Fighting giraffes, rhino spa treatments and training lions

Nature is like life … a never-ending conveyor belt of activity … giraffes fight for domination over females (yep, we do that too, just in more subtle ways, and sometimes in less subtle ways if we are honest), young lions are learning the ropes of the “business” under the watchful of big daddy who thinks he knows it all, and rhinos … well, they have nothing to fear really (except humans of course), but as they are all well protected here, they can endulge in a relaxing mud bath, a proper spa treatment. And it’s all for free. 😉

The point of these mud baths is to cool down, and also “drown” the many ticks that are biting them. Once the mud has dried on the skin, it can be scratched off with the ticks and other parasites stuck in it. Clever trick. Lots of animals use this trick, and rhinos are no exception.

The photos below have been taken over the last 2 days, but it’s of course only a short selection of the dozens of animals we saw … frustrating in a way, but if you want to see it all … just come and visit! 🙂

"Necking" giraffes fighting out their differences
“Necking” giraffes fighting out their differences
Young lions fooling around ...
Young lions fooling around …
... I wouldn't annoy big daddy ...
… I wouldn’t annoy big daddy …
Now that's a chilled spa treatment. Enjoy!
Now that’s a chilled spa treatment. Enjoy!

Lion cub update

I personally know a thing or two about raising TWO little ones at the same time. It’s tough.

One of our lionesses is raising three … hats off!

And just as human toddlers, these three are busy, fooling around, fighting with each other, experimenting with all sorts of things. Luckily for her, it’s not for 20 years (let’s be honest, it’s usually for life!).

So these three cubs are now a little over half a year old or so, and we are all impressed that all three of them have made it, the mother has done a great job. They are all in good health, and it’s an immense privilege and pleasure for our guests to watch them.

We spotted them all yesterday, playing around in the Mbezi River. The serious part of life has clearly not begun … yet!

It will be interesting to see what will start happening once they reach maturity. What genders are they? Because if there is a male, then that one is in for a hiding from his dad … he will not tolerate a mature male competitor next to him. I will update you over the next months how the situation evolves. Last time they had 2 girls … so that made it easy (how ironic is that?). But what is it this time? Time will tell …

Lion cub
Lion cub

Chasing each other!
Chasing each other!
... mom's never far ...
… mom’s never far …

Finally back!

This must have been the longest absence from this blog probably ever.

Not that it reflects a lack of sightings over this time, totally to the opposite. In fact, I was planning on showing photos of all the animals we have seen over the last 10 days. But then I realised it would be far over 100 photos, and that’s just the animals we took a photo of, so I had to give up on that idea. It’s just too much, I’d be working on that blog the entire day.

I have been on a trip abroad to promote the lodge, and at the same time, we have never seen more bookings come in than this January. It’s phenomenal to see how the reputation of the lodge and the reserve has spread over the years, and after the many years of constantly improving things, we are now part of the top 10 lodges. And we will continue to improve and innovate, keeping all the aspects that people are telling us that they like it here for, and adding new things that might have been missing. If you stand idle, you actually regress, that’s what I feel is truer than ever.

So, let me show you some of the prettiest photos our tracker shot over the last couple of days, to get back into the swing of things! Feathers, furs and claws. It was all there!

Lioness
Lioness
Now that's a funny rhino photo!
Now that’s a funny rhino photo!
Young Giraffe
Young Giraffe
Spotted Eagle Owl - posing for our guests
Spotted Eagle Owl – posing for our guests
Close-up encounter will an elephant
Close-up encounter will an elephant
That's as pretty a Kingfisher you'll ever see
That’s as pretty a Kingfisher you’ll ever see

Action outside – action inside

Now that the summer season is in full swing, there is more wildlife activity than ever. At least it feels that way. There are more and more grazer babies everywhere – impala, wildebeest, zebras, … making predators very happy and their bellies very full. That’s the cycle of life, and this is a great time of year to see it all unfold, right in front of your eyes.

And when our guests come back from exciting game drives, the action continues at the lodge! Vusi, Kalmay, Rosie and everyone else of the kitchen staff are always busy surprising our guests with their hundreds of culinary exploits. And in a setting like this, it’s all smiles. most naturally. I don’t blame them! 🙂

Here the week’s most beautiful shots. There were hundreds, literally, so it took me a long while to narrow them down.

Spectacular cheetah sighting! Mother with her cubs!
Spectacular cheetah sighting! Mother with her cubs!
Elephant unusually up-close
Elephant unusually up-close
Wildebeest herd with calves
Wildebeest herd with calves
Lion pride!
Lion pride!
It's just a cute look ... but just a look.
It’s just a cute look … but just a look.
The pride of the pride!
The pride of the pride!
Vusi is all smiles - this guy is one of the stars in the kitchen
Vusi is all smiles – this guy is one of the stars in the kitchen

Attention - this is addictive!
Attention – this is addictive!

Quite a way to be kicking off 2016!

I received today a really kind email from George Johnson, who stayed with us in late 2015. I am always delighted to receive emails with feedback about our guests’ stay, and this one was glowingly positive, so that put an extra big smile on my face. What a way to kick off 2016!

George claims that “he is only a banker” as an excuse for the quality of his photos. Well, I beg to differ, there are clearly other talents outside of banking!

George has kindly allowed me to publish his best shots here, to share with our many fans. Many thanks for the generosity.

Here some of his review:

“The game drives were wonderful. We were tempted to go on certain activities outside of Vuyani, but never at the expense of the twice daily drives. We loved the challenge of the “hunt”, being able to go off road and look for the animals. We were never disappointed. We would not have had this energy rush at Kruger, I guess, as there’s a paved road for part of the park I am told and you can’t leave that. But, the animals there come “pre-packaged” and you can see the whole kingdom on one day. I preferred the adventure of doing it the way we did at Vuyani! We even saw a bull elephant the last night, while the others were still up the mountain.”

And here the photos!

Zebras
Zebras
Male lion
Male lion
Giraffe
Giraffe
Leopard at night
Leopard at night
Cheetah up-close
Cheetah up-close
Female lion
Female lion