And then there was rain

What a time of contrast! The weather just doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind these days. From a wonderful blue sky yesterday afternoon to floods this morning. We were even blessed with a beautiful rainbow in the afternoon. The animals even seemed ridiculously relaxed...we followed a water monitor for a couple hundred metres as he explored the surroundings for some food and then we walked to a giraffe that allowed us to get to about 15 metres from it.

The weather had started building and there was a spark of lightening in the distance, this always makes me smile because I just love bushveld thunderstorms. Little did I know that this storm would bring with it 91 mm of rain and cause complete havoc the next day. When I got in for morning wake ups it was bucketing down and it looked like it would never stop, even the morning safari was cancelled due to the extreme weather. The msultu river was raging past the front of the lodge and my first concern was to check the rooms closest to the river to ensure the decks didn't look like they were going to be catching the tide to Mozambique.

We were now completely isolated with no way in or out of the reserve due to the flood waters. There was a big group staying at the other 3 camps and they had to be airlifted out by helicopter to get home. My Russian guests were not that fortunate and were "forced" to stay another night.

The evening drive was dry in more ways than just the weather...I was sure all the animals had been washed away as we only saw rhino and impala the whole drive... 

Ferrari Safari

The arrival of a big group to Sabi Sabi makes for careful planning of the game drive as the group generally goes for one of the cats and leaves us with not much opportunity to get into the sighting. Fortunately there were 2 different groups of lions on the property and only 4 vehicles were headed to the lions in the South. So to avoid traffic I headed down to the South where we saw some rhinos and a bull elephant have a confrontation and then were going to head in to see the lions.

Unfortunately they had decided to leave the property and were now no longer an option. I had one guests who was only there for 1 night so was under some pressure to perform and find some cats. The only other option was a leopard that had been found literally on the other side of the property...so off we went...FERRARI SAFARI... This is not my style of guiding but it was necessary...stopping for nothing short of another cat and slowing down only for bumps (sometimes)...leaving the guests with the feeling like they have just gone on a roller coaster.

Eventually we got to her and she was hunting a herd of impala. She had managed to get 20 metres from them and the excitement was mounting. The impala then started alarm calling but looking in the opposite direction to the leopard. It was a hyena that decided to test the herd of impala for any week lambs and managed to spoil the hunt completely. To add insult to injury the hyena then came over to the leopard and started harassing her, which invoked an intense series of hisses and growls. It was fantastic to see the interaction between these animals and even more interesting to see hoe the hyena just hung around the leopard. Hoping she would make a kill so that he could steal it from her.

Now late for dinner I was again in a hurry to get back to the lodge but was forced to drive at 10km/h by little scrub hares that refused to leave the road...this left the guests giggling and me frustrated but it was a fitting way for nature to tell me to SLOW DOWN.

Back to the cats

After the last couple days being quiet we were well overdue for a cracker of a drive. As we headed out the lodge we bumped into an aggregation of impala. zebra, wildebeest and waterbuck. While explaining a little about the grouping one of the impala's started alarm calling and then the wildebeest and waterbuck...but they were all looking in different directions which made it impossible to figure out where the predator was. We headed into the bush to investigate and after a bit of bumbling we noticed that we were looking in the wrong place. The perpetrator was not on the ground, she was up in the tree we had just driven around. Our Little bush female was perched up on a branch just posing watching her potential food all moving away from her. 

We then headed to our southern section which is least used by the rangers as it can be a little quiet on the game front but offers amazing scenery. We found a couple of posing waterbuck and kudu before bumping into a pride of lions. The guests were loving life...especially when we found 2 hyenas nonchalantly strolling down the road. 

The whole drive was topped off by a foam nest from making its foam nest. It was right next to the road and offered a great photo opportunity. This is the first time I have seen one building the foam nest and I was dumbstruck by the process.  

As we were rounding the final corner before going into the lodge we again bumped into our female leopard as she ran into the thick bush. 

This morning as no different...after being woken by a leopard calling outside my window at 2.30am I was hell bent on finding him. We hadn't driven 200 metres out of the gate and there he was just lying next to the road. How kind of him to wait for us. He then moved off into a thicket of round leaf teak and dissapeared from sight. He was no more than 5 metres from the vehicle and we couldn't even see a spot. 

The rest of the morning followed suite with great general game including a group of dwarf mongoose andthe cherry was put on the top by a pair of male lions sleeping and grooming themselves right in the middle of the road.

Boomslang and Chameleon

So again the rain has been falling here in the Sands and is having its impact on the drives. We had a huge storm 2 nights ago and it seems that all the animals were washed away... The lions have been around but we have not seen leopard in 2 days and we starting to get a little desperate for sightings. 

Yesterday evenings drive was again quiet with a brief view of a lioness before she headed into thicker bush where we couldn't follow. One of the rangers then called in that there were baboons alarm calling and I headed straight into the area hoping that we would find some sign of a leopard to at least track it down. But it appears that a ghost had moved through the area cause there was absolutely no sign of anything.

Eventually it was time to call it quits and head back to the lodge for dinner. On the way my tracker, Solomon, managed to spot a boomslang winding its way through a tree looking for a chameleon to eat. We stopped and watched this amazing venomous snake as it slowly moved closer to me to investigate. This definitely made the whole drive worthwhile and offered some great photo opportunities.

 

We hadn't driven 50 metres from the snake before Solomon spotted a huge flap necked chameleon hiding in a buffalo thorn. Chameleons are a trackers secret weapon....it is the ultimate way to show off a little and always provokes utter amazement from the guests. This chameleon was also kind enough to make his way to the top of the tree to pose for some photos.