Photo of the Day
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| Makepisi male after chasing Mbali female into a tree |
7th November Morning Drive
(Andrea and Peter)
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Java, Buffalo Kill
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Java, Confluence Crossing
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Jaydee, Makulu Crossing
3 x elephant bulls – Motswari, Airstrip Rd
3 x buffalo bulls – Motswari, Ingwelala Cutline
7th November Afternoon Drive
(Chad, Andrea, Shaddy
and Peter)
2 x lions (Ximpoko male and unknown lioness) – Vielmetter,
Western Cutline
1 x leopard (Mbali female) – Peru, Sohebele Dam
1 x rhino
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Motswari, Camp Dam
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Motswari, Northern Access
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Motswari, Sean’s Clearing
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Peru, Sohebele Dam
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Mbali, Western Cutline
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Java, Peter Pan Access
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Karans, Western Cutline
3 x elephant bulls – Argyle, Buffalo Pan Access
1 x elephant bull – Peru, Sohebele Plains
1 x elephant bull – Vielmetter, Vielmetter Access
2 x elephant bulls – Vielmetter, Hide Dam Southern Access
1 x elephant bull – Peru, Piva Plains
8th November Morning Drive
(Chad, Andrea and
Shaddy)
1 x breeding herd of buffalos – Peru, Voel Dam Southern
Access
3 x buffalo bulls – Motswari, Xinatsi Dam Rd North
1 x breeding herd of elephants – Mbali, Woza-Woza Cutline
8th November Afternoon Drive
(Chad, Andre, Marka
and Shaddy)
2 x leopard (Mbali female and Makepisi male with female
impala kill) – Peru, Sohebele Dam
5 x elephants – Motswari, Camp
Daily Synopsis
After the excitement of the last few days, it was good to
get a bit of a sleep in, and I joined the guys on afternoon drive with a new
set of guests. The morning had not been
overly productive, but at least the Ximpoko male lion and his girlfriend had
been found, so I had a sighting to plan my drive around.
We began by checking the airstrip, but had no sooner got
there when we turned around to go and look at a couple of breeding herds of
elephant on the eastern side of the lodge; sadly they moved into the thickets,
but as the drive progressed, we saw so many elephants that we eventually
stopped stopping to view them!
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| Elephants near the camp |
Back towards Argyle Dam, we ticked off more impalas, hippos,
baboons and crocodile before seeing if Mbali was still there, but her kill was
gone, and so was she, so we enjoyed more waterbucks, impalas and a crocodile
while we checked the surrounding areas for her.
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| Baboons and waterbuck at Argyle Dam |
While watching the crocodile, another herd of elephants came
walking down the Sohebele River and we spent some time watching them.
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| Crocodile and elephant herd |
More waterbuck and a lone elephant were occupying Sohebele
Plains as we then turned south towards Vielmetter and the lions; another couple
of herds of elephants and lone bull elephants were seen but no rhinos as had
been hoped – luckily Andrea and Pete had better luck in the west with a lone
male rhino there, but he was in immensely thick bush which made the sighting
very tricky!
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| Waterbuck bulls |
I then turned back to the lions and arrived as they woke up
and got mobile to the south; while they came together a few times, the lioness
did not seem particularly interested in mating, and the male seemed more intent
in finding his partner, and almost let off a full roar in front of us despite
the windy, gloomy weather....and it was also at this point that my battery
decided to die....and I guess there was no push starting the Land Rover with
two lions either side of us!!!
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| Ximpoko male lion and his unknown girlfriend |
Luckily Shaddy was on hand to come and push us and we got
going, only then to have our spotlight blow on us!!! It really was not our night; so I should only
have been slightly surprised when Pete found Mbali exactly where I had been
looking for her, but she pulled a fast one and disappeared in the Sohebele
Riverbed before anyone else could get to the sighting.
Going to bed with the rain, we knew that the weatherman’s
promise of rain all day was likely to be true, but waking to find it dry was a
pleasant surprise, and so off we set.
We started off with impalas, steenbuck, duiker, giraffe,
waterbuck and some zebras in the north before finding tracks for a herd of
buffalo from after the rain, so began pursuing them; as confusing as they were,
we persisted as a male lion’s tracks were following behind, and we knew that
there was a chance that if we found the buff, we would find the lion.
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| Zebra, giraffe, impala and waterbucks |
Eventually we located the buffalo, but they were quite
chilled, and as the rain started we headed out; then the next station visiting
the buffalos found the lion close to where we had actually seen his tracks, so
we raced to join them, but sadly they gave us horrible directions, and by the
time they knew where they were, they had lost the lion and left the area,
leaving me without any idea where to even look!
But I tried driving circles around the area, but sadly it was to no
avail.
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| Breeding herd of buffalo |
After coffee, the rain began again and we headed back to
camp on the cold weather, not seeing much more than impala, wildebeest, waterbuck
and a couple of herds of giraffe as we got closer to the camp.
After brunch the rain really came down, but it stopped
before the afternoon drive, so we headed out after the 18mm of rain, not really
expecting to find much, but that is the beauty of the bush!
My plan was to...well, I had no plan, but I knew I needed
leopard! I began heading to the area
where Mbali had been seen yesterday, but on hearing that there had been report
of audio for lion in the east, I was making my way there. We saw some impala, wildebeest, waterbuck and
a nice herd of 10 giraffes feeding on Piva Plains before noticing a vulture in
a tree at the southern end of Piva Plains, and as I had just told my guests
that it was the perfect weather to find vultures roosting, I thought nothing of
it.
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| Giraffe herd on Piva Plains |
But on arriving, we found several more vultures in the
company of bateleurs and tawny eagles – all scavengers and all a sure sign that
something was dead. Jumping off the
vehicle with Petros, I began hoping that the dead thing wouldn’t involve one of
us! Walking through the bush, we soon
found a drag mark for a leopards kill, and we both looked at one another and
laughed before breaking a branch off a fallen tree and began following the drag
mark...this felt far too familiar, but when the drag mark headed into a
thicket, Petros suggested that we rather go back and fetch the vehicle and
track from the Land Rover...which we did, just a pity the drag mark went down
into the Sohebele Riverbed where we couldn’t easily get to, but we made a plan and
I soon spotted the impala sleeping in a tree – not by her own choice of course!
That turned out to be the easy part, as now accessing this
was going to be difficult as our old access to this area was washed away in the
January floods, but after a couple of attempts, we managed to get into the area
over some tricky terrain, but it was well worth it.
We soon spotted Mbali up in the tree, but she climbed all
the way to the very top, and the reason why became apparent when we spotted
Makepisi male sitting at the bottom of the tree looking up at her! What a bonus, not one, but two leopards! Sadly the visual wasn't great of either of
them, but the whole experience of tracking them down and getting into a
position to view them was a real highlight for Evert, Louise, Oetske and Seerp,
my four Dutch guests, and despite getting poured on with rain while sitting in
the sighting, it was their best ever game drive, according to them!
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| Makepisi at the base of the tree that housed Mbali and her kill |
As the rain came down, we raced back to Motswari Hanger for
a drink, and passed giraffe, impala, a hippo out the water, wildebeest and
zebras as we continued to get wet, but nothing that some beer and wine couldn’t
sort out!
After drinks the rain died down and we went to check up on
another impala sleeping in a tree that Marka had located on our northern boundary,
but sadly all we saw was the impala before making our way back to the lodge for
a warm shower!
Shaddy braved the rain and was rewarded with a great sighting
of the leopards – Mbali left the tree and went back to where she had stashed
the unborn impala foetus, and as she was lying there, a hyena came running in
and chased her up a tree with the kill – so while she lost the whole mother,
she still had a bit of protein left.
Will definitely go and check up on the kills and see what
happens with them tomorrow!
Come rain or shine, it's all about finding the surprises in the bush ...
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