Photo of the Day
24th September Morning Drive
(Chad, Shaddy and Peter)
5 x lions (Jacaranda Pride – 4 males, 1 female with buffalo kill) – Mbali, Windy Way Link
2 x lions (Rockfig males with buffalo calf kill) – Java, Leopard Rock Hide
1 x leopard (Xiviti male killing duiker) – Peru, Francolin Pan
1 x leopard (skittish male) – Java, Western Cutline
2 x rhino
3 x elephant bulls – Java, Western Cutline
1 x elephant bull – Scholtz, Kudu Pan South
1 x breeding herd of buffalo – Peru, Sohebele Plains
1 x breeding herd of buffalo – Java, Java Access
7 x buffalo bulls – Motswari, Camp
24th September Afternoon Drive
(Chad, Barend and Peter)
5 x lions (Jacaranda Pride – 4 males, 1 female with buffalo kill) – Mbali, Windy Way Link
1 x leopard (Umfana male) – Masungulo, Western Cutline
2 x rhinos
1 x breeding herd of buffalo – Argyle, Crossing Below Argyle
1 x breeding herd of buffalo – Jaydee, Makulu Dam
1 x breeding herd of buffalo – Java, Western Cutline
3 x buffalo bulls – Motswari, Camp
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Peru, Lion Pan Rd
25th September Morning Drive
(Chad, Barend and Peter)
2 x lions (Rockfig males with buffalo calf kill) – Java, Leopard Rock Hide
1 x leopard (Xiviti male) – Peru, Sohebele Dam
4 x rhino
1 x rhino
1 x elephant bull – Mbali, Moeniejag Crossing
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Kings, Hyena Rd
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Kings, Rockfig Rd
25th September Afternoon Drive
(Chad, Shaddy, Barend and Herold)
2 x lions (Rockfig males) – Java, Leopard Rock Hide
2 x leopards(Xiviti male and Shongile) – Argyle, Argyle Dam
4 x rhino
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Jaydee, Makulu Rd
7 x buffalo – Motswari, Camp
26th September Morning Drive
(Chad, Shaddy, Barend and Herold)
2 x lions (Rockfig males with buffalo calf kill) – Mbali, Mbali Dam
1 x lion (young nomadic male) – Mbali, Mvubu Crossing
2 x lions (Mafikizolo females) – Peru, Klipgat Crossing
2 x rhino
1 x rhino
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Peru, Hippo Rocky Rd
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Peru, Goya Rd
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Masungulo, Jiga-Jiga Rd
7 x buffalo bulls – Motswari, Marula Pan
26th September Afternoon Drive
(Chad, Shaddy, Barend and Herold)
2 x lions (Rockfig males with buffalo calf kill) – Mbali, Mbali Dam
1 x lion (young nomadic male) – Mbali, Mvubu Crossing
3 x lions (Mafikizolo females with waterbuck kill) – Peru, Klipgat Crossing
3 x leopards (Nthombi and cubs with kill) – Masungulo, Western Nhlaralumi
1 x leopard (Umfana male killing warthog) – Java, Back of Java
2 x rhino
4 x rhino
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Java, Back of Java
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Peru, Mangwa Clearing
Daily Synopsis
Sorry for condensing the last three days of blog posts into one big post, but if I don’t do this, I will never catch up with the blogs!!!
The last few days have been pretty good, and our good run of game viewing continued unabated for the most part, with the abundant giraffes, kudus and Big 5 sightings still being a daily feature.
As far as I can remember, Tuesday started with sunrise, and ended with a sunset (cant go too wrong with that assessment?). Plopped in front of the sunrise was a journey of giraffes, and a bit further down the road we had impalas and a dazzle of zebras…and some tracks for the Jacaranda Pride on Kudu Pan Clearing, so Patrick set off tracking them as I bumbled about.
On my bumble, I came across a lone elephant bull and watched him as Patrick followed the tracks – at one point he thought that they had crossed the road on top of my vehicle tracks, but it wasn’t true, so we carried on following the tracks west towards an area where tracks for one male lion had been seen earlier – realizing that they tracks were for the same lions, we jumped ahead and found a hyena running around, and Patrick then spotted where the lions had been running; with a buffalo herd in the area, we thought we might be in luck, so off he went on foot again while I went to go and see some other animals.
While watching a great sighting of our baby rhino and his mother in the midst of a herd of buffalo, I got a radio call saying that the lions had been found on a buffalo kill, so after my sighting with Peter, I headed back to the area.
It was getting late in the morning and warming up, but one male was still tucking in to the adult buffalo that they had killed during the night while the other four lions rested nearby.
The lioness approached one of the males for a tender rub, but instead, all she got was a paw in the face!
Once they went to rest, we left them and passed some more giraffes, waterbuck and impala as we went to check up on Xiviti male leopard and his duiker kill; he was fast asleep behind a log, but did lift his head a couple of times to show himself, thus allowing us to tick off the Big 5 in one morning drive; not too bad!
My afternoon saw me getting some new guests, and a new start! It was a good one – we began with impalas, bushbuck, giraffe and a herd of buffalo coming to the Sohebele River to drink.
Checking the north, hoping to be able to go see Xiviti awake a bit later, we saw more giraffe and kudus along with impala and waterbuck.
Marka then found Umfana male leopard down south, so I took the decision to head down there, but as usual, the game started pitching up, making my trip a bit slower than I had hoped, but it was great to see more giraffes, waterbuck, impalas, and even track down the rhino and her calf for a short sighting before carrying on.
We arrived at Umfana as he was posing on a mound, but he soon decided to climb a false marula tree right next to us and went to rest high up on a large branch before we made space and went for a drink.
Heading back to the lodge, we stopped in at the lions and got to see three of the male lions as they fed on the buffalo carcass – again, it amazed me how quickly this pride consumes a buffalo; generally they can do it in less than 24 hours!!!
They are eating machines, so when we arrived the next morning, all we found were four hyenas and dozens of vultures finishing off the carcass that had been almost totally stripped clean! Quite amazing how efficient nature is at dealing with everything.
Despite there being a sighting of Xiviti not far from us, my mission was for elephants…surely it couldn’t be that hard to find a herd with some babies? Well, about an hour and a bit later we were 20km further south and eventually sitting with a herd – a stupidly long trip for elephants, but well worth it, especially with the tiny little baby that was amongst them, so we spent some quality time with them before moving back north for a cup of coffee (and another couple of elephant herds as well as a lone bull) before moving back to the lodge.
My afternoon was a chilled one, and began with us ticking off warthogs, impalas, waterbucks, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles and steenbuck around Argyle Dam as we looked for Xiviti male leopard with no luck. We had no sooner left the area when Shaddy said that he found Shongile female and Xiviti fighting on the rocks below Argyle Dam wall, right where I had just spent time watching the world go by! I went back, but we only managed a visual of Shongile lying on a rock, watching a hidden Xiviti – it was distant, but it was still a leopard!
The rest of my drive involved a lovely sundowner before going to Java to see the Rockfig male lions, but despite getting there at a good time, they were fast asleep and didn’t even lift their heads, so we headed back to the lodge, only seeing a hyena along the way.
Thursday was a bit of a quiet start to the day, but we still saw some more good lion sightings; I headed out west and ticked off the usual impalas, waterbuck, kudus, as well as a lovely tawny eagle perched on a fallen tree.
Finding tracks for a pride of lionesses, I began following as best I could without my tracker, and was making fair progress, and we bumped into a couple of groups of elephants as we went. It was while watching them that Petros (driving for our private camp) called to tell me that he had a young male lion, but could see other males nearby – I soon went to join him with the two Rockfig male lions, but it was a distant visual on the other side of the riverbed, but at least they were awake!
The lone male was the young nomad, and he was only 300m away from the bigger boys, but neither seemed aware of the other?
Petros then found the lions that I had been tracking, and confirming my initial suspicions, it was indeed the Mafikizolo Pride making a return. I managed to get access along the riverbed and had a good view of the two lionesses resting on top of a large rock on the riverbank.
My afternoon was a much better one, no doubt as I decided to leave my camera gear at home! It didn’t start off all that busy, due to the heat, but I had fresh tracks for the rhino and calf that Herold came to track, but sadly by the time he found her, I was already out the area – it wasn’t the worst thing, as I was sitting with a great herd of elephants that came and fed right next to us; one youngster was even touching the vehicle, and there was a tiny baby in the herd too!
After some time, we left to go and see Nthombi leopardess and her cubs that had been found on a kill, but Barend stayed with the elephants and got to see a leopard and a kill of his own; Umfana male killed a warthog not far away, and the squealing pig alerted Jacky to its location, so we all got to see leopards this afternoon.
My sighting was not too bad, and while the light was almost gone, we got to see one cub and then mom resting while the second cub was chewing on the carcass in a thicket (we could just hear it); we left them as it was getting late and carried on back north, having a wonderful sighting of four rhinos after they had just finished having a mudwallow in the riverbed. They were play fighting and making all sorts of noises as the last of the light left us.
We opted to skip drinks and go back and see the Mafikizolo lionesses, as during the day, they had killed a waterbuck in the same spot we saw them earlier, and got to see one of them feeding while the other two rested only a few metres from us – they were so relaxed I started doubting my own identification of them!
We carried on back to the lodge seeing genet and bushbaby, but not much else.
So, that is the last few days in a nutshell, and I promise to have one more post up before I go on leave, so see you back here again soon!