Misty morning sunrise – Robin Hester
Sunday
We headed on drive this beautiful morning and we stopped on a big open area, enjoying the sunrise. There were a number of lion tracks about, so we decided to follow them. After 15 minutes of tracking, we came upon the lions – it was the Styx pride, and they looked primed for the hunt. After a number [...]
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A group of guests from Australia visited Arathusa last month. During their visit, Dave Powry – from Sabi Sands Game Reserve, was at the lodge to deliver a presentation on the rhino horn infusion procedure, a massive initiative undertaken by the Sabi Sands Game Reserve to help combat rhino poaching. Among the group was Mark Maxwell, of McLaren Vale Winery and Vineyards. Mark was so moved by what he heard, that he offered to sponsor the darting [...]
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Elephants at the waterhole – Robin Hester
Sunday
We tracked the Fourways pride this morning and found them on the move in new and unfamiliar territory. Because they have never been so far west before, we believed that the three young males were being pushed, either by another pride or, more likely, by the Mtimbas. The pride members looked slim and hungry and, as we watched, they stalked and [...]
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The camp at dusk
Ken Arkley and his wife, Liz, visited Arathusa recently. He shares his experience – and a video he produced of his trip – with us…
“For years, before digital video, I had been playing with video as a hobby. As you know a lot of it is in the editing, which is time consuming to say the least! I only do things that my heart [...]
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Elephant at sunrise – Robin Hester
Sunday
This Morning we came across the male leopard, Mvula on patrol, and then noticed Xivambalana, a younger male leopard, trailing him. Then, on closer inspection we saw a third leopard! It was Ntima, the leopardess. Xivambalana eventually lost interest in Mvula, and took a keen interest in Ntima. She had recently lost her cubs, which had brought her [...]
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Elephants enjoying the water – Suzan Simoneau
Sunday
This morning we were eager to get out after all the rain yesterday. Our first sighting was of a herd of elephants. As we were driving, we came across the male leopard, Xivambalana. He was walking in circles, sniffing as he went – we can only surmise that he was on the trail of [...]
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Sunrise – Ryan Johnston
I awoke with an empty feeling in my stomach. I knew it would be the last time that I would drive out into the Northern Sabi Sands. I got some consolation from the fact that the sunrise was awesome, which is common for this time of the year, but other than that [...]
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Image by Robin Hester
Sunday
This morning while looking for cats we came across a large herd of elephants. We also discovered a dead kudu bull with a couple of hyenas feeding on it. We were watching them when one of our dominant male leopards, Tingana, appeared out of nowhere and began cautiously observing the hyenas. We are not sure how the kudu was killed, but it was possible [...]
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Female leopard Salayexe – Susan Simoneau
Sunday
We headed out this morning on the lookout for lions and decided to check our southern boundary to see if we could find any tracks. We came across plenty of zebra and wildebeest but it seemed that none of the large cats had made their way over our boundary. Further to the east though, a large herd of [...]
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Salayexe playing with her cub – Susan Simoneau
Sunday
We were in for another great week full of surprises.
First we found tracks of the Breakaway female lions heading away from where they had been hunting the night before. We followed them into the north of our property and located them near a waterhole. It was obvious from their fat bellies that they had killed the night before, [...]
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