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Chased to chasing

With a new group in the lodge and all here on an incentive trip we had lots to look forward to. Most of the guests South African and most of them the first time to a private reserve. We hit the road looking to see if we could find little bush female and her cub that had been with their kill that morning however the leopards had gone and we had to change the game plan. 

We found 2 separate mother rhinos with young babies, the one was no older than a week and, as can be expected, mom was not going to stick around and wait for us. We bumbled around looking at general game, birds and insects before we headed to where the lions were relaxing.

When we got there they were relaxed and waiting for cover of darkness to begin their hunt. However their sleep was rudely interrupted by a male rhino that decided to chase them around a bush before moving off.

This morning started with lion tracks, hyenas and jackals and this all led us to believe that the lionesses had made a kill very close to camp. After a bit of searching and following the hyena around we found them on the kill with the two cubs feeding away. This is great news as the cubs are looking seriously malnourished and we could see how hungry they were by the way the were getting stuck into the remains of the kill.

After the lions we enjoyed the wonders of the small world, buffalo and plenty general game before stopping for coffee and walking back to the lodge.

Site inspection

Now the key to getting new new guests into the lodge is to look after the agents that will be sending the guests in the first place. These are what we call site inspections and are of the utmost importance to ensure that we remain at the top of the game. At Little Bush Camp we don't get too many of these but yesterday was one of those times. The other thing about site inspections is that they normally only stay for a night so we really have to pull the rabbit out of the hat to sell the lodge. 

With a massive storm on the way we set off to impress the ladies and keep a big smile on the faces of Peter and Ornella. Our goal was to find the lions from the morning as we had a pretty good idea where they were. It turned out that the lions had headed off on the hunt and had already crossed over to the northern section of the reserve. After closing off the block into which their track had led myself and Brett headed into the bush on foot to find the lionesses. We hadn't walked 200 metres before finding them just other side of the drainage line. That meant that we had successfully tracked the lions twice that day. This is a great achievement by any standards and the guests were all overwhelmed by our success.

When we got to the lions with the vehicle we could see that they had caught and eaten something already and were now doing some well earned digesting. We left the ladies and headed back towards the lodge as the rain had started and I didnt want to be too far away in case the guests called it quits or the lightening forced us to go back. Along the way we bumped into a herd of elephants, one of which decided to have a mud bath in the puddle five metres in from of the vehicle and poor Solly ended up having just as much of a bath as the elephant. Fortunately he was wearing a poncho but this left us all having a good chuckle...

Brett then found the little bush female with a kill and when we got there she was highly agitated. This is not uncommon for her as she can be temperamental at the best of times. She gave a half charge as we approached before climbing into the tree with her kill, bearing her teeth at us and hissing. Unfortunately due to the rain I had left my camera at home and missed a great photo opportunity. A rhino had also waddled into the l oc and this just topped a ridiculous afternoon with the big game. We decided to call it quits after leaving the rhino and head back to have a shower and warm up.

This morning got off to early start and we hit the road at 5.30 as the guests were all leaving early to get back home. Our first order of business was to go see what was happening with the Little Bush Female. We were not the only curious eyes there as we joined two hyena that were hoping for some scraps. Little bush was perched on one of the low lying branches and was posing...this does not happen often!!! She also had her six month old cub in the tree and this was only my second time to see her. The first was nearly five months ago when she was still tiny. We didnt get the best view of her but I did manage to get one good facial shot which will be sent to the guys doing the leopard genealogy of the Sabi Sands.

The rest oft the morning was filled with rhinos, zebra, kudu, impala and duiker as well as looking at some of the smaller stuff. Definitely a crammed 2 drives with amazing sightings that will hopefully bring us lots of business in the future.

Quality time

The bush amazes me to no end...the minute you just slow down to take it all in the bush just rewards your patience with the most amazing sightings. The moment you start chasing it all breaks down and you end up missing everything. My guests at the moment have spent a few days in another lodge before coming through and had seen quite a bit which has just allowed us the freedom to spend quality time with the animals we find. 

Yesterday afternoon was no different as we found an ENORMOUS elephant bull feeding under a marula tree, enjoying the delights that had dropped to the grass below. He was so relaxed he ended up feeding no more than 3 metres from us at one stage and walked passed the car so close that I could have touched him. I would never let this happen normally but by that stage it was to late to move as the sound of the engine starting might have startled him. 

We watched him for a good thirty minutes before moving off to see how our leopard was doing with the warthog that he caught yesterday. By the time we got there he was just finishing the skull...yes, the skull...by my mate Trevor's accounts he had devoured the entire skull and all that was left was the lower jaw. The night was finished off with an amazing sunset and view of the Drakensberg mountain range.

This morning we headed south to have some coffee down at the Sabi river and see if the lions had crossed back from the next door property. Coffee was brilliant as we had a very introspective bit of time just listening the sound of the river flowing and the birds calling. Unfortunately all signs pointed to the fact that the lions had not come back yet and I took a nice drive through some of the beautiful scenery that the southern section has to offer on the way back to the lodge. Before I knew it we were on fresh lion tracks and it looked as if the cubs were with the females. After following for a short while the tracks led into the bush and we headed around to where we thought they might pop out. We got the calculation just right and the lions were out on an open sodic site with the cubs. The cubs are however looking very skinny and are in need of a good meal otherwise there will be some tears flowing...lets just hope that everything works out for them.

Warthog bites the dust...or the leopard bites the warthog...

After a great drive in the morning which comprised of watching hippos, rhinos and elephants as well as an incredible tracking mission to find the lions we headed down to the river for a quick look and a cup of coffee. It was a fitting end to a great couple of days with some amazing guests. After they left it was time for a bit of R&R before my new guests arrived.

My new guests had just come from a reserve in Limpopo and had see a great deal there. The few things they missed out on were leopard and buffalo and the mission for the afternoon was to find just that. Within a half an hour of the safari our big male, 'M', was found and he was looking hungry. When we got into the sighting he was up on a termite mound keenly surveying his surrounding looking for some food. He spotted some warthog on the edge of the tree line and decide to make a move for them. Stalking through the long grass he made his appraoch and before we knew it all we heard was the squealing pig as he sunk his teeth in. We got to him and he was busy suffocating the warthog. What a rush. First time my guests have seen leopard and within the first 15 minutes they have seen a kill. We watched for a while as he moved it around trying to find a suitable tree to stash his prize in!

This morning started off with a pride of lions from the South that had found their way onto the property which is a little out of their normal territory. This makes we wonder what new dynamics are going to start happening around Sabi Sabi with regards to reshuffling of lion territories. Our dominant males have been all but invisible for the last 2 weeks and the other lions in the area have started to realise that there is a gap in the market. We will just have to wait and see how it all pans out.

NEW CUBS.....

Yesterday afternoons drive was spent looking for the lions down in the south. Unfortunately with tracks only from the night before we had no choice but to wait till things cooled down and hopefully find them when they started moving again.

On route to the area where the lions had last been seen we bumped into an elephant bull in musth and he was not so happy to see us. We had to maintain a healthy distance from him in order for him to relax and continue with his feeding. He was not the last elephant that we would see as we found a huge male who looked like he had had an interesting life. He had no tail, rips in his ear and the tip of his trunk was missing, but in spite of all his experiences he was as relaxed as can be. He was feeding no more than 6 metres from us and didnt even bat an eyelid to our presence.

Unfortunately we had no further luck with the lions and had to go home satisfied that we had tried everything to find them. 

The morning started well when we bumped into a male and female rhino and while watching them, Arthur called in that he had a lioness with cubs very close to where we were. I sped off after calling myself in hoping that she wouldn't take the cubs into thick bush before we got there. This female has just had the cubs and this is only the second time they have been seen. At 4 weeks old they are still being carried from place to place by the mother. When we arrived she was in the process of coaxing the one cub out of a thicket, then she picked it up in her jaws with the delicacy of a surgeon and started to move the cub. Arthur and I came to a decision that as amazing as this sighting was we would have to close it to all other vehicles and leave ourselves as the cubs were still to small and the stress that the vehicles would have on them and the mother was not worth it. I had time to squeeze off a few photos and we left her to move the little ones to the next den site! WHAT A TREAT!

We were then inundated with animals when we found impala, wildebeest, four rhino, a herd of elephant with tiny babies and a herd of male buffalo all in the same open area. One of the little baby elephants was so inquisitive it kept coming up to the vehicle to investigate. At one stage he was no more than a metre from us and we all just giggled as he tried to get us to join in him in his game of throwing around bushes. I am sure he was thinking... 'when mom does this it has much more impact, wonder what I am doing wrong...'

All in all a magnificent morning and we were truly blessed to see the new cubs. That must go down as one of the most amazing things I have ever seen since I started guiding!

Spots and stripes

It felt almost impossible that I was going to be able to top the mornings drive after our close encounter with the pride of lions, but with unwavering optimism we set out on the afternoon safari. My aim was take the guests through to the kill that our female leopard, Nottens, and her cub were on and maybe see some rhino and other general game.

First to grace us with its enormous presence were three rhinos that were grazing around a mud wallow. As we watched they all took turns to go into the wallow and cake them selves in mud. Each one leaving the pool and heading to trees to use as rubbing posts. While watching them a buffalo had the same idea in mind and approached the wallow with caution making sure that the rhinos were not going to do anything unexpected. Once he made it into the wallow his demeanour changed from that of an old man to a child…he was rolling and horning the mud as if he had never encountered something so amazing!

Unfortunately on our way to the rhinos one of the other vehicles went to relocate on Nottens and her cub but could only find the cub lying in long grass, mother nowhere to be seen and the visual of the little one not worth the effort in going to see. However, I knew that as it neared darkness the cub would be forced to seek safety in the tree so we went to try our luck. As we drove in, the little guy jumped onto the trunk of the tree, stared at us for a second and then ascended. He then proceeded to pose like a super model for our cameras. He was not the only one there and we soon saw the ominous looking hyaena waiting patiently for some scraps to fall out of the tree.

This mornings plan was to see if we could find some giraffe and zebra and then just enjoy the smaller things. Unexpectedly we found a herd of 19 zebra on one of the open areas. This is by far the largest herd I have seen in my year at Sabi Sabi. With them were some wildebeest and impala and they seemed way to interested with something other than the usual feeding and grooming. We went to go investigate and saw a number of vultures in the trees and assumed that there must be something there. We headed out on foot to see if we could find what had attracted the vultures or find whatever predator had attracted the attention of all the herbivores. It wasn’t long before we saw a male leopard slinking off into the long grass. We only got to see him for a short while as he moved towards a major thicket in the river and there was no way to get in.

We had one last animal to find before my guests left and that was the giraffe. Fortunately some had been spotted and we headed out to see them. These majestic creatures were far off but still worth the sighting and this left all the guests smiling and ready for breakfast.

Male leopards and lion charges

Just when you think things are too good to be true and your luck must be running out...it happens all over again. With profoundly different weather from the mornings rain we set out on a beautiful sunny afternoon. All the general game seemed to have found its way out of the thickets and we were bumping into lots of new things. 

After seeing a rhino bull wallowing, kudu and impala we started to make our way to the Nottens side of the reserve. As we approached the open area we found ourselves in the middle of a huge aggregation of animals which included wildebeest, zebra, kudu, impala and warthog. The guests were loving it and were all taking photos. My tracker Solly even got employed as photographer for one of the guests, a job which made his face light up with joy!

About five minutes later we found ourselves watching our big new male, who has been named 'M' because of the M shaped making on his face (see the photo above), while he slept away on an open area. Whilst watching him a young elephant bull came out of the bush to say hi and then disappeared into the thick bush again. Eventually M got up and started to get on the move just after the sun had set and the temperatures had dropped. He started scent marking and we followed him for about an hour before he lay down for a sleep in the long grass and we could no longer see him.

This mornings mission was to find the lions. So we headed south and found fresh tracks in no time. After about forty minutes of following the tracks we were force to follow them on foot as they had left the road. This led to the next road and we were back on the vehicle following the tracks again. Eventually Arthur found the last tracks close to the fence line and they had headed back into the reserve. He decided to head round to the next road and I decided that Solly and I would follow their tracks through the grass on foot. So we headed off to the last tracks and saw where they had been lying...from there we could see the bent grass where they had walked and began to follow...we hadn't walked 3 metres before the bush in front of us sprung to life with four lionesses hissing and growling and then running in the opposite direction to us. I had in this time chambered a round and was staring at the fleeing cats down the sight of my rifle... WHAT A RUSH!!! The guests had been watching the whole thing from the vehicle and as we walked back to the vehicle all I could see were the whites of their eyes. 

We followed these ladies for a while and then headed off to find some elephants that had been seen earlier. The morning was topped off by a great walk through the bush back to the lodge...what a great morning!