29 & 30 May

- We were lucky again to have seen Bahuti the male leopard walking along a road still searching for a meal.
- We ended our evening drive with the two Matimba male lions in front of our Lodge. They were chasing after a Spotted Hyena and a while after they started roaring. What a great sighting it was
- Xivambalane the male leopard was found not far from the lodge. Scent marking his territory.
-Driving along the main road a small bachelor herd of bull elephants. They surrounded our vehicle and gave a show as one of the tried to push over a Marula tree

28 & 29 May

-A small herd of elephants was found feeding in a riverbed.
- This morning we found fresh leopard tracks and started following up with the hope of finding a leopard. After a while of tracking we eventually found Bahuti the young male leopard walking along the road and were stalking some Impala 
- Not far from where we found the leopard some elephants passed by feeding 
- On our way back to the lodge some Vervet monkeys were spotted high up in the trees and were alarm calling. Soon after we found Xivambalane the male leopard resting in the morning sun

26 & 27 May

- Male Leopard (Bahuti) moving north. After a while he came across a Male Elephant and started to stalk him thinking that if he can only bring him down...What a meal I will have... It only took him 5min to realise that there is no way.
- Elephants (20) We were Sitting in the dark under the stars with no lights watching them feeding around us. What a Feeling it is having them around us.
- Lions (Breakaways 4 female 9 cubs) Playing in the riverbed.A big male Buffalo made his way down to the river not knowing that the Lions were there. All 13 Lions got ready for what is coming next. The Buffalo spotted the one of the cub and as he was turning trying to get away, two of the Females Lions were on top of him. But it was his lucky day and just one turn and they were off his back and he kept on running east away from them. All the lions then came back down to the riverbed and played all around us. It was Awesome!!!
- Buffalo Bulls (4) Feeding
- Elephants (10) Feeding

We had an amazing last 6 days. Finding one Leopard per Drive every drive sometimes 2. We had 12 Different Leopard over the last 5 Days having nothing but happy Guest leaving us today!

25 & 26 May

- Male leopard (Xivambalane). We found the tracks west of the camp and followed up. We found him sleeping in a drainage line and spent most of our afternoon with him. He was scent marking and walking around

- Male buffalo (2) feeding and moving East.
- Elephants (4) running out of the bush trumpeting and moving North.
- Female Leopard (Kwatile) going in and out the drainage line while contact calling the cub.
- We went to follow up on Bahuti who was seen close to a waterhole. Unfortunately we could not relocate.

24 & 25 May

- Yesterday afternoon Xivambalane the male leopard was resting and after a while he walked along a road scent marking his territory

- After we had our drink brake Mvula the male leopard was found again and we followed him for a while
- We also found a small herd of elephants

- This morning Bahuti the young male leopard was on a hunt

- As we drove along one of the main roads in the East we found Mvula the male leopard resting in the morning sun in the road

21 - 24 May

21 May afternoon drive - 24 May morning drive

- Found a nice herd of about 20 elephants feeding
- Saw the female leopard Shadow mating with Mvula
- Also got to see female leopard Kwatile with her cub
- Found one bull elephant feeding
- Tshalala pride of lions resting in the West
- A herd of buffalo drinking and resting at our waterhole
- Not too far from our driveway we found Xivambalane and an unknown male hissing at each other. It could be a male leopard out of the Kruger entering Xivambalane's territory.

20 - 21 May

- Saw some nice elephant herds moving around
- We saw Shadow the female leopard feeding on a kill
- We also saw Xivambalane the male leopard in the morning
- Spotted yet another herd of elephants feeding
- Spotted two Buffalo bulls resting in a mud pool

13 & 14 May

Our evening drive started a bit late as my guest arrived late. We headed out for a short drive, Bernhard and his group saw Buhuti on a big kudu bull carcass, when we got there, Buhuti had already left. 

This morning however was a good one for photography! Bernhard found a clan of hyenas on Annette’s open area feeding on the cheetahs’ old Nyala calf carcass. We spent quite some time with the scavengers; the matriarch was protecting her cub (sub-adult) from the rest of the clan as he was feeding off the carcass. She kept the rest well away from the cub as she chased them away if they came too close. 

After the hyena clan we headed west to spend some time with the Styx pride, the whole pride was resting on knob thorn pan open area, the cub however hid in the bushes. As we sat watching the pride interact with each other and relaxing, the adult female spotted a warthog. 

The sub-adult male, when realised the warthog, pressed himself against the female to minimize their visual shape. Fortunately for the warthog he could smell them and ran away! One female had a very bad injury on her chest, reason un-known, hope she recovers. On Gowrie main a big bull elephant was showing his talent as he stretched his trunk to reach the low hanging branches of a tall green thorn. Amazing day yet again!

12 - 13 May

These past two drives were nothing anyone expected! 

The afternoon drive both myself and Bernard headed towards Annette’s camp and guess what we found… a male Cheetah! Not only was it amazing to find the cheetah but it had a fresh Nyala calf kill. When we arrived he was still resting after the chase but it was not long before he got up and started his feast! We sat with him for quite some time (this is the first cheetah I've seen in three months!).  

Afterwards we headed west for our sun-downers. After our celebration we herd news of honey badgers on triple M, we made our way to the area but unfortunately just missed them as they had scrambled away into the thick cover of the bush. 

This morning we were happy to enjoy any animal as we have seen more than expected. Our expectations were yet to be exceeded! 

Bernard headed back onto Annette’s and found wild dog tracks heading west! He followed the tracks while I made my way to the area and just as we arrived, Bernard found the pack of twelve dogs crossing south into Mala Mala, we had a glimpse of the dogs before they disappeared and that was more than we could ask for! 

Super seven! After the excitement of the wild dogs we encountered an enormous family herd of elephant very close by! We spent a long time with the elephants even after coffee. 

One calf, barely a month old, got brave and tried to investigate our vehicle, one smell of the car and he was out, did not seem like we smelled good. 

Bernard headed west and found the Styx, they were highly mobile. Great morning drive! 

11 - 12 May

On today’s report, I have posted a lot of Styx cub photos. 

We spent the afternoon drive with the Styx pride, still keeping Shadow hostage in the tree, the cubs was suckling when we arrived but later on moved into the light while the rest were asleep. 

After the lions we spent quite some time at big dam watching a dagga boy ruminating the day away. The action however, was behind him as two hippos were chasing each other around in the dam; no fighting occurred but the huddled up youngsters did how ever give us a great show. 

This morning we completed our big five and headed back to the Styx pride after coffee. The two adult females and three cubs were the only ones around, the sub-adults were east. The one female had pretty bad scars on her back which was apparently from the sub-adult male when they were feeding on Shadows Impala kill yesterday. 

P.s – the two Impala rams are still at it! On our arrival they were clashing horns once again! Good entertainment for breakfast.

Greetings Jaces Bornman

10 - 11 May

As we headed out on our afternoon bumble, two impala rams walked right in front of the vehicle taking no notice of us as they were in the mists of a fight, as this was right in front of the gate, they delayed our drive with a few minutes. At least we were entertained. Soon after we sat with a bachelor herd of zebra grazing along as we stared at their grace. 

We headed west. Barely there and we had a leopard; Shadow! She had made a kill on a young impala slowly eating some of her kill as if she was not hungry. We sat with her for a while just before she left the kill ad headed off into the thick bush. I assumed she went to fetch her cub, it was late already so we headed back to camp, as usual we bumped into something on our way back. 

This time it was a clan of four hyenas walking south as if they were on a mission. This morning we started on a high note as we sat and enjoyed the company of a herd of elephant as they were feeding along the CP drive way. 

We headed south onto Annette’s camp and came across a big giraffe bull, he seemed more curios of us then we were of him. There were also two hippos in Annette’s dam sleeping the day away! As we entered the west we heard very bad news! The Styx has done it again! Shadow has lost her cub to the lion pride. We fortunately did not see the incident but as we arrived the whole pride was sleeping on safari drive way and Shadow was stranded up a tree (apologies for the bad photo, took it to illustrate how high she was in the tree) as beautiful as nature may be, it is not easy!