Gilles and I headed out a couple of days ago for some footage of whatever game we could possibly find. We chose to go earlier, so that we could radio back any good locations to Jesse, who was going to go out with our guests.

We arrived at the Porcupine Lake, which is one of the prettiest lakes we have, in fact I think it probably is our “signature lake”. George, the croc, is also usually there, as well as hippos. Gilles took some photos and we then headed over the the Catfish Lake, to see what is going on there.

And, as so often when you are not expecting anything, Themba spotted a huge male leopard at the ridge of the lake as soon as we got there. Wow! I haven’t seen a leopard myself in a very, very long time (as I do not go out often, I miss out on the best). We were all ecstatic. Gilles got some serious footage of the leopard, and we took lots of photos. He was lying there for about 15 minutes, without a worry in the world, and then started hiding in the thick grass next to the lake, getting ready to hunt prey. One could still see his massive head poking out of the grass. 10 minutes later Jesse turned up with our guests, and they enjoyed this beautiful sighting. For them it was the cherry on the cake, as they had seen all else: elephants, lions, cheetahs, rhinos …

 

… it just feels good to post what we have seen in one single day, to give you an idea of what is possible. It isn’t as good as yesterday quite every day (but often enough!), but we have had quite a few guests as of late who have been on safari in other countries or reserves, and they let us know that they were stunned by the quality of the sightings. Well, the following photos taken yesterday are testimony to their judgement: sleeping cheetah, resting lion, a jackal, zebras and elephants. And that is by far not all! But it is not all about spotting these animals, it is about how long and how well our guests get to observe them, and that’s where we excel over here. There are only a maximum of 3 game drivers on a reserve of 36,000 acres, so our sightings are undisturbed, which is a fresh and good change from what one experiences on many other reserves. No Formula 1 safaris here! It is a truly exclusive safari experience here. And things will stay that way.

Now, enough said, here the photos!

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.

We had a wonderful elephant sighting a couple of days ago: two elephants taking a break and drinking at a water hole. It was such luck for the guests to witness such a “postcard” event, and that so close-up.

The 2 elephants (one a mother, the other a relatively young offspring) were very kind to each other, and clearly enjoyed the refreshment.

The elephant herd is not always together, they sometimes split into 2 groups, and join each other again some days later on. This is a behavior that is being studied in Africa, as the social fabric of elephant herds is very complex. So much is still to be learnt about them.

While elephants are in general not acutely under threat anymore, several sub-species (if they are, there is controversy there) are now under very imminent danger of extinction, mainly in Western Africa. That’s a criminal shame!

Our elephant herd is doing very well, and has been growing in size over the years. We are quite close to introducing a further 10 elephants to the reserve, as we need more grazers. Elephants are paramount in “clearing” the bush, making space for more bio-diversity, and more hunting opportunities for rare carnivores. Nature is one circle, if you take on element out, it has knock-on effects throughout the entire ecosystem.

Soooo … here the photos! Enjoy! 🙂

I will hand Uyai a new camera in a few days, so the quality of the shots will improve in the near future.