On Safari With Robbie 28 May 2015

28 May 2015

Today was one of those epic days where you would rather need a couple of hours around a campfire to discuss!!!

For starters we saw the big 5 again! We witnessed Elephant mating in water and subsequently the male being severely rejected by the nearby herd matriarch!!

However the highlight of the day was undoubtedly the young female Leopard killing a huge Porcupine very close to us!!!

A sighting Iv only witnessed once before in Kruger! The large rodent was not surrendering initially and the inexperienced hunter received many potentially fatal sharp quills to the mouth and nose!!!

It seemed like through the process the Leopard issued a fatal blow and disappeared with its still prey into thick bush!!!!

General game seen was: Nyala, Bushbuck, kudu, Impala, Waterbuck, Wildebeest, Warthog, Grey Duiker, Zebra, Giraffe!

We welcome Letasha to our team as well!!!!

On Safari With Robbie 27 May 2015

27 May 2015

Today was a great day full of opportunities taken and opportunities missed!

Loads and loads of Elephant and W.Rhino were seen! We saw 1 old Buffalo sleeping in the river bed and 2 Lioness also fast asleep on a granite outcrop!

Our highlight was where a pride of Lion had come across a Black Rhino and were protecting their new found meal from many Vultures trying to arrive at the scene!

It was a great sight as the male,2 lioness and 3 cubs were all seen nicely!!!!

Tomorrow awaits !

On Safari With Karen 27 May 2015

27 May 2015

Another split day as some of us went on a bushwalk this morning. Summarized it meant they found zebra tracks, but no zebra; leopard tracks but no leopard; elephant tracks but no elephant; they did come across some impala in the distance and they now can tell you a lot about all kinds of poop. Or as some of the guests stated: "you know your shit!" 

As the rest of us was out on our last morning drive of this safari, it was great to find a new sighting. Especially since one of the guests really wanted to see them: hyenas.

After a call on the radio from Curtis we made our way there and were lucky upon arrival as two of them were wondering around in the road.

It did get even better as we hang around while others continued as two hyenas started fighting over a bone. This tibia of most likely a kudu looked like a fresh bone of a meal they recently had and was one of the last leftover bits. Three youngsters were lying around to see if they would get lucky for a bite, but this one hyena had enough of all the beggers. She picked up the bone and walked straight across the road in front of us and hid away on the other side. One brave youngster sniffed her out and followed the exact same path as the hyena with the bone, following her (or the bone's more likely) scent.

After watching these ladies for a while one by one they hid in the long grass for some sleep and we had to return to the lodge.

Other interesting sightings: an elephant bull in must (we smelled him before we saw him) and a couple more elephants, lovely white rhinos with a youngster, lots of zebras, kudus and last but not least: impalas.

As all of our guests were leaving today it was a full car back to Nelspruit, where we said goodbye to Sonia and Michael, as well as Maruti and Mevil, who would continue their holidays in Cape Town. And to Simon who would fly back home. It had been a pleasure being your safari guide, thanks to all for joining us!

On Safari With Curtis 27 May 2015

27 May 2015

The final day of this tour and we set out on one final morning drive, a drive which turned out to be just as great as the previous days.

Our first highlight of the day was a new animal and one the guests wanted to see. We came upon a lovely hyena sighting with approximately 15 hyenas seen during the sighting. These had obviously made a kill during the night as the smell of death hung in the area and a posse of hyena were busy eating the scraps of their catch.  One by one each hyena would leave the group, walk towards our vehicle and either cross the road in front or behind of us. We really were spoilt as we spent forty minutes watching this very under rated carnivore.

Our second highlight of the day came as the drive was coming to an end and again it was a new animal for this tour.

As we drove along the road we came across a leopard sighting. A male leopard lying on the sand in the river bed and right next to him was a female leopard. We had stumbled upon a mating pair. We sat in a prime viewing position and waited to see if we would see any action and it wasn't long before we did. The female stood up. and started to move up and down the male. Swishing her tail in his face, up and down several times before sitting down right in front of him. At this moment the male got up mounted the female and mated her. His reward was a few snarls from her as well as a swift clout from her paw as he got off her.

We sat at this sighting for about an hour watching the female repeat her seduction of the male. Three times he succumbed to such flirtation but on many other occasions he just couldn't be bothered. It was slightly amusing to watch her seductive dancing only for the male not to even budge an inch.

Then sadly time restrictions meant we had to leave this extraordinary sighting and head to the airport.

During the rest of the drive we saw cape buffalo, elephants, white rhino, lion, giraffe, warthog, kudu, zebra, wildebeest, impala and baboons.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Zsofia and Paul and also to Melville and Maruti who by pure coincidence are both going to Cape Town to carry on their adventure around South Africa.

It had been a great few days on safari with you all, we have had some incredible sighting and I am glad you saw everything you wanted to. This is a tour that I most definitely will not forget!!! Cheers guys.

On Safari With Robbie 26 May 2015

26 May 2015

Today was special in the sense that team Nhongo on the day saved a young female Elephants life purely by coincidence or purely by timing!!!

However more on that story soon!!!

Our sighting highlight was undoubtedly 2 lioness next to us in the heat of the day!!!

Other great locations were Elephant, W.Rhino,a herd of over 500 Buffalo and brilliant general game!!!

Tomorrow beacons!!!!