Greetings from Arathusa!
It’s that time of the month again where we let everyone know about the happenings in and around the bush. Morning and afternoon game drives have been really awesome over the past couple of weeks. Morning drives tend to start out a lot cooler than in January as we see the seasons slowly start to change.
Afternoon drives begin at a slower pace with most of the animals taking to thick and shady bushes. Considering that temperatures at that time of the day are still around 35+ degrees Celsius mark it’s no wonder.
The afternoon drives have proven to be very productive as the guides generally head in the direction of the well known water holes and smaller pans where large numbers of old buffalo bulls cooling down have been spotted.
Elephants are also frequently seen having an afternoon drink and swim in the big dams in the late afternoon. The youngsters are very entertaining to watch as they climb on the older members’ backs and then splash into the water again. Much of the time only a trunk is visible above the water, which is used as a snorkel.
Leopard sightings have been exceptional with sightings on almost every game drive. The well known male leopard, Mafufenyane, was seen on one morning game drive successfully hunting and killing a sub-adult warthog right on our airstrip – just two minutes drive from the lodge. After killing the warthog he dragged it over the airstrip into a bush and fed on it for about four days. There have also been a lot of good sightings of Salayexe and her youngsters as well as Ntima and her two cubs, who are slowly but surely getting accustomed to the vehicles.
Rhino sightings have also been good. A small group have been frequenting the pan on the airstrip almost every afternoon. We sometimes have to work extremely hard to track down the rhinos, with our trackers regularly having to go in to thick bush on foot to find these elusive animals.
Lion sightings in the area have been very good too, with the Tsalala pride seen quite often around our western neighbour’s airstrip. They were seen during one morning drive feeding on a blue wildebeest – with five hyenas waiting in the wings for their turn to clean up around the carcass.
The Styx pride has also been seen in the area, but there have unfortunately been no big or dominant males. We hope they will return in the near future as these majestic cats are sorely missed from our sightings.
We hope to see you soon.
Warm regards from the team at Arathusa Safari Lodge.
