27th December: Tax Returns!



Pic of the Day.



Morning Drive.

Elephant ( Breeding Herd) / Peru – Tawny Eagle.

Lion ( 3 x Mahlatini's) / Karans – Mamba Drive.

Lion ( 5 x XakuBasa ) / Vielmieter – Back Nines.

Afternoon Drive.

Elephant ( Breeding Herd) / Motswari – Sean's Clearing.

Elephant ( Kambaku) / Peru – Lion Pan.

Elephant ( 2 x Kambaku's) / Peru – Voeldam.

Buffalo ( 2 x Dagha Boys) / Argyle – Argyle Dam.

Lion ( 5 x XakuBasa) / Vielmieter – Back Nines.

Lion ( Mahlatini's) / Karans – Mamba Drive.

Daily Synopsis.

After the fun and games of the previous day we woke up pretty excited, also with a few aches and pains truth be told, but after the Wildlife Tax we had paid the previous evening, drive promised to be filled with plenty of returns! Getting off to a somewhat slow start things started to pick up the pace with Giyani tracking the Mahlatini's, and Herald finding a nice breeding herd of Elephants with lots of youngsters in amongst them.

While we spent some QT ( Quality Time) with the herd, Giyani relayed the good news that he had found the Mahlatini's, things where starting to pick up! Shortly after Giyani's good news the southern stations picked up the pack of ten Wild Dog resting beside the Tsharalumi River. We decided to respond to the Dogs first as our guests had not yet seen them. Making our way to the sighting we received news that they had got mobile and crossed the river, as Wild Dog are not afraid of water and quite relish getting wet. This made it near impossible for the station in charge to follow lest they wanted to suffer the same fate as we had done the previous evening. We made our way around to the opposite bank through a crossing that had all our guests holding their breath and I'm sure the thought of, “ oh no, here we go again, these guys must have flat learning curves!” Making it through, there was a deep sigh of relief and a little faith was restored, now to catch up with those Dogs! It however turned out that we faced a unexpected Tax Penalty as we could not relocate them, and after spending considerable time looking in and around the area we decide to cut our loses and head for a coffee break. I guess the disappointment of missing out on the Dogs was offset by the news that the White Lions were found, which we kept as a trump card for after break. Heading via the sighting back to Motswari there lay another surprise in store, arriving at the location there was not only the White Lions but also a female Giraffe they had killed earlier that morning.

A great sighting but a little concerning as the location put them in very close proximity to the Mahlatini's and should the they pick up on the Vultures or Hyena's, the carcass was attracting, they would be sure to head in their direction.

The afternoon saw us travelling  all corners of the reserve looking for Rhino, the only missing member of the Big Five during our guests visit, to both us and the Sabi Sands. Glad we are not the only one's that struggle for this big grey elusive beast at this time of year. Although we did not find our Rhino the drive was very pleasant and the evening provided us with a picture perfect sunset.

After which we decided to visit the White Lions to see if their would be any interaction between them and the many Hyena's that had collected or perhaps an encounter with the Mahlatini's. Arriving on site the surrounding trees were filled with Vultures and a lone Hyena, not quite what we expected!

With their bellies full to near exploding we found the Lions all lying in the road sleeping and not paying anything more than digestion and cooling any  unnecessary energy or attention. Good news that they had not encountered the Mahlatini's and even better news came when Herald mentioned that The Mahlatini's had roused themselves from slumber and had headed East away from the White Lions direction.

Who knows what will happen over night, we'll just have to wait and see.