Photo of the Day
Another photo of the day by Rachel...this time of Rockfig Jnr |
Morning Drive
(Chad, Peter and
Andrea)
1 x leopard (Xindzuti male) – Argyle, Vyeboom Dam
1 x elephant bull – Argyle, Buffalo Pan
1 x elephant bull – Peru, Long Rd
Afternoon Drive
(Chad, Andrea and Grant)
1 x leopard (Rockfig Jnr female) – Vielmetter, Back Nine’s
East
1 x leopard (Machaton male) – Peru, Western Cutline
3 x rhinos
1 x rhino
1 x buffalo bull – Java, Crossing Below Java
4 x buffalo – Argyle, Western Sohebele
1 x elephant bull – Argyle, Vyeboom Dam
1 x elephant bull – Peru, Pan Rd
Daily Synopsis
With everyone having struggled for leopards the last few
days, I wasn't holding my breath, but we all headed out in search anyway. Andrea stayed up north on Argyle to see if
Argyle Jnr and her youngsters had popped back in after going into Ingwelala;
she had no luck with them but did find tracks for a male leopard that she
helped to try and track down with some other guides without luck.
Peter went south and tried to help Marka track down Rockfig
Jnr – Marka found her on foot but had no such joy in the vehicle. After a lovely sunrise with impalas,
wildebeest, waterbuck and some zebras, we went looking in the central
regions.
Hearing some guineafowls alarm-calling, we scouted the area
with no luck, and Petros began following tracks for another male leopard around
Mbali Dam...but as with the other trackers, it was not our day...maybe there
was a leopard crises?
The morning was actually very quiet, but as we were making
our way back to camp, it started picking up.
More impalas and a lone elephant bull in musthe kept us company before
we continued back for breakfast.
Crossing the Nhlaralumi, one of my guests spotted a leopard
stalking across the sand in the distance, so we went closer – while I expected
it to be Argyle Jnr’s boy optimistically stalking a waterbuck, it turned out to
be Xindzuti! We spent some nice time as
he lay watching the waterbuck, but without cover, he had no chance. We were already late, so left him after a
while and went back to camp – Johannes had found fresh tracks for Argyle Jnr
and the cubs coming back, so hopefully this will end the leopard “drought”.
I chose to go south to view some rhinos, and arriving there,
we started seeing impalas, a couple of hyenas at the den (and while we heard
the little cubs, we didn’t manage to see them) and some tracks for a leopard,
but as it was in the area Marka had first seen tracks this morning, I assumed
they were from then...you can imagine the pleasant surprise we got when a
couple hundred metres later we found Rockfig Jnr ambling down the road!
She was calling for her son, and we assumed maybe she had a
kill somewhere...sadly she walked into the Machaton Riverbed and was lost
before Andrea got to see her.
I did get to see three rhinos, and a little further down the
road we found another large bull, but it was getting dark already, so we didn’t
manage to get photos, but we did manage to enjoy a lovely sundowner before
heading back to the lodge.
As always, Java was full of general game that we had to
pass, but one animal we did spend a bit of time with was Machaton male leopard,
the third and final leopard that we managed to find ourselves today! What luck!
Even luckier was that Andrea was not far away, so I followed the big tom
until she got closer and could enjoy a leopard sighting at last...so that was
it, Petros asked for leopards and he got them; cant wait to see what he asks
for tomorrow!
That is a leopard, believe it or not! |
Nice leopard sightings at last Chad...
ReplyDeleteGreat photos as always.
Keep up the good work ;-)
Cheers
Lourens