On Safari With Robbie 12 October 2016

12 October 2016

Yet again setting out early ( 5am! ) paid dividends for Vrekesh and Rashie as the 2 species we aimed to find where ticked off before 06-15 am!!

White Rhino and Spotted Hyena were the ones!!Large herds of Impala, Waterbuck, Kudu, Elephant and Buffalo were also seen with excellent photographic opportunities!

A large male Leopard was also spotted fast asleep in a Marula tree!

The sighting of the morning however was the Huge Sable Bull we found with excellent visual about 5 km from Pretoriouskop camp on the Napi road!

Sables normally walk away from tourists vehicles but this majestic specimen literally stood entirely still for the entire time observed and in perfect early morning light!!!

It was an awesome safari for the 2 enthusiasts from India with overall highlights being:

1) Sable bull,

2) 2 Leopard sightings,

3) 16 Spotted Hyena,

4) W . Rhino,

5) African Wild dog,

6) Numerous Elephant calf sightings

7) 43 bird species and of course the huge Hippo Bull charging through the savannah to its water!

We say happy travels further and hopefully you guys will bring the rains!!

On Safari With Gert 12 October 2016

12 October 2016

After an early breakfast we headed out for our morning drive. It was fairly cool, with hazy and breezy conditions leading to some early cloud build-up.

It turned out to be a good morning for the herbivores as we found several herds of Zebra, Buffalo and a few Giraffe throughout the course of the morning.

We encountered a fairly large Elephant breeding herd early on and some of the young bulls were particularly playful! One of them definitely had a point to prove, as first he was trunk-tussling with another young male of roughly the same age. After a while of playfully pushing and shoving each other around, the instigator decided to move his attentions to an older, larger male, poking him with his tusks to aggravate the larger bull. The older one quickly got his point across as he just pushed the youngster back about 10 yards in reverse, before turning his attentions back to the tree he was feeding on before being so rudely interrupted!

It was also a surprisingly good morning for White Rhino sightings, as they don't really enjoy cool and windy conditions! We found several, including one group of 6 grazing on an open plain, as well as 2 young males right next to the roadside and a more distant sighting of a mother and calf combination.

The sun eventually came through in earnest, just in time for our guests to enjoy a relaxing afternoon by the pool before the late afternoon Sundowner drive!

On Safari With Robbie 11 October 2016

11 October 2016

Today started off with what was judged to be our second best sighting of the day of 5 very young pups close to the road and that being the African Wild Dog!!

What was incredible was that we were the only vehicle on the sighting for 30 minutes! They were playing and running around us for ages!!

However the top sighting of the day for Prashie and Vrakesh was what they had been hoping for and that was a young female Leopard crossing the road in front of us near Shitlhave dam and then lone and behold a male crossed close behind her!

Although only seen briefly this was incredible especially with the late afternoon sun!!

Hopefully we will pick them up again tomorrow!!

On Safari With Gert 11 October 2016

11 October 2016

This afternoon we started a new Safari with Anthony and Julia from Australia. After a quick lunch stop at a nearby camp, we set off to our destination for the next 3 nights.

As it was a very hot day - about 38 degrees - we weren't expecting a great deal of animal activity for the first part, however, we were very lucky at a small waterhole to find a young male lion lying on the edge of the clearing in a shady spot, keeping a eye on some nearby Impala. Upon our arrival 2 very impressive Elephant bulls came walking out towards the water, passing within 10 meters of the lion, which suddenly tried to look very inconspicuous! The Elephants paid it no attention and proceeded to drink their fill and also have a good splash to cool down. They slowly moved off to feed, followed by 6 younger bulls, considerably less happy with the presence of the lion than the older bulls! The lion eventually thought it a good idea to move away slightly and found some thicker cover and more shade a few meters further in, adding to the distress of a Giraffe which was surveying the scene from close by. However the lion got very comfortable in its new shady spot and we eventually left the sighting happy with a great start to the Safari!

On Safari With Robbie From 8 October 2016

8 October 2016

Our short pm safari this afternoon was totally dominated by Elephant!!

What was amazing to us was watching 3 Elephant bulls feeding on Sycamore leaves in a dry river bed!!

Out of the blue and further down the dry riverbed came a younger bull with quite an attitude with a mission of stealing the fresh leaves!!

However he was soon put in his place by the older males and was literally leaves free for 15 minutes until they kindly allowed him to share some!!

Great birding and general game spotting was also achieved!

Tomorrow its a 5am start!

9 October 2016

Today due to early rising by Thomas and Sonja we were first in at Phabeni gate at 05-20 am!!

We were truly rewarded with what was in the end the top sighting of the day.. a huge Hippo bull that approached us from his night out feeding!!

To see this massive mammal when it is on the " trot" so to speak is something special!!!

The big male literally stopped to observe us for a couple minutes then increased its pace, crossing the road at an ever increasing pace towards its safe region of water nearby!!

The rest of the morning was full of sightings of Lion, Elephant. Buffalo, W.Rhino and plenty general game!!

Tonight guests enjoy a night drive.