Mike and Maggie stayed with us in January this year, and they had a great time.
And, as an excellent example of how an African safari hones one’s eyes in new ways, they spotted a statue of a dung beetle all the way back home in Idaho (US). This might have escaped their eyes previously, but no more!
Very kind to share this with us! 🙂 it made me chuckle. Very cool.
A couple of days ago, it was (again) one of those special days. Those days used to be rather rare, but they happen now more than once a week actually, and in terms of what I post here, that’s only about a tenth of what we actually see. If I posted all rare and large animals we see here, on a daily basis, then that would be quasi a full time job.
The sighting quality and frequency has been off the chart over recent weeks. There are several explanations for this, one of which of course is the additional 2 game drivers we have now operating on the reserve, giving us a lot more intelligence about the whereabouts of the various species, but then there is also, quite frankly, quite a lot more of them around. This is true for cheetahs, elephants, leopards, and quite a few others. There is talk of the introduction of two more male cheetahs, so there is yet another massive success story coming here. We have a female cheetah on the reserve who has reared successfully a few times (we have seen her with a new cub several times now), so the news is encouraging there too. The way things are going, with our very regular sightings of cheetahs, I would say that we have become the go-to reserve if you want to see cheetahs, especially up-close. That is something we are proud of here, because many reserves “produce” lion sightings, but to have cheetahs, that’s a completely different ball park altogether.
Speaking of cheetahs, we saw them again a couple of days ago. Uyai managed some nice photos, which he has just forwarded to me. So nice to share them with you!
It would be very reasonable to consider this safari a great success, but more was to come. White rhinos! So two of the world’s rarest animals seen in one single day. Our guests were spoilt that day, and that’s an understatement.
Our rhinos will be de-horned (again) in a few weeks, in order to maintain their poaching value at zero. It is sad that this has to be done, but it is one of the most effective ways of preventing poaching. And it is expensive too! So all visits by our guests are directly supporting rhino conservation, and for that I would like to extend our sincere thanks to our past and future guests.
It is always a pleasure to spot one of these highly endangered animals. It is impossible to gauge the size of these animals, but trust me: they are MUCH bigger than they appear to be on the photos I share here. They weigh up to 2 tons (ie. the weight of a small truck, or about 10 times the weight of a cow), and it shows. These are some of the world’s most massive and strongest animals, so it is a sight you will never forget. Guaranteed.
