28 February- 1 March

  The heat is searing, both guests and staff alike swelter and slowly change from healthy shades of pale to glowing shades of amber and red.
Animals for the most part remain lethargic and hidden away save for the few brave individuals bracing the heat to reach water.

The first of many animals sighted this afternoon was a lone, young bull elephant at Fig tree. We didn’t get to spend much time with him though because while we were stopped and the vehicle engine switched off, our attention was drawn to a large Jackalberry tree with a multitude of birds and squirrels alarm calling.
We raised binoculars to see what was getting the diminutive creatures so riled up and noted that most were looking down towards the base of the tree where the Jackalberry was growing out of an old termite mound.
Convinced there was a snake, we drove around the mound and positioned ourselves nearby before switching the engine off again. It took the birds a few moments to get accustomed to our presence but they were soon distracted by the imminent danger below.
Suddenly, both Sydney and one of the guests excitedly shouted snake in unison, pointing vigorously at the same time. It took me a few moments but then I too saw it and focussed my binoculars and there, climbing down the tree was the biggest Snouted Cobra (formerly known as an Egyptian Cobra) I had seen in many a year.

Seeing that the snake was in fact slithering into a hole in the side of the mound, we dismounted for a closer look and managed to see the remaining section of body and tail disappear into the mound.
We estimate, given the sheer girth of the snake and what could be seen of it prior to disappearing, to be a healthy 2.4-2.7 meters long. Not quite the largest (3.2m found in Elisras in 1996) but definitely amongst the top five!

  Knowing full well the Styx pride could up and leave from their resting place this morning we chose to go have a look for fear they would again disappear for whatever undetermined amount of time as they usually do.
Upon our arrival we discovered that they had moved a mere fifteen meters from the morning’s loc and were still deep, deep in lala land.
Deciding after a period that the lions were going to get no more exciting than watching the grass grow around them, we headed back east.

  As we were about to stop for sundowners Jaces called us and told s to forget the drinks, he had a leopard on Big Dam wall. So we rushed across there and got some wonderful shots of Bahuti. This cat certainly loves showing off for the cameras! See the pics attached!!

On the way home from Bahuti we found his mother Thandi walking down the main road, obviously searching for her misplaced son. I do not think they had seen one another since the Mvula incident where he smacker her around, nearly a week ago.
Fortunately this morning both Thandi and Bahuti were found together in a river bed playing with one another ALL morning! It was good to hear that the two had been reunited.

  Other sightings this morning included many elephants crossing roads in front of us, a few retired buffalo scattered about and the remains of a leopard kill from the previous evening which vultures had managed to dislodge (or the kill simply fell to the ground) and demolished, leaving only a few ribs and the skull and horns behind. We found the male leopard’s tracks on all the roads surrounding the kill but weren’t able to get sight of him. Apparently it was a nervous male not used to the vehicles...