Well for a change the elephant and lions have been fairly active in the South of the Reserve, which Has afforded us some great sighting of both species. The main bull elephant (BFE) is in full musth at the moment and we are all giving him the space he needs, as he is “Cranky”. We have had daily sightings of the lions either attempting a kill or just lazing around. Tragically an adult male cheetah was killed by the lions this past week. The four new cubs have not been seen recently but tracks have been seen going down into a valley, in the centre of the reserve. We have had some awesome sighting so rhino, buffalo and mixed general game.

The days have been really hot and dry but last night we had a welcome storm and rain show appox. 10mm and at this stage every little bit helps. Since our last report, some lovely new flowers have shown themselves amongst the rocks on south facing slopes: little colonies of pale blue five petal blossoms identified as Wahlenbergia caledontia. We are continually blessed by the diversity that this reserve has to offer. Game at the Lodge are Kudu, Nyala and a herd of elephant including BFE.

What a great week this has been !!! with these lovely overcast to partly cloudy days, cool weather has definitely had an impact on game viewing. The Lioness with her 4 cubs were spotted early in the morning, she is now moving away from her den site. We rushed off to see if we could catch a glimpse as we were close by. As we crept closer to the sighting the Lioness peeked around the corner, not concerned in the slightest, the suddenly four little bundles of joy popped out in front of the mother. As we approached closer they started to disappear into the thick grass and meandered down the valley until they eventually disappeared, luckly for us finding the lions in the morning gives us a great chance of finding them again in the afternoon, so that afternoon I set out with new guests having no idea what they were in for.

I decided to start heading to the area where she was last seen and stopped the vehicle for drinks not too far away. The clouds started moving in and blocked the sun’s rays cooling everything down, hopefully giving the lions an early wake up call. Whilst enjoying our refreshment I noticed some kudu alarm calling coming from the same area where I had seen the lioness and cubs that morning and I explained to the guest that if we were quick enough we would find the kudu and see which direction it was looking in. We moved off and managed to find a bumpy path down the slope from where we had a distance but lovely sighting of “Mom and her cubs”. The game viewing has been wonderful with great sightings of elephant, rhino and the hippo and plenty of general game.

At the Lodge - We have had the privilege of having Mom and newly born calf feeding within the lodge grounds. The hyena have been coming through camp and on one occasion Had a taste of our generator!! Two sunbirds have made a nest outside the office and give us much pleasure as they flit in and out of their nest.

We are well on the way into 2012, and what a great start we have had. Lovely hot days with occasional thunderstorms building up around the afternoons, followed by much needed cooler days with partly cloudy skies. The festive season has come and gone, but every season is festive in the bush!

The 4 new Elephant bulls have also settled down and are adjusting too there new surroundings very well. They seem to be together quite often and are frequently spotted playing and testing each others strength. It’s Never a dull moment with the old buffalo boys. Keeping us rangers on our toes! – Frequent road blocks prove to be rather entertaining! And last but not least, New Additions: the pride of Lions have been spotted with a total of 5 new cubs! This is great news for the reserve, as this increases our population size from 7 to 12! Expect lots of action and Lion sightings in the near future!

Summer is here and it’s warming up again. Despite the occasional cold front the weather has been great which also coincides with the arrival of the new off spring of warthogs, zebra, wildebeest, Impala and some of the ground dwelling bird species.

Our birders will be pleased to know that the majority of our migrant species have arrived. Exceptional bird sightings have been recorded this month, our Blue Cranes have two chicks which they are raising at the dam at Homestead. Woolly necked storks have been sighted as well as Golden Bishop, Martial Eagle, Tawny Eagle and the African Fish Eagle. This past month we have also had two separate sightings of Ground Hornbill they are occasional but very welcome visitors.

We have had numerous sightings of serval, which are increasingly becoming more relaxed offering us great photo opportunities . Sightings of Aardwolf are also becoming more frequent. Some little colonies of “krismasblom” ( Turbina oenetheroides) have sprung up on Zigalala Fence line and are a very showy deep mauve trumpet shaped flower, related to the morning glories and always get a remark out of our guests.

Flowers, Flowers!! What gems are peeping out of all nooks and crannies. This weeks’ “showy” special is the Orange River Lily (Crinum bulbi spermum) - a rare beauty indeed.

The Lions have been in the North this past week having killed an Eland, and have “camped out” near the carcass, but we went north yesterday with intent, and were rewarded with a great sighting of them - the Alpha Male giving us a steely stare and a good growl!! - Great stuff.

I’m looking forward to the next week, to see what nature offers us.

Spring is upon us and the bush is coming alive once again ! The trees are sprouting leaves and the grass is looking fresh ! Much to the relief of the herbivores already munching away.

As usual I have had numerous encounters with the big game, lovley lion sightings particularly of top cup a.ka. Trash Can, our solitary lioness, who moves regularly below our lodge backwards and forwards, one morning we saw fresh scat at the Lodge !! we are all being kept on our toes for now.
I have had amazing rhino sightings with a young calf about 15m from the vehicle and totally relaxed, the baby was much more weary than the mother.

Old BFE visited us again this past week, I saw him as I was driving up to the lodge one day and managed to warn the staff in time, though he came all the way up to Chalet 2 (family suite) he never accomplished his usual antics of drinking from the water tanks and eating on the front lawn. He was still welcome none the less. Perhaps we shall see him again at the lodge soon. My guests and I have had two amazing aardwolf sightings, at dusk and on our way back to the lodge, What a treat! We also had a wonderful serval sighting, walking through the long grass next to the road.

Oh the joys of being isolated from the city !! our internet connection has been giving us problems at the lodge so we apologise for the late ranger report.
We have been having exceptionally warm days followed of course by the complete opposite where temperatures have plummeted to about 2° with snow lying thick on the berg and surrounding hills. Myself being from Johannesburg, it looks strange and out of place but it’s there and its always wonderful to experience something different.

A lot has happened since my last report with close encounters with 4 of the big 5, that elusive Leopard once again has been living up to his reputation with only very rare sightings recorded around one of the lodge in the Central part of the reserve. We were fortunate enough to have witnessed 2 lion kills, one being a bushpig and the other a warthog both of these kills involved plenty of dramatic squeeling.

We have had a very interesting time at the lodge with the buffalo taking shelter from the rain on Rooms 1’s verandah, BFE also paid us a visit and thankfully did not cause too much damage to the lodge grounds, we also had bushpig wonder through. Some of you will have met “Max” the Inyala who unfortunately passed away from Pneumonia the lodge feels very strange without him.

It’s been a while since the last update !! and here is your much anticipated highlights for the month of May.

Of course winter has set in, so it’s getting bitterly cold, Jackets, scarves, gloves and longJohns and
Balaklava’s are a must have. AK’s optional !! just kidding I have a trusty leatherman.
As usual numerous sightings of the Big 5, if you had to replace the Leopard with Cheetah that is.

Old BFE has visited us twice at the lodge, once during the day and once at night with the entire herd, Luckily there were guests in camp both times it was great dodging BFE!! collecting and dropping off guests became an adventure.
BFE may have discoloured a ritual offering dining plate, consisting of fruit for the birds. Which may become somewhat of a problem. The poor birds will go hungry.