28 August - Quality!

Photo of the Day - Nthombi's cub

Morning Drive

(Herold, Grant, Chad & Andrea)

Rhino (1 solitary male)

Lion (4 of "Motswari 6") / De Luca - Bateleur Drive

Leopard (Makepisi) / Peru - Hamerkop Road

Leopard (Nthombi and cub) / Vielmeter - Double Highway. Western back of Shlaralumi Riverbed

Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Mbali - Anthill Corner Road

Afternoon Drive

(Chad, Grant, Peter & Andrea)

Elephant (Breeding Herd) / Motswari - Long Road

Elephant (Kambaku) / Motswari - Argyle Dam Link

Lion (4 of "Motswari 6") De Luca - Bateleur Drive

Leopard (Rockfig Jnr & cub) / Vielmeter - Elephant Dam Rd

Leopard (Machaton Male) / Peru - Sohebele Plains

Buffalo (2 Daghaboys) / Peru - Mongova Drive

Drive started out with an unexpected pair of hyenas lying close to camp. With 4 vehicles leaving on the same road, they had soon had enough and wandered off into the bush. I headed off to try follow up on Makepisi but after an hour of checking the area I decided to move on as a fresh kill had been found further south. At that point there was no sign of any leopard but it was only a matter of time. I started off south and just when I was too far, Herold called in to say he had found Makepisi - typical. It usually seems to happen that when I am off blog duty I have incredible luck, and when I am back on, the clouds come over and the animals hide. Perhaps I am being a little unfair as we did find a the dominant male rhino from the south and had an amazing sighting of him. He was scent marking and horn rubbing and he then found himself a telephone pole and this just became the best scratching post. It was such an entertaining sighting watching him thoroughly enjoying himself.

Nthombi and her cub had been located at the fresh kill site so we headed there next. It was a bit of a tricky sighting with not such a fabulous view as the steep riverbank prevented us from moving around and the kill was pretty high up in the tree. We sat it out for a while though and were able to watch the cub descend from the tree, spend a bit of mother-son play time, and then watch Nthombi as she climbed up and had her turn at the feast. By this stage it was pretty late, and I was (typically…again) as far south as I could possibly be. So after a quick drinks, started the mission back home.The other guys managed to see a breeding herd of buffalo up on Mbali as they crossed over to Karans, the "Motswari" lion pride still feeding on that buffalo and of course Makepisi leopard. Hopefully this afternoon will bring as much game.

My plan was to find elephant this afternoon, so it was just my luck that we came across a herd no more than 1 km from camp. It was a beautiful herd and we watched them for quite some time as they feed and made their way down to the water for a drink.

It was a warm afternoon so it made sense that most general game was near the waterholes. Peter headed straight to the lions on De Luca with Chad joining him a little later. Grant made his way further south and had an amazing sighting of Rock Fig Jnr and her cub! I stayed up north, hoping to relocate Makepisi male from this morning. After some time checking the area, we resigned for a drinks stop. By the time we were on our way again, it was dark and for some reason our spotlight was not working, which was very frustrating as we soon bumped into Machaton male leopard. We followed him as best as we could until he disappeared into the riverbed, at this point the spotlight miraculously jumped into gear…great timing! We were still able to watch him walking down the road, scent marking as he sauntered along.