24-25 March

Our departure from the lodge saw us heading out in search for all new animals as we had a vehicle full of newcomers. Our first encounter was a bull elephant, just a few hundred meters north east of the lodge, Bernard headed off east and found a herd of elephant drinking water at kudu corner. 

We moved off west of the lodge looking at plains game, lots of Impala were to be seen and kudu were surprisingly plentiful, we found some fresh leopard tracks heading south from jack’s pan, it looked like Mvula and Shadow, we followed for a while but unfortunately the spoor headed east into a very thick covered drainage line where we could not follow. 

We drove around Jack’s pan and found a buffalo bull staring at us out of the bush, he seemed uncertain of our presence. We left the dagga boy in his weary state and headed off to find a good place to enjoy our sundown, we were pleased to find a very large male lion relaxing at Chitwa airstrip. 

This lion seemed to be on his own and not from the area, everyone was baffled at first, but soon realised this is a male from the south! He is known as SOLO! He is a beautiful male none the less; we headed out for our well awaited sundowners, on our way we bumped into another bull elephant showing us the immense strength of the African elephant, as he pushed a large marula tree to get fruits out of the tree. After our sundown listening to the sounds of the night come to life and fireflies entertaining us as they painted the night skies with their green lights. We headed back towards Solo to see if he had decided to get active while we were away. He was still at the same place doing what lions do best! Still a great sighting and made a great end to our drive. 

This morning we were all surprised to wake up to rainy weather, however the drive was full of elephant and giraffe, as we bumped into herds and journeys around every corner, the two large mammals entertained us none the less, as the curiosity and beauty of the giraffe had us in awe and the mere size and presence of the elephant makes anyone smile. 

We headed north after viewing all the large mammals in the east, we heard news that the Styx were in the northern area but lost in the lush bush, we decided to see if we could re-locate them. we headed into the bush were they were last seen and a mere ten meters south the pride was sleeping in a bundle of tall grass. The tree cubs however, being young and restless made our day as they ran about in the open playing with each other and disappearing in the low lying bushes, wrestling each other as they went along. The wet cubs were endearing and made getting wet worth it!  

Jaces Bornman