The last two weeks of winter are hardly over and already the weather is starting to get nice and hot. It almost feels as if spring has bypassed us and we’ve been thrown headlong into summer! Not that we’re complaining mind you, we’re all too pleased now that the last of the cold weather is behind us.
It will still be a while before we see any rain though, and the bush is getting dryer and dryer by the day. The animals are spending a lot more time around the waterholes a lot more as a result. This makes for great viewing, as it is not uncommon to find a huge herd of buffalo or elephants hanging out at the waterhole that sits directly in front of our lodge.
Over the past couple of weeks the game viewing has been awesome. We’ve enjoyed some great predator interactions, and leopard sightings have also been particularly phenomenal. The other day was a perfect example. We were watching a herd of zebra when Debeer (one of our trackers) heard impala alarm calling in the distance, so we went to investigate.
We quickly discovered what all the commotion was about. Ntima (one of our female leopards) had killed a grey duiker and hoisted it up a tree. Soon after positioning ourselves, we noticed another leopard under the tree. It was Mafufenyane (one of our males), and he was sitting with a nice warthog that he’d just killed. We’d just repositioned ourselves in order to get a better view of him, when Safari (another female leopard) was spotted watching the other two!
Three adult leopards, two with kills, and all within 15 metres of one another. Wow, it was madness out there!
Especially when you consider that leopards are by nature solitary animals, so seeing something like that was extremely rare and special. When we returned later that afternoon we found Safari high up in a tree with Emsagwen (another big male leopard) just below her.
In the end he stole Ntima’s duiker kill and all the other leopards moved off.
Both Ntima and Karula (another of our female leopards) have been mating over the last few weeks, so hopefully we will have little ones from one or both of them soon. They need to be careful however, because we watched on two separate nights as they were chased up trees by the Styx pride of lionesses. Fortunately both of them were smart enough to stay well out of reach.
Lions viewing has been equally good. The Majingilanes (the new coalition of four young males) are walking more confidently in our area now. We have seen them quite often with the Styx lionesses, although we have yet to see them mating. In fact it has been quite comical at times, as some of the boys are not yet sure what to make of these ladies who are throwing themselves at their feet. The Tsalala pride has been around for a few days as well, and it’s good to see that six of their youngsters are still alive (including one of the young males we originally thought was dead).
The large herbivores have been around in abundance, with large herds of elephants and buffalo moving through the area. Rhino have also been quite prominent lately, with groups of up to six being seen (including a few cows with calves).
One very special sighting we had the other day was of a giraffe cow giving birth. We found her just as the little guy’s legs started showing. It was incredible to watch the cow endure wave after wave of contractions, and then arching her back and neck as she gave birth. After the initial struggle to get the head out, gravity took over and the calf had a massive five foot drop to the ground. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stay with her until the calf was up and mobile, but we have seen the baby since and are happy to report that it’s doing very well.
Even though the dry season is set to be with us for another few weeks yet, we are all looking forward to the sightings the bush will hopefully share with us.
We hope to see you soon!
Warm regards
Ryan & Debeer, Andre & Chris, Phil & Rifos, John & Roy 
