Our lion pride is surprisingly relaxed, despite the fact that they have 3 cubs (that’s extremely exciting news!!), and they allow us to get as close as one can imagine it. We don’t want to “annoy” them, of course! We are, after all, guests in their environment, but nonetheless, you will be able to take really up-close photos of them, and you can observe them going about their lives in freedom and in their natural habitat.

Lions tend to sleep up to 22 hours within 24 hours, so one could call them “lazy”. But at night they can be very active, and indeed, as many of their preys find out, very deadly. But don’t think lions are only active at night! We have seen our pride of lions make a kill right in the middle of the day.

With the way we go out on safari game drives, in the mornings and late afternoons into the night, you can see these animals both at daytime, and also nighttime. And that’s really exciting. Yesterday we saw them twice in one day, once at night and once in the day. Very cool photos! Many thanks to Uyai for the continued good work on the photo material, he’s turning out quite the photographer. 🙂

I must say …. I am jealous. Our guests are enjoying the kind of sightings as of late that I would really love to experience myself, but I am just too busy. Joking aside: I am more than very pleased with what we are showing to our guests these days. It’s spectacular stuff, and some of it is VERY unique. Don’t get me wrong, you can see elephants on quite a few reserves. But to enjoy them so up-close, and in such a private setting, that’s very, very unusually exclusive. Special moments indeed … and then our cheetahs … that’s so unique, and rare, it isn’t even funny.

Yesterday, we tracked and found a White Rhino on Muruti as we were actually looking for the Cheetah.

Uyai picked up fresh tracks and pursued on foot – we found them not long after. They were on Caracal Road and had only walked a couple of meters when they decided it was time for a nap. Smack bang in the middle of the road they flopped down. We got some great photos. Lazy cats, and oh so beautiful. Just an amazing sort of sighting.

This morning we were on the hunt for elephants, and together with MRL guides we tracked and found them on the Eastern River Road. We sat with the herd for about 15 to 20 minutes just watching them browse. It was a great sighting for all of us. You can see on one photo how close-up you can be to these massive animals … and also how big they really are.

I particularly like the European Roller we saw. We have hundreds of beautiful species of birds on our reserve. Often overlooked, and yet totally fascinating. True African safari connoisseurs will be astonished about the sort of bird wildlife diversity we have here.

And yet again a great day: great weather, great set of guests, lovely atmosphere, and amazing sightings to throw in.

Today, Themba and Uyai tracked the Elephants and found them West of Jackal Plains. They were moving about in the Riverbed and we took some great shots of them. Some of our guests couldn’t wait to see our herd of elephants, so the reward is all the more palpitating.

We tracked and found the Cheetahs on Leopard’s Bend, we approached them on foot as they were very relaxed. We spent some time watching them sleep and took some photos. You can also see some photos of the guests swatting ticks off themselves with Guarri bush, there were lots of laughters … no wonder, walking up to cheetahs. That’s the sort of experience you will just never forget.

 

Another two fantastic drives! Yesterday, we tracked and found the pride of Lions in the afternoon on the Essem clearing. They were pretty relaxed. We spent around 20 minutes with them, but no visual on the cubs … where were they? Survival rates of lion cubs are not high, so it’s always a very anxious moment in the first 3-4 months … not even 1 in 2 cubs ever makes it to adulthood. Lion cubs have many enemies.

So this morning we decided to track down the Lions again and success!! They had taken down a small Kudu and we saw the CUBS! It was the most adorable thing ever. They nibbled on the carcass – still pretty unsure of meat. The male was pretty relaxed with them but after a while he got annoyed and took the carcass to another spot to continue feeding. First things first!

We sat with the Lions for nearly 45 minutes! It really was just one of those very rare moments that not many people get to ever experience. One sees it one TV, of course, but to witness a “family” event, so up-close, for so long and in real, that’s really quite something … and pretty much only on a reserve as exclusive as this one.

And as if our day couldn’t get any better we saw Rhino on the way back to the lodge. Well … amazing day. What else can I say?

We had a great day yesterday! We initially set out to find the Cheetah, this was our main goal. As we set off
from the lodge we got Nyala and shortly after a Tower of Giraffe. A curious Warthog posed for some photos. Uyai picked up some fresh lion tracks and we set off determined to find them. We had to basically make a road through the thicket – but it all paid off! 😉

There they were lying in the dry river bed, being lazy lions as usual. We easily spent around 20 minutes with them.

On our way we saw a Rhino Bull and only managed two photos before he moved off. We drove to “Porcupine Dam” for a sundowner and caught a glimpse of one of the Crocs lying outside the water. Uyai managed some photos through the trees.

This morning we had no specific plan – but we were leaning towards finding the Cheetah again. And then we spotted FRESH elephant tracks! We have been looking for the herd for nearly a week now (which is very unusual!) So we decided to follow up! And, wow, did it pay off!! We spent close to an hour with the herd, watching them browse, the little one was very playful and provided us with some great photo opportunities. I especially like the one youngster who had a huge branch in his mouth, fooling around. Our guests were very, very happy, and I think it’s obvious why that is … a truly amazing day. And as always, it never quite turns out the way you planned it, over here, nature plans things for you. And that’s really nice actually, every day is totally different.

Uyai is back from leave! We started our morning with a Tsessebe when Uyai immediately picked up fresh Cheetah tracks. We found the two lazy boys on Leopards bend, they were already taking a nap in the morning. After the Cheetah we found some Black Backed Jackal – you can tell that winter is slowly creeping up on us as they were curled VERY snugly.

Uyai then picked up fresh Rhino tracks and we decided to investigate. We found a big Rhino bull that was wallowing in the mud. We watched him for a couple of minutes and then he decided to mark his territory – Uyai snapped some cool photos!

We stopped off for some coffee and took in the beautiful crisp morning with the Drakensberg in the background. Even Mr. Crocodile greeted us! How nice.