Sightings have been abundant over recent days … elephants, cheetahs (on a kill!), lions, rhinos, giraffes, leopards, … just everyhing that is “standard” … and then so much more! Endless laughters about these two leopard tortoises enjoying a bit of a spring time fun! No comment … everyone is feeling a spring in his step, tell you what 😉

On a less kinky note … we also found our cheetah brothers on a VERY fresh kill in the plains … this is the sort of sightings that you travel thousands of miles for. Unforgettable! Nature at its best, simple as that. If you stay 5-7 nights with us, you are quasi guaranteed an up-close cheetah sighting, and you don’t get that on many reserves. This is one hell of a rare animal. Only a few hundred are still left in the wild in South Africa, so you can imagine.

And then also some spectacular up-close sightings of our lions … resting in the shade of the bush … the kings and queens of the bush. And these two youngsters are just stunning! What a pleasure to see them do so well on our reserve. 🙂

 

We have had a couple of big rain events over the last 4 weeks, and notably a few days ago, some parts of the reserve got over 80mm of rain, which is huge. Some rivers started flowing, so that is excellent news. As a result nature has greened up loads, and wildlife is rampant.

Today, zebras and cheetahs were tracked and found by Vuyani and MRL guides on the Riversdale Cutline. They were pretty chilled and didn’t move much. We sat with them about 10 minutes or so. We managed some beautiful shots of them. Just see below. 🙂

We also tracked and found the elephants south of the Moditlo Main Gate, they were taking a drink of water and then
moved off in a Western direction. Our guests were beyond excitement to see these huge animals. Biggest animals on earth actually (if you take out sea animals)

We then went to the wild dog den site and they were pretty active. Running all over the place. We got a nice shot
with Hendrick in the driver seat. What a privilege to have these super rare animals on our reserve! It’s mind-numbing, if you just think about their rarity, actually.

We also tracked and found the lions east of the lodge – they were in the thicket and had taken something down, by the looks of it giraffe (they have really turned into very skilled lions, that’s for sure). We could not access this morning, but we will try again … we are not the ones t give up here at the Vuyani Safari Lodge! 😉

And just as nature is making a steady comeback, so are the spectacular sightings.

And the photo footage is a testimony of the many animals you can see when on safari on our large reserve. From the smallest and rarest, to the biggest and most impressive.

Just see for yourselves!

This year’s dry season had turned into a proper drought … and it was close to making international news. But now first rains have arrived, and we can see fresh shoots everywhere. Well, it was time! Many animals were suffering badly, and quite a few dying of starvation. Grazers go first, such as warthogs and zebras for example, and then it gets worse. Through an emergency feeding program, the worst was avoided, and our rare animals have made it through. We are all all delighted … and proud!

So as the rainy season begins, sightings are absolutely fantastic. The last 2 days were just great.

We started off with a Cheetah Sighting on the Khaya cutline, they were taking a nap. We tracked and found the lions in conjunction with MRL guides on Cotton fields – the two young males are bonding nicely and are sprouting quite the mullet … ;-). They were not doing too much just napping and then “annoying” each other like siblings do. We managed some cool photos.

We tracked and found the elephants north of Jackal plains – they were all drinking and bathing at a waterhole. There is some cool video footage that was taken. It’s always fascinating to observe the surprisingly sophisticated social interaxtion between elephants. They are so kind to each other.

We also saw Brown Hooded Kingfisher, Hadeda Ibis, Crocodile, Nyala, Baboon and some awesome kudus!

We had a brief sighting of Rhinos also – they were on the move.

Great couple of days for our guests, we are spoiling them! 😉