1 - 2 March

1 March

Afternoon drive

We spent most of our day in the west with a herd of buffalo slowly grazing towards the west. We were entertained by a few youngsters in the herd not sure what to make of the strange sound, shape and smell. And of course each group has its clown; one young bull had half a bush still stuck in his horns after scratching it against the helpless vegetation. We sat and watched buffalo for buffalo walk past us, being in the middle of such quantity of animals we got to see some interesting things unravel. 

The usually mutualistic relationship between buffalo and ox-peckers had turned parasitic as the red billed ox-pecker has found a shortcut to their diet of blood sucking parasites… an open wound gave them the direct supply of protein and vitamins without the “middle man”. As we observed the ox-pecker pecking away on an open wound on the buffalo cow, we noticed a small herd of elephant heading north directly in the path of the herd of buffalo. 

We sat in anticipation to see these two beasts “play chicken”. Witch one of the two titans would give way to the other? To our surprise, when both herds took notice of each other the respectfully made way for each other walking around to get to their desired destinations. Just comes to prove that problems can be solved without conflict.

2 March

Morning drive

This day belonged to the cats! We barely left the lodge in search of wild life when Sean called in Bauti! The beautiful offspring of Mvula and Thandi! We watched him do what leopards do best! Move without being seen, fortunately we did get a good view of the beautiful cat before he moved off into thick bush witch made it hard to follow him. 

We left him and headed west. Immediately upon arrival we found the Styx pride lazing about on an airstrip just relaxing peacefully like they had all the time in the world. Just to the north of them a big elephant bull crossed the airstrip, his size was impeccable so we had to go take a look, a beautiful giant he was! Shortly after leaving the big bull we came across the three Majingilan males having a catnap under a Tamboti thicket. These masculine lions are very impressive with their attractive full manes! A mere fifty meters or so west of them a bachelor herd of dagga boys were grazing, the manjaleti river bed was the only thing between the two! None had an idea of the other! 

We had to leave the area as we needed to get back to the lodge to be in time for a transfer. And as luck had it just as the group was about to head out from the lodge, a cheetah was spotted heading east from our open area in front of the lodge! We scrambled everyone onto one vehicle and followed the gorgeous male cheetah towards kaal kol were he did some territorial markings which allowed for amazing photos! Exited to see what the afternoon holds in store for us!