjoyed the plains game just as much. We did, however, find five cheetahs. A male not too far from the lodge with a fresh impala kill and then later the four females just relaxing in the shade.

7 December 2009

We have no guests in camp for three days, so in this time we get to do some maintenance around the lodge. While attending to this we were very fortunate to have four cheetahs visit the lodge pan. The mother noticed her reflection on the wine cellar window, and this confused her profusely. She kept walking closer and growled at her reflection and as soon as her cubs came closer to inspect the situation, she would walk away. She probably thought she was being out numbered. After a while she thought it would be wise to go some where else for a drink. This was very entertaining.

5 December 2009

It was a bit quiet out on the drives today, but the waterhole at the lodge was very active and made up for it. While the guests had their breakfast a herd of elephants came around to cool themselves down at the waterhole. Later in the afternoon at about noon, a group of dagga boys (buffalo bulls) made their way through to the waterhole, and to crown it all off, a crash of rhino enjoyed a drink at the waterhole while the guests were having their dinner. It was quite an eventful day at the lodge.

3 December 2009

The lion sightings have not been that great lately. So when we found lion tracks we were quite determined to track them down. We tracked the lions for roughly 2 hours and we were rewarded in the end. We found two males and a female sleeping under a red bush willow tree.
We tried our luck with the lions on the morning drive, and we succeeded, so we thought we could try it again but this time with the ilusive leopard. Unfortunately, after tracking him for hours, we just couldnt find him.

1 December 2009

While approaching a herd of elephant, we had to come to an alarming halt when suddenly a young elephant came running out from the bushes in front of the vehicle. We did not notice her while driving towards the herd, as the bush next the vehicle was quite thick. It was not her intention to attack us, something must have frightened her and we just happened to be in her way. She stood watching us for a while and then walked off to join the herd.

29 November 2009

Normally when we come across preditors with their prey, we would expect them to be eating it, but today was not the case. We watched the three sub adult cheetahs chase around some banded mongoose, and that was purely just for fun. As they caught one, they would let it go again and chase after another. Obviously the mongooses did not like it very much and did everything they possibly could to get away.

28 November 2009

As we predicted yesterday, it rained during the night. We got about 90mm of rain. With all that rain the dry riverbed in front of the lodge filled up. The view from the deck was picture perfect and the sound of the river flowing was so tranquil.

27 November 2009

The humidity is very high today, which only means we should be getting more rain.
Now that it has rained a number of times already, the plains game have given birth. There are so many babies around and they are so adorable. With this being said, the preditors are well aware of the young ones as they know it will be an easy meal for them to catch.
As we drove along after admiring the little ones, we found a male leopard up a marula tree with a baby impala he had probably killed early this morning.

26 November 2009

The same elephant bull that was at the lodge waterhole yesterday, approached us as we were watching him from a reasonable distance away. He came within touching distance away from the vehicle, and made us feel just as uncomfortable as the buffalo must have felt, but he was so relaxed and just walked around us to a nearby tree and watched us as we drove off.

25 November 2009

Its so nice to see the buffalo have a drink at the lodge waterhole again. This time it was a much smaller herd of about 50. While they were still drinking and wallowing in the mud, a huge elephant bull joined them. The buffalo weren’t too comfortable with him around and neither was he with their presence, soon the buffalo walked off in quite a hurry.

24 November 2009

Nothing can be better than to start a working day watching four cheetahs corner a waterbuck in front of the wine cellar window. The best part was, we were able to watch them down in the cellar without us disturbing them at all. The cheetahs realised that the waterbuck is way out of their hunting league and soon got tired of traumatising the poor waterbuck. They found something more interesting like impala to chase around. They were out of luck there too. So still the cheetahs are out and about trying to catch their meal for the day. Run nyala’s, run!!!!

23 November 2009

We had a lot of rain over the weekend, the guests prefered to stay indoors to cozy up next to the fire and read a book. It cleared up beautifully on sunday morning. The sky was crispy blue, the air so fresh and the bush looking amazingly green.
We were not the only ones enjoying the sun, a herd of elephants were enjoying the sun as much as we were. They were splashing around in the mud, two of the bulls were mock fighting with each other in the dam and a couple of them were rubbing up against the trees.

19 November 2009

Again we found cheetah tracks which we tracked for an hour. We found them playing and climbing the trees, but suddenly they spotted some impala and went went into hunting mode. Unfortunately they lost interest of the impala very quickly and lay under a tree to get out of the rain.
With it raining so much it has been even more difficult to spot animals especially when we are not able to go off-road. The bigger animals are sheltering themselves from the rain and the smaller animals like the terrapins, snakes and lizards are enjoying every moment of the rain. We had the opportunity to see a very rare sighting of vine snakes crossing the road. The are also known as tree or twig snakes. We watched them for a while as they went up a tree and they started copulating.

18 November 2009

It has been rather overcast these last couple of days, and it seems like we will be getting some much needed rain soon. The sightings haven’t been all that great in this weather, but we did however get to see two male lions on a buffalo kill today.

16 November 2009

We found a herd of elephants in quite an open area. Some of them were sleeping, and in the distance were two rhino also sleeping. The elephants noticed them after a while and approached the rhino’s and chased them away. How’s that for a wake up call!!!
We came across cheetah tracks and tracked them for about three hours, we eventually found them, but unfortunately only got to view them for a short while, but it least it was worth the tracking.

15 November 2009

Sometimes it doesnt all happen on the drive. After returning from the gamedrive this morning, we found three male lions lying in the riverbed directly infront of the rooms!

14 November 2009

We had about 60mm of rain last night and the bush is washed clean, even the animals seem to be in their element! The bush seems to sigh from relief of the hot weather we had lately. We can already see the new grass and the trees also seem greener, allowing some shade from the heat.

13 November 2009

We saw the Big 5 in one drive again today but it didnt come easy. We tracked the female leopard for abut two and a half hours and eventually found her but he sighting wasnt very good as she was lying in very thick bush but eat least we saw her.
Three buffalo bulls came to drink water at the lodge pan today. They are very impressive animals.

12 November 2009

While we were on our morning phusa break in the bush, a black rhino came closer for inspection watching us. It is quite unnerving seeing them so closeby.

10 November 2009

We had our first bit of rain for the season during the night, a full 16mm but it is better than nothing. We should see the bush change within the next day or two.
Three elephants came by the lodge to drink water at the pan again.

9 November 2009

The impala is holding back giving birth due to the lack of rain but we did see the first one for the season - it seems impossible for them to balance on their long legs. All the others should have there calves within the next month or so.
We saw a male and female leopard together, they are possibly mating but we didn’t see them.

6 November 2009

We still havent had any rain yet and the sightings at the lodge waterhole is very good. We saw a male leopard, the herd of buffalo and four white rhino here today.

2 November 2009

We found the cheetah female with her young ones on an impala kill this morning.
While we were serving dinner to our guests a herd of elephant come to drink and 10 minutes later a male lion came to drink as well. Our guests were obviously not the only thirsty ones!
The elephants seem to be around camp lately, luckily our garden is still standing...

31 October 2009

Love is still in the air. We saw the leopards mating on the morning drive in a dry riverbed, what a privilege. Buffalo come to drink at the lodge pan again while guest are having breakfast. We saw the big herd of elephant and Buffalo around the water hole as well - it was a good day in the bush!

28 October 2009

Fun and games in the bush! We saw some female lions wnating to "play" with black rhino but the rhinos were not interested and chased them away.
We found the male leopard while looking for the female cheetah with er young. We also saw two big male lions walking down the road during the morning drive.

25 October 2009

This qualifies as one of the best gamedrives ever! We got to see the male and female leopard mating about two metres from the vehicle. Normally leopards get very skittish around vehicles especially while mating and would move off, but they were not bothered by us at all.
A very big herd of buffalo was walking down the riverbed, we slowly moved the vehicle between them and drove with them as they were walking. We felt as if we were walking with them.
The same herd of buffalo we saw on our drive came through for a rink at the lodge waterhole. They seem to be coming here more and more now. They came right into camp and had a rest on the lawn.

22 October 2009

NEW RELEASE:
Two white lions and their tawny mother were released into the reserve. They are still very nervous of our vehicles and don’t tend to hang around for very long. We were extremely fortunate to see them on our morning drive. The reserve Warden is monitoring them to see how they adapt in the reserve. Being white makes it difficult for them to conceal themselves. Hopefully they will be successful!!!
Today was the day for Big Cat Diaries. We first got to see 3 female lions on a baby giraffe kill, shortly after a male cheetah on an impala kill and to top it all off a female leopard in a tree with a duiker kill. We just love the bush!

21 October 2009

Love is definitely in the air in the reserve. A while ago we found a male and female leopard mating pair, and tonight we found a different mating pair. The female Leopard is in oestrous now and she is trying really hard to get the male Leopards attention, but he does not seem too interested yet!!!!
It’s been a while since we have seen two male lions together. Today we were fortunate to see a father and son together.

20 October 2009

We stopped at Hippo Dam with our early morning coffee and true to its name there were some hippo in it. While we were admiring the view, one of the Hippo’s got out of the water on the opposite side of the dam. It was an amazing sighting as we don’t get to see them often out of the water.
As usual the elephants love huddling around the vehicle, and this afternoon one of them grabbed the door handle. It looked like he was about to open the door, but fortunately he didn’t.
On our way back to the lodge, we found a male leopard lying in the road. Not long after finding him, he stood up and walked slowly down the road. We followed him for about twenty minutes, and then he lay down again in the bushes. We sat around watching him for another ten minutes

19 October 2009

While we were watching four lionesses we came across an aardvark carcass. It was quite old so it could not have been the lionesses. Its sad though as Aardvark is a very rare sighting on the reserve.

17 October 2009

We found a large herd of elephants, but it was very difficult to get a nice view of them as they were in a thick bushy area. We went around the block and waited on the other side hoping they would come out on that side judging it according the direction they were walking in, and because of out patience we were well rewarded. They surrounded the vehicle, not bothered by us at all. They trumpeted away and some of them played in the water, splashing them with the mud to cool down. They thought some of the guests needed to cool down too as one or two of the guests got a blotch or two in the face.

15 October 2009

The same herd of buffalo came back for another drink at the pool and lodge pan during brunch and then again during dinner.
We had a humorous moment at the lodge this afternoon it was absolutely priceless. A leopard tortoise tried really really hard to have a drink out of the lodge swimming pool, but no matter how hard the poor tortoise tried, it just could not stretched its neck long enough to reach the water.

14 October 2009

This is how we welcome our guestsat the lodge: The guests had just arrived and to their surprise a herd of about three hundred buffalo walked down the riverbed towards the lodge pan. Some of the buffalo felt they wanted to see the lodge up close and personal and had a drink at the swimming pool!

13 October 2009

Today was a rare day without guests but it gave the staff the opportunity to also enjoy the breeding herd of elephants that came back for another drink at the lodge pan. The rangers treated us with a walk up close to the elephants. It was quite a scary experience for some of us.

12 October 2009

It still has not rained and the pan at the lodge is very active. This morning we had 4 dagga boys, which is the african term for an old buffalo bulls, have a drink while the guests were have brunch.
Not long after the dagga boys left, a herd of about twenty five elephants came to have a drink at the lodge pan too.
Tonight we saw black and white Rrhino together at the same dam. It was interesting to see them together especially because it makes it so easy to explain the difference between the two. Best of all was the fact that they were so relaxed around each other. It was an awesome sighting.

11 October 2009

The summer is upon us and the animals are becoming more active in the mornings as it gets hot very early. We were very lucky to be able to see all of the big 5 on this mornings game drive

10 October 2009

We were at a hyaena den enjoying the young ones as they played around the vehicle when suddenly we heard a rustle in the bushes. A moment later a black rhino came around the termite mount. Two of the female hyeana’s immediately ran towards the black rhino and started biting at the lower parts of its legs to frighten the rhino off away from the den site. It worked - the rhino just ran away as fast as it could!

9 October 2009

The two leopards are still mating! What makes it so special is the fact that she is so playful towards they male Leopard. A spectacular sighting.
We spent about 40 minutes watching buffalo wallowing in the mud, some of them were laying in the shade and some of them were drinking. Ahhh… this is the life!!!!

8 October 2009

Today we found a male and female Leopard mating! Its very exciting to see this as it is an extremely rare sighting. She also might not really be in oestrous and this could be a ruse to try and lead the male away from trying to kill her cub, as she still has a very young cub of only about 6 months old.
Later this evening we came across the same Leopards still mating, although they surprised us with a hunt and kill! It was extraordinary and when it was all over we felt like popping the champagne to celebrate the awesome sighting.

6 October 2009

Its amazing to see how the young cheetahs have grown. We got to see them today with their mother on an impala kill. In another 6-7 months they will be fending for themselves as their mother will head off to look for a mate and start a new family. Hopefully she will be as successful keeping them alive as she did with these three.
We saw the old male Lion again but was just sleeping…sleeping….sleeping.

3 October 2009

While we were waiting for the guests to come through for dinner we spotted a female leopard in the bush. She was very nervous and quickly ran away. For the rest of the night we could only here her vocalising from time to time.
We saw a herd of elephants making their way to a dam for a drink. The young bulls were getting really hot and sunk into the dam, later they got out and started playing around with each other.

30 September 2009

We saw two honey badgers running in the road - this is quite a rare sighting and we were lucky to spot them.
We also saw a red crested korhaan doing a mating display. This is when the male flies up in the air and nose down towards the ground to attract the female. Just before the ground he opens his wings and lands. But unfortunately for the inexperienced males they sometimes open their wings too late and plummet into the ground. Because of this they’ve become known as the Kamikaze bird.

29 September 2009

The large herd of buffalo came past the lodge to drink water at the pan during the morning and again later the afternoon. It is amazing to see about 350 buffalo passing through the bush.

28 September 2009

The female leopard was once again drinking water at the pan in the morning.
On our way to a lion sighting we passed by a small pan. We stopped briefly & saw two egyptian geese with nine chicks, it was very cute. We then preceded to go to the lion sighting, when we got there the three female lions got mobile towards the pan we just passed, we followed towards them.
When they got there the geese with the chicks where still there. The lions saw them and went straight after them. Sadly they killed 4 of them...

26 September 2009

This morning we had an amazing sighting of a male leopard scent-marking his territory, we must’ve followed him for about an hour.
The female leopard came to the pan for a drink of water later in the day - it is always very exciting to see them so close to the lodge.

25 September 2009

Today we were off to a slow start when one of the guests spotted a cheetah crossing the road ahead. When we got closer we realised it was the female with her three cubs and it appeared that they were on the hunt. They then suddenly started running toward the impala closeby. In the confusion one of the impala ran straight towards them and they caught her about 40m away from our vehicle in an open clearing. We moved closer and watched the kill and the feast thereafter.
That afternoon we found a male cheetah also on an impala kill.
We also found a herd of elephants with a young bull that was in must, he was full of nonsense and when we eventually left the sightings he decided to follow. It was quite exciting.

24 September 2009

We left on game drive in the afternoon and found a male and female leopard on an impala kill. It is very unusual to see two leopards on the same kill. It is possible that the female was on heat and so they would share a kill possibly before or after mating.
That night while having dinner, a female white rhino with her female calf came to the pan to drink water.
While the guest were eating dessert the male and female leopard we saw on the impala kill earlier the afternoon also came for a drink.

21 September 2009

We once again saw three cats today. We tracked and found the female cheetah and then the four female lions. On our way back to the lodge a female leopard crossed the road in front of us.
While the guests were having desert, three hyeanas came for a drink at the pan to say good night!

20 September 2009

Our guests wishes are our rangers commands! The guests said they would like to see some cats. We found a young male lion drinking water, a big male lion sleeping, four female cheetahs on an impala kill and a female leopard with her six month old cub! Well done Luke!
Just before the afternoon gamedrive we heard the kudus barking around the pan. After further inspection we found a young male lion sleeping in the open areas behind the pan.
We found the female leopard with her cub again and managed to spend about an hour with them. It was amazing!

19 September 2009

Congratulation to Gerhard and Nataly who got married today!
A bad day for a small pride of lions today. We tracked four lionesses for about two hours. We eventually found them where they tried to hunt a big male giraffe who managed to run away. They then tried to catch some banded mongoose who also managed to run away!

17 September 2009

Who is tracking who? Today we tracked the leopard for about four hours with no luck. She drank water at the pan then passed by the loge over our vehicle tracks of about twenty minutes earlier!

15 September 2009

We have been seeing lots of white rhinos lately, even up to groups of twelve at the waterholes. It still has not rained yet which means that the animals are now concentrated at the waterholes and not wandering too far off during the heat of the day.

The male cheetah killed an impala about 300m from the lodge just before we set out on our afternoon game drive!

14 September 2009

Today we found the female cheetah with her three cubs again. We watched as she went running after a young kudu. While we lost visual of her, we remained with the cubs. After a while the mother called her cubs and we followed them only to discover that she managed to kill the kudu. We watched for about half an hour while they dined on fresh kudu kill!
We also saw a white rhino with a two month old calf drinking water at a pan.

13 September 2009

It was a wonderful experience to be able to follow a male cheetah for about one hour and to see his behaviour in his natural habitat.

9 September 2009

We spent about an hour watching four lionesses on a blue wildebeest kill. After a while the male lion joined the eating frenzy.
Giraffes are alway a very popular sighting but thirty of them all together makes it really amazing.

7 September 2009

It was very entertaining to watch six white rhinos during bathtime - in the mud!

1 September 2009

Spring Day, and what a lovely day it has turned out to be. A couple of days earlier we could already feel a change in temperature. It’s a lot warmer in the day, and at night its still slightly cooler than normal.
The Hippopotamus obviously notice the change too and seem to be in quite a cheerful mood. It’s not always possible to see them out of the water, but today they were. The little ones were playing around in and out of the water. It was an awesome sighting.

27 August 2009

A male Lion was on a Giraffe kill this morning. He and the Lionesses must have hunted it during the night, although there wasn’t a single Lioness in sight. He has most probably chased them off the kill until he has had enough and then later he will allow them to feast with him.
A younger male Lion came to have a drink at the pan while the guests were still freshening up before dinner. By the time they had come through to the main area, he had already moved on. He didn’t however move off too far from the lodge and vocalised a number of times during the night.

23 August 2009

A large herd of about 400 Buffalo came for a drink at the pan tonight. They stayed around camp for most of the night. When the guests wanted to go to their rooms after dinner, they were not able to, because the some of the Buffalo were drinking out the swimming pool. Roughly an hour later, they finally moved off and the guests could get to their rooms.

20 August 2009

We saw the Buffalo carcass again this morning, but this time a clan of Hyaenas were scavenging on it. It was nice to see the Hyaenas again, as we haven’t them for quite some time.

19 August 2009

A Buffalo died of an old injury caused by Lions trying to hunt it some time ago. We got to see the carcass not far from the road with a very large group of Vultures scavenging their way through it.

18 August 2009

Some mornings when it’s overcast and quite nippy outside, a lot of the times you wish you could just roll over in bed and carry on sleeping. Well in the animal kingdom this was the case this morning. We found a herd of Elephants still sleeping!!!! Some were lying down and others standing. It was different seeing them this way, normally they are quite noisy and destructive.

17 August 2009

While the guests were enjoying their pre-dinner drinks at the bar, a female Leopard, very relaxed, walked along the pathway towards the main area. The guests were ecstatic, as they have not been able to see Leopard on their drives, and with all the commotion the Leopard got a bit annoyed and rushed into the bushes towards our access road. We then took the guests out with the vehicle to get a better look at her.

16 August 2009

Its not always fun when being chased by Elephants, but this morning we had a good laugh about it. A young Elephant bull was in quite a cheerful mood and started playing games with us. As soon as we started the vehicle to drive off, he started chasing us, and as soon as we stopped, he would stroll back into the bushes. He was not aggressive at all. He kept doing this for about three to four times before he got tired of us and walked off into the river bed.
The White Rhino has visited the lodge waterhole again tonight, but this time they brought along a two day old baby. He is very aware of the surroundings and does not move an inch away from his mother.

12 August 2009

For the past four days we have been trying to find some Zebra, but with no luck and we now know why its been so hard to find them. We found some Lions on a Zebra kill!!!!!!
Due to it being so dry in the Reserve, some Nyalas and Warthogs have been in camp almost everyday. With this being said, the female Leopard is very aware of this and has made yet another kill approximately twenty meters away from the lodge.
What a lovely evening it has turned out to be. The wind has died down, the fires are burning and in the distance you can hear the Lions vocalising. While we all stand around the fire listening to the evening noises a crash of Rhino came through for a drink at the waterhole.

8 August 2009

We decided to go have a look at the Hyeanas today as their den site had been raided by Lions last night. Thankfully the Hyaenas are still there and none of them were harmed.
A minute too late!!! A female Cheetah had just hunted and killed an Impala, she was still suffocating the Impala when we spotted her. Once the Impala was dead she dragged it into a thicket where we were no longer able to see her.

4 August 2009

A female White Rhino died of natural causes and her carcass has attracted a lot of scavengers like Black Backed Jackal, Vultures and Hyaenas.

30 July 2009

There has been said that there is Eland in the reserve, but they have not been seen for a very long time. Rumours were going around that they had been killed by predators. Those rumours are false, and we were able to prove it as we got to see three Eland this morning on our drive.
The female Leopard is still on her Duiker kill close to the lodge.

29 July 2009

We found a huge herd of Elephants being chased by a young Elephant Bull. He has come into must, and is trying to show off his dominance by pushing over trees, fighting off other bulls in the herd, trumpeting and flapping his ears. The herd was clearly not very impressed with him. Shortly after the whole commotion, the herd, without the rowdy bull, spent the rest of the morning around the lodge waterhole.
When walking the guests back to their rooms after the afternoon game drive, we found fresh and muddy Leopard tracks on the pathway. We followed the tracks and found the female Leopard lying just outside one of the rooms approximately five meters away from the outside patio. We went inside the room and watched her for about fifteen minutes before she stood up and walked off into the river bed to her Duiker kill she made the night before.

28 July 2009

We had left for the afternoon drive, when we came across very fresh Leopard tracks on our access road close to the lodge. We followed the tracks and found a female Leopard approximately fifty meters away from one of the rooms on a fresh Duiker kill. Later in the evening after enjoying her feast, she went for a drink at the lodge waterhole while our guests were having their dinner.

23 Juy 2009

It seems like the Cats are quite active today. We were very fortunate to see all 3 of the Big Cats on our afternoon drive and surprisingly all in the same area. Four female Lions, one male Leopard and the female Cheetah with her three cubs.

17 July 2009

The Elephants have come back for yet another drink at the waterhole this morning. This time they came right into camp during the night and did some damage. Nothing too severe though!
Shortly after the Elephants had their drink at the waterhole, four female Lions also came for a drink just as we were leaving for the morning game drive.
While escorting the guests back to their rooms after the afternoon drive, a female Leopard casually walked across the lawn between the rooms and wondered off into the river bed. It was so sudden and before we knew it she was gone again.
In the past 7 days we have the BIG FIVE in and arond the lodge!!!!

14 July 2009

Its becoming a lot more dryer out in the bush, and the waterhole at the lodge is attracting more and more animals. This morning while our guests were having breakfast, a large herd of Elephants visited the waterhole, together with a lonely Dagga Boy (one Buffalo bull), followed by lots of Impala, Kudu and Baboons.

10 July 2009

For three nights in a row now we were very fortunate to see White Rhino drink at the lodge waterhole.
We had stopped for morning tea and coffee close to dam this morning. We were ready to pack up when we were visited by a herd of buffalo making their way through to have a drink at the dam.

5 July 2009

Its been two weeks now since the Hyaena cub was born and its amazing to see how much it has changed from the last time we saw it. It was at first black all over and now its spots are starting to show.
Its amazing how ilusive a Leopard can be. A male Leopard was in camp last night and he left some tracks behind across our viewing deck.

1 July 2009

We had a cold front pass over last night and this morning we could feel it. It was only two degrees celcius at 05H00am. While we were sitting by the fire having our morning tea and coffee before the game drive, a male leopard visited the waterhole at the lodge for a drink.

28 June 2009

Since the Leopard cubs were born, its been very difficult to try and see them. The female has manged to keep the only cub she has left out of sight for quite some time. We were able to see the cub today with her mother in the dry riverbed.
As we go deeper into the winter, the waterhole at the lodge has become a game magnet. This morning while the guests were having their breakfast we had some Impala, Kudu, Baboons, Giraffe and warthog come for a drink.

24 June 2009

We had an awsome sighting of eight White Rhino in the road busy sparring against each other, nudging each other and even giving the vehicle a mock charge or two.

22 June 2009

Once again we tracked a female Leopard for about three hours. This time we were lucky to find her, but unfortunately could only view her for a short while before she snuck off again. We lost track of her eventually.

21 June 2009

A breeding herd of Elephant, approximately sixteen Elephants in the herd, surrounded our vehicle while we stopped to have a look at them. They seemed to enjoy our company and started scratching themselves against the vehicle, soon they got bored of us and wondered off back into the thicket.

17 June 2009

Surprise, surprise, we have a new addition to the Hyaena family, the new cub is only two days old. What a special sighting this was.
We spotted the male leopard up in a big Weeping Boerbean Tree with an Impala kill. Leopards would normally drag their kill up in a tree to try and avoid other predators from trying to steal it away from them.

15 June 2009

As we know most of the big cats are quite territorial. We were fortunate enough to watch a male Leopard for approximately forty five minutes while he was scent marking.
We dont often get to see the male Cheetah in the reserve, and when we do, its always a spectacular sighting. We got to see him today on the move hunting some Impala. He was quite lucky and managed to catch his meal for the day. What amazing skill and technique they have.
Its not always easy to find all the big cats in one drive, but we were privileged to see all three big cats in one drive. To end off we found four Lionesses and one male Lion on a Wildebeest kill.

14 June 2009

Although we only got to see a lot of the plains game during our drive today like Kudu, Zebra, Impala and Wildebeest, we were fortunate enough to find a four meter Python about eight meters up a Jackelberry Tree.

12 June 2009

We had just head out for the morning drive, when we stumbled across a big male Leopard walking along the road. He was in quite a hurry and in a matter of minutes he disappared into the bushes.
We had quite an interesting sighting of a nestling pair of African Hawk Eagles. They were puffed up and snuggled next to each other to try and keep warm as the morning sun rose.
A raft/pod of Hippos joined a herd of Buffalo while they were drinking at a dam, they probably were returning from their evenings grazing.

9 June 2009

The Hyaenas have moved their den once again, but we were able to find the mother and seven cubs at their new home. While watching them chew our wheel caps and play around the vehicle, the three week old cub decided to come out and see what all the fuss was about, but very soon after rushed back into its hole.
Further on we came across the Female Cheetah and her three cubs enjoying the last bit of the afternoon sun. The cubs are now considered sub-adults as we have another female in the reserve with younger cubs.

4 June 2009

We concentrated mostly on the bird species this morning. Its a nice change from looking for the animals every other day. There is such a large variety of Birds in the Reserve. Although this is not the ideal time of year to do bird watching, the birds we saw were a combination of White Backed and Hooded Vultures, Short Tailed Eagles formally known as a Bateleur, Tawny Eagle, Saddlebilled Stalks and a Brownhooded Kingfisher. In the process of spotting some birds we heard some mass distruction happening in the bushes next to the vehicle. It was a huge Elephant Bull pushing down a tree. There is many reasons to why they do this, but for this particular reason he was only trying to get to the more succulent leaves at the top of the tree.

1 June 2009

Some days you dont even have to go out looking for animals, they come looking for you, as was the case today. A huge herd of about two hundred Buffalo had a drink at the lodge waterhole. They stayed around camp for most of the day.
While driving down a dry riverbed, a male Leopard approached us from the front. We were able to have a good look at him while he casually walked past the vehicle. After a refreshing sundowner drink, we slowly made our way back to the lodge and found two Black Rhinos peacefully browsing. We pulled in next to them and they eventually started browsing around the vehicle not bothered by us at all.

25 May 09

It was quite a relaxed drive this morning. We did not get to see many animals, but we thouroughly enjoyed the bush surroundings and a beautiful sun rise. We did however get to see four of the five Black Rhinos we have in the reserve.
The female Cheetah and her three cubs were on yet another Impala kill, they were eating away at the carcass about three meters away from the vehicle.
While we were admiring the Fish Eagle in a tree over the dam, a very big breeding herd of Elephant came for a drink. One of the females was in a very playful mood and decided to give us her full attention. She rubbed her face on the back seat railing of the vehicle and then came around the side and gave a couple of the guests a good sniff. It was really a breathtaking experience.

24 May 2009

As it goes in the bush, you might track something for hours and not find anything as was the case today when searching for the elusive leopard. We were fortunate enough to come across two warthog mating. We also saw two serval and one African Wildcat which made it all worthwhile.

23 May 2009

What is more exciting than to witness a lion kill? We found a pride of lions and while the females went off hunting we stayed and observed the large male. We heard a wildebeest crying which caught the males attention and he went off after it while we followed. The male then proceeded to steal the kill from the females. He grabbed it and shook it once or twice snapping its neck instantly! The male dragged the dead wildebeest into thicker bushes and had his dinner. Well, the females was not very impressed and remained hungry for the evening...

21 May 09

Two very large male buffaloes visited the pan infront of the lodge today. They are also known as "dagga boys" due to the mud normally stuck to their bosss. It also refers to matured and large males.

14 May 2009

Once again we saw a large herd of buffalo. This time they were snorting and were very restless because they came across a cheetah family. The female cheetah and two of her cubs managed to escape but unfortunately the other cub got caught in the herd and was killed. Africa showed its cruel side and it was a sad moment for all of us.
Besides the above experience, we also got to see all the cats in one drive and the elephants huddled around the vehicle - an amazing experience.

9 May 2009

We saw two female cheetahs just relaxing after having an Impala meal and afterward we found a female leopard sleeping under a tree. About 5 minutes later a male leopard showed up and we followed him down the road. He eventually lay down right next to the vehicle.
The buffalo are also more visible now and we viewed another herd while on drive.

4 May 2009

Today we saw a very relaxed female leopard in the riverbed, 2 hyena cubs at the den site, a huge buffalo herd, two female balck rhinos browsing and then also a beautiful male boomslag in a small tree! All in a days work...

3 May 2009

Today we saw a very large African Rock Python cross the road. This snake is a constricter and not agressive and actually a beautiful sight but it was difficult convincing the guests...
It was bautiful viewing a herd of elephant drinking water in the morning mist, it made it seem very unreal.

30 April 2009

This morning we came across a female and male leopard together. It might be a mating pair...
We were surrounded by a whole herd of buffalo today. We were definately more intimidated by them than they by us.
We stopped next to a dam wall where a big herd of elephant approached us and drank some water. Some of the younger bull were nudging each other. The one female was so close to the vehicle that every time she brought the water to her mouth with her trunk, we got a little water too!

26 April 2009

Back for another sighting at the Hyena den today, the cubs were very playful and quite curious of the vehicle.
The female leopard lounging in the V of a tree was picture perfect!
Two white rhinos passed our early morning coffee stop for a leisurely stroll.

17 April 2009

We came up close and personal with a black rhino today and true to form he became irritated and stomped away eventually.
No need to go on a game drive if the cheetah makes herself at home on your front lawn. She eventually got up to chase some Impala. It was really a wonderful experience.
Keep watching this space. We will soon be able to view the new Cheetah cubs with their mom.

13 April 2009

We have had really good leopard sightings lately. Today we saw a female leopard hight up in a tree with an Impala kill. It was a real from-a-magazine-sighting!
One of the most wonderful experiences is being close to a male lion roaring. The sound reverberates into your soul and it just cannot be explained. You have to experience this for yourself.
The hyenas are already quite a rare sighting but to view them with their cubs was amazing. The cubs are very inquisitive and love to investigate the vehicle.

9 April 2009

The leopard sighting has been amazing lately especially if you can view 3 different leopards in one morning. After about 45 minutes we reluctantly left the last sighting.

8 April 2009

We found a crash of nine white rhino together. We managed to get in the middle of them and watched as they were feeding around the vehicle.
We also saw two side striped jackels on our evening drive.

6 April 2009

Shortly after leaving the lodge we saw a lot of vultures perched in some trees, on closer inspection we found two male cheetahs on an Impala kill. This proves that when we follow the signs of the wild, it will definately lead to good sightings.
Afterh viewing the cheetahs we found the female leopard that was still on the impala kill from the previous day.
While on our way back to the lodge, we found the pride of lions as well!

5 April 2009

Today we saw a leopard on an Impala kill, this is always an amazing thing to view.
While we were about to have breakfast we were joined by a large herd of buffalo that came to drink water at the drinking hole at the lodge. The best breakfast I ever had!

2 April 2009

Exciting News! Our second female cheetah has now given birth to about six cubs. They are approximately 3 or 4 days old. The sighting is temporarily closed as viewing them at such a young age put a lot of stress on them and the mother. We will be able to view them when they are about two or three months old. Watch this space, we will keep their progress updated!

29 March 2009

We saw a young female leopard and followed her for about 20 minutes while she was walking down the road. It was wonderful locating her again after she has been gone for about four months prior to that.

28 March 09

Once again we saw the three big cats in one drive (leopard, cheetah and lion). It was absolutely amazing.
One of the best sightings ever: We watched a big herd of about 40 elephants for over an hour. They were wrestling with each other, trying to mount each other and just playing in general, it was absolutely amazing! As we were about to leave, a young bull rubbed himself against the vehicle.
We also encountered the female cheetah and her three cubs on a walk. The cubs are now almost fully grown.

27 March 2009

Today we viewed a male leopard at leisure for about 30 minutes. He passed by the vehicle within two meters.

25 March 2009

Today was an eventful day. We saw all the big cats in one drive! The male leopard was spotted in the riverbed, he passed directly behind our vehicle and even stiffed at the back tyre.
While our ranger explained an uprooted tree to us, we were amazed at a herd of Impala rushing past and knew something was up. Well, we were very surprised when a female cheetah ran past and killed a young impala right in front of our vehicle. It was a really awesome sighting.
Before we arrived back at the camp, a female lion was perched high in a tree with a male lion waiting below. He obviously didnt get the message!

20 March 2009

While we were having our sundowners in the bush, a whole herd of buffalo came charging past only to be seen later at the lodges waterhole.
One of the buffalo calves became dinner to some lions the previous night. There was not much of the carcass left the next morning.

15 March 2009

The herd of elephant were wondering around the camp for two days making for very beautiful viewing from the lookout deck.
It was very gratifying finding a large female leopard after taking quite some time to search for her, the ranger and tracker team deserved it.
We were also lucky to see two white rhinos strolling side by side in the middle of the road, they were very relaxed and we took beautiful pictures.

11 March 2009

We viewed a large elephant bull but it was clear that we were not welcome so the ranger thought it wise to rather leave him in peace.

9 March 2009

Today we saw a young elephant bull chase a warthog around creating quite a bit of fun and also amusing our guests...
Dont play with your food is not a lesson taught in the bush. We saw a lioness play with a baby duiker, even teasing the other lionesses with him. Unfortunately the duiker was eventually killed and eaten.

4 March 2009

The herd of elephant was at the lodges waterhole today with two little calves. It is amuzing to see them struggling to use their trunks to draw water.

6 February 2009

The cheetah female with her three cubs are still doing very well and they are very relaxed on game walks, making for a wonderful experience.

4 February 2009

Probably never to be repeated again! Seven white rhinos together and all of them sleeping. This was a really, really wonderful sighting!

1 February 2009

The herd of elephant decided to take a closer look at Shumbalala today and blessed us with their presence in the riverbed and at the waterhole. What magnificent animals they are!

27 January 2009

The leopard visited the lodges waterhole today - this is of course always wonderful to view.

26 January 2009

The elephant sighting are more regular now that the herd has moved back to the north again.
We also saw a female leopard on a warthog kill which was really very special to see.

23 January 2009

Today we saw a leopard on a buffalo calf kill. What makes this sighting so interesting is that leopard will normally not kill buffalo but rather smaller animals such as Impala etc.

20 January 2009

What a wonderful surprise to see the leopard and her cubs on a game walk!
How do one convey the feeling you experience when an african lions roar echoes through your soul? It is impossible!

17 January 2009

It was amazing to see a whole herd of buffalo bossing each other around for a chance to drink water.
The leopard female camouflages herself very well in the tall grass - if it wasnt for our experienced tracker who saw the movement, we might have missed her.
Who needs more game driving if you can view the cheetah female with her three cubs happily devouring an Impala carcass in camp?

14 January 2009

A classic sighting of a leopard in a tree welcomed us on this game drive making for excellent photographs.
The Monwana flowed for the second time this season after we received another 100mm of rain in the past two days. Once again this made off roading impossible but two cheetah males accommodated us by walking in the road infront of the vehicle.

10 January 2009

We had such wonderful interaction once again with the female cheetah and her three cubs. The cubs were even climbing onto the side skirting of the vehicle before getting into a tree.
After this we held our breaths while four female lions unsuccesfully chased down a nyala.
The leopard also made its presence know in and around the camp by leaving clear footprints as evidence.

8 January 2009

A baby white rhino, aproximately 5 months old, was joyfully playing and rolling in the mud whilst its mom was keeping a watchful eye over him.

7 January 2009

Today we viewed the female leopard on an Impala kill, 2 to 3 meters from the vehicle.

6 January 2009

It is exciting being in the African bush amidst the luxury that Shumbalala offers whilst not being inhibited by fences. The lions walked right through the camp grounds while we were sleeping, leaving only their tracks...

4 January 2009

After tracking the lions for most of the afternoon, they surprised us on our way back to the lodge. Two of the females climbed into the tree next to us making us realize that we are not always at the top of the foodchain!

3 January 2009

Three kinds of large cats were the order of they day. We saw the Lion, Leopard and the Cheetah today, their grace and elegance is admirable.

28 December 2008

The normally dry Monwana river directly in front of the lodge was flowing after receiving 100mm of rain overnight. What a beautiful sight!
Just to make sure our guests understand that their fairytale visit is also an exciting reality, our vehicle got stuck in the mud and the ranger eventually had to call for assistance. To conserve the bush, no off-roading is allowed when the roads are wet but the game viewing was still very good and the baby Wildebeest and Impala are everywhere.

25 December 2008

In Africa we replace reindeer with leopard. This female leopard was spotted directly in front of one of the rooms in camp, she later drank water at the waterhole in front of the camp during dinner and again the next day! We also saw 50 to 60 vultures on a giraffe carcass and the lions were forced to move off. The cheetah cubs are getting big and their mom now has to hunt every second day. This is an African Christmas that will remain in our hearts and visit our thoughts for many years to come.

21 December 2008

Shumbalala special: View the big five in one drive! It happens more often than you think. The herd of buffalo were lying in the waterhole, trying to cool down. We followed the big leopard male for about 20 minutes an we saw four female lions on a young giraffe kill, to name but the best of this wonderful sighting.

14 December 2008

Be one of the few people in the world to view lions mating - visit Shumbalala! A herd of curious buffalo passed by while we were having our sundowners during the game drive stop.

13 December 2008

A striped jackal posed for a photo opportunity before it ran off into the bush.

12 December 2008

Getting into the Christmas feeling, we were offered the gift of the big five in one drive!

11 December 2008

We had awesome interaction with some elephants today. The breeding females who were possibly oestrus presented themselves to the big bull. Unfortunately he played hard to get preferring to sleep! We spent an hour on this beautiful sighting and was sorry to leave. We also viewed lions trying to hunt warthog but as is mostly the case, they were over eager and missed. The evening drive was succesfully ended with another sighting of the female cheetah and her cubs shortly before nightfall.

10 December 2008

Black rhino, leopard and cheetah was in the order of todays drive, making for very satisfied guests.

9 December 2008

Unlike the previous week, we had to track down the black rhinos but found them after about an hour. The leopard remained elusive and after some hard tracking, we threw in the towel when we ran out of time.

7 December 2008

A young kudu became the perfect dinner for the cheetah with her cubs. They are growing up and their mom has to supply them with more food. The bush abounds with new arrivals! The baby impalas, warthogs, wildebeest, zebra etc playfully enjoys the lush vegetation brough on by the summer rains.

6 December 2008

We all stayed sitting down while a herd of elephants seemed to play ring-a-rosies around our vehicle. We also saw the cheetah female with her three cubs on an impala kill, it is wonderful to know that they are still prospering with good health. We tracked the female lions for two and half hours today, only to find a big male lion instead.

3 December 2008

A black rhino decided to join us with our sundown stop in the bush. A large herd of buffalo drank water in the pan at the lodge. There was a large herd of elephants around the vehicle with our afternoon game drive. What a privilege to be so close to these giants.

29 November 2008

Todays excitement was a leopard on an Impala kill and the Cheetah female was spotted again with her cubs. They had a wonderful time playing underneath the vehicle! We also spotted the feared black mamba crossing the road but decided to keep our distance on this one...

26 November 2008

What an amazing sighting - a hyena was playing with a pangolin! Two leopards, a large herd of buffalo, five white rhinos, two black rhinos and four lions to list but a few for todays afternoon drive!

23 November 2008

"Thanks for lunch" says the two female lions to the leopard after discovering the leopards impala kill high up in a marula tree. The black rhino came closer for a vehicle inspection, sniffing the tyres. The bush is beautifully lush and green after another 20mm of rain.

20 November 2008

We met the white and the black rhino on an educational today during the same sighting, making the differences between the two easy to see. Four buffalo bulls came to drink water at the pan at the lodge, joining the guests for breakfast. This made for all the big five passing by the lodge during the past six weeks!

19 November 2008

We found a female leopard having lunch with an Impala.... The Impala was the lunch! We also saw a great elephant bull no more than five meters from the vehicle busy measuring his weight against a tree - the elephant won.

18 November 2008

The cheetah with her three cubs was being tracked for about 2 hours today when we came upon her by chance during our drive. What a surprise!

16 November 2008

The black rhinos are seen very often on the game drives in general as well as at the lodge.

15 November 2008

We were involved with a stand-off with a herd of elephant today and to our relief, the elephants backed down first... We tracked a male leopard during a game walk but he seemed to be as elusive as ever. However, we were lucky to spot him on the afternoon drive.

14 November 2008

A male lion came for a quick site inspection while the guests had breakfast and sauntered on when he found that standards were still kept at a high. The Black Rhino sightings has been awesome and this was proven by a female who came touching distance to the vehicle.

11 November 2008

While viewing White Rhino at a sighting, the nearby Impalas became very agitated. We soon realized this was not due to the Rhino but a large Leopard male about 30m behind the Rhinos!

4 November 2008

What an awesome sighting - we saw a leopard relaxing in a tree shortly after a failed attemp at hunting. The long awaited first rains also started falling, recording a full 17mm. This is also the time of the year when young are being born, proven by a 3-day old giraffe calf. We were surrounded by 200-300 buffalo, moving towards the dam for a mud wallow and a drink.

1 November 2008

The leopard sightings has been very good in the last few days. Arriving back at camp, we spotted a leopard walking through the unfenced camp on one of the pathways between the rooms on the way to the waterhole at the camp. We have also spotted the Black Rhinos often lately.

28 October 2008

Our afternoon game drive got off to a good start with a male lion drinking water at the lodges waterhole shortly before departure. The gamedrive finished off with a very sucessful sighting of the leopard on the prowl after dark.

26 October 2008

The herd of elephants are visiting Shumbalala more often while four ground hornbills came close to the lodge for an inspection. The cheetah female was seen on an Impala kill with her three cubs again. They are growing up very fast.

21 October 2008

We saw a female leopard on an Impala kill, a short 3m away from the vehicle making for wonderful photographic opportunities.

20 October 2008

A big male lion came to bid us goodnight at the pan infront of the lodge just before the guests went to bed.

18 October 2008

What a fenominal evening drive! On the way back to camp, we sighted a leopard, lion on the prowl, an aardvark which is a very rare sighting, a honeybadger and a white tailed mongoose. It was awesome.

17 October 2008

What a sighting! A pride of lions killed a buffalo. The one male and four females could barely move from overeating. After that we also saw the endangered black rhino with a six month old calf. He was so inquisitive, he came right up to the vehicle for inspection.

15 October 2008

The female Cheetah and her three cubs are still amusing the guests, playing with one another and even running underneath the vehicle.

14 October 2008

While we were tracking a herd of elephant, we were fortunate to bump into a male leopard. He took us trough some very dense bush and in an effort to keep up with him, our tracker had to do some serious directing from the tracker seat.

13 October 2008

On the early morning drive it was reported that there was a leopard in a tree. Upon our arrival she was moving again, much to the disappointment of the guest. But as it is in the bush, things can change swiftly... she launched herself into another tree and proceeded to lie in the V, posing beautifully.

The cheetah with the cubs killed again, this time a duiker. Two of the cubs were investigating the kill while the other one was playing with the shell of a long demised giant african snail.

11 October 2008

At Shumbalala "where the lions sleep" they also do the wake-up call! We were roared out of bed at 5am by a big male lion directly in front of the lodge in the riverbed. He obviously concurred with the rest of the animal kingdom for an eventful day ahead.

We were not disappointed. We found a very relaxed leopard at a duiker kill, we viewed her at leisure, taking many beautiful pictures home.

Snakes also get thirsty. We spotted a 4m rock python drinking water at the lodges waterhole. This is not a very common sighting.

10 October 2008

We sighted a white rhino with a month old calf. The inquisitive calf approached the vehicle to investigate but with a grunt the two ton mother recalled the little nosy parker.

We also admired the beauty of a female cheetah. She was devouring a duiker carcass. She was sent off into the darkness when a lion made himself known with a loud roar close by.

A majestic elephant bull spent some time at the waterhole in front of the lodge, taking his time in almost depleting the pan.

8 October 2008

Today we had the awesome privilege to experience the giants of Africa up close. A herd of elephants surrounded the vehicle as we sat silently observing them until they passed. Time stood still as day turned to dusk.

5 October 2008

We saw a black mamba today. It is one of the most feared snakes in the world and not very seldom seen.

We were awed by the beauty of a female leopard seen resting on top of an antheap, surveying the savannah.

A curios leopard heard about our well renowned game drive snacks and came closer for inspection. It brought the thought home that we are the visitors and this is their world to be appreciated and respected.

1 October 2008

This was an exciting day! First we were fortunate to view the female cheetah with her cubs again, this time with another successfull impala kill. Returning from this special game drive we were welcomed by four lionesses playing and drinking water from the waterhole while the guests were having breakfast.
As if this was not enough to satisfy any guest, an old male lion made his appearance at the pan while our guests were enjoying their dinner. Not to be left out of the dinner planning, he later hunted a baby zebra about 60m away from the honeymoon suite and subsequently dragged it deeper into the riverbed.

26 September 2008

We were very fortunate to experience an encounter with a very curious black rhino who came right up to the vehicle within touching distance! To our surprise, another black rhino decided to join us for our sundowner drinks a while later. That of course, was the end of our Gin and Tonic.

21 September 2008

An awsome sighting of a female cheetah with her three cubs at an impala kill. The cubs were pouncing around and stalking one another, really adorable but necessary playful practice for real life.

20 September 2008

A huge herd of buffalo joined us while we were having our sundowners. There was approximately 150 buffalo in this herd. What a spectacular sighting!

To top it off, we also saw a female white rhino with her 1 month old calf drinking water at one of the dams.

19 September 2008

On this beautiful afternoon, we saw a newly born giraffe. His legs seemed extra long and the tufts of hair on his horns gave him a very peculiar look.

The "lions share" got a new meaning when four lions tried to feed off a warthog kill.

We were also very privileged to view a rare sighting of an Antbear sniffing the ground for ants.

17 September 2008

Our patience and anticipation was awarded briefly after spending three hours in the bush, tracking the elusive leopard.

However, as a reward, we later saw the Cheetah female with her cubs again. They were very relaxed and were walking in the road, directly in front of the vehicle.

14 September 2008

Just as we were enjoying our first cup of coffee for the day, even before departing on our early morning game drive, four female lions decided to have their first drink of the day at the waterhole in front of the camp too. Also hungry, they then killed a bushbuck directly behind one of the Superior Suites. And this was only the beginning of our day!

It only got better! A little later we saw the Cheetah mom with her three cubs. This is the first time they were observed. The cubs were 2 months old and ready to play. Their mom lay patiently while they tugged at her ears, jumped at her tail and then chased each other around and over her body. This was so special, a memory to treasure...

10 September 2008

Africa in action! We were viewing three lionesses hunting a Black Rhino. Two of the females jumped on the Rhinos back trying to pull it down. Fortunately for the Rhino he managed to throw them off. The stand-off continued for about two hour before the lions admitted defeat and left.

7 September 2008

Tonight during dinner we were entertained not by our host so much as by three male lions. They drank water at the waterhole in front of the camp and then made themselves heard by roaring continuously for about two hours! What an amazing experience.

4 September 2008

The big 5 in one drive! This very rarely happens and we were of the privileged few to experience it. We even got to see the endangered black rhino.

1 September 2008

We were viewing a herd of Elephants when our tracker spotted a twigsnake (or vinesnake) in a dry sickelbush next to our vehicle. The extremely well camouflaged twigsnake has a highly potent hemotoxic venom.